Sneak Peek at Taking Stock 2022's Vacancy Rates

Preliminary results from Nevada Housing Division’s annual Taking Stock survey show overall vacancy rate in the 4th quarter of 2022 for Nevada's Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties was 3.4%, up nearly a full percentage point from last year’s rate of 2.5%. The median vacancy rate was also up almost a percentage point at 2.3%. Seventy-three properties, or 29% of the responding properties, reported that all units were full (0% vacancy rate). A somewhat increased supply of multifamily housing and a slight increase in the net inventory of LIHTC units may have allowed for higher vacancy levels. However, vacancy rates in Nevada’s LIHTC properties remain tight.

Mining counties remained the region with the highest LIHTC vacancy rates. Mining counties include Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Nye, Pershing and White Pine Counties. The lowest vacancy rate (2.9%) was in the remaining “Other Counties” which includes Carson City, Churchill, Douglas, Lincoln, and Lyon counties. Clark County had a higher vacancy rate (3.1%) than last year (2.0%) but continued to have a lower rate than Washoe County. Washoe County's rate was 3.9% up from 2.7% in 4th quarter 2021.

In all regions except Mining Counties, one bedroom units had the lowest average vacancy rates. In Mining Counties, three-bedroom units had the lowest average vacancy rate. The highest vacancy rates were observed for three bedroom units in all other regions.

The figure to the right charts the changes in vacancy rate for each of the four regions from 2013 to 2022. (Separate results were not available for mining and other rural counties in the 2013 Taking Stock.) Despite the increases in vacancy rates this year, only the mining region started out with a lower vacancy rate in 2014. The vacancy rate for the three other regions has shown an overall downward trend. Most of the mining counties are not close to the urban centers of population in the state and are subject to different economic forces.