Nearly 43% of Clark County homes are not owner-occupied, records show

Close to half of all the residential units in Clark County are not the owner’s primary residence, according to property records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Nearly 43 percent — 332,040 out of 775,199 — of the residential parcels in the county are not occupied by their owners, according to county tax filing data through 2025.

Las Vegas finds itself in the middle of a housing crisis as home prices and rental rates remain elevated and close to record highs coming out of the pandemic. Housing advocates and residential stakeholders on both the policy and private side have pointed to a number of issues plaguing the valley, including a lack of land to develop on and a slowdown in construction because of increased building costs and overall government bureaucracy.

In Clark County, property owners who occupy their homes qualify for a maximum 3 percent property tax bill, also known as an abatement, which is how the county distinguishes between the two categories. Second homes, vacation homes, most rentals, vacant land and commercial parcels can be taxed up to 8 percent.

Tia Roman, broker/owner with Re/Max Reliance, said she thinks the total is so high because of the overall scope of the housing market in Las Vegas.

“I believe the most compelling reason as to why we have such a high number of non-primary residences is because we have such a strong rental market in the Las Vegas Valley,” she said. “This continues to entice more investors to purchase more rental properties.”

A February study by real estate research firm Arbor ranked Las Vegas sixth in the nation (44.9 percent) regarding overall share of renters, behind only New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose and San Diego. On top of this, added Roman, the valley’s economy is primarily driven by tourism and hospitality.

“We are a destination town with our casinos, our nightlife, our proximity to the mountains, Red Rock, the Pacific Ocean, hiking, skiing, our warmer weather as compared to the rest of the country in the wintertime, and on and on,” she said.

What does this number mean? It’s complicated

Because national data on secondary homes for metro regions is tough to cobble together for proper comparison, Nicholas Irwin, research director for UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate, said the best number to look at is levels of homeownership in each metro region.

The overall homeownership rate across the country is approximately 65 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. At 59.1 percent, Nevada is below the national average.

“The homeownership rate in any area is reflective of the underlying economic fundamentals of that area,” Irwin said, “Looking at both secondary residences and the level of homeownership, they are both sides of the same coin and reflect the idea that it’s much harder to buy a home here, because on average, we are a blue-collar town, we’re a wage-driven economy tied to hospitality, tied to tourism, tied to gaming, that is currently experiencing, post-Covid, a bit of a downturn.”

Irwin added that elevated mortgage rates have to be taken into account within this new world of residential real estate following the pandemic. The average long-term mortgage rate in the U.S. is about 6.7 percent.

“Even if you’re a low-cost town, if those incomes don’t match the average housing costs, then you won’t see a high homeownership rate,” he added.

A household with two incomes in the valley needs to make approximately $116,563 to afford a house right now, according to Redfin’s latest report, and the estimated median income for a household in the valley sits at around $82,975. This means the majority of households could not afford the monthly mortgage payments on a house right now as they would have to spend 42.1 percent of their income on costs. The common determination for affordability is a household should not spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on a mortgage or rent.

What are the types of nonprimary residences?

Las Vegas has one of the highest rates of mortgages for second homes in the country at 2.7 percent, according to Redfin. The region beat out similar metro areas like Jacksonville, Florida; Miami; Phoenix and San Diego.

Daryl Fairweather, chief economist for Redfin, said while Redfin’s data isn’t directly comparable to Clark County’s definition of nonprimary residences, the valley does have a relatively high share of second-home buyers.

“There’s also a broader trend of people who live in expensive metros such as Los Angeles buying their first property as a second home somewhere more affordable,” she added. “They may not be able to afford a primary residence where they currently live, but they still want to get a foothold in homeownership and potentially benefit from home-price appreciation.”

Fairweather said second homes can add competition to a limited supply of homes, particularly when buyers are competing with local residents. She added not every nonprimary residence takes a home out of the local housing supply as many investment properties are rented to local residents.

“Affluent buyers are driving much of today’s second-home market,” she said. “Nationally, second-home purchases rose 4 percent in 2025, the first increase in four years, and 85 percent of second-home mortgages went to high earners. Las Vegas bucked that trend though as second-home purchases fell 21 percent year over year, the largest decline among the major metros Redfin analyzed.”

Vacant homes can limit opportunities for local buyers if those properties would otherwise be available for sale, added Fairweather, but vacancy doesn’t necessarily mean a home is being kept off the market.

“Homes can be vacant for many reasons, so we’d want to understand what’s included in Clark County’s vacancy data before drawing conclusions about its impact on first-time buyers,” she added.

Nevada as a whole has approximately 123,878 vacant homes, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Lending Tree. Nevada’s overall housing vacancy rate dipped year over year in 2024, from 9.4 to 9.3 percent. The state has the 32nd highest rate of vacant homes in the U.S.

There has also been a rise in the number of what Zillow calls “accidental landlords” as Las Vegas ranks in the top 10 in the U.S. This metric looks at homes that were once for sale that are now for rent. Zillow Senior Economist Kara Ng said the concept of secondary residences depends on a variety of factors and can have both positive and negative impacts on a local housing market, depending on current conditions, available rentals and overall home prices.

“Secondary residences can have mixed effects on local housing markets,” she said. “When they’re rented out, they can expand inventory and help moderate rents. When they sit vacant, they have the potential to constrain it, putting upward pressure on both for-sale prices and rents. The net effect depends on how many are actively housing people versus simply being held.”