So Esko's post on the economy prompted me to pen this one really quick. I was confused about wanting to chuckle or cry when he talked about resales taking a "humorless dive" because the choice of verbiage is so true.

Everyone in the business is hurting right now, sellers are hurting, buyers who had mortgage products shut down are hurting, builders are hurting, banks holding real estate are hurting, RENTERS are hurting. Well maybe not everyone. Landlords have to be loving the frenzy going on in the rental market since November 2006.

New MLS rental listings are barely out pacing the number leased properties. The average Las Vegas Rental is now up to $1578/month (August 2007), up $32 for the month and up $283 since January. The median price is $1295/month, down $2 for the month and up $95 since January.  A record number of leased units flew off the MLS shelves last month at 1735 units.  There are either slightly more or slightly less than two months of inventory on the rental market (depending on what day you check it out!)

More units of single family new construction are being sold than permits being pulled (sometimes up to 30% a month.) We've got the jobs, we are making more jobs. After all, those 5000-6000 people a month who move here still need a place to live, right? Read my economic conditions reports.

While resale numbers are pathetic, our incoming residents number is still staggering. They gotta live somewhere, right? So while we watch rents rise & Las Vegas residential real estate prices fall, the eye of the storm (Tropical Storm Investor) will target the Las Vegas Valley. There will be an abundance of inventory to pick from ~ UNLESS ~ sellers learn to take their homes off of the residential resale market and throw it into the rental pool until more stable times come upon us. I have heard other agents who weathered the resale storm of 2004 and are currently working the rental market compare the rental market to the resale boom of 2004!

So using a basic Economics 101 principle of supply & demand, why aren't these sellers putting their home in the rental pool to help stablize a frenzied market and a declining market? Don't tell me almost 28K sellers MUST sell their home. Am I missing something here?  Perhaps sellers need to change the mindset of their home as an emotional attachment to an investment vehicle.  A few years of holding pain may be quite a bit of gain.