[DesertCat]

I don't live in Vegas, so I can only give general advice. First, let I commend you on thinking ahead and trying to improve your financial situation. I'm going to focus my advice on risk management. You need to also know that I started off my life by buying a condo instead of a house, and ended up doing pretty poorly with it. The reason was that condos, unlike homes, are easy to bring onto the market, so when you start to see some appreciation in your unit, your at risk at from high end apartment conversions. My condo was also in a trendy area, that became passe when another area become much more trendy.

Your first risk is of course the vegas market. It doesn't seem like the best time to buy as recent price increases are unsustainable over time. I think the housing prices will be driven by availability of BLM land, and I don't know if there is any way to predict that. You mentioned a trend of conversions being dumped on the market by investors, is it leading to soft prices? If you can be patient you might wait for that.

Secondly, before you buy a unit, there is one simple test you should do. You should estimate your montly condo costs, not just mortgage, but association fees and other expenses, including the monthly interest you would have earned on your down payment had you kept it in the bank, and finally subtract your tax saving to estimate your net monthly costs. If your net monthly costs are higher than renting a similar place, you should think twice about buying.

Essentially, if your tax savings aren't making your condo as cheap or cheaper than renting, you are counting solely upon price appreciation to make your condo a good investment. That's a bit risky, esp. in the market you are in. Rents also should drive prices in the long run, so cheap rent often means prices are headed for a fall. But purchasing might be okay if you are going to commit to staying there for a substantally long time (at least 5-7 years). By then, even if the bubble bursts, you have time for normal price appreciation to help restore prices back to what you paid.

Finally, you need to consider your bankroll, and monthly earn vs. expenses before purchasing. If purchasing would substantially shrink your bankroll, and/or raise your monthly expenses, you need to figure out if you have enough margin of error for a big losing streak. If a bad losing streak would force you to miss mortgage payments, it would really suck to lose your condo at the same time.

Hope this helps. Sorry if there I don't have any easy answers, but vegas's market is a bit scary right now.