Realtor.com Graded 100 Metros on Affordability. Las Vegas Got a C-Minus

by Ryan Rose

What Happened

On Sept. 16, 2026, Realtor.com released its first Metro Affordability and Homebuilding Report Cards. The report graded the country's 100 largest metro areas on two things that matter most to buyers. First, can people who live there afford the homes for sale today? Second, is the area building enough new homes to keep up with future demand?

Each metro got a score out of 100, split evenly between those two areas. Letter grades ran from A+ for a score of 77.5 or higher down to F for anything under 30. Ten metros earned grades in the A range. Thirteen got an F.

Des Moines, Iowa, took the top spot with an A+ and a score of 83.4. Raleigh, North Carolina, was right behind it, also with an A+. At the other end, Los Angeles finished No. 100 with a score of just 12.0. New York and Providence, Rhode Island, rounded out the bottom three.

Las Vegas finished No. 69 with a total score of 41.6 and a C-minus. Here is the Las Vegas report card, line by line, straight from Realtor.com's data:

Rank: No. 69 of 100
Grade: C-minus (41.6 out of 100)
REALTORS Affordability Score: 0.527 (national average is 0.675)
Median listing price: $473,195
Median household income: $72,504
Permit-to-population ratio: 1.36
New-construction premium: 23.3%

How did Realtor.com build each grade? The affordability half looks at two things. One is how much of a median earner's income it takes to cover the mortgage on a median-priced home. The other is the REALTORS Affordability Score, which was developed with the National Association of REALTORS and measures what share of homes for sale are affordable to households at different income levels. The homebuilding half also looks at two things: how many building permits a metro issues compared with its share of the U.S. population, and how much more or less a new home costs than an existing one in the same area.

The data behind it came from Realtor.com listings, 2025 household income estimates from Claritas, and U.S. Census Bureau building permit and population numbers. That is a solid, apples-to-apples way to compare 100 very different places.

One important note: the report is based mostly on 2025 data. The listing prices come from homes listed on Realtor.com during 2025, and the income figures are 2025 estimates. So this is a look back at last year, not a live snapshot of the market today.

Calculator, piggy bank and small house model, representing the math behind Las Vegas home affordability

Why It Matters to Las Vegas Residents

Start with the national number versus the local number. The national average REALTORS Affordability Score is 0.675. Las Vegas scored 0.527. That score measures how much of the homes for sale are within reach for households across different income levels. A lower number means fewer listings fit what local people earn. In plain terms, Las Vegas sits at roughly 78% of the national average on this measure.

Now look at the payment. The report figures affordability using a 10% down payment and a 6.5% 30-year fixed rate. Using those same assumptions on the Las Vegas median listing price of $473,195, principal and interest comes to about $2,692 a month. That is about 44.6% of the median Las Vegas household income of $72,504. The common rule of thumb is that housing should take no more than 30% of income. By that yardstick, the median home is a stretch for the median household. For comparison, the same math in Des Moines takes 27.5% of income, and in Los Angeles it takes 84.4%.

Those are rough numbers. They leave out property taxes, insurance and HOA dues, which would push the monthly cost higher. They also use a 6.5% rate. Freddie Mac's 30-year average crossed 7% in late September, which we broke down in our story on what 7% costs on a Las Vegas median home. At 7.03% with the same 10% down, that same payment rises to about $2,842 a month.

The income side is the part many people miss. Las Vegas does not have a price problem as much as a price-to-paycheck problem. Our median listing price of $473,195 is lower than Phoenix at $507,246 or Salt Lake City at $577,022. But our median household income of $72,504 is also lower than both of them. Phoenix comes in at $87,718 and Salt Lake City at $99,172. When local paychecks are smaller, even a moderately priced home can be hard to reach.

The new-construction number matters too. Realtor.com found a new home in Las Vegas costs 23.3% more than an existing home. Compare that with Phoenix, where new homes cost 0.4% less than existing ones, or Boise, where they cost 6.8% less. If you are a first-time buyer who assumed a brand-new home in a master-planned community was the budget option, this number says otherwise. A resale home is often the better value here.

Keep in mind that a metro-wide grade is an average across the whole valley. Las Vegas is not one market. A condo near the east side, a starter home in North Las Vegas, and a newer build in Henderson or the southwest all sit at very different price points. The report grades the Las Vegas metro as a whole, so your own neighborhood could be more or less affordable than the C-minus suggests. That is exactly why a national or even metro-level headline should be the start of your research, not the end of it.

Background and History

To understand why Las Vegas landed where it did, you have to look at both halves of the grade. The homebuilding half is actually a relative strength for us. Our permit-to-population ratio of 1.36 means the Las Vegas area issued about 36% more building permits than you would expect from our share of the national population. That is a healthy level of construction. Los Angeles, by contrast, sits at 0.47, which means it permits less than half of what its population would suggest.

So why the C-minus? It comes down to the affordability half and that new-construction premium. We are building, but the new homes cost a lot more than existing ones, and local incomes have not kept pace with prices. Realtor.com weights the permit ratio at 80% of the homebuilding score and the new-construction premium at 20%, so a high premium still pulls the score down.

New house under construction with exposed wooden framing, like the new homes that carry a 23.3% premium over resale homes in Las Vegas

The report also shows a clear regional pattern. The South and Midwest had most of the strongest performers. The West and Northeast generally trailed. Realtor.com said the South and Midwest tend to have more available land and more flexible zoning and permitting. That regional split helps explain why Las Vegas, like most Western metros in the study, lands in the lower half of the rankings.

Here is how Las Vegas stacks up against our neighbors in the West:

Phoenix: No. 40, C (57.0)
Boise: No. 47, C (54.2)
Salt Lake City: No. 55, C (51.6)
Tucson: No. 65, C-minus (47.0)
Las Vegas: No. 69, C-minus (41.6)
Sacramento: No. 75, D+ (38.8)
Riverside: No. 88, F (29.9)
San Diego: No. 92, F (24.3)
Los Angeles: No. 100, F (12.0)

The gap at the bottom of that list is huge. In Los Angeles, the median listing price was $1,129,415. Realtor.com found that a buyer there would need a down payment of about 68%, or roughly $768,000, just to get the monthly payment down to 30% of the median income. At the top of the list, Des Moines paired a median-priced home of $349,903 with a median household income of $86,700, and it still built plenty of new homes. Interestingly, Des Moines had nearly the same new-construction premium as Las Vegas, 23.4%. The difference is that its homes cost less and its incomes are higher.

Look at that list and the California story is obvious. Riverside, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles all got F grades. Las Vegas is still a big step up in affordability from where many of our new neighbors are moving from. But compared with Phoenix, Boise and Salt Lake City, the cities we often compete with for those same movers, Las Vegas trails.

What Happens Next

This was Realtor.com's first metro report card, which means there is no prior year to compare against yet. The next edition will show whether Las Vegas is moving up or sliding down. It is worth watching, because the underlying numbers have already shifted since 2025.

Here is what the more current local data shows. Las Vegas REALTORS reported the August 2026 median price for existing single-family homes at $475,000, according to FOX5. That was down 1.0% from a year earlier and below the record of $490,000 set in May and June. Inventory has grown too. There were 7,590 single-family homes listed without offers at the end of August, up 5.3% from a year earlier, and the market held just over four and a half months of supply. That is more choice and a bit more room to negotiate for buyers than we had a couple of years ago.

On the building side, the picture is cooling. As we covered in our story on new-home sales rising nationally while Las Vegas builder sales fell 31%, local builders are selling fewer homes this year. If permits slow down, the homebuilding half of our grade could slip. If builders start cutting prices or offering bigger incentives to move inventory, that 23.3% new-construction premium could shrink, which would help the score. Both things could happen at once.

Mortgage rates are the wild card. The report used a 6.5% rate. Rates are now above 7%. If rates stay there, affordability gets tighter even if prices hold flat. If they ease, the math improves quickly.

Local incomes matter just as much. Any growth in Las Vegas wages narrows the gap between what homes cost and what households earn. That is the slowest-moving piece of the puzzle, but it is also the one that would do the most to lift our grade over time. Watch for next year's report card to see whether the 2026 mix of flat prices, more inventory and higher rates moves Las Vegas up or down the list.

Ryan's Take

National real estate news is not local real estate news, and this report is a perfect example. If you only read the headline, you would hear "Des Moines is the most affordable metro in America" and "Los Angeles is the worst," and you would not learn anything about your own home. The useful part is the Las Vegas line, and it tells a clear story. We are not in the coastal disaster zone. We are also not the bargain we used to be. A C-minus is honest. Our prices are moderate, but our paychecks are on the lower side for a Western metro, and that gap is what drags the grade down.

The number I would pay the most attention to is the 23.3% new-construction premium. I talk with a lot of buyers who start their search in new-build communities because they assume new means a better deal. Sometimes it does, especially when a builder is offering a rate buydown. But on average, a resale home in an established neighborhood in Henderson, Spring Valley, or the northwest valley gives you more house for the money. And with inventory up and sellers more willing to negotiate than they were a couple of years ago, resale buyers have more leverage right now than they have had in a while. Run the numbers on both before you decide.

Las Vegas cityscape with mountains in the background at dusk, where Realtor.com ranked the metro No. 69 of 100 on affordability

What You Can Do

If you are buying, start with your own paycheck, not the national headlines. Figure out what monthly payment fits your budget, including taxes, insurance and any HOA dues, and work backward to a price. Compare new-build and resale homes side by side, and ask builders about incentives before you assume the new home is out of reach or the better deal. With more homes on the market, it is also worth asking sellers for concessions toward closing costs or a rate buydown.

If you are selling, remember who your buyer is. The report shows local incomes are the pressure point in Las Vegas. Pricing your home right from day one matters more than it did in 2021 or 2022, because buyers have more choices and less room in their budgets. A home priced to the market tends to sell faster than one that chases the last peak.

If you are relocating from California, Las Vegas is still a big affordability upgrade from Los Angeles, San Diego or the Bay Area. Just go in knowing that our local grade is below the national average, so do the math on your own situation. You can read the full report from Realtor.com through the link in the Sources section below, and you can compare Las Vegas against any other metro you are considering. If you want a sense of where entry-level prices sit right now, our guide to Las Vegas starter home prices is a good place to start.

Have questions about how this affects your home or neighborhood? Reach out to Ryan Rose or text/call 702-747-5921 anytime.