'Nevadans are getting hosed': Why affordability is 2026's buzzword Rising fuel, grocery and housing costs have created a crisis for state residents and will play a major role in determining the next governor. Tabitha Mueller October 1st, 2026 at 2:00 AM Editor's note: This is the third of three stories focusing on how the economy is playing out in November's election. You can read the first one here, and the second one here. Nevada's average fuel costs are the fourth-highest in the country. Grocery bills? Higher than the national average. Car insurance rates are the most expensive anywhere in the country, all while median rents and home prices have outpaced income growth over the past decade and left residents "financially burdened" by housing costs. As one Republican politician summed up in a recent campaign ad, "Nevadans are getting hosed." For all those reasons, the buzzword of this election cycle has been affordability. Polling has underscored the sentiment, with Emerson College showing a large plurality of Nevada voters (43 percent) view the economy as their top issue, followed by housing affordability (15 percent). A separate poll from Dave Sackett indicated [...]

Nevada has lots of new jobs. Why is unemployment still so high? As candidates for governor point to different statistics, actual economists say the full picture on the economy is more complicated. Tabitha Mueller September 21st, 2026 at 2:00 AM Editor's note: This is the second of three stories focusing on how the economy is playing out in November's election. You can read the first one here. Nevada's August jobs report made history — the state's unemployment rate, among the nation's highest, dropped below 5 percent for the first time since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Less than an hour after the report was released Thursday, Gov. Joe Lombardo's (R) office highlighted the drop in a laudatory statement, saying it reflects "what happens when you create a business environment built for growth and diversification." It's the latest positive trend line touted by the Republican governor seeking re-election, a list that includes the state's rank in job growth (about 100,000 since taking office) and private investment (more than $6 billion). Yet separately on Thursday, the cost of a gallon of diesel gas hit an all-time high in Nevada, with Lombardo's general [...]

Las Vegas jobs grow faster than US overall, but wages rise slower, report finds By Eli Segall Las Vegas Review-Journal August 31, 2026 - 2:43 pm Las Vegas’ job growth surpassed the national average early this year, but wage increases in Southern Nevada lagged most of the country, a new report shows. Total employment in Clark County was up 1.6 percent year-over-year in March, compared with a 0.1 percent bump nationwide. However, average weekly wages locally in the first quarter were up 1.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 3.9 percent increase nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, Clark County’s pace of job growth was tied for 22nd among the nearly 380 counties tracked for the report – and its pace of wage growth was tied for 339th, the bureau reported Friday. Brian Gordon, a principal with Las Vegas consulting firm Applied Analysis, said his group has gathered data from the bureau that shows higher wage hikes in Southern Nevada this year than what the agency just reported. He described Las Vegas’ job market as relatively strong with real income growth... READ THE [...]

Homes, Hedge Funds & the Limits of Populist Housing Policy By John Restrepo, Principal, RCG Economics August 4, 2026 On July 11, 2026, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law without the president’s signature. The law bars large institutional investors—entities controlling 350 or more single-family homes—from purchasing additional properties, with limited exceptions. It is the most significant federal intervention in institutional single-family investment in modern American history, passed by the Senate 85–5 and the House 358–32 in their final votes in June 2026. For an economist, the law raises a fundamental empirical question: Does restricting one class of buyer in a supply-constrained market improve affordability, or does it simply redistribute the burden? The populist appeal is clear. But the underlying economics are more complicated than either its champions or its critics acknowledge. This article looks at the evidence through the lens of supply and demand, market distortions, and the economic development stakes for Western states—with a particular focus on Nevada. How Big Is the Problem, Really? Download the PDF to read more DOWNLOAD THE PDF ARTICLE

Nevada’s Data-Center Boom Is Outrunning Its Power Grid By John Restrepo, Principal of RCG Economics and Bob Potts, Former Deputy Director of the Nevada GOED July 21, 2026 Nevada is now one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the country, and the math of that growth no longer fits the grid it runs on. In its 2026 Integrated Resource Plan, filed with state regulators in May, NV Energy reported roughly 22,000 megawatts of interest from data-center developers. That is nearly three times the two utilities’ combined 2025 system peak of nearly 8,250 megawatts. Formal requests from 39 prospective customers already total about 16,930 megawatts, most of it in the Northern Nevada. The utility has also signed some 6 gigawatts of interconnection agreements, roughly 84 percent of them with large-load customers in Northern Nevada. Reno-Sparks now ranks among the top emerging data-center markets in the world, with Google, Switch, Vantage, and Apple all active in the state. Put plainly: the load being requested is two to three times the size of the entire system that serves every household and business in Nevada today. Data centers are about five percent [...]

Las Vegas jobless rate moves lower, but still among highest in US By Eli Segall Las Vegas Review-Journal July 6, 2026 - 12:26 pm Las Vegas’ jobless rate has moved down this year amid an uptick in employment totals and improved visitor volume in America’s casino capital. But locally, the unemployment rate is still among the highest in the nation for big metro areas. The Las Vegas-area’s unemployment rate in May, 5.3 percent, was slightly below the year-ago level of 5.4 percent and down from 5.8 percent in January. The tourism-dependent region had around 1.18 million employees as of May, up by 25,800 since January, according to non-seasonally adjusted federal data. Nonetheless, Las Vegas’ jobless rate was third highest in the country among metro areas with at least 1 million people, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. It was topped only by Detroit, at 5.5 percent, and Fresno, California, at 7.4 percent. Honolulu had the lowest jobless rate, at 2.4 percent. Such numbers are not stripped of normal seasonal fluctuations in headcount. Seasonally adjusted data still shows higher employee totals in Las Vegas since January, albeit a much-smaller increase of [...]

Developers in Southern Nevada want more land By Buck Wargo RJNewHomes.Vegas June 15, 2026 - 9:28 am The lack of land in Southern Nevada for building new homes and other development remains a hot topic for builders and other developers. The Southern Nevada chapter of NAIOP addressed the topic as did the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association. Shawn McCoy, director of the Lied Center for Real Estate at UNLV, said the narrative is that the housing market “feels stuck in the idle of a long-term correction rather than a crash after the pandemic-era frenzy” that sent prices soaring and inventory to historic lows. The Las Vegas housing market looks more like an intergalactic roller coaster, with Las Vegas owners clenching their wallet as if they are precious oxygen tanks.” In Southern Nevada, McCoy said while median prices are down 3.1 percent year-over-year, any repeat sales prices as measured by the Case-Shiller Index are down only 1 percent as the number of homes sold is down nearly 8 percent. Nationwide, the median prices are down 8.2 percent since 2022 while appreciation is up 7.3 percent. “What you are witnessing in [...]

NAIOP Southern Nevada Releases Study Digging Deeper Into Local Land Availability May 21, 2026 By B&P LAS VEGAS – NAIOP Southern Nevada, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association for the greater Las Vegas Valley, released a study this week digging deeper into the amount and type of land available for development in Southern Nevada. This study serves to narrow and unpack certain findings made in the Underutilized Land Inventory released by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada in 2025 (the “Inventory”). NAIOP Southern Nevada Executive Director Jamie Schwartz said the study, conducted by Las Vegas-based RCG Economics, “examined the practical feasibility of land” identified in the Inventory as “underutilized.” “The RCG analysis NAIOP commissioned provides important context to this issue,” Schwartz said. “It’s part of our mission to bring informed, practical, real-world perspectives to conversations that directly impact Southern Nevada’s economic and land planning future. This issue affects far more than the development industry. It impacts housing affordability, business attraction, infrastructure planning, renewable energy opportunities, job creation, and the long-term competitiveness of our region.” Unlike any other metro area in the nation, Southern Nevada faces unique land constraints. [...]

‘All-Inclusives’ Catching On In Vegas, Sign Of A City Responding To Shifting Economic Winds Strip giants MGM and Caesars among those throwing a bone to the budget-conscious traveler Over the weekend, The Nevada Independent published a 3,400-word deep dive titled “What’s killing Las Vegas? The shrinking middle class is a prime suspect.” Whether or not “killing” is a bit of hyperbole when it comes to possible outcomes for Sin City, the article calls appropriate attention to the general situation in Vegas: Many who used to frequent the city now feel priced out (at least on the Strip), and a troubling economic outlook has many Americans hesitant to overspend on a vacation. (Never mind international travel complications amid the current political climate.) In the last couple of weeks, three noteworthy operators in Vegas have made moves that suggest they are very much aware of these problems and looking to address them. One is a novelty, two could be a coincidence, but three is a trend, and MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and Resorts World are now trying to make the “all-inclusive” approach take hold in Las Vegas. MGM was first to make its announcement, [...]

THE ROBOT REALITY: HOW AUTOMATION WILL RESHAPE NEVADA'S HOSPITALITY ECONOMY Walk into a major Las Vegas casino-resort today, and you might check in without speaking to a human. You might have a robot deliver your room service. You might never interact with a front desk clerk. What once sounded like science fiction is becoming reality. Recent research suggests this technological transformation could affect up to 92,000 Nevada hospitality positions by 2035. The numbers demand attention. Estimates indicate AI and automation may displace over 100 million jobs across multiple sectors during the next decade. While the actual number of potential job displacements vary, a number of news outlets and researchers have concluded the impact will be significant, at least in the short and medium terms. These include Axios, McKinsey & Company, and CNBC. In Las Vegas, Nevada's economic epicenter, where 26% of workers depend on tourism and hospitality jobs, (~3x the national average) the stakes are high. But the real story isn't just about job displacement. It's about how automation affects Nevada's unique economic structure in ways that create both obvious and hidden consequences. The $20 Billion Wave The transformation [...]