Aaron Ford Unveils First Plank of ‘Affordable Nevada’ Agenda: Housing
Nevada Independent: “Ford has unveiled his [...] housing plan, calling for a crackdown on corporate homebuying and new tenant assistance initiatives.”
On Thursday, Attorney General Aaron Ford unveiled the first plank of his ‘Affordable Nevada’ agenda: housing. He was joined by Nevadans who have been negatively impacted by Lombardo’s housing crisis.
Ford’s housing agenda focuses on lowering costs by: limiting Wall Street from buying up single family homes, lowering the existing cap on security deposits to one month’s rent, banning all junk fees and requiring full price transparency, cracking down on corporate landlords price-fixing rents, and expanding rental and down payment assistance programs.
Ford’s ‘Affordable Nevada’ agenda was derived from conversations he had on his statewide ‘Working Class First’ tour and is laser-focused on lowering housing costs with additional proposals on health care, energy, and more.
See more below:
Nevada Independent: Ford intros housing plan with rental aid programs, crackdown on corporate homebuying
[1/15/26]
Key points:
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has unveiled his gubernatorial campaign’s housing plan, calling for a crackdown on corporate homebuying and new tenant assistance initiatives.
The plan released Thursday, which has not been previously reported, covers everything from freeing up federal land for affordable housing development to placing a cap on security deposit costs. It also pledges to cut down on red tape to expedite housing development, develop unused land in Las Vegas and pass legislation vetoed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, such as a ban on home price fixing and the corporate homebuying crackdown.
The plan — the first of Ford’s policies to address affordability in Nevada — comes at a difficult time for homebuying in the Silver State. Las Vegas home sales in 2025 were the lowest in nearly two decades, and a report from last year found that more than half of Nevada renters and nearly a quarter of homeowners are cost-burdened, defined as at least 35 percent of gross monthly income spent on housing costs.
A key part of Ford’s plan to lower housing costs — the crackdown on corporate homebuying — almost passed in dramatic fashion late last year.
Most recently, President Donald Trump announced (with minimal specifics) plans to ban large investors from buying homes — an idea that Ford supported. Lombardo, who vetoed a bill in 2023 on the issue, said he was looking more into the issue and had convened an “interim stakeholder working group" without providing more details.
One new proposal in Ford’s plan is to cap security deposits to the equivalent of one month’s rent. Nevada law currently allows landlords to charge up to three times the price of a month’s rent for a deposit — a rule that his plan says “is untenable for working families.”
He also called for more rental and down payment assistance. His office reached a settlement with the property management software group RealPage last year that includes $200,000 for these initiatives.
And his plan calls for reforms to the rental fee system by banning “extraneous ‘junk fees’ not tied to real, measurable costs.”
Las Vegas Sun: Ford unveils housing affordability plan in bid for Nevada governor
[1/15/26]
Key points:
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford unveiled his plan Thursday night to tackle Nevada's ongoing housing crisis if elected governor, focusing on easing life for renters while speeding up and expanding development.
The Democrat’s campaign broke down his affordability agenda into four parts: protecting homebuyers and renters, building more housing, accessing federal land and beating back President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
In front of dozens of supporters at North Las Vegas’s Pearson Community Center, Ford relayed the stories he heard on his recent tour across the state. People at each of the 17 stops said the same thing, according to Ford: “Things are just too expensive.”
He highlighted a single mom in Elko “having to choose between paying her mortgage and buying groceries,” a “college student in Reno who is selling his plasma to pay rent” and two pairs of grandparents having their children and grandchildren live with them because of housing costs.
Addressing those concerns on the campaign trail, Ford told the crowd that he would cap security deposits at one month of rent, replacing the three-month cap now in place. In a similar vein, Ford proposed a ban on renters’ “junk fees” while expanding rental assistance.
The attorney general also committed to signing an executive order on his first day in office directing state agencies “to find ways to lower costs.” Affordability would be Ford’s and the entire state government’s focus under his leadership, he said.
In what’s become common for the Ford campaign, the attorney general took aim at the governor’s veto record. In 2023, Lombardo killed a proposal to limit corporate homeownership and pushed the Legislature to vote against a similar measure last year.
“Under Lombardo’s watch, the largest homeowner in our state is a New York hedge fund … Joe Lombardo will always prioritize his special interest donors over hard-working Nevadans,” Ford said. “Even Trump agrees with me.”
“We’re going to build more housing while lowering costs in this state, and we’re going to do it with union labor at the center of it,” Ford said. “This is going to be a whole-of-government approach under my administration.”
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