Foreclosures rocket in Las Vegas after tourist slump
Growing numbers of Las Vegas homeowners are falling into foreclosure as soaring prices and Trump boycotts decimate the city, a new report found.
In Clark County, 200 default notices were filed in June, an increase of 32 percent from the same month last year, a research report from the University of Nevada's Lied Center for Real Estate found.
Default notices are filed after a property owner falls behind on their mortgage payments and indicates the start of the foreclosure process.
'With high interest rates, global economic uncertainty over tariffs, and a reduction of tourism in Southern Nevada, the local housing market has started to show some signs of distress,' the report said.
Approximately 1,290 notices of default were filed in Clark County in the first six months of this year, up 28 percent from last year, according to the research report.
A majority of the default notices are from single-family homes, nearly 1,035 filings, followed by 133 from townhome owners and 83 condo owners.
Research director for the Lied Center, Nicholas Irwin, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the increase in filings is concerning, considering that Sin City has been suffering from a major tourism slump.
He said that Las Vegas' unemployment rate is higher than the national average and warned of 'turbulent times ahead' for the local economy.
Default notice filings, which indicate the start of the foreclosure process, were up 32 percent from last year in the Las Vegas area (pictured)
Experts cited a tourism slump in Sin City (pictured) and Trump boycotts for the negative economic impact on the area
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) has also sounded the alarm on a steep decline in tourism and its negative impacts on the area.
'Some of the decisions that our administration has made around international relations has caused a drop in tourism,' LVCVA president Steve Hill said at a recent board of directors meeting, reported Fox 5.
'That has happened for Canada. Our international visitation is actually pretty flat, but that is making up for the 20-plus percent drop in tourism from Canada, which is our largest international source of visitation. That matters and we are having to overcome that.'
Since his return to the White House, Trump quickly launched a hostile attack on the country and threatened to make it America's '51st state' if it did not submit to his tariff demands.
With Canadians making up a large part of all tourism to Sin City, Trump's antagonism towards its residents may have played a role.
A decrease in visitors from the north has also had negative impacts on business at Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport.
The number of airline passengers arriving at Sin City's main airport is forecasted to continue to plummet by almost 100,000 per day, a new report warned.
Capacity rates at Harry Reid International Airport are forecast to drop dramatically in the second half of 2025, according to LVCVA.
A majority of the default notices are from single-family homes, nearly 1,035 filings, followed by 133 from townhome owners and 83 condo owners
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) blamed decisions from the Trump administration for the decrease in tourism at a recent board of directors meeting
LVCVA president Steve Hill said Sin City has seen steep decline in visitors from Canada after Trump took office
The grim outlook is due to a decline in visitors from Canada, along with maintenance issues with the airport's second-largest airline, experts said.
They warned that the number of inbound passengers will plunge by around 95,000 seats per day for the rest of the year.
The worrying prediction represents a 2.3 percent fall from 2024 numbers, according to the report by Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting, which was commissioned by the city's tourism board.
Workers across several industries in the tourist city claim tipping in the city has plunged by as much as 50 percent.
Service workers are blaming a sharp drop in visitors, which they say has left them with fewer customers and lower pay.
Some are pointing fingers at Trump, saying his presidency has led to a drop in international visitors, while some say the real problem is Vegas itself.
The city only welcomed 3.39 million visitors in March, down almost eight percent from 3.68million in February.
April saw just over 3.3 million visitors, a drop of 5.1 percent from last year. Hotels were 82.9 percent full the same month, compared with 85.3 percent in March 2024.
Midweek occupancy recorded a decline of 2.5 percent in the same period, despite more than half a million people attending conferences there.
And in June, there was a reported 11.3 percent drop in visitors compared to June 2024, while international travel to the city has fallen 10 percent.
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