Reno - What is it like to live there? (renting, neighborhoods)

[mimi2007]

Since everyone has been talking about wind, I've been tracking Reno against against our area in Lake County, Illinois. For the past several days, weather.com shows that we have been windier than Reno each day. Our area isn't even into the tornado season yet. Keep those positive posts coming. As I said earlier, we have to live somewhere and I'm finding it hard to find a place that would better suit us. We've traveled to many communities and states in the past 5 years looking for "our space" and, within our price range, Reno always comes out on top. Two and a half more weeks till our next trip to your wonderful area to check it out again and look at housing.

[PureHapa]

As an outsider (and another Californian), I've visited Reno and put it on our short-list of places we may move to soon. Here are my views:

I love the western U.S. geography - the wide open spaces, brushy landscape, mountains and air. I love the outdoors. I like sunshine but not Las Vegas, Tucson or worse - Florida-type heat. The gloomy, rain-soaked NW would drive me to depression. Dry and sunny is preferable to me.

Before visiting Reno for the first time I worried about it being hick-podunk. Some folks joked with me that there would be rusted pickup trucks driven by Billy-Bobs with no teeth. Couldn't be further from the truth. I haven't found this at all. (I did find this in Florida - just drive anywhere inland and barefoot pregnant women are shopping at the store and shirtless guys are riding motorcycles with the Confederate flag waving).

I was surprised and pleased how close the nearest forests and ski slopes are.

I like the proximity to Tahoe, Sacramento and even California wine country and Frisco - for weekend trips.

I like that the casinos have small concert venues that are regular stops for many performers. I'm going to a concert there this month when I come back.

I like that the downtown is being renovated/rejuvenated.

I like that there is a university but that it's not a "university-town" like Tucson, Austin or Las Cruces.

The new developments have brought new shopping and restaurants. A good thing for me.

The airport is a good hub for traveling, and it's close.

The people are very much like Californians - not overtly friendly, but very friendly once you say hello.

I drove the entire town and didn't see "ghetto" or winos lying around.

You can drive the entire town easily - not much traffic (for this Californian anyway!)

You can be in "nowhere" in minutes.

It is an attractive place to many people because of all these things and more.

[renoguy]

I'd like to follow up with the wind. I"m not trying to discourage people from moving here or be negative. I stay because I like it and have a good life here.

I was talking to a friend today that moved here from Michigan about six years ago. As we were walking he commented that it was windy today which got me thinking about this blog. I asked him to describe to me the difference between Michigan where he grew up and here.

He told me that living here is like living near the ocean. Some days the breeze is light other days it's blowing like crazy but for him the bottom line is that it's never calm here. He said that back east his family always had picnics but here you couldn't because everything would blow away. He did follow up with, wind or no wind he'd never ever live in Michigan again. Too cloudy in the winter he said. He said he loves the constant sun here and the skiing.

The one thing to remember about the weather reports is that the statistics are taken from the Reno airport which is in the lowest part of the valley on the east side. The temperature there is usually a few degrees higher than the surrounding areas and the wind blows less there. The wind typically blows in the summer afternoons until around sunset and in the winter just before a storm approaches.

I live in a new subdivision which has cement roof tiles. Most homes had to have their roofs replaced due to the wind. This wasn't one bad winter either. Every summer for the last three years roofs were being worked on. Apparently the builder specked 120mph roof tiles and they didn't hold up as promised (they blew away). Two winters ago many people in the Reno area had their garage doors blown in. I can't tell you how many 4th of July fireworks were either delayed until after 10pm or canceled due to wind. The same can be said for the Reno Balloon races that occur in September only the wind was blowing in the morning.

Again, I'm not trying to be negative. Reno is a beautiful place at the base of the Sierra mountains. You can drive to Mammoth Lakes in just about three hours and see some of the most interesting geologic activity short of Yellowstone. Shasta is three and a half hours to the north and is beautiful as well. We are so close to some of the coolest mountain towns you can imagine, Sierraville, Truckee, Downeyvill and Calpine.

[norby413]

Nice pics, renoguy. Is that near Granite ridge/top of Robb?

[renoguy]

That's exactly where they're at. My kids and I hiked up there closer to Somersett and came down near Granite Ridge. Here's a few more from last summer's fire above Somersett.

[mimi2007]

Wild pictures, renoguy.

I told you about our fence blowing down last year. What I forgot to tell you was that about 5 years before, a storm blew through our area with nearly hurricane strength winds and hail. Whole roofs were blown away and nearly every single person in the community had extensive damage to their roofs and homes. Except for the dopes who had just spent two weeks roofing their own house a few weeks previously -- and I do mean themselves -- even the aging, asthmatic wife pounding away up there (can you guess who they were). Well, starting the following day, the insurance agents swarmed over our community writing huge checks ($10 - 20,000 each) to property owners. For the next six months, our then-18 year old neighborhood looked like new construction with roofing, siding, window people at nearly every house. But not at the house that the DYers had worked hard at maintaining -- even the aging, asthmatic wife.....do you get the picture?

My neighbors insisted I call my insurance agent anyway -- our only problem was that the hail had damaged our concrete driveway. When the fellow came he kept telling me that hail does not cause damage to concrete (it had hail pockmarks all over it). He was very nice. He said he believed me that there were no pockmarks before (and there weren't) but that he did not have one single case where this had happened previously to substantiate my claim. But, he said brightly, we did have damage and he would reimburse me for that -- he wrote us a check for a new roof! Even though we had put a 30 year roof on the house, he said because of the wind damage, it would now last only 25 years! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

I don't doubt you for a moment that your winds are going to be a challenge -- but, as I said before, we have to live somewhere. Keep posting, Renoguy. Tell me about closing costs, transfer fees, bonds, and other things I'm going to get hit with as a new resident and homeowner in Reno. My head was hurting the other day after talking to that Del Webb person about all the additional costs of buying new construction and existing homes.

[renoguy]

Mimi,
From what I remember the transfer fee is now at $450 per $100,000. I'd expect to pay about $1400 for title work. Most builders try to pass the transfer tax off to the buyer unless you use their in house kickback preferred lender. You probably got this from Del Webb. You should really check existing homes for sale if you want to live here as this was a heavily speculated area and there are lots of sellers in trouble out there.

If you're looking for a more urban community you should look at Virginia Lake Crossing. www.silverstarcommunities.com (broken link) They just opened their models last weekend. They are townhouse style so there are stairs. I hear you can get an elevator in them though.

Spring looks to finally be here in full swing. It's warming up and lawns are turning green!

[Synopsis]

I lived in Reno for 2 and 1/2 years (1986 - 1989), and although at the time I was not overly impressed - I now miss Reno very much. It's one of the places on my list to move to if I ever get the moving bug again (which is doubtful). I love the summers there; you can wake up in the morning to temperatures in the upper 40s and it heats up to 90-95 during the day. But, the humidity is so low you hardly even feel it. Loved going to Tahoe and Mount Rose (??) for skiing. The winters weren't too harsh, although it can get very cold at times. I hear it's growing these days, much faster than I would have thought. All in all I have fond memories of Reno, and would like to visit again someday. I loved the crisp, cool mornings, even in the summer. There really isn't much of a Fall season there but I loved the clear blue Nevada skies. Once, when I was returning from work one afternoon, a dust storm blew in from the mountains and it was something like I've never, ever seen before. You couldn't see the cars ahead of you on the Interstate. Then, as fast as it came it was gone. The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes, if I remember correctly. Please post some Reno pics when you can.

[mimi2007]

Thanks for the link, Renoguy. I am trying desperately to avoid anything with stairs. I love the community look that they are planning. Wish developers would create more single story village communities. Some are being developed now in a few areas that I've read about. The village is at the center of the community with shops, library, post office, and the houses radiating from the center -- nothing on a major highway -- parks circle the outside area acting as a buffer from traffic. It's not that I have any physical problems...I just don't want stairs anymore. You'll see when you are older.

Frankly, I would prefer to buy existing housing. Our first house was a true "handyman special." We lived there 9 years -- it took us 6 years to get everything up to snuff. It was adorable and it sold in one day. Our current house was 3 years old when we bought it and as I think I mentioned, we have been slowly upgrading/refinishing/replacing nearly everything in it over the past 6 years.

If we can get a good deal on an existing house in a lovely neighborhood (it doesn't have to be Somerset) I would love it. I like visuals -- I like to see what is already there. It would need to be attractive enough of a price so that we could afford to replace the things we don't like. I also like to see what else is built up around the house. Three years ago we visited the outlying areas near Albuquerque and saw wonderful homesites and home plans. Developers had not yet moved into the area, and the local builders were building luxury homes on huge lots for prices waaaay below anything we had seen elsewhere. Fabulous quality, Sante Fe style (we love that). A year and a half later, the developers had moved in and all but destroyed some areas. We saw houses that were built on a couple of the lots we liked and they were a mess. One beautiful home that we had seen on the previous trip ended up having a YMCA (or something like that) bordering their back yard. Yuck.

No, I don't mind at all buying existing.

Do you have any tips on getting a good deal? You're so knowledgeable. Thanks.

[Jes]

Mimi if you buy in Sierra Canyon at thr right time ,we hit there Thanksgiving they give buying incentive deals .We did not pay closing and got several upgrades + payed a great deal less than asking price on home.