Sin City Boom or Bust?
Right now, Las Vegas looks untouchable.
Rents are down, vacancy is rising, & unemployment is the highest in the Southwest.
By every conventional metric… Vegas looks terrible.
But we’re not conventional.
And there’s an angle to places like Vegas that a lot of investors are missing.
Let me show you the thought process:
The Surface-Level Story (What Everyone Sees):
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Average asking rent fell to $1.16/sq ft (down 1.7% this year, after dropping 6.2% last year)
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Vacancy rising to 8.2%, the highest since 2014
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Unemployment at 5.9% in March, the worst among major Southwest metros
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Population growth slowing from 1.6% to less than half that pace
If you stop here, you’d never look at Vegas twice.
But I’m gonna give you the analysis framework I use…
📊Quick Industry Updates
SmartCentres highlights self‑storage within $12.1B mixed‑use portfolio – In its December 15 distribution announcement, SmartCentres REIT reiterated that its $12.1 billion portfolio includes self‑storage alongside retail, residential, and office, as part of its broader intensification and mixed‑use strategy on 3,500 acres of largely urban land. More info at BusinessWire.
Morningstar Properties buys two Lone Star Storage Centers in Texas – Morningstar Properties purchased two Lone Star Storage Center facilities in Bryan and Cypress, Texas, totaling more than 171,000 net rentable square feet across over 1,200 units, from family‑owned Texas Lone Star Storage Centers Ltd., in a deal brokered by Versal. Full details at Inside Self Storage.
National Storage Affiliates details Q3 transactions and balance‑sheet capacity – NSA’s Q3 2025 release reported that one of its unconsolidated ventures acquired two self‑storage properties for approximately $32 million and that NSA sold two wholly owned stores for about $6.5 million, while maintaining roughly $543.6 million of revolver capacity for future acquisitions. Learn more at Business Wire.
When I see a market that looks “bad” on the surface, I ask three specific questions:
Question 1: What’s happening with NEW supply?
Vegas is receiving its smallest delivery total since 2018. Only 820,000 sq ft this year – that’s a 3% growth rate.
Compare that to the peak years, and you’ll see the supply pressure is EASING, not accelerating.
Question 2: How does this compare to the national average?
Despite all the negative headlines, Vegas’s vacancy rate is still 200 basis points BELOW the U.S. national level.
So in that metric, it’s actually outperforming the country overall.
Question 3: What’s the historical context?
This is where it gets interesting.
I’ve been in this business long enough to remember what happened to investors who bought properties in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Everyone thought they were crazy.
Markets looked terrible. Banks were scared. Pricing was depressed.
Those same investors sold in 2019-2021 and made out like bandits.
Today, transaction volume is picking back up after being down 75% two years ago.
Here’s my point:
I’m not telling you to go buy in Las Vegas.
I’m showing you a framework for how to think differently than the crowd.
The majority of investors look at surface-level data and make emotional decisions.
But the investors who build real wealth look beyond the surface. They question the consensus.
They find the data that everyone else is ignoring.
Inside Storage Financing Secrets, I break down this exact analytical framework and show you how to apply it to your own deals.
Because the financing you can get on a property is directly tied to how you present the opportunity.
If you understand the market better than the lender does… you get better terms.
If you can show them what they’re missing… you win deals others can’t.
>>Get started here, and win more deals while other investors are getting shot down!
Here’s to your success,
Cody
P.S. The 2011-2013 opportunity window taught me something important: The best deals happen when everyone else is scared. We might be in a similar window right now. The question is: Will you have the framework to recognize it when others don’t? Get it here.