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A closer look at Reno mayor's claims on housing market, public safety in State of City


A closer look at Reno mayor's claims on housing market, public safety in State of City
A closer look at Reno mayor's claims on housing market, public safety in State of City
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Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve painted a rosy picture of the Biggest Little City in her Thursday State of the City address. But how accurate were her claims about the housing market and public safety?

Schieve called the housing market a "national crisis" but expressed confidence that the market is steadily improving, citing statistics about apartment construction and vacancy rates.

"Although we are not out of the woods yet, recent construction activity has started to turn the vacancy rate curve for apartments, with around 4,000 units in the construction pipeline," Schieve said.

Schieve rounded up a little bit — according to local real estate consulting firm Johnson Perkins Griffin, there are 3,762 apartment units currently under construction. Another 6,209 are in the planning stages.

The vacancy rate for apartments is turning around. In the last three months of 2017, it was 3.8 percent, a huge improvement over the 1.17 percent apartment vacancy rate earlier in 2017.

She focused mostly on apartments though, not mentioning that housing prices are up 15 percent from last December, and housing inventory is at a record low.

"Doing more with less is a challenge our first responders combat on a daily basis."

This is true for both the fire and police departments. But the City has added 40 police officers in the past three years, and Schieve promised 30 more by 2020.

Meanwhile, the Reno Fire Department has one less position than it did back in 1999, despite responding to a record 42,000 calls last year, according to Chief Dave Cochran.

WATCH the full State of the City address below.


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