Las Vegas—a market driven by entertainment, hospitality and retail—has relied on the pandemic unemployment assistance, an additional $600 weekly unemployment benefit. The additional benefit expired at the end of July, and many residents and apartment owners in Las Vegas are waiting for a permanent replacement solution. Without it, there could be decreased occupancy and increased broken lease agreements, especially for the lower end of the apartment market.

"The impact has been mixed. Interestingly, in the midrange $1200-plus per month to high-end luxury $2000-plus per month apartment units, there hasn't been much impact so far, as most of those tenants have been employed through the pandemic and now work from home," Lisa Song Sutton, a Las Vegas-based real estate investor and broker, tells GlobeSt.com. "Unfortunately, the greatest impact has been in the lower range apartments that cost $900 per month or less."

While Congress has yet to pass a permanent replacement plan for the expired unemployment benefits, The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing a temporary $300 per week benefit to bridge the gap until a more permanent solution is found. "I think any funds are better than no funds, so $300 will help more than $0 would, however this is not a long-term solution," says Sutton. "It's a small bandaid over a much larger issue. The longer our Governor keeps the Las Vegas strip and our #1 economic driver, the hospitality and bar industry, on a short, chokehold leash, the worse the economic impact will be."