Nevada Eviction Rate: an Introduction to Eviction Lab Data

A team of researchers at Princeton University has recently been collecting data on evictions from counties and cities around the United States. The Eviction Lab, as this group is named, was formed after Matthew Desmond, in research that won him a Pulitzer prize, showed that eviction is not only a feature of life in poverty but may also be a cause of it (see About the Eviction Lab).

Nevada’s 2016 eviction rate was estimated to be higher than the national average with 3.4% of renter households receiving an eviction order to leave. The national rate was estimated to be about 2.3%. For surrounding states, California’s eviction rate was estimated at 0.8%, Utah’s 0.9%, Arizona’s 3.9% and Oregon 1.1%. However, Eviction Lab has flagged the California and Arizona rates specifically as too low. Data is lacking and the rates are expected to be higher than was calculated.

The Eviction Lab team has collected data for each year back to the year 2000. Nevada’s eviction rate is lower than the 7.3% calculated for year 2000 but has fluctuated over that time period.  The high of 7.4% was experienced at the height of the housing bubble in 2006 while the low of 3.4% occurred in 2016. Although lower in 2016, the number of eviction judgements averaged 37 per day.

Eviction Lab data is broken out by county, city, census place and census tract. 2015 had more reliable data for subregions of Nevada. For regions with data, those reporting higher eviction rates than the Nevada average of 4.4% in 2015 were Clark Co. (4.8%), Las Vegas (5.2%), Paradise (5.7%), North Las Vegas (5.9%), Winchester (6.5%), Sunrise Manor (7.3%),  Nellis Air Force Base (7.6%) and Whitney (8.1%). A variety of methods were used to locate eviction data and not all jurisdictions have data available. For example, no data was available from Washoe County, Reno or Sparks. To estimate national and state level rates Eviction Lab imputes rates. For more information about Eviction Lab methods click here: Eviction Lab Methods.

Possible causes for differences in renter households’ eviction rates are varying economic and housing environments as well as varied policies across jurisdictions. The Eviction Lab hopes that their data on evictions may help researchers determine both causes and effects of these variations in eviction rates.