How much do you need to make an hour to afford a house in Las Vegas?

A Las Vegas Valley worker has to make at least $57.22 an hour to afford a mortgage payment right now, according to a new study by UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate.

The study, which pulled data from the U.S. Census, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Zillow also found that if you make $12 an hour, the minimum wage in Nevada, you would have to work 191 hours a week to afford a monthly mortgage payment on the average median priced house in the region.

A household with two incomes in Southern Nevada must make approximately $119,012 a year to afford a mortgage of $2,975, according to the study.

The study uses the common economic benchmark that no one should be spending more than 30 percent of their gross monthly income on housing. The median household income in Southern Nevada currently sits at $80,028.

Nicholas Irwin, research director of UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate, said he was surprised when they crunched the data.

“I did not think it would be close to $120,000, that’s $40,000 more than our area median income,” said Irwin. “So it’s well above what the average is, 50 percent more than what the average is.”

The study estimates that only 6.1 percent of all occupations in Southern Nevada pay enough to afford a house right now, and for a dual income household, each earner must make approximately $28.61 an hour, a wage that only approximately 46.6 percent of the population makes.

For a dual minimum wage household, each person would have to work 95.5 hours a week, which is the equivalent of close to 2.5 jobs.

The UNLV report also looked at the top 40 occupations in Southern Nevada (which make up 53.5 percent of the workforce) and found that only two jobs (both in management) make enough money to afford a mortgage right now.

The UNLV study compared the Las Vegas Valley area to 55 other cities across the country, and found the valley ranked as the 36th most expensive metro for affording an average mortgage. The report notes that while Las Vegas is more affordable than nearby cities such as Phoenix and Salt Lake City, it still ranks below multiple cities in the Midwest or eastern part of the country, including San Antonio, Houston, Chicago, Orlando and Fresno, California.

The report outlined this imbalance in terms of how income and housing could damage the valley’s long term viability if average workers can’t get into the housing market.

“This widening affordability gap may threaten Southern Nevada’s long-term economic development goals,” read the report. “Despite the region’s business-friendly environment, strategic location, and favorable tax structure, companies may hesitate to relocate or expand if local housing options remain economically out of reach for much of the workforce.”

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.