[Buzz123]

Well, now that this subject has been reopened, here's my 2¢.

The reason that Nevada's unemployment rate is so high is because of what the OP said; the idea that housing is cheaper here than in California. It started about 22 years ago when the RE market in California was artificially inflated. Suddenly Californians who had paid maybe $30,000, $40,000 or $50,000 for a home realized they could sell it for $300,000. That's when they discovered Las Vegas. Our median price was about $80,000 or $90,000. So Calif. builders came here and bribed local politicians and the rush was on. Because, to a Californian, $125,000 sounded cheap, our $90,000 homes suddenly were selling for $125,000. And it just snowballed until they were building 3,000 to 4,000 new homes every month for 20 years, and the prices went sky high here too. Anyway, it took a lot of people in the construction trade to do that much building, and there was no let up. It went on 24/7. I'd see guys framing houses on Christmas Day. When the bubble finally burst, all those construction people were suddenly out of work. So were the support industries. Look how many furniture stores went belly up, not to mention lumber suppliers, and mortgage companies. If the economic downturn had only affected the service industry, our unemployment rate would more than likely be less than 10%. If politicians weren't bought and paid for by builders, etc., they would have realized where it was heading and the growth would have been controlled.