(Photo: Hugh Jackson/Nevada Current)
Home values in Clark County dropped by 5% in the third quarter of 2026, tying with Miami-Dade for the fourth biggest decline among major metropolitan areas, according to a new report from ATTOM, a national real estate data analyst.
Middlesex County, MA, where sales prices declined 11%, led the drop among major metro areas. Orange County, FL (down 10%) was second, followed by Duval County, FL (down 8%).
The median price of a home in Clark County was $428,000 in the third quarter, down from $440,000 in the second quarter and from $450,000 a year ago.
In Washoe County, the median price of a home in the third quarter was $590,500, up from $588,750 in the previous quarter, and up from $550,000 a year ago.
Average annual incomes at both ends of the state – $73,970 in Washoe and $67,678 in Clark County – are woefully insufficient to support purchasing a median priced home, according to ATTOM’s affordability analysis.
“Affordability remained a challenge in the third quarter, even as some of the underlying factors moved in a favorable direction,” Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, said in a news release. “Home prices declined nationally and wage growth outpaced price growth in many counties, but those gains were not enough to meaningfully improve affordability across much of the country.”
The report calculated affordability for average wage earners by determining the amount of income needed for home ownership on median priced homes, assuming a 20% down payment.
Of the 583 counties included in the analysis, major monthly home expenses exceeded the typical resident’s wages in 80% of the counties, ATTOM reported.
The national median home price in a metro area in the third quarter was $368,000 – down 1% from the second quarter and 2% from the same time last year. Interest rates, however, are “approaching highs last seen in 2023 and the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, rose throughout the third quarter,” ATTOM reports.
Owning the median priced home in the U.S. would require an annual wage of $90,191 – based on a $73,600 down payment, a $294,400 loan, and monthly mortgage, property tax, and insurance payments not exceeding 28% of income, which is the accepted industry standard.
The average national wage is $79,534, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, far less than the income needed to buy the median priced U.S. home.
Neither Clark County’s average wage of $67,678 nor Washoe County’s average wage of $73,970, would support buying median-priced homes in Nevada’s respective population centers.
Home prices in Clark County increased more than 40% between 2020 and 2025, says Las Vegas real estate agent Geoff Lavell. “That’s not sustainable because income didn’t go up 40%. We have a disconnect.”
Lavell blames what he calls “the weird mobility of jobs” brought on initially by the pandemic, that allowed people “working in Cupertino or San Francisco or Marin County, and earning a ridiculous income, to live in Las Vegas, where they would pay any price because it was five times less expensive and a home twice the size. They threw our market out of whack, and now we’re paying the price.”
Real estate agent Diane Varney, who specializes in luxury homes, agrees. Young tech millionaires, she says, are keeping the high-end market rocking. Varney adds she’s “had a great year. But within these last few weeks, pretty much since the last rate increase and rumblings of another one, it seems like the pause button just got hit.”
“Sales are down, closings are down, and price reductions are up,” Varney said, noting on Friday, according to the Multiple Listing Services (MLS), 161 homes went on the market, 210 homes for sale decreased their prices, and 83 homes sold.
Las Vegas Realtors reports more than 10,000 homes are for sale, a level unseen since 2014 following the Great Recession.
Now is not the time to put a home on the market to test its value, says Lavell. “Buyers aren’t going for it. They want to know why the same house is listed at $45,000 more.”
Owning a home remains a priority for a lot of would-be buyers, he says, adding a fall in interest rates would result in “bedlam. If interest rates went to 5%, for example, which I highly doubt, it would be everybody and their cousin out there trying to buy a house.”
