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I wish someone could tell me how to live in Las Vegas only parts of the year. The parts being part of the cold and hot seasons.
Maybe not forever, but until I get used to full time living in the desert city.
I've been "moving to Las Vegas" for about three or four years. LOL I live outside Washington, DC in Virginia and have a very nice home. This home is bank-owned and always has been over the past 25 years. Some of us mistakenly thought we owned, while we were simply caretaker puppets with strings attached to bankers claws.
Now, I don't know how much longer my finances can keep up with the COL of my county, one of the top three "Highest Family Income Counties" in the USA! Here you do need great savings and income, when you retire. With anything less, it is very hard to live decently (by my standard, of course). I figure I need to cash in half my IRA to pay off credit card debts and continue to live here.
Interestingly, this thread on returning home after living in Las Vegas, brings up my thoughts about leaving what really is only my working life home. The international federal agencies I worked for are here, so that is where they dumped me when my overseas duties ended. Unfortunately, I still had to work for them here to get any kind of pension. After retiring, I kept on working for another employer, my wife died and my only child/daughter moved to Indiana, married and moved to LAS Vegas to start her career.
Now, my ties to the DC area are, not in any order, my familiarity with the entire area and nearby areas, the natural beauty, excellent medical services I need, the cultural attractions, major/minor/college sports, Washington DC's multitude of free things to do, the nearby mountains and fantastic spring and autumn with tolerable summers. Negative things are NO FRIENDS OR FAMILY, financial considerations, and my daughter living so far away in Las Vegas. Also, my two brothers live in AZ and CA.
So what is my quandary? My daughter has been begging me to move near her in Las Vegas and I do feel an obligation to do so. I visited the strip before she moved there and found it to be lots of fun as a tourist. Since she moved, I visited many times for up to two weeks. I do like parts of the Las Vegas living , but strongly dislike the housing in your desert city.
Nowhere else in the country are so many lookalike homes crammed into such small spaces. As far as I am concerned, the living areas that I would be able to afford, such as some parts of the western side of the city like Summerlin and maybe a little north, are downright UGLY. Also, Las Vegas has HOT summers that seemingly last nine months out of the year and then turn to cold winters.
Views of the mountains? Ha Ha. That is going to cost you plenty in Las Vegas and they are brown with no trees. Culture is the Casinos, or maybe the art museum and fountain in the Bellagio. Professional sports are one day a year of NASCAR racing. Even the college basketball team has been in the dumps for years now.
You get the idea of how I feel about Las Vegas. Except that my daughter wants me to move there, I probably would stay here for awhile. At least until the retirement accounts are down and then I could move to the old age home. I sure do not want to move to be with my daughter just so I can burden her with my old age complaining.
So, I sit here and wonder what to do.
As a former resident of the top 3 (Loudoun), I can tell you that there is quite a difference but even though I was born in DC, worked in government and root big time for Terps, Caps and Redskins. You couldn't pay me to leave Vegas to go back.
Yes, the schools are markedly better in NoVa compared to CCSD but I have no complaints as my kids are doing very well in elementary. The crime, cost-of-living and traffic are much better here compared to DC.
Frankly, I like the fact we don't have the major teams as it's much cheaper to go see a Wranglers game compared to a Caps game, I miss going to Nats and O's games but the 51's are still baseball and I only went to one game at FedEx for the Redskins and swore never again. I still listen to WMAL and WTOP on the internet so I can laugh at all the people stuck driving on the Beltway from College Park to Tysons Corner.
IMO, the hardest adjustment going from the east coast is the lack of change of seasons. Our winter consists mainly of cold weather which is great because I'm not digging out from several feet of snow like my friends did in Leesburg. I can look out my back window and watch all the snow on Mt. Charleston and if I want to go skiing then I just drive an hour.
Vegas offers a lot more than just the casinos, you've got to get out and see it.
I've been asked to move to Las Vegas and gone to your fair city for both amusement and to really look around. So far it seems too HOT in summer, too cool in winter and the landscape is horrible. All those thousands of houses choc-a-bloc next to each other so you always have your neighbors' company.
The schools are lousy and unemployment about the highest in the country. If you do not work in the servitude (excuse me, "service industry") you might not work.
There are no major league sports clubs, no baseball, basketball, or football. They do not want the corruption of Las Vegas gambling kings to touch their sports.
So? I cannot figure it out. Looking at this forum and all the questions about moving to Las Vegas, yet the area seems to be a trap for young and old. Well, old folks can at least go and play the slot machines all day in the air conditioned casinos, so that might be an incentive.
OK, I do know that housing costs are now low IF you are buying. Of course they are low because some poor family or single person actually thought $390,000 was a great price for a cement block home when the interest rate was 4% for the first couple of years.
Oh, surprise, now it is 15% or whatever amount you cannot pay out of your pension or service person's wage less taxes, etc.
So, tell me. Are there good reasons to move to Las Vegas? Why did you move? Why are you hesitating? I know the attraction for me is very strong, but not because of the city and I am trying to figure out if it is worthwhile.
I've been "moving to Las Vegas" for about three or four years. LOL I live outside Washington, DC in Virginia and have a very nice home....
Views of the mountains? Ha Ha. That is going to cost you plenty in Las Vegas and they are brown with no trees.
Your post makes no sense whatsoever, especially the part I quoted above. You can buy an "expensive" house with a view of the mountains in Summerlin or any other area of town for less than the price of a 1br condo in DC. And if you've lived in your house in VA for 25 years, you can easily pay cash for a house in LV with the proceeds from the sale of your current house. I was easily able to do so and I only had 10 years or so of equity built up in my house in Bethesda.
Your other living costs are going to go way down as well. I was paying $12,000 - $14,000 in state and local income taxes in Maryland and now pay absolutely nothing in Nevada. Since we sold our house and used the proceeds to pay cash for a house in Las Vegas, that ended the $18,000 in mortgage payments that we made annually. Those two items alone reduced our expenses by $30,000 (minus federal tax writeoffs).
In addition to the above, groceries are much less expensive for us now. In the 10 or so years that we lived in Bethesda, we rarely if ever left the grocery without spending $100+. In the 14 months that we've been in Las Vegas, we've only exceeded $100 once.
As you can see, it is much cheaper to live here. Although to be perfectly honest, assuming your federal pension is from CSRS and not FERS, I don't know how you could have a problem with income or cost of living anyways.
Finally, your comment(s) about the weather: I'll just completely disregard your complaint about winter weather here because it is just too ridiculous to contemplate someone from the DC area complaining about winter somewhere else (unless they were moving further north). As for summer, I much prefer the dry 105 degree summers here rather than the 95 degree heat and 90% humidity of the east coast. While June and July are somewhat tolerable in DC, August is just horrific. I don't think there is a place in the country that is worse than August in DC when the temperatures shoot up to 100+ with that high swamp-like humidity. There's a reason that DC basically shuts down for the month of August and all the politicians, lobbyists, and most everyone else with a brain or financial means leaves town then.
But to each his own. If you like it better there then stay there. Or alternatively, move to a lower cost-of-living area on the east coast. That way you'll be happy, we'll be happy, and you can continue to fly across the continent to visit your daughter.
Nowhere else in the country are so many lookalike homes crammed into such small spaces.
I do agree on this.
Those master plan, newer developmet cookie cutter houses in Summerlin (and most other areas developed post 1980's are like this)...sorry, but they are not my cup of tea....like people say, you can shake hands with your neighborhood throught windows.
I guess small lots is one of the reason that L.V. properties are cheap.
I do agree on this.
Those master plan, newer developmet cookie cutter houses in Summerlin...sorry, but they are not my cup of tea....like people say, you can shake hands with your neighborhood throught windows.
did you ever see row houses in Boston or Baltimore...or the brownstones of NYC? Or the early suburbs in Queens?
How about a good old NYC tenement? Or the old neighborhoods of Chicago or Milwaukee.
There are lots of places with big yards and separation...even in Summerlin. But come out to 89129 where they are all half acre lots.
If you wish to sell houses for $120K new they are not going to have much land.
But get over 200K and there are lots of good sized properties.
I'm very puzzled.
"No sense of community"? My son has lived there 10 years and has a wide circle of friends. Christmas at his house was a huge party of folks going in and out, leaving food, eating food, staying to play games. His wedding was completely TIC and joyful; they did the Elvis thing and dressed appropriately (think poodle skirts and polka dots); there were over 150 people at the wedding and the reception. He has formed his own acting troupe and they perform regularly - in addition to their "real" jobs.
Our daughter moved there two years ago, and has around 30 friends (not from work) or so whom she spends time with. They go out together, they stay in together, they have huge potluck dinners and grill out. The neighborhood in which she lives has people waving or stopping to talk, at the cars in the driveway, at the grocery stores, everywhere. The people she lives around are very friendly and she enjoys her life mightily.
Now, naturally, I wouldn't want to live there; I am all about growing things and wide open spaces, lots of snow, and having my own land and my own critters, without anyone around to tell me "no". I've lived in the (NM) desert - twice! - and would prefer not to do it again. I prefer chameleons to Gila monsters, snow and short summers to endless desert heat and cold desert nights, and bull and king snakes to rattlers, TYVM. But it suits my son and daughter very well, they are very happy and I am happy for them. My children know not to ask me if I want to move, though! LOL
I do agree on this.
Those master plan, newer developmet cookie cutter houses in Summerlin (and most other areas developed post 1980's are like this)...sorry, but they are not my cup of tea....like people say, you can shake hands with your neighborhood throught windows.
I guess small lots is one of the reason that L.V. properties are cheap.
I'm very puzzled.
"No sense of community"? My son has lived there 10 years and has a wide circle of friends. Christmas at his house was a huge party of folks going in and out, leaving food, eating food, staying to play games. His wedding was completely TIC and joyful; they did the Elvis thing and dressed appropriately (think poodle skirts and polka dots); there were over 150 people at the wedding and the reception. He has formed his own acting troupe and they perform regularly - in addition to their "real" jobs.
Our daughter moved there two years ago, and has around 30 friends (not from work) or so whom she spends time with. They go out together, they stay in together, they have huge potluck dinners and grill out. The neighborhood in which she lives has people waving or stopping to talk, at the cars in the driveway, at the grocery stores, everywhere. The people she lives around are very friendly and she enjoys her life mightily.
Now, naturally, I wouldn't want to live there; I am all about growing things and wide open spaces, lots of snow, and having my own land and my own critters, without anyone around to tell me "no". I've lived in the (NM) desert - twice! - and would prefer not to do it again. I prefer chameleons to Gila monsters, snow and short summers to endless desert heat and cold desert nights, and bull and king snakes to rattlers, TYVM. But it suits my son and daughter very well, they are very happy and I am happy for them. My children know not to ask me if I want to move, though! LOL
VERY good comment granny ma'am....no one expects everyone to love it here....just respect those that do....itis a shame tho cause you would be a GREAT Las Vegan
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