[cynchi3]

Hi
I currently live in the washington dc metropolitan area. i might be getting a job offer working as a graphic designer in a top advertising firm in vegas. I don't know what to do now, i have never even consider las vegas as a place where i would like to move to, but it could be a great career move.
Anyways, I love where i live because my whole family and friends are here, and I really love the area, but the cost of living is so high, and the pay for a recent graduated graphic designer is not so hot anywhere.
I guess i want to know what it's REALLY like to live in Vegas, I don't care about the Casinos, and things that attract tourist. I want the real scoop on the living situation there, everything from rent, crime, best places to live, young local scene, transportation, etc.
Also, if anyone wants to tackle this question, what kind of salary do i need to have to be able to live in vegas confortably in an appartment, pay my car, and some bills, and save a little to come home on the holidays,

thanks

[MoMark]

People seem to either hate or love Las Vegas and they seem to have unusually profound experiences good or bad there. I moved to Las Vegas (actually Henderson on the south side/Green Valley) from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000 due to a job transfer with my bank. I found a house in Green Valley right by St. Rose Hospital to the east of Silverado Ranch off Eastern. I grew acclimated to the heat, was unpleasantly surprised by the cold in the winter (I didn't realize that Las Vegas can freeze and that it occasionally snows), but was very happy to find that my take-home pay increased 9% from California as there is no state income tax and auto insurance and DMV fees are lower than CA. I found Las Vegas fantastic myself. I do like the casinos, not to gamble in, but to eat at. I can haunt a buffet until they need to call a stretcher to roll me out. The nearest one to me was the new one at 215 in Green Valley (where Michael Jackson hid out for awhile I heard). There is no public transportation that I'm aware of. If there's a bus system, I never saw it. I always drove and the Beltway is fairly new and encircles Las Vegas. It's much easier to drive on that than the 15 behind the Strip which is almost always crowded and crawling. The two best areas are really (in my opinion) are Summerlin in the Northwest and Green Valley and the adjacent communities in Henderson to the South. North Las Vegas is gang-infested and high crime and East Las Vegas is good in places and bad in others. Old Henderson is ugly and never appealed to me. The Lakes and other Southwest areas are generally ok I think. I don't really know about the social scene but if you have friends, there's lots to do. $40,000 would be enough to live on comfortably in my opinion depending what your debts and car expenses are. I won't speak for others because I promise you, in this thread you'll find people telling you to avoid Las Vegas and stay away because of crime, etc. But for me, I loved it. Never had a problem with crime or anything else, and I loved the dry heat and endless vistas and blue skies.

[olecapt]

Let's see...Rents start at 600 for a reasonable 1 BR Apt. Small homes begin around 900. A good compromise for a young single may be one of the condos...start around 750 provide some social contact as well as a place to live.

Vegas is a car town. There is an extensive public transport system that runs on the major arteries. Its usefulness depends on where you work and where you live.

Where to live is a life style question. MoMark is correct for those looking for a single family residence...though I would extend the desirable area to the outer segment of the community from the SE around to the North in a clockwise direction. North Las Vegas for instance is a very nice place to live north of Craig Road.

Younger starting out folk have different requirements. They can do well in Green Valley or Summerlin but they can also do well in the corridor that runs along Tropicana and Flamingo to the west of the strip. There are lots of small condo apartments in places like Park 1 at Durango and Charleston. Big young and very convenient to the restaurants and shopping areas of Summerlin.

The demographics of Las Vegas are Catholic, than Mormon, then Protestant then Jewish. There are sizable communities of all groups. The town is quite young. Social life revolves around residences, churches, schools and often neighborhood pubs. Almost as popular in some areas as the Pubs of London.

The climate is hot in the summer. Does not generally bother the young much though it is a factor. If you hate heat you will not like it here. I agree with Momark that I found the winters cold. We adopted well to summer but often go away in the winter to warm up in Mexico.

Teachers start here at about $30K. That is marginal and they sometimes take summer or part time jobs to augment their income. As you get above that it gets comfortable.

[johninvegas]

Hi Cinchi3!

As stated above, most people here either love or hate Vegas. I fall somewhere between as I have lived here for 9 years now (also lived here as a child in the 60s) and am really ambivalent about staying longer.

I moved here from a short stint in D.C., so hopefully, I can give you a bit of a comparison to think about.

First off, you will definitely miss the culture. Here it is basically non-existant. Symphony, theatre and opera are college grade at best. Museums are small and rare and unlike the Mall, charge admission to get in. Broadway road tours do bring theatre productions to Vegas, but many times they are "abridged" versions in order to get people out in 90 minutes (the venues are usually hotel/casinos and don't like their slot and video poker customers to be away from the gaming for long).

However, if you are a young person, nightlife is great. Many, many nightclubs to frequent, albeit expensive. And alot of rock concerts available, again a bit pricey.

Traffic: You will not find the huge backups you now see on 395 and the beltway. As mentioned above I-15 backs up most of the day, but unlike D.C. there are many city streets that you can use to bypass this problem during rush hour. I live about 8 miles from where I work and can get to work during morning rush in about 20 minutes by using surface streets. The big problem we have here is somewhat the same as D.C. concerning drivers. That is most come from somewhere else and all have different driving styles that don't blend well. This causes a lot of accidents on city streets and the freeways. The other problem we have concerning driving here is a large number of drunk drivers due to the casinos and nightlife. This (and a high car theft rate) make for high insurance rates.

Housing: There are two nice established master planned communities (Green Valley and Summerlin, mentioned above) and one new one--Aliente that looks to be very nice--pretty far commute for Vegas though. Outside of these, there are many areas that are nice to live in. I live on a cul-de-sac on the northwest side of town. We have a multi-racial climate on my street and we all get along. I must say that neighbors do not really "chum it up" as they do in some cities though.

Crime is about normal for a city this size. You will find that generally, it is much less than the NE and SE d.c. areas. There is an area north of downtown that is a high crime area. In general avoid letter ("A,B,C") and numbered (8th, 9th, 10th, etc) streets.

As for dining out, I find Vegas to be rather bland. Better Mexican in L.A., better Italian in Chicago and San Francisco, better seafood on the eastern seaboard, better barbeque in the midwest, etc. The problem is that there is no regional cuisine here.

Outdoor recreation is nice. Mountains are close (Mt. Charleston) for hiking and bird watching. Desert in the winter and after a rain storm is spectacular. There is a large lake, although it's pretty dirty so I wouldn't recommend spending a lot of time swimming in it, but boating is great. There is fishing and hunting relatively close in. In a four-hour arc, there is Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon national parks and Mohave Desert National Preserve (great sand dunes). Mediocre skiing at Mt. Charleston and good skiing at Brianhead in Utah (about 2 1/2-3 hours)

Climate: Summers are long, hot and dry. If you like a four-season climate, you will not be happy here.

There is a fair amount of corruption in the local goverment, but then, you live in D.C...enough said.

40k will give you an okay lifestyle, 50k and up would be better.

Hope this helps!

Henkelphoto

[chika23]

My husband and I have lived in Vegas for 3 years, and are now moving to Michigan because he got a new job. We are sad to leave. It seems most people either love or hate Vegas, we loved it. In the 3 years we have lived here, we have made great friends through work and neighborhood, and never had any problem with crime. The area of town we live in is the northwest side, and have been extremely happy up here. It is far enough away from the strip to not even know it's there. We are 20 minutes away from Mt. Charleston and live near stores, hospitals and restaurants. As far as how much to live comfortably, I think between 45-50K a yr would be good.

[cynchi3]

thank you all for your replies, they have been very helpfull

[Jmanstation]

I agree - you either love or hate Las Vegas. Many peple move here because they want to experience te great times they had on vacation on a permanent basis - only to discover that such a feeling is short-lived, especially if they like to gamble. Let's be honest - the odds are always in favor of the house, no matter where you play.

There doesn't seem to be much for locals in terms of quality of life. The park system here stinks. And culture? Let's just say it's pretty much non-existent (at least compared to other cities our size). If you don't like to gamble thenn the town can be pretty dull. There are shows and restaurants on the Strip to endulge but they are pricey and chances are you may not even want to go near the Strip unless you have out of town guests.

If the job offer is from R & R Partners then I would say move out here as the experience would be incredible. If it's not, then I wouldn't move here. Working for second (or third) best just isn't worth the move.

[tortoise]

Originally Posted by Jmanstation

There doesn't seem to be much for locals in terms of quality of life. The park system here stinks. And culture? Let's just say it's pretty much non-existent (at least compared to other cities our size).

Google . . clark county parks . . rj communitylink . . vegas locals

[Jmanstation]

The national average of park space is 4 - 6 acres per 1000 residents. The average on Clark County? 1.5. The average in Las Vegas is 1.3 and the average in NLV is 1.1. Boulder City's average is 4.3. Ironically BC doesn't have gambling.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Jmanstation

The national average of park space is 4 - 6 acres per 1000 residents. The average on Clark County? 1.5. The average in Las Vegas is 1.3 and the average in NLV is 1.1. Boulder City's average is 4.3. Ironically BC doesn't have gambling.

I have a little problem with your numbers. A quick check indicates the City of Las Vegas has 5.7 acres per 1000.

Clark County would be trickier...Remember a large percentage of Clark County is de facto Parkland...including Red Rock Canyon and surrounds.