In the Denver metro area, there has been a recent expansion of our light rail system.  

By comparison, Las Vegas is surrounded by federal land and has no room for expansion so appreciation is likely to be greater in Las Vegas.

Natural expansion in the next few years but it seems I'm no the only one who figured it out.

It seems to me that many of the really lucrative real estate investment opportunities here in the Bay Area require some specialized real estate knowledge, i.e. buying short sales, long-term buy and hold for appreciation, vacation rental investing, investing in commercial real estate, buying properties with expansion potential, etc.

My goals were to house hack and eliminate my own living expanse while making some cashflow on the side and with some renovations this property would allow me to do just that.

But this happens to coincide with research that I've read indicating that historically, in any given year, the odds of a recession are ~25% (usually due to Fed adjustments of the rate - outside of clear over grown bubbles like the dot.com or previous housing bubble)BiggerPocket just echoed your sentiment on the CA > OR movement, I'd be surprised if that slowed in the short term.As far as the big companies, overall that appears strong, but as an FYI from the hospitals perspective (for whom I work for) - there are no expansion plans that I'm aware of, and we're a long ways from any job growth due to ACA.