Apartment operators in Las Vegas resorted to rent cuts recently, after logging very steep increases just a year ago. As if February, effective asking rents came down 0.9% year-over-year, the market’s worst performance since June 2020, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. This was quite a change from the market’s January 2022 performance when annual rent growth peaked near 25%. Of the nation’s largest 50 apartment markets, only Phoenix and Las Vegas logged annual rent cuts in February 2023. A handful of smaller West region markets also posted declines. Decelerating occupancy also contributed to waning pricing strength. For much of the past decade, Las Vegas typically registered occupancy measurably ahead of the national average. That gap started to close in 2018, however, and the U.S. pulled ahead of Sin City in February 2022. As of February 2023, apartment occupancy in Las Vegas hit 93.2%, down a notable 390 basis points (bps) year-over-year. While about in line with the market’s decade average, that reading was 150 bps below the national norm.
