Moving to Bullhead City vs Laughlin?? (Prescott, Kingman: real estate, apartment complexes, rentals)

[caraid17]

Hello out there!!!

My wife and I are considering moving to Bullhead City or Laughlin. Can someone kindly explain the Pros and Cons of each city? We have lived in Reno and also in Prescott but we are not familiar with Bullhead or Laughlin.

[kawgpz550]

No problem, I have lived here for over 18 years, I'm sure I can be of help to you. I'm not really sure exactly what you're wanting to know, but I will do my best to answer then you can ask away if you have further questions.
First of all, make sure that you are aware that the only thing dividing Bullhead/Laughlin is a very small stretch (less than 1/4 mile) of the Colorado River. Therefore, you need to understand that it gets 125+ degrees here in the summertime. It is pretty hot early May and EXTREMELY HOT late June-September. Around August is the worst because it is also monsoon season (which we rarely get a monsoon, but we get the humidity) and it is really miserable. We have WONDERFUL winters however, providing you do not like snow or anything of the sort. We rarely get rain, maybe 3 days a year...if we're really lucky we might have a week or two where it might rain a few days. Normally, our highs are 60's/70's daytime & 40's/50's at night. However, this winter has been colder than normal. We have actually had a few mornings around high 20's low 30's, but it is still in the 60's by afternoon.
Now, as long as you can tolerate the weather:
The major difference between Bullhead City and Laughlin is the housing. Bullhead is a lot older than Laughlin. Bullhead has it's bad neighborhood, however, it still isn't as bad as living in Los Angeles. Laughlin on the other hand has no "bad" neighborhood so to speak. There are a couple of apartment complexes that have become a bit more drug riddled and lower class than what they once were, but as far as acutal "houses" there are no BAD neighborhoods. Laughlin homes are considerably more expensive than in Bullhead City. Laughlin utilities however, are cheaper (except for water) than Bullhead. In Bullhead the housing is cheaper, other than the higher end houses that are going up on the parkway and homes on the river etc. However, our electricity is quite HIGH in the summer months. My elect bill can often hit about $350-$400 for July and August, but there are 7 people living on my home (including 4 kids). If you have evaporative cooling it is much cheaper than central AC, but not very effective in July and August when it's really hot.
There is no state income tax in Nevada.
If you have school age children, you might be in for a challenge. If you go to www.greatschools.net and compare the schools in Bullhead to the schools in Laughlin, you will notice that Laughlin High school has pretty high tests scores, but I have heard mixed reviews lately about the high school. The elemetary school, from what I am aware of, is basically just another elementary school. In Bullhead there is one district that is slightly better than the other (Diamondback Elementary and Fox Creek Jr. High are the best, but Fox Creek still stinks and the principal is a lesbian...which wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't public knowledge...there is no reason that any kid should know the sexual orientation of any teacher or admin). Although for elementary and Jr High you ahve a choice, it all still feeds back into the same highschool. The high school has a few GREAT teachers, but the administration is horrible (except for the vice principal Mr. Armijo he's great), they are more worried about attendance than actual education. Funds are VERY low for the local schools, they spend $3400 per year per student vs the USA average of over $6,000 per student.
If you have more questions, ask away and I will be more than happy to help if I can!

[kawgpz550]

I failed to mention something else. The residential "town" of Laughlin is about 3-5 miles away from the casinos along the river and Bullhead City. In the town of Laughlin there is 1 (overpriced) grocery store, some convenient stores, a couple of restaurants, a video store and a bank. There is no REAL shopping in the town of Laughlin other than the Outlet mall down on the strip with the casinos. There is no Wal-Mart or Kmart or big grocery store. You would have to travel about 7-8 miles to get to the nearest big chain grocery store in Bullhead (Safeway) and about 10-12 miles or so to the south end of Bullhead to get to Kmart/Wal-Mart.

[AZGOLFER]

It is VERY, VERY hot!!!

[shariv]

Laughlin / Bullhead is really just one big town. Like someone said the only thing separating them is the river and taxes. Which ever you live in, you'll shop in Bullhead and go to Laughlin for entertainment. Coming from Reno and Prescott, the heat is liable to hit you hard. We live in Kingman and spend as little time in Laughlin and Bullhead in the summer as possible. It is a "dry" heat but 125+ still takes your breath away. Hard to describe unless you experience it.

[ladyhunter]

We moved to Bullhead City 11 months ago. Although we have been coming out here and to Laughlin for many many years, we finally decided to move here and it was the best thing we ever did. I love it here. So many things to do here and people are great. Summers are hot but not unbearable. We put in a pool right away and it is great. It has been an unusually cold winter here and I cannot wait for summer. We have two hunting dogs which are outside dogs and we put a misting system on their dog kennel last summer and they were fine. We are soon getting a Target and a Kohl's and there is alot of great places to shop for food, clothing and household items like furniture and decor. There are some very nice communities, especially off the parkway ....... Fox Creek, Laughlin Ranch, Desert Foothills and more. All I can say is that I wish I had moved years back. I love it here.

Kristeen

[mombase]

Okay, I am encouraged by your posting, Kristeen. We are moving to the area in two weeks from Medford, Oregon due to my husband being offered a really nice state position in Laughlin. We have a thirteen year old girl who is an accomplished percussionist and artist, and I am just hoping that I can find a place for her to work on her music and progress in her art. We all love water sports, so the river and lake are very appealing. I did as much research into the schools as possible and it seems like Fox Creek is the better of the two junior highs, so I will be scoping out houses within the boundaries of Fox Creek.

Thank you for your encouraging post!

[AZRiverRat]

People used to come to the area to work at the casinos, and would live on the Arizona side because wages were higher in Nevada and the cost of living was much more affordable in Arizona.
Not so anymore.

Minimum wage in Arizona has gone up to $6.75 an hour, and most of the casinos pay about $7.00 an hour.

AZ had a housing boom about 3 years ago, and real estate prices as well as rentals went sky high!!!
You couldnt even rent a 2 bdrm dump for under $700 a month!

I remember reading an article in the paper stating that the average home (2br, 2ba) would cost $225,000, and you needed to make $23 an hour!

Well, it seems prices are finally leveling off, but they are still building like crazy up there on the parkway (fox creek area).
There are lots of jobs here now, but most of them are in construction. Where will the jobs be when all these houses are built?

I have been told that utilities on the NV side are cheaper.(The electric bill during the summer months is OUTRAGEOUS here in BHC, running as much as $400 in July and August)

I personally would look more to Laughlin. It seems cleaner, and probably less crime (the residential area is south of town, away from the casinos).

I HATE the school my son attends here. There are 2 elementary schools for the WHOLE population this side of Highway 95.
One school is grade K-2 and the other is 3-5. The third grade had 15 classes, and there were an average of 25 kids in each class. At least half of the students are latino, and a good majority of them dont speak any (or very little) english.
Laughlin has one elementary, (K-6) and I believe the average class size is about 15.

[Trisher]

AZGolfer, does that mean the area around Kingman is also VERY, VERY HOT?

[zonababe]

Originally Posted by Trisher

AZGolfer, does that mean the area around Kingman is also VERY, VERY HOT?

Kingman is at a higher elevation thus the lower temps. are cooler. Kingman temps. are similar to Sedona.