Lowest cost of living- NV, NM, CO, or AZ? (Las Vegas: crime rate, homes)

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by lauyeung

JLC,

I am also retiring in June 2008 and thinking of moving away from the Rocky Mountains ski resorts area. I have been looking at adult communities in AZ and in Henderson, NV. The initial cost of housing and cost of living are cheaper in both locations compare to Colorado. My concerns are hot summers, crime rates, snakes and scorpions as I have a small dog. I would appreciate some insights from anyone who has experience with the DelWebb Adult Communities in either NV or in AZ, or both. I am also an avid tennis player and wants to live in a rather active adult community. Thanks.

Any of the Del Webb communities will likely serve. I prefer Summerlin...the oldest of the Vegas communities. It is slightly larger than Anthem - which is the other large Sun City in Henderson. In general it is complete, has the lowest housing density and the greatest breadth of things to do.

Other possibilities include MacDonald Ranch..a slightly lower price point and also in Henderson...Aliante perhaps a little lower yet, located to the north in NLV...and the new community in Mesquite. I am not familiar at this point with plans for Coyote Springs but Pulte is a player so a Del Webb Community is likely.

There is also Siena which is smaller than the Sun City Communities in Summerlin and Anthem but is also gate guarded. It tends to have significantly higher HOA fees as a result.

To keep this honest my wife and I are Realtors who specialize in Sun City Summerlin though we also work the other communities.

The heat is such that little tennis is played on summer afternoons. However the courts go strong until noon. Note that with the normal dryness of the area tennis is quite playable up to 100 degrees. Temperature generally get to 100 around noon...it is quite nice until 10 or 11AM.

With the dryness pools are very nice in the afternoon. Even coming out wet into 110 degrees you may well shiver.

[PinkString]

I notice that southern Utah wasn't mentioned as a place to retire or move to. It has mild temperatures year round, may get some snow in the winter, but it quickly melts. The summers can sometimes get in the upper 100's, but not for very long. It's a dry climate, and there are many small towns around the St.George area, plus going north toward Salt lake city. And its still a good place to raise kids, probably because of the mormon influence.

[tortoise]

Utah even taxes groceries!

[Jes]

We are retiring to Reno area from South Alabama as our 4 children are all on the West Coast.
Have bought a home in the new Dell Webb Sierra Canyon in Reno .We move in April and are looking forward to a new adventure .Sierra Canyon is still fairly new , hope to make lots of new friends there.

[PinkString]

Originally Posted by tortoise

Utah even taxes groceries!

Hmm..they still do that?

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Jes

We are retiring to Reno area from South Alabama as our 4 children are all on the West Coast.
Have bought a home in the new Dell Webb Sierra Canyon in Reno .We move in April and are looking forward to a new adventure .Sierra Canyon is still fairly new , hope to make lots of new friends there.

Yup - Kind of neat....Like buying your first house in a new subdivision when you are young. Everybody and everything is new and you get together to try and make it all work.

Enjoy....

[Jes]

Happy New Year to all , 2007 we move to Reno .I am a nurse so hope a job will not be hard to find .
Yes I guess moving to a Retirement Community that is just getting started is a new adventure for all .Seems the Residents are making a real effort to get off to a good start.

[J-Ru]

JLC, looks like you want to be in the SW...maybe lowest cost of living is your driving factor(?). Texas is lower than the states you've mentioned. TX is 3rd lowest in the states. I have a spreadsheet that ranks the 50 states on cost of living. It also shows whether retirement income is taxable; which might be of interest to you. I'll shoot it to your email address.
J-Ru.

[InCircUt]

I moved to Nevada in 1985. I lived in Vega$ from 1985 to 1995, moved to Reno, and because of work moved back and forth ever since. I last left Vega$ in March 2006.
Low income housing is being replaced by expensive condos, or "lofts". Anything apartmentwise under under $500 a month is becoming non existant. Reno likes to mimic Vega$, and the same thing is happening here. Reno is better "societywise". A much nicer place to live, whereas Vega$ has a serious attitude problem. More stress and crime per capita. I'm on disabilty now, grossing $735 a month on SSD. It's really getting tough. I'm looking around for a place, myself, trying to balance weather and economics. As for snow, having been raised in sw Pennsylvania, Reno's is light to moderate and usually melts when the sun comes out. Vega$ panics if /when it sees a snowflake. In both cases I refer to city.
Highest highs and lows I remember. Vega$:120/14
Reno:106/0 Both get lost of sun. Hope it helps.
It's my view and I stand by it. Or as they say on the streets of Vega$, "Can you spare some change?" (haha)

[topjb]

We retired 6 years ago and did extensive research on cost of living. Of the areas you mentioned, Nevada definitely has a friendlier cost of living. Check out the following:

http://www.retirementliving.com/RLtaxes.html
(broken link)
http://www.city-data.com/

There are a couple of other sites (which I can't find right now), that talk specifically to the burden on retirement income. Colorado has a fairly good income tax exemption for retirees, but only after you have lived there for several years. New Mexico taxes social security, but has stopped taxing food. Nevada has no income tax..not on IRA, Social Security, earned income. Property taxes have caps on increases (3%), where New Mexico and Colorado do not. We ended up in the upper north western area of Las Vegas...while we love the area, we don't love the weather and lack of trees.

So we're now looking at Tennessee and the Branson MO area. TN..no income tax, but they tax some dividends/interest and have high sales tax. MO, taxes all forms of income, but cost of living is very low. (Gas is under $2 right now and you can buy a very nice house with a little land for less than $400K)

So bottom line we have found, is that taxes are one thing, but you can pay a lot of taxes for several years when the difference in the cost of the house is more than $200K.