Las Vegas HOA faces $30M shortfall

Setting foot in Sun City Summerlin one can see lush grass, full pools, and active clubhouses. So how is the homeowners association facing a $30 million budget deficit?

Inside the Starlight Theatre, the Sun City Summerlin Community Association voted on a new plan to find a sufficient strategy to tackle a deficit discovered in a 4-year budget study. The neighborhood’s reserve is required to maintain at a certain level due to state law.

“Our funding percent did drop from 70% to 45% over the last five years,” Mitzi Mills, the Sun City Summerlin Association executive director, said. “Primarily because of inflation on manufactured items and equipment needed for a community this size.”

Mills pushed back against the $29,265,699 figure sent to 8 News Now by residents citing a 2024 reserve budget assessment.

“[The HOA] is an association with third party documented assets of $40,318,493,” she said. “We currently have—going into our 2026 budget—$18,222,915 just in our Reserve Fund account to maintain these assets which have useful lives ranging from 5 to 30 years.  This means that our reserve account is 45 percent funded.”

The effort and assessment have caused concern for some residents who spoke with 8 News Now anonymously and on camera, like Rob Kirkwood.

“The state law says that you should have adequate resources, sufficient to pay for future expenses,” Kirkwood said. “This board, I think, got too aggressive and trying to hit that 70 percent number sooner than they need.”

The real cost

In previous stories, 8 News Now has found HOA damage costs which caused some residents to move and others to ask for city intervention. The costs and concerns in Sun City Summerlin appear to mainly surround a one-time $5,000 cost to new homeowners.

The New Owner Reserve Assessment (NORA) which is negotiable during sale was originally set to $1,839 according to a petition in district court which sought to stop it in January.

On Mar. 31, District Court Judge Carli Kierny found the HOA had authorization to increase the NORA for new homeowners.

Kirkwood said the NORA increase is too much, pointing to the oddity in jump in budget assessment from 2019 to 2024.

“[The HOA] put in there that $30 million was what the 2024 reserve study specialist calculated that they needed by 2029 in contributions in order to hit a 70% figure,” he said. “Now contrast that with the 2019 study, that one had a lot less expenses, and I think that was more like a 15 million, which is still a large amount for the next four years, but it jumped up substantially in the 2024 reserve study.”

Inflation was cited as a possible reason by the HOA for the increase in overall costs in the budget between 2019 and 2024. Mills told 8 News Now the maintenance pertains to many aspects of the neighborhood.

“We have three golf courses, four fitness centers, four community centers, and a theatre,” she said. “There are 7,781 homes in the community and the owners assessments pay for their exclusive use of all of the areas except the golf courses and restaurants.”

Mills said the between the miles of landscaped parkways and park areas residents know what they are signing up for and the cost is not hidden.

“The total cost to live here annually and use all of the facilities and amenities is $2,257.92 a year,” she said. “And in comparison to other ‘city sized’ communities living in Sun City Summerlin is a bargain.”

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