The U.S property industry is booming again, investors large and small are rushing in to snap up properties that had the equity sucked out of them in the wake of the 2008 crash. Prices are being driven up all across the U.S, with many states that suffered massive foreclosures now registering double-digit price increases. In Las Vegas, one of the worst hit states when the last housing bubble burst, prices have gone up by 17.6%. Atlanta’s average home value rose by 16.5%, and in Phoenix properties surged by 23%. All this in the 12 months ending in February of 2013.

The worrying aspect of this otherwise positive data is the exquisite torsion between large and small investors that has been a recipe for disaster time and time again. For several years now hedge funds, foreign investors, and large real estate firms have been snapping up dirt cheap properties all across the U.S, driving prices up. The true nature of this property boom was recently testified to by a U.S Census Bureau report showing that despite rising prices home ownership in the United States has actually declined by 0.4%.

Inevitably the smaller investors are late to the banquet, and must perilously stretch themselves in order to be able to polish off the scraps at inflated prices. Many of these smaller investors are actually cashing-in their 401(k) pension plans or IRAs (individual retirement account) in order to make a last ditch effort to put everything into property. As more rush to invest in bricks and mortar they are paying market value, or even overpaying, rather than getting in cheap. Factor in taxes, fees and maintenance costs and you have an already vulnerable cross-section of the public without any kind of safety net should it all come crashing down again. A non-paying tenant or an unforeseen maintenance bill can be all that’s needed to put some of these amateur property speculators in the red. Many analysts are starting to get a nagging sense of deja vu from this latest boom period in U.S property. And then there’s the tiny matter of $85 billion per month from the Fed that surely can’t go on propping up the U.S economy indefinitely.