Significant and sustained population growth leads to demand exceeding current supply, causing prices to rise until there's a rough balance between sellers and buyers.

It is primarily over the high and sharp rise in interest rates we've been experiencing.

As for by-the-room rentals, many lenders won't allow that and if they do, they qualify you off of the long term market rents (which, as I'm sure you can imagine, would be considerably lower than the actual per-room rents).

That mirrors my experience too - our Hispanic contractors know exactly what the market rates are and they may be a touch below but not considerable - what you are getting these days is a faster, tighter job, not huge cost savings.  

.📈 Interest Rates UpdateMortgage rates remained steady above 7% this week.For context:2017–2021 rates: 3.65%–4.87%Pre-pandemic average: 4.16%While today’s rates are higher, Las Vegas home prices continue to rise.

Rent growth is a function of supply, demand, and interest rates:- I'd ground any forecast by stating I expect national rents to rise on a pace more or less in line with inflation over any long time period. 2-3% per year.

in a vast interview process with many steps before allowing someone to move in. a new roomie is an everyone-decision, not a landlord-only decision; if you're expecting people to co-exist in a space together (for longer than just a few months), you have to make sure they all have some things in common, or at minimum have the right expectations in terms of cleanliness and routine habits.someone working the night shift and someone else having a 5am rise-time, or someone who works from home in a call-center job is not going to jive well for example. and someone who doesnt handle conflict well is not going to jive with someone who is brutally honest and up front about issues. happy to go into more deets on how we do things if it will help. this can certainly be lucrative in terms of cash flow, but there are huge mud puddles i have stepped in over the years which i have had to learn to navigate.

I keep hearing that costs of labor and supplies are rising (when aren't they?)

All while home prices are slowly rising. 

That helps some...but your variable expenses also go up too - property insurance & taxes - so a lot of your rent increases go to offset rising variable expenses.I started at the age of 47 in 2018 and we bought properties fast and furious - 12 the first year, 10 the next, and 9 in 2021 and currently have 38 properties.