Exuberance is back in Las Vegas where casinos are thriving like never before. Even if some are being demolished, it's to rebuild and make way for even bigger ones. On October 9, the two towers of the Tropicana, a hotel dating back to 1957, were demolished at 2:37 am in a spectacular show, preceded by fireworks and watched by thousands of spectators. The iconic hotel will be replaced by a baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics, who have left California. Such is life in Vegas, marked by cycles of boom and bust.

In 2023, Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, recorded record transactions for the third year running: $13.5 billion. The number of visitors to Harry Reid International Airport surpassed the pre-Covid-19 pandemic record (57.6 million passengers in 2023). There are now plans to build a second airport. Shows on the Strip, the Champs-Élysées of the gaming industry, are sold out.

But not everyone is benefiting from the recovery. Unemployment (5.5% in August) is one of the highest in the country. The state ranked second nationally for inflation rates in 2022. The housing shortage is referred to as a "crisis" by both the right and left.

The Silver State has just six electoral votes out of the 270 needed to elect a presidential candidate, according to the indirect voting system in force in the US. But it is considered a key state, one of the seven that will determine the outcome of the November 5 election. In 2020, Joe Biden won with just 33,596 more votes out of the 1.4 million ballots cast. With less than a month to go before the election, the two candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, are neck-and-neck in the polls, still within the margin of error.

Rising prices

Voters' main concerns are rising prices and the housing crisis. Since 2016, rents have risen by 40%, while wages have not kept pace. Homeownership, the cornerstone of the American dream, has become unattainable for many, even as new subdivisions in the city's upscale western neighborhoods spring up, with homes priced at $475,000. The sign on a model apartment on West Russell Road, one of the boulevards encroaching on the desert, proclaims, "Home ownership is possible." But especially for wealthy families. According to LV Realtors, the Las Vegas real estate association, median home prices doubled between 2015 and 2023. Apartment prices have risen by a third since 2020.

"It's really hard," explained Donica Martinez, a part-time social worker employed by Shine A Light, an organization that helps the homeless. "To rent, you need to earn at least three times the rent, and the minimum wage is too low." According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a person earning minimum wage ($12 an hour) has to work at least 82 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Las Vegas.

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