Ford: “I am demanding that [Lombardo] support the legislature’s bipartisan effort”

Today, Attorney General Aaron Ford demanded that Joe Lombardo sign legislation that would limit out of state corporations from coming into Nevada and pricing working families out of their neighborhoods. 

In 2023, Lombardo vetoed a bill that would have limited the ability of Wall Street corporate landlords to buy up housing stock in Nevada and drive up costs by putting a cap on the total number of housing units by a corporate investor. After Lombardo’s veto, it was reported that the largest single homeowner in Clark County is a New York-based hedge fund, who owns close to 4,500 homes in Clark County. The second largest homeowner, another Wall Street firm, is based out of Dallas and owns another 3,400 homes. Lombardo blocked a similar bill during the 2025 legislative session.

If Lombardo refuses to sign this legislation, again, Ford has made it clear that he will sign it in the first 30 days of the 2027 legislative session as Nevada’s next Governor. 

WATCH HERE:

Remarks as prepared for delivery:

Hello everyone,

I’m Attorney General Aaron Ford. I’m here to testify regarding Senate Bill 10, specially the portion of the bill that limits the number of homes corporations can purchase.

Over the past week, I completed my statewide Working Class First tour — visiting all 17 counties across the Silver State. And at every single stop, hardworking Nevadans told me the same thing: the cost of housing is unbearable and unaffordable. Just last night, I had a town hall at UNR with Graduate Student Workers, where a young man literally told me that he is selling his plasma in order to pay his rent. That is how desperate this crisis has become.

Under Governor Lombardo, housing costs in Nevada have hit record highs — and when he was given the opportunity to do something about it, by signing legislation that would have limited out-of-state corporations from buying up our homes and pricing Nevadans out of their communities, he failed to do so. Again, this month, he refused to include it in this Special Legislative Session.

Now, because of his dereliction of duty, Nevada families are suffering and Wall Street hedge funds are the largest landlords in Clark County, having amassed thousands and thousands of homes.

Whether its mutli-billion dollar Wall Street firms buying up all the houses or a massive property management companies facilitating collusion to illegally inflate rents, the story is always the same: powerful special interests rigging the system to pad their profits at the expense of working families.

That’s why I’m proud to see Democrats and Republicans in the legislature coming together to pass this legislation in a bipartisan way that will uplift working families trying to buy their first home. And I want to commend Senators Neal and Hansen and Assemblymember Hansen, specifically. Senator Neal for her tenacity and Senator and Assemblymember Hansen for their courage.

An open question remains as to whether Governor Lombardo will muster the comparable courage and finally do something to address this specific issue. Because let’s be clear, we wouldn’t be here but for the governor's initial veto and subsequent successful killing of the bill. And it now appears he wanted to water down the original bill even further and put the limit at 2,000. The bill settles at 1,000. It’s better than nothing. But it’s clear that it’s still corporations over people for Governor Lombardo.

I hope that Governor Lombardo reverses his opposition and finally signs this legislation. So do Nevadans being priced out of homes and, indeed, entire neighborhoods.

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