Nevada Bans Mobile Homes

Once Upon a Time...

About 20 years ago in the state of Nevada, a group of real estate agents didn’t like mobile homes. So they wrote up new legislation to outlaw mobile homes. They knew it had been tried in other states, and an all-out ban was always overturned by the courts; they deemed it “Economic discrimination”

As far back as 1970’s a township in Pennsylvania tried it, and the PA Supreme Court overturned it based on Economic discrimination. Texas also was not successful.

They tried a different approach. They wrote up the new law with a veiled attempt to outlaw mobile homes. What they did was to make it so difficult and so expensive that most people would throw up their hands and give up.

When you read the law NRS 278.02095, you will see that you have strict rules to install a mobile home. 1. It has to be less than 6 years old. Making it very expensive. 2. You have to match your house with your neighbors. So if your neighbor has a composite roof, you have to change yours. Your siding, paint color, and many other things have to be changed.

So if you order a new home, your house has to be custom ordered to match the neighbors, and that could cost you an additional $30,000. If you purchase a used home (under 6 years old), you have to change those aspects of the house as well.

I live in an upscale triple-wide converted to real property. I had a composite roof, and every time the wind would come over the desert, I would lose 10 to 20 shingles. After 7 years of that, I custom designed and ordered a metal roof, and I have not been on the roof for the past 8 years. Now, according to this law, I would not be allowed to change my roof unless it matched my neighbors'.

• Big Brother is Alive and Well, Living in Nevada •

The state of Nevada is acting as an HOA (homeowners association)

What this law actually is saying is that if you can’t afford $300,000 to $400,000 for a stick-built house, you can’t live in the state of Nevada. Every day we see on the news that there is a shortage of low- and middle-income housing in the state.

According to the Manufactured Housing Institute in Washington, DC, there are 64,400 mobile homes in NV (according to the last census) and another 40 plus thousand converted to real property. That is 4.8% of the housing and is in line with the national average.

Through attrition over the next few decades, that 5% of the housing inventory will soon disappear.

• Value of Mobile Homes...THERE IS NONE •

What this has done is make any mobile home (single, double, triple, or even if they are converted to real property) that is over 6 years old unable to be moved and reinstalled in this state. That makes them worthless.

Besides the general public, a large portion of the ownership is made up of senior citizens, military personnel, and Veterans. If they want to move their mobile home, they have just lost all their equity. In many cases, their homes are their life savings. AND according to the new law, you have to surrender your title, so you can never sell it again.

• Mobile Home Parks •

This law does not include Mobile Home parks. Therefore, if you have a home that is over 6 years old, you can place it in a mobile home park. Beware. Park owners have caught on to how desperate owners are trying to get into a park and have started to raise lot rental prices.

Why is this raising its ugly head at this time?
The law was passed about 20 years ago, but some rural counties and Clark County did not enforce it. (They must have felt that it was not compatible with rural standards) However. On Dec.1, 2024, Clark County decided to comply with the state law.

Other developers and I have been buying, renovating, and selling these rehabbed homes for 30 years. At no time were we aware that this law existed, nor, at the time that Clark County chose to enforce it, was there any warning or advertising to inform the public.

• How This Affects The Economy •

In 1993, there was a single-wide Mobil home installed in Sandy Valley, with a septic permit and all other permits. Some 15 years later, the owner wanted something larger and sold the single-wide, which was removed and installed on another lot in Sandy Valley. At this time, another family had a nice double-wide on the other side of Sandy Valley which was too small for their family. They purchased a new larger double-wide and sold their house to the family that removed the single-wide. The used double-wide was moved and installed on the lot where the single-wide used to be.

There it sat for the next 20 years. In Feb. of 2025, I purchased this house that had mature landscaping and a nice view of the sunset over the CA Mountains. As I always do with the last 30 or so houses I have renovated, I put in all new windows and doors, kitchen, heat pump (new air and heat), hot water, and on and on. For the cost of $70,000, it was beautiful. Bring your linens and dishes and move in. I gave it to the real estate agents to sell.

The realestate agent told me they could not find the address. The county had this lot listed as a vacant lot. The owner did not get a building permit when it was installed. I went about making it legitimate. I called Manufactured Housing, and they sent an inspector. The house passed inspection, and he gave it an Instillation sticker. I had the title in my name and the deed to the land. The Clark Co. assessor’s office recognizes it by sending me the personal property tax. So all I needed was an address. I went to the building dept. and they told me I needed a building permit to get an address. I took the application, and they helped me walk through the permit process. I needed this, this, and this. I got it. Then they told me I needed a grading plan. I called the surveyor, and with his engineer, it cost $4,000. No problem. It took 2 months, and they told me my application package was now complete and ready for the permit. However, they couldn’t give it to me because of NRS 278.02095. My house was over 6 years old. Now they knew that from day one when I submitted the application. But they made me waste 2 months of my time and spend $4,000. What do you think? That house should have been grandfathered in.

Under NRS 278.02095, both the single-wide and the double-wide would not be allowed to be moved and installed anywhere in Nevada. They would have to be destroyed. And 2 families would be out of luck. 2 more middle-income houses would be gone from the housing inventory.

By the way, the $70,000 for materials and labor that I put into the double-wide was all spent in Clark County. Multiply that by 100s of rehab mobile homes each year. This is an industry that will disappear over the years under this law.

• Unfair Economic Burden on the Tax Payer •

If you have a stick-built home, you can do whatever you want as far as the roof, siding, etc. So, according to this NRS, a manufactured home owner has to spend $30,000 to $40,000 more to comply. That puts an unfair economic burden on the low- and middle-income homeowner. That is what the framers of this law counted on, to make it as hard and expensive to phase out manufactured homes.

Our politicians should be there to solve these problems, not create them. Why do they hate manufactured homes?

True story: a few years ago, a nurse at one of Las Vegas hospitals purchased a new home from a licensed builder near Eastern ave in Henderson. It takes 3 to 6 months to build a home. During construction, they did not have the roof tiles on yet but installed the insulation. Well, it rained. The home was complete, and 6 months later mold was oozing out from under the baseboards. The builder was sued, and the house was redone.

Now, a manufactured home is built in a factory under a controlled environment. No rain, wind, storms, or snow. There are no little critters building nests in it, and it is delivered and installed in 30 to 60 days. Also, manufactured homes are more energy efficient.

This has to be corrected. We have to overturn this law.

Please see below for information on contacting your state representatives.

• Contact Your Representatives •