[mdmagana]

Hello. I've been giving Vegas some thought. I was born and raised in Orange County, CA but spent the last couple of years in Santa Fe, NM. Santa Fe is terrible! I have been thinking about going home to California, but Vegas is on my radar too.

It's close enough to SoCal that I go easily go home for a weekend to see friends and family, plus the real estate prices are very attractive. I am self employed and can easily move, so getting a job is not a concern. Vegas has enough SoCal things that I have missed so much in Santa Fe, (Like In 'N' Out, Tommy's and Jack in the Box) that I think I would be happy and feel almost at home.

I'm also thinking of my parents here. They are retired and in Santa Fe. They don't want to go back to SoCal, but they do need to be closer to me. How is Vegas for retirees? Seems like there would be plenty for them to do, right?

I'm a little worried about the heat, but I'm practically always inside and I imagine you get used to it? Other than that I think it might be a good fit. I was hoping some other SoCal transplants might be able to share their thoughts and experiences with me? Thank you.

[RCCCB]

If you can make it on part time work for 5 years you should be OK.

[mdmagana]

Originally Posted by RCCCB

If you can make it on part time work for 5 years you should be OK.

I'm self employed and work from home. I'm not concerned about finding a job in Las Vegas.

[yellowsnow]

I love it here. If you have enough money, it's great. I've always thought it would be a great retirement place too. There are lots of retired people. And you are right, there is lots to do.

Some people do have a hard time with the heat. Doesn't really bother me. I have a pool and I use it a lot in the summer. I do most of my going out early or late. I swim in the summer and run in the other seasons.

It will be easy for you to find other ex-CA folks to talk to. They are a huge part of our population.

[uncle_el]

so cal transplant checking in.

are you looking for something like orange county? if so, you ought to concentrate on summerlin (reminds me of thousand oaks/westlake where i'm from) or henderson (henderson reminds me of the area around irvine, costa mesa... minus the nearby beaches).

as far as the heat goes, i've been here for a little over a year and got used to it. with that said, i don't mind the heat anyway (which made it easy to move here).

not sure what to tell you about retirees. there are a few retirement communities here, and many of the local casinos seem to have something all the time for retirees/retiree age group.

[jaunespinoza]

It's a lot better for retirees than job seekers.

[Buzz123]

There is probably more for a retiree to do in Las Vegas than anywhere. Del Webb alone has four Sun Cities here, plus there are others like Siena for instance. We probably have more retiremnet communities than anywhere outside of Florida. Retirees make up one of, if not the largest, segment of the population.

Las Vegas Retirement Communities

http://www.squidoo.com/lasvegasretirementcommunities

I don't mean to be rude, but it's hard to believe that someone from Orange County wouldn't know all there is to know about such a close neighbor as Las Vegas.

To each his own, but I don't see how In n Out Burger and Jack in the Box even slightly compare to Cafe Pasquale, or Coyote Cafe...or even Whataburger. If you said The City Different, Santa Fe, is too small and too cliquish, or too artsy for you, or you don't like hot food...well, the city slogan says it all. I wouldn't want to actually live in Santa Fe either because you can get claustrophobic there. But have you looked at Albuquerque? In lots of ways it is much like Las Vegas, but culturally light years ahead, and it even has some features of SoCal, but you don't have to give up anything to live there. And, you'd be 45 min to 60 min from your parents...unless they aren't happy with Santa Fe either.

[olecapt]

Gored your favorite place there did they Buzz?

I am a So California transplant. Came out of there in 1995. Los Alamitos Admiral and I had a deal that we would check it out for a year or so and go someplace else if it did not feel good. We are still here.

We are RE Agents and work retirees heavily particularly in Sun City Summerlin though all the Sun Cities on occasion.

The temperature thing seems to work OK for 80% or more of the people. My personal opinion is that it works for virtually everyone who does not come here with a mind set that it will be too much. The heat is much less of a problem than the fear of heat.

The Sun cities are a little more expensive than the rest of Las Vegas but give pretty good value for the active retiree. There are a continuous set of things to learn, to make or to do. If one reaches the point where mobility is a problem they no longer work...but short of that they are neat places.

We find much of the outer suburbs interchangable with So. Cal. It is very close to the inland empire and inland Orange County.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by olecapt

Gored your favorite place there did they Buzz?

I am a So California transplant. Came out of there in 1995. Los Alamitos Admiral and I had a deal that we would check it out for a year or so and go someplace else if it did not feel good. We are still here.

We are RE Agents and work retirees heavily particularly in Sun City Summerlin though all the Sun Cities on occasion.

The temperature thing seems to work OK for 80% or more of the people. My personal opinion is that it works for virtually everyone who does not come here with a mind set that it will be too much. The heat is much less of a problem than the fear of heat.

The Sun cities are a little more expensive than the rest of Las Vegas but give pretty good value for the active retiree. There are a continuous set of things to learn, to make or to do. If one reaches the point where mobility is a problem they no longer work...but short of that they are neat places.

We find much of the outer suburbs interchangable with So. Cal. It is very close to the inland empire and inland Orange County.

The heat isn't bad if you're in pretty good shape, but it isn't as pleasant now as it used to be. I spent many days working in the yard or even running, and conducting other normal activity during the hottest part of the summer. But having been here for most of my life, I can say that the heat is different now. You hear everyone say that and nobody knows if it's true, or if so, why. But my theory is that back in the olden days (as my kid says) Las Vegas was more desert than pavement. You would have large empty plots of land interspersed with the buildings in every part of town. Even half the Strip was empty desert. Now it's the other way around. There is nothing to absorb the heat anymore. It just reflects off all the man made stuff instead of falling harmlessly on barren desert sand and being more or less absorbed as it did before. I suppose that could be proved by going out in the desert and devising some way to measure what is happening as opposed to how it is in town if someone really wanted to know.

We had a sand storm today which is fairly rare nowadays. Before, when it was a small town, we had them all the time. Manmade construction changes things...sometimes good, sometimes bad.

As far as Las Vegas being almost like Southern California, it's because it was modeled after SoCal by the Californicators that invaded us, instead of keeping with the style of the southwest as we should have insisted on.

[mdmagana]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

There is probably more for a retiree to do in Las Vegas than anywhere. Del Webb alone has four Sun Cities here, plus there are others like Siena for instance. We probably have more retiremnet communities than anywhere outside of Florida. Retirees make up one of, if not the largest, segment of the population.

Las Vegas Retirement Communities

http://www.squidoo.com/lasvegasretirementcommunities

I don't mean to be rude, but it's hard to believe that someone from Orange County wouldn't know all there is to know about such a close neighbor as Las Vegas.

To each his own, but I don't see how In n Out Burger and Jack in the Box even slightly compare to Cafe Pasquale, or Coyote Cafe...or even Whataburger. If you said The City Different, Santa Fe, is too small and too cliquish, or too artsy for you, or you don't like hot food...well, the city slogan says it all. I wouldn't want to actually live in Santa Fe either because you can get claustrophobic there. But have you looked at Albuquerque? In lots of ways it is much like Las Vegas, but culturally light years ahead, and it even has some features of SoCal, but you don't have to give up anything to live there. And, you'd be 45 min to 60 min from your parents...unless they aren't happy with Santa Fe either.

When I lived in SoCal I went to Las Vegas once, maybe twice a year tops and I never really went exploring beyond The Strip. So I really don't know that much about it.

As for Santa Fe... Bleh! Too small, too over-priced, and way too liberal. I'm not a super conservative or anything and to each his own, but this place is just as far left as San Fransisco and I have gotten really tired of all the B.S. that goes along with it.

As for food... I never developed much of a taste for green chilie. Pasquales and Coyote Cafe are not my cup of tea. In fact I hated Pasquales. I've traveled form one end of the country to the other and nobody does burgers better than SoCal. Okay, Jack in the Box might be a bad example... but I miss the greasy little tacos!

Albuquerque crossed my mind, but unlike Vegas I have no friends there. Plus, it's still an 11 hour drive to go home to see friends and family.

I'm very concerned about the heat, but geographically, financially and culturally speaking, Las Vegas is making a lot of sense to me right now.