This is in addition to a tremendous amount of building that is happening in the city already (in the 2.5 years I've lived here, I've seen literally hundreds of homes built within 2 minutes of our house). But there continue to be people moving here, making housing unaffordable to the middle class, and Vegas is bordered on all sides by federally owned BLM land. I agree building houses in, say, Tonopah, NV is not going to solve anything, but it is a real thing specifically in Vegas.
That is fair, federally owned land and actually in-demand real estate does uniquely overlap in the area around Las Vegas. I still think it's a mediocre solution even there, though! We wouldn't bother with it if we allowed proper density in the existing space. Federal land is only an answer if we've already conceded defeat to sprawl! :)
Generally agree (and love the "subsidize demand" meme). Only minor nit is that at least in Las Vegas / Clark County (which I think qualifies as the Mountain West?) there is a real push to buy more land from the federal govt to build on. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/10/22/president-sprawl-whats-with-pols-talking-about-developing-federal-land
This is in addition to a tremendous amount of building that is happening in the city already (in the 2.5 years I've lived here, I've seen literally hundreds of homes built within 2 minutes of our house). But there continue to be people moving here, making housing unaffordable to the middle class, and Vegas is bordered on all sides by federally owned BLM land. I agree building houses in, say, Tonopah, NV is not going to solve anything, but it is a real thing specifically in Vegas.
That is fair, federally owned land and actually in-demand real estate does uniquely overlap in the area around Las Vegas. I still think it's a mediocre solution even there, though! We wouldn't bother with it if we allowed proper density in the existing space. Federal land is only an answer if we've already conceded defeat to sprawl! :)