If they buy at $100,000 and the value further depreciates to $75,000, and there is no one around to rent them; just how good of an investment is it?
The fuel of the boom years in Las Vegas was construction; a sector that will be dead for the foreseable future in Vegas.
Remember when some Japanese bought the Pebble Beach resort? They got killed when they finally bailed out. Investing in Las Vegas is not much different in concept.
RE: If they buy at $100,000 and the value further depreciates to $75,000, and there is no one around to rent them; just how good of an investment is it?
These Chinese investors are betting that now is the time to buy (as a smart investor once said, the time to buy is when people are panicking and there’s blood on the streets). A $100,000 house would have been worth close to $200,000 just two years ago and these guys are betting it won’t go much lower.
The arc of the Vegas housing market is (not surprisingly) tightly related to hires and fires in the Leisure & Hospitality industry. These Chinese buyers are probably betting that it’s bottoming out and improving.
Time will tell if it was a smart or foolish move.