Affordable Housing Vanishing in Reno

In 2015 housing prices skyrocketed in Northern Nevada.  Northern and Southern Nevada are battling neck and neck for fastest growing region.  Prices are almost back to what they were in 2005. Nevada had a 4.5 percent job growth in 2015, according to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. Northern Nevada is expecting close to 10,000 new jobs per year according to DETR and the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada Projections.

There is no doubt that the employment increase is due in part to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, the largest Industrial Center in the world.

Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) is a massive 107,000 acre park that encompasses a developable 30,000 acre industrial complex with pre-approved industrial and manufacturing uses. The uniqueness of the park and the county in which it resides is outlined in a recent article (click here)

Located nine (9) miles east of Reno on I-80, in a pro-growth Nevada county, the four 5,000 acre phases now available for development include:

• Rail serviced sites
• Municipal water and sewer utility companies
• High pressure gas to all sites
• Five (5) generating power plants on site with more than 900 megawatts of electrical power available to all park users

According to the Builders Association of Northern Nevada the housing inventory if far below demand. A healthy market has 6 months worth of houses to supply buyers and we have slightly less than 3 months available. This is why we are continuing to see rising housing prices as demand increases faster than supply.  The rental market has increased as well with the median rental price at an all time high of $946 per month, according to real estate website Zillow. Rentals are also expected to increase this year despite new developments. A similar lack of Multi-Family inventory and land is causing a rental crises in the region and raising prices.

During the next 5 years, housing prices are expected to increase another 6 % in Nevada, according to a December 2015 report by CoreLogic, a financial services and real estate consulting firm.  Similar percentages are also expected all over the country. However not everyone agrees they will go up that high. The Reno/Sparks prices might remain flat or rise more slowly, according to BANN forcast. A sudden increase of housing units, both single or multi-family would also change the supply in the region and affect prices.