Housing affordability has become one of the most pressing economic challenges facing families across Las Vegas and Nevada. As prices and borrowing costs remain elevated, the debate over why housing feels increasingly out of reach has intensified. In the search for answers, single-family home investors are often singled out as a convenient explanation. But that framing oversimplifies a far more structural problem and risks distracting from the real drivers of affordability.

For many Nevadans, the desire to live in a single-family home hasn’t changed. What has changed is access. Higher interest rates, elevated home prices and limited inventory have reshaped the housing landscape, making traditional ownership more difficult for households at various stages of life. In that environment, single-family rentals have expanded to meet demand — not as a replacement for ownership, but as one of several ways families secure stable housing in constrained markets.

Investor participation in housing is frequently portrayed in binary terms: good or bad. The data, however, is more nuanced.

A recent analysis from the UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate documents that investors have represented roughly 1 in 5 home purchases in the Las Vegas area over the past 15 years, with activity peaking in the post-COVID period before easing more recently. Importantly, the study does not assign value judgments. It simply reports a trade-off: Elevated investor participation contributes to greater availability of single-family rental homes while also tightening supply for prospective owner-occupants.

That distinction matters, particularly when data is used to inform public policy. Much of the investor data cited in public discourse relies on standardized national datasets that are often sourced from firms such as Redfin and that classify buyers based on ownership structures such as LLCs or trusts. These classifications are necessary for consistency and privacy, but they inherently limit visibility into who is behind a purchase and how a home is ultimately used. This does not make the data inaccurate. But it does not tell the full story, and caution is warranted when drawing policy conclusions from ownership labels alone.

What can be measured clearly, and consistently, is housing supply and housing prices. On those metrics, the evidence is decisive. A 2025 Lied Center study shows Southern Nevada has experienced nearly 15 years of chronic underbuilding. Since 2010, residential construction in the Las Vegas area has declined by more than 60 percent compared with historical norms, even as population growth continued. Had construction merely kept pace with prior trends, the region would have tens of thousands more homes today.

National research reaches the same conclusion. Studies from the National Bureau of Economic Research consistently find that prolonged underbuilding and restrictive land-use policies are primary drivers of rising home prices. Nevada’s affordability challenges are not unique, but the constraints shaping them are especially pronounced.

Nowhere is that clearer than land availability. Roughly 80 percent of Nevada’s land is controlled by the federal government, with much of Southern Nevada controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. This structure limits where housing can be built, extends development timelines and increases land costs long before a home is ever constructed. Those costs ripple through the market, affecting renters and buyers. Any serious conversation about affordability in Nevada must account for this reality. Issues like this are of far greater impact than the portion of investors who own housing units.

There is no single cause of today’s housing challenges, and there will be no single solution. But the direction is clear. Expanding housing options requires addressing the barriers that constrain supply: permitting delays, zoning limitations, regulatory complexity, land access and the cumulative friction that slows housing production. Focusing narrowly on who owns homes, rather than how many homes exist, risks missing the larger picture.

Single-family rentals and homeownership are not opposing forces. They are interconnected outcomes of a housing system shaped by policy choices, market conditions and long-term supply decisions. If Nevada wants a more affordable, resilient housing market, the focus must remain on increasing supply and removing the obstacles that prevent it. We should not be focused on regulating areas of the market where data sets aren’t clear, unintended negative consequences may occur and our business-friendly environment will be harmed.

Zach WalkerLieb is a housing policy advocate, the managing partner of Willow Manor and chairman of the Board of Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas.