American Dream: Home Ownership Rates See Huge Drop In U.S. And Nevada

Owning a home has always been an important part of achieving “The American Dream.” But not anymore. In fact, it appears many in the younger generation do not view home ownership as a goal. Or, they just can’t afford a home at this time. These facts have impacted Nevada’s home ownership rates significantly.

Recently, RubyHome Luxury Real Estate conducted a deep dive into home ownership rates in the U.S. What they found out about Nevada is rather alarming. Basically, home ownership rates were already pretty low in The Silver State back in 2000. According to the numbers, about 64% of Nevada’s population owned their homes instead of renting. As of 2022, that number has decreased to approximately 60%.

Furthermore, RubyHome Luxury Real Estate compares those numbers to the rest of the states in the U.S. At this point, it appears Nevada has seen the seventh largest decline in home ownership in the nation. The average decline per state was 1.3%, yet our state’s home ownership rate declined by a massive 5.8%.

Evidently, Nevada’s decline in home ownership rates isn’t the worst in the country. The Commonwealth of Virginia takes that dubious honor. They dropped by a whopping 8.8%. North Dakota takes the second spot, with a decrease of 7.5%. Ohio and Connecticut share third place at 7.4%. Then, it’s North Carolina and Georgia tied for fifth at 7.3%. So, even though Nevada is next in seventh place, home ownership declines in our state aren’t as drastic as in others.

So, the question now becomes, why are home ownership rates decreasing across the United States? Moreover, why are the declines this drastic in the top seven states listed in this survey?

Eventually, a quick internet search brought me to Census.gov for an analysis. For the most part, things really changed after “The Great Recession” of 2007-2009. Before that, home ownership rates among 25–34-year-olds in the U.S. had spiked. By now we know that was because of risky lending practices. It seemed like anyone could get approved for a mortgage loan prior to 2007.

Of course, since the housing market crash, lending practices have tightened. Interest rates for loans are soaring. Not only that, but home prices have increased dramatically. Many in the younger generation may actually have the goal of home ownership. However, it has become a lot tougher to achieve those goals in the recent economy. Let’s hope things change for the better real soon.

Generally, the five highest-earning zip codes in the Las Vegas valley are all located on the west side of town. However, this does not mean that these are necessarily the richest areas in Southern Nevada.

According to an article written by Stacker on 8NewsNow.com, the U.S. Census Bureau recently released their annual report on the zip codes which contained the highest-earning households, and those with the lowest wage earners. Stacker took this information and compiled the list for the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada metro area.

Here are the neighborhoods which land just outside the top five in Southern Nevada:

The list of highest-earning zip codes was compiled from median household incomes during 2020. Nationally, the median household income dipped that year by almost 3%, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The median household income went from $69, 560 in 2019 down to $67,521 in 2020.

Those experts who study statistics like this often point to education levels and employment levels in a particular area which lead to having more high wage-earning households. Obviously, those households which earn close to or over the $100,000 mark in household income will attempt to put that money to use by investing in a home. It is not a hard and fast rule, but overall, the more a household earns, the more they will invest in their home. So, from there, we can figure that the highest wage-earning households will gravitate towards the areas and zip codes which contain some of the bigger homes and nicer neighborhoods.

Below,  you will see the list of the top five highest-earning zip codes in the Las Vegas valley.

This zip is located in the far northwest part of Las Vegas in the "Centennial Hills" area. The median household income in this zip was $99,145 with 49.5% of households earning over $100K.

This is a very tiny area in Southwest Las Vegas. The median household income in this area was $99,662 with 49.7% of households earning over $100K.

This is a huge area of land in Northwest Las Vegas surrounding Lone Mountain. The median household income in this zip was $118,269 with 65.6% of the households earning over $100K.

This is a relatively new zip code in the uppermost reaches of North Las Vegas. The median household income in this zip was $120,194 with 61.7% of the households earning over $100K.

The highest-earning zip code in the Las Vegas Valley is located in the northwest portion of the valley. This zip includes some of the North Summerlin area. The median household income was $120,759 with 60.6% of the households earning over $100K.

Larry Martino is the long-time afternoon drive personality on 96.3 KKLZ. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of Larry Martino and not necessarily those of Beasley Media Group, LLC.

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