It's a desert and cars/bicycles literally melt on the streets lol)I think you are thinking about it well, especially looking at a long term approach, in a city like Denver that has good population growth, rent growth, average income, and vacancy rate like you mentioned is a still a great play if you are satisfied with just breaking even for a while, and seeing future profits/appreciation. 

Using cash to get a cash discount and or a negotiating edge due to ease of closing and the fickle lenders and associated appraiser issues melts away.  

To be fair and Balance Ohio got cremated in the 08 melt down that at MI were the only two markets institutional note buyers would not buy NPL as the market was so poor in those states. so its bounced back as well and maybe making some new highs.  

We are close to another melt down and this time it can be from fiscal policy or some fundamentals pointed out by Dylan and others.