The Lied Research Report | Short on the Strip: Examining the Housing Permit Deficit in Las Vegas

Lied Center for Real Estate ·UNLV                                         The Lied Research Report Vol. 3, No. 5 | September 2026
Authors:
  • Nicholas B. Irwin, Ph.D.
    Research Director, Lied Center for Real Estate
    and Associate Professor, Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate
    nicholas.irwin@unlv.edu
  • Shawn J. McCoy, Ph.D.
    Director, Lied Center for Real Estate
    and Associate Professor, Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate
    shawn.mccoy@unlv.edu
Executive Summary
“A foundational issue in addressing housing affordability is increasing the supply of housing, which will put downward pressure on prices over time. This increase in supply can take many forms, from traditional suburban-style single-family homes as part of a large development to the construction of multi-family apartment buildings. As the population of Las Vegas continues to grow and approaches three million people in the coming decades, ensuring a sufficient amount of housing to maintain steady economic growth is of paramount importance.
In this brief, we examine recent housing development across the Las Vegas MSA and contrast it with other metropolitan areas. Utilizing data on building permits tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau, we leverage the number of permits issued through June 2026 to serve as an initial comparison point before looking at the one-year and five-year change in permit activity. This brief is a companion piece to previous Lied Center work, which examined longer term trends in building permits in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) relative to a select group of metropolitan areas. In this brief, we focus on the building environment post-COVID and compare the rate of permit issuance in Las Vegas to a broader set of Mountain West and West Coast MSAs, as well as to all large metropolitan areas nationwide.”

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