One of the reasons that we believe Las Vegas is a good place to acquire properties for a long-term hold is based on fundamental measures such as price-rent ratios and the level of pricing below the longer-term, pre-bubble trend. Currently the price-rent ratio is about 6. In addition, it is often less expensive to buy than it is to rent. Similarly, cap rates are elevated implying an undervalued situation or investor sentiment. I tend to think it is still undervalued even though it is oversupplied. We are sta... read more

Long ago we had taken note of the frothy Aussie housing market and noted some parallels between what has been occuring there and what we experienced in the United States. One of these was the "housing shortage" will keep prices up statement. While real estate is a market with a lot of friction, shortages should'nt last long unless municipalities artificially restrict supply through zoning. Bloomberg talks about the home-shortage myth today: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-11/housing-bears-say-sh... read more