Housing in North Las Vegas: Navigating the Wall Street Quagmire
In the suburban neighborhood of Kings Crossings in North Las Vegas, a pattern emerges among the uniform beige houses: a frequent presence of U-Haul trucks, eviction notices, and service vans from American Homes 4 Rent. This community, entirely constructed and managed by one of the country’s largest corporate landlords, represents a modern version of the American dream – one that is leased, not owned.
Residents like Deja Bordenave, a 29-year-old cocktail waitress, express a sense of disillusionment. The promise of homeownership, once seen as a reward for hard work and education, now feels increasingly out of reach. “You’re told you’re supposed to get a four-year degree and graduate and you can buy a house, and all that’s just gone to s—,” Bordenave laments. “I feel like everything is becoming so unobtainable.”
The pandemic has seen a surge in investment by Wall Street-backed companies and hedge funds in the single-family rental market of Southern Nevada. These entities have not only been buying up properties but also engaging in new construction. An analysis by Eric Seymour, an assistant professor and researcher at Rutgers University, reveals that eight major companies now own over 13,000 homes in Clark County, a significant jump from less than 8,000 in 2019.
This influx of corporate ownership is reshaping the housing landscape. Housing experts point out that these companies often outbid individual buyers, inflating property prices and leaving tenants at the mercy of rent increases aimed at maximizing profits. A 2019 investigation by the Las Vegas Review-Journal found that many of these corporate landlords had higher eviction rates than the average for single-family rentals in the Las Vegas Valley. Despite this, the Nevada Housing Division does not specifically track the impact of these corporate entities.
North Las Vegas has been a hotspot for this trend, contributing to a push for rent-control reforms in the city last year, although the efforts were unsuccessful.
Bordenave’s experience is telling of the broader situation. Before moving to her current rental, she was a tenant of FirstKey Homes, another growing company in the area. Her current landlord, American Homes 4 Rent, is a significant player in the market, with its roots in Las Vegas and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The story of Kings Crossings is a microcosm of a larger issue: the transformation of the housing market under the influence of large corporate landlords. It raises critical questions about the future of homeownership, the dynamics of the rental market, and the changing nature of the American dream in suburban landscapes like North Las Vegas.
