A shortage of housing in western Nevada, particularly Reno, is making it harder and harder to draw the people to fill jobs created by the area's booming economy.
The Nevada Appeal reports that Brian Bonenfant of UNR’s Center for Regional Studies made the comments at an economic forum in Reno last week, saying the Reno-Sparks and surrounding area have added almost 10,000 new jobs every year for the past five years, with 40 percent of them in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.
But he also said the area isn't building enough new homes and apartments to house workers to fill those jobs. As a result, Bonnenfant said the average single-family home is now selling for nearly $400,000.
That means a family's household income has to be at least $80,000 to afford an existing home, $90,000 to buy a new home. But median family income is just $75,268.
