Reno’s Economic Boom Is Leaving Residents Behind: A Look at the Numbers
Here's what EDAWN's State of the Economy presentation really tells us about life in Reno.
Feb 10, 2026
EDAWN tells us that the economy is strong, resilient, and growing. The slides look good. The charts trend upward. Officials repeat phrases like “economic strength,” “investment momentum,” and “diversification.”
But when you slow down and read the data from the latest State of the Economy presentation by EDAWN, a different picture emerges — one that aligns more closely with what residents experience day to day.
This isn’t an economy collapsing. It’s something more subtle: an economy that works increasingly well for capital, assets, and institutions — and increasingly poorly for households, workers, and families.
Here is what the State of the Economy presentation tells us about living in Reno today. It really is like how it feels.
This is the presentation delivered on February 5 to a large audience of business people in Reno. To view the 106-page presentation, click the image.
A K-Shaped Economy is Here
One of the most important slides compares consumer sentiment to financial market performance. The takeaway is blunt: markets have recovered and surged, while consumer sentiment sits near historic lows.
This is the textbook definition of a K-shaped economy.
People with assets — stocks, property, businesses — are doing fine.
People who rely on wages, fixed incomes, or services are not.
When officials point to GDP, capital investment, or job counts without addressing household stress, they are talking past the lived reality of most people.
Reno’s economic structure sharpens the divide. A large service workforce, rising housing costs, and a growing retiree population mean that many residents feel inflation and instability more acutely than the national averages suggest.
The Demographic Reality That No One Notices
Here is the most consequential—and least discussed—data point in the presentation: the demographics of in migration.
New Residents 55–64 years old: 30.8%
New Residents 65 and older: 39.1%
That means 69.9% of people moving into Nevada are 55 or older.
This single statistic explains much of what is happening in Reno. It also raises the question of EDWAN’s impact, given its mandate to bring companies and jobs to Reno.
What the in-migration means for Reno
This indicates that Reno is not primarily importing a future workforce. Reno is importing demand for services.
That has consequences:
Increased healthcare demand
Greater sensitivity to inflation, utilities, and property taxes
Less upward pressure on wages
Fewer working-age residents are supporting public services
More competition for housing without proportional labor force growth
The presentation quietly acknowledges this, flagging healthcare demand, fixed-income sensitivity, and workforce gaps as key implications for the Reno metro area.
Yet public planning and messaging still treat growth as if it automatically equals prosperity. It does not.
Income vs. Reality: The Gap Keeps Widening
One of the most damning comparisons in the deck contrasts actual household income with income needed to live comfortably.
In Northern Nevada:
Actual median household income: ~ $92,000
Income needed to live comfortably: ~ $154,000
That’s a gap of more than $60,000 per year.
For families, the picture is even worse. Estimates suggest a family of four in Nevada needs over $238,000 annually to live comfortably. Who is earning that much?
This is why, for many families:
Emergency savings are thin
Retirement contributions are being reduced or paused
Consumer debt continues to rise
Younger households delay children, homeownership, and long-term commitments
Wage growth has not collapsed — but it has failed to keep pace with housing, healthcare, and everyday living costs.
Downtown Soccer Fields are the New Neon Line Distraction but Where is the Infrastructure?
The City of Reno doesn’t hold Jacobs to its commitment to build apartments and other resources in West Reno; instead, we get soccer fields with no infrastructure.
Housing: Locked, Scarce, and Out of Reach
Housing is the pressure point where these trends converge.
Mortgage rates remain above 6%
Most homeowners are locked into low pandemic-era rates
First-time buyers account for only about one in five purchases
Median home prices remain north of $550,000
This “lock-in effect” reduces mobility, constrains supply, and keeps prices elevated even when sales slow.
The city estimates that 15,000 additional housing units are needed by 2035, yet land constraints, permitting delays, infrastructure limits, and political resistance continue to stall meaningful progress.
Young workers, service employees, and middle-income families are the ones pushed to the margins — commuting farther, downsizing expectations, or leaving altogether.
Why Washoe County Wants EDAWN in the Middle of Land Sales and You Should Not
EDAWN is tasked with helping companies relocate to Reno and create jobs, but now they want to profit from land sales and compete with real estate companies.
Jobs Exist — Job Security Does Not
Unemployment numbers look acceptable on the surface, but they conceal deeper instability.
Nationally and locally:
Job cuts are concentrated in government, technology, and retail
AI, restructuring, and cost-cutting drive layoffs
Younger workers face higher unemployment than older cohorts
Boomers delaying retirement reduces job opportunities
Employers report talent shortages while many workers struggle to find roles that support Reno’s cost of living.
This is not a labor shortage. It is a wage-stability mismatch.
The Data Center Boom — Growth but not for Residents
Investment Is Flowing — Not Where Residents Need It
Perhaps the most revealing conclusion in the presentation is this:
Capital investment is rising — but it is increasingly decoupled from improvements in residents’ quality of life.
Commercial builders are losing appetite for anything other than data centers. Data center construction is projected to explode, with Reno leading the nation in growth.
On paper, this looks like success. In practice, it represents a form of growth that largely bypasses residents.
Data Centers Are Coming: What It Means for Our Neighborhoods
They are building a data center on land in my neighborhood in West Reno that was intended for public access and community events.
Capital-intensive, not job-intensive
Data centers create a burst of construction activity, but once built, they employ very few permanent workers. These facilities are automated, secure, and designed to operate leanly.
They inflate investment statistics without meaningfully expanding employment or raising wages—a critical issue in a region already facing a severe income-to-cost mismatch.
Land consumption without community benefit
Data centers require large, flat parcels near power and fiber. In a region with limited developable land, this matters.
They produce fenced, inward-facing facilities that absorb land without building communities.
The infrastructure pressure residents will feel.
Data centers are among the most energy-intensive land uses. They place continuous strain on the electrical grid and require extensive cooling.
Even when renewable power is involved, grid capacity is finite. Infrastructure upgrades don’t disappear — they surface over time in utility rates, public spending priorities, and opportunity costs.
The core contradiction
Here is the contradiction the presentation exposes:
Data centers raise land values
Increase infrastructure demand
Add pressure to strained systems
But they do not raise household incomes.
Data center growth shows Reno becoming more important to global digital infrastructure while becoming harder for residents to afford.
What the Data Really Says
This presentation shows a city drifting out of alignment with the people who live and work in it.
Reno’s economy is becoming:
Stronger for capital
Harder for households
Older by design, not by accident
More expensive without being more livable
The problem is not growth. The problem is who growth is for — and who it leaves behind. Until local leaders start grappling honestly with the age shift, housing lock-in, income gap, and service strain revealed in their own data, residents will keep hearing that everything is fine while feeling the opposite in their daily lives. And that disconnect is the real warning sign.
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