A couple making $200,000 a year can’t afford a home in Nevada as fierce competition and skyrocketing prices continue to push millennials out – and it could affect the presidential election in the swing state.
Kashmir Martin, 31, and her husband are nearly ready to give up on their dreams of owning a home and have decided to delay having a baby until they can, they told NBC News.
Martin, alone, makes $140,000 a year working as an accounting manager for a mining company and her husband makes around $65,000 as an audio technician. Their budget for a home is a whopping $550,000.
‘Seemingly, on paper, I’m making more money, I’m doing better,’ she told the outlet. ‘But I feel less financially secure than I did back in 2015 when I had just barely graduated college and was a first-year accountant.’
They’ve been looking for years to move into a home in the Old Northwest or Old Southwest neighborhoods in Reno, Nevada, but can’t find options under $3,000 a month, and ones they can need extensive renovations they cannot afford.
Kashmir Martin, 31, and her husband are nearly ready to give up on their dreams of owning a home and have decided to delay having a baby until they can. Although she’s making more money, se feels ‘less financially secure than I did back in 2015’
Martin, alone, makes $140,000 a year working as an accounting manager for a mining company and her husband makes around $65,000 as an audio technician. Their budget for a home is a whopping $550,000
‘Seemingly, on paper, I’m making more money, I’m doing better,’ Kashmir (pictured here with husband) admitted, before adding, ‘I just don’t foresee prices coming down’
In Washoe County, single-family homes have increased 46 percent since 2019, coming in at an average of just under $600,000, according to the County’s Assessor’s Office.
Those struggling to find affordable housing are leaning toward Democratic and third-party presidential options, who are promoting housing policies.
Martin and her husband are currently living in a townhouse that cost $2,300 a month. If she were to buy a property of similar value, she estimates it could cost her $3,700 a month for her mortgage.
The stress of homebuying has led her to support presidential candidates that support labor unions, like presumptive Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, who didn’t eat a grape until her 20s to support boycotts in her home state of California.
Martin prefers these candidates because she believes it will help increase wages, which will lead to more people being able to afford a home.
‘From a federal level, anything that can help increase wages and get people good, high-paying jobs is going to help this situation,’ she said. ‘I just don’t foresee prices coming down.’
The current Vice President has advocated for more affordable housing, as well as giving first-time homebuyers a tax credit. She has also advocated for rent caps.
Republican nominee, Donald Trump, said he would lower housing costs by encouraging construction of new units in suburban America, where land is cheaper.
'Working-class folks, they are getting squeezed out of the housing market, and rents are through the roof, and there’s a lot of abuses that haven’t been curbed,' Nevada’s Culinary Workers Union Secretary, Ted Pappageorge, told NBC News.
'I think with the political class out there, they are not taking this on as aggressively as they need to. We see some stuff from the Democrats on housing, but it’s just got to be much more aggressive.'
Philip Chavez recently bought a home for $470,000, making his monthly payment $3,700 a month. He spends roughly half his paycheck on his mortgage and has to stretch the rest of his budget to afford his family.
In Washoe County where Martin and her husband are looking to buy, single-family homes have increased 46 percent since 2019, coming in at an average of just under $600,000, over their budget. The stress of homebuying has led her to support presidential candidates that support labor unions, like presumptive Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, who didn't eat a grape until her 20s to support boycotts
'I am really praying for rates to go down so I can try to refinance quickly, because it’s a big payment,' he told NBC News. 'It’ll be a little lean here and there, but, you know, I’ll eat less or something. We’ll figure it out.'
He doesn't believe the Republican party will make the economy any better. He does, however, have a personal connection to Harris, who walked the 2019 UAW picket line with him and his colleagues.
'If we want to have a country like it is now or make it better, we’re not going to do it by voting Republican,' he said. 'Trickle-down economics doesn’t work, because trickle-down economics relies on a benevolent person trickling it down, and that’s not the world we live in.'
Housing is a major problem in Reno, which needed an additional 21,000 affordable housing units to meet demands in 2022, according to state housing reports. They'll be adding 4,300 more units over the next seven years.
Homelessness increased four percent this year and more than 3,000 low-income residents are on a waitlist for federally funded housing vouchers, NBC News reported.
The Food Bank of Northern Nevada has also seen an increase in patrons, with high housing prices and the horrific job market causing Americans to struggle to make do. They are serving 15 percent more people since last year and nearly 35 percent over the two years, NBC News reported.
'People have to pay their rent, and so they don’t buy as much food or they don’t have money to buy food, and that’s what we see a lot of,' Jocelyn Lantrip, the director of marketing and communications for the food bank, told NBC News.
Add in the fact that many California residents have jumped ship and settled in the Reno area, bringing in all-cash offers and higher salaries, is also significantly driving up prices, leaving people like Martin unable to even afford her childhood home.
Housing is a major problem in Reno, which needed an additional 21,000 affordable housing units to meet demands in 2022, according to state housing reports. They'll be adding 4,300 more units over the next seven years
Pictured: Federal mortgage rates from January 2020 to March 2024
'I’ve taken all of the steps that I thought I would need to take so that I could do better than my parents,' she told NBC News. 'But I kind of have this feeling that I am not getting ahead. If anything, I’m falling a little behind.'
Her parents, who worked as a teacher and a casino worker, bought the home decades ago, but with the 7.5 percent interest rate Martin was offered, she can't afford it, even on her $140,000 salary.
The average monthly mortgage rate in the county is around $3,000 a month - nearly doubling since 2019. To afford a home - with a 20 percent down payment - a household would need to make more than $100,000 a year.
The median household income is only $80,000, according to NBC News.
And it's not just in Reno where first-time homebuyers are struggling to grow roots. Owning a home has become nearly impossible for many Americans across the country - and the situation isn't going to improve anytime soon, according to the NBC News Home Buyer Index.
Housing prices have surged 6.4 percent compared to last year, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index. San Diego, Chicago, and Detroit were hit the hardest.
Renters are struggling too, with many paying more than 30 percent of their income toward rent and utilities, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies said.
