In Nevada, how hot is too hot?

A quiet working-class town, beyond the sparkle of the Las Vegas Strip, helped spark the global financial crisis 10 years ago. The fallout was inescapable: Nearly 1 in 3 homes went into foreclosure.

Today, the community of North Las Vegas, encompassing the 89031 ZIP code, is the model of the recovery that has swept the nation. The economy is growing, companies are hiring, and the housing market is hot, with this suburban enclave spreading farther into the Mojave Desert.

But the recovery has been uneven. Although the Las Vegas area is booming, the middle class is still getting squeezed.

Steady growth across the country has lifted the stock market and corporate profits. But those gains haven’t filtered down to most workers. Incomes have barely budged, and consumer debt is increasing again.

Housing prices in North Las Vegas are rising so fast that several communities are no longer affordable. Much of the new construction is at the high end, keeping out first-time homeowners. Some cannot come up with money for a down payment, while others are wary of getting back into a market that once burned them.

For many, the American dream is now out of reach. It is increasingly a nation of renters.

Angela Guthrie has lived in three homes in a dozen years. She bought a three-bedroom house in 2006 with her husband. But she couldn’t keep up on the payments on the mortgage, a subprime loan with ballooning interest rates. She filed for personal bankruptcy, lost the home and got divorced.

She tried to buy a home a few miles