Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Being on any island spooks me out, always has. I never even felt comfortable on the Big Island in Hawaii! The smaller the island, and the farther it is from any mainland, the spookier it gets! Can't get over this What if, what if, what if!
I lived on Oahu for about 16 years. That was called "Rock Fever" when I lived there. Some people are intensely aware they're on a "rock" and others (like me) aren't.
The one thing I missed when I moved from Oahu was the clean water and clean air. Hard to find in the places I lived since: Japan, Thailand, Mexico and, yes, Las Vegas.
This is true! I love Hawaii including Maui but I still remember my first time there. We were like "what do you after about 9:00 pm?" When they say they roll the sidewalks up they ain't kidding there! There is almost nothing to do at night. Then, early in the morning, can barely get a cup of coffee as places open late!
We only briefly considered Hawaii as our next home and are super excited to move to Vegas later this year!
I agree. Hawaii should open a few casinos to boost its tourism.
You never get bored in Las Vegas, most probably because you're not one of the many minimum wage workers here.
I think you exaggerate. There are almost no Clark County jobs are at or below minimum wage. LV actually pays pretty well for the unskilled and semi skilled.
One of our neighbors was a senior cocktail waitress on the strip. Made well over $100,000 a year. Their son who is high school educated makes something in excess of $60,000 in a framing shop...
I think you exaggerate. There are almost no Clark County jobs are at or below minimum wage. LV actually pays pretty well for the unskilled and semi skilled.
One of our neighbors was a senior cocktail waitress on the strip. Made well over $100,000 a year. Their son who is high school educated makes something in excess of $60,000 in a framing shop...
I worked in a LTC/Rehab facility for 17 years in NLV and you'd be surprised what they pay the cooks, laundry women, house cleaners and even the entry level aides. Hardly enough to live on.
I worked in a LTC/Rehab facility for 17 years in NLV and you'd be surprised what they pay the cooks, laundry women, house cleaners and even the entry level aides. Hardly enough to live on.
As with most of those jobs they are immigrant laborers for whom $7.25 an hour is 5-10 times what they could make an hour at home. They manage to not only live on it, but send some of their money home. Just a matter of what sacrifices we want to make to get by.
So... I saw this thread and figured that I'd drop my 2 cents in.
I transplanted here 2.5 years ago. Enough time that first impressions have faded and yet still fresh enough that I can tell you what to expect that might be different. Understand that my perspective is different than many, and if you don't get why and what I care about, no biggie.
The Good:
Housing prices are reasonable. I was able to purchase a townhouse for far less than what I sold my house for and bank the difference. However, the growth rate in the time I have been here is comparable, so I'm not losing anything other than a mortgage. My "game plan" is to return at some point, so I can at least keep up with the costs, and in the mean time, I'm banking what I save not having a mortgage or rent. Additionally, the gaming taxes pay for most of the things that other places have property taxes for. I pay 10% of what I paid before in property taxes here, coupled with no income tax makes your true costs much less than many other places. However, some of that is lost with HOA fees and the additional water bills. Also on the plus side is the desert landscaping - low water, low weeds, no mowing of lawns etc.
Most things you need are available. People talk about things like 24 hour services (really, what larger city doesn't have those today?) and whatnot, but the more esoteric things like being able to find a "real" hardware store and retail stores that specialize in things (The Container Store, check, Bass Pro Shops, check, Metal Suppliers, welding gasses... all of the things that you can easily get in most cities are here. Some things are still "need to ship in" (Tap Plastics needs a store here.)
Lots of entertainment options, of course. Lots of good restaurants, although almost everything is tourist oriented. The trade off with the tourist orientation is that even in a city this small, you have big name acts coming in.
Weather. Plenty of sun, but yes, it does get hot in the summer. However, the winter more than makes up for it. However, if you move here unprepared for it, I'm going to let that fall on you. It takes a summer or two to get used to, and even then, it's a matter of finding a coping mechanism. The weather is reverse of everywhere else. Outdoors is done Fall, Winter and Spring. Summer is hiding inside with a cold drink.
Some aspects of the cost of living are less. $40 gas bills and $25 electricity bills in the winter. Summer electricity jumps to $100 or so with the AC on. Yes, I know, part of that is a small townhouse, but the basic charges elsewhere are nearly what I pay for consumption here.
The Bad:
Driving. NOT traffic. You can cross the city from desert to desert in an hour or so, even during "rush hour." It's not like any larger city I have been in, where congestion causes everyone to creep along, although it does get noticeably heavier. On a Sunday morning, you can fly through on either 95 or 15 and cross the city in 25 minutes. The infrastructure has a few strange things not found in other seasons - the joke here is that the paving contractors store their cones on the street and only move them when they need them for the next job. Really, you will find miles of roads with a lane closed and nobody working during the day (it's too hot during the summer, so they only work a few hours in the morning) where in any civilized city they would be required to open the lane back up when they are not actually doing work. That said, the roads are hard on cars here in the summer. The heat can soften the asphalt and tars, causing them to stick to your car and create "grooves" for tires, but the cities and municipalities are very slow to repair anything.
The Drivers here, however, are part of the issue. The big issue is actually the mix of driving styles - you have the weekend tourists from SoCal (and there are a LOT of them) that are always over the speed limit, swerving through and around other people, tailgating, and blowing signs/lights. Add to this the tourists from everywhere else, lost and confused, not paying attention or doing 5-15 MPH under the speed limit simply because our streets have higher speed limits than other places while being confused about how to get places or following GPS instructions, and you have frequent near misses. Somewhere in between is the locals, people who know where they are going and constantly switching from "Jesus Christ, this ******* is going to kill someone!" and "Move that piece of **** out of the way!" added to the attitude of "I'm late, get out of my way!" (Really, its the prevailing theme - more on that in people later.)
The DMV. Okay, these are bad everywhere, but honestly, the ONLY way to get things done is to make an appointment ahead of time. Really, it's a nice thing that you can do this online, but show up without an appointment, and you will spend hours there. The people who work there are generally nice, but the complexity of doing a simple transaction like getting your car registered from out of state is enough to make you wonder why there are not a significant number of mass shootings there.
HOA's. I expected an HOA when I bought a townhouse. What I didn't expect was to find the local mob running it. The "Old Boys Network" is strong and proud in this town, and one of their key areas is the infiltration into property management. Count on paying extra for a place with no HOA, and since you will most likely have one anyway, be prepared to deal with some of the stupidest people possible who run them.
The Ugly:
I'm going to put "The People" down here. First off, a good portion of the population is either transient (not intending to stay after a job is completed) retired or "last chances." Lots of people who left CA to find someplace cheaper to live, but who want to move out ASAP. Lots of people here seem to have "An Angle" on the world, and it's pretty common to hear "I'm doing XYZ for now until my Web Based Beer Brewing and Solar Powered Flashlight company takes off."
I think the key is that this city can bring out the worst in people. There are many factors, but it's understandable - there are people who move here looking for an opportunity and find themselves stuck. There are a lot of personality types here that clash. Parts of Vegas is a real slum, and you have wannabe gangsters from SoCal who would get stomped in LA pretending to be badasses coupled with military and retirees. Mix in a healthy dose of dreamers ("I came here to become a pro-gamer, and now I park cars for a living") and straight up scammers ("Call us for a free solar install estimate today! /buy our magic pill and be a new man / "Your car needs a new serpentine belt (it doesn't have a serpentine belt!) / In a Wreck? Call Shouldwee, ****em, and Howe and get your check!") coupled with the simpletons doing stupid **** like, oh, crossing a road with 45 MPH speed limit where everyone does 55 or 60 in the middle of the night while wearing all black then getting pissed that the drivers can't see you.
The converse to my own opinion on the people here is that once you tune your bull**** filter to the local flavor, finding genuine people to hang out with is not too difficult. However, work does seem to be the center of social circles.
Jobs. Be careful, there are lots of companies here that think nothing of giving you a line of bull**** to get you here. I know people in the hospitably industry here that were promised things like "full time" but are kept at just short of enough hours to qualify for benefits, were promised a salary then were given something much lower because they "expect you to include your tips to make what you were promised" and scams - We hired you as a waitress, now take your clothes off 'cause you are a stripper!
Education. Holy hell, I'm glad I don't have kids(that I am aware of.) Consistently ranked near the bottom in all national education assessments, Nevada and CCSD does an excellent job in preparing Nevada's children for a future career in the gaming industry and "adult entertainment" fields. I don't think it's the teachers, but the career bureaucrats who are in administration. Young teachers move here thinking it's an opportunity, then leave once they realize how bad they have it. Many of the public high schools are filled with "people being trained for prison or single motherhood." The older teachers primarily talk about how many more years they have until they retire. Most people with kids and any kind of sanity enroll their kids in the charter schools.
So... I saw this thread and figured that I'd drop my 2 cents in.
I transplanted here 2.5 years ago. Enough time that first impressions have faded and yet still fresh enough that I can tell you what to expect that might be different. Understand that my perspective is different than many, and if you don't get why and what I care about, no biggie.
The Good:
Housing prices are reasonable. I was able to purchase a townhouse for far less than what I sold my house for and bank the difference. However, the growth rate in the time I have been here is comparable, so I'm not losing anything other than a mortgage. My "game plan" is to return at some point, so I can at least keep up with the costs, and in the mean time, I'm banking what I save not having a mortgage or rent. Additionally, the gaming taxes pay for most of the things that other places have property taxes for. I pay 10% of what I paid before in property taxes here, coupled with no income tax makes your true costs much less than many other places. However, some of that is lost with HOA fees and the additional water bills. Also on the plus side is the desert landscaping - low water, low weeds, no mowing of lawns etc.
Most things you need are available. People talk about things like 24 hour services (really, what larger city doesn't have those today?) and whatnot, but the more esoteric things like being able to find a "real" hardware store and retail stores that specialize in things (The Container Store, check, Bass Pro Shops, check, Metal Suppliers, welding gasses... all of the things that you can easily get in most cities are here. Some things are still "need to ship in" (Tap Plastics needs a store here.)
Lots of entertainment options, of course. Lots of good restaurants, although almost everything is tourist oriented. The trade off with the tourist orientation is that even in a city this small, you have big name acts coming in.
Weather. Plenty of sun, but yes, it does get hot in the summer. However, the winter more than makes up for it. However, if you move here unprepared for it, I'm going to let that fall on you. It takes a summer or two to get used to, and even then, it's a matter of finding a coping mechanism. The weather is reverse of everywhere else. Outdoors is done Fall, Winter and Spring. Summer is hiding inside with a cold drink.
Some aspects of the cost of living are less. $40 gas bills and $25 electricity bills in the winter. Summer electricity jumps to $100 or so with the AC on. Yes, I know, part of that is a small townhouse, but the basic charges elsewhere are nearly what I pay for consumption here.
The Bad:
Driving. NOT traffic. You can cross the city from desert to desert in an hour or so, even during "rush hour." It's not like any larger city I have been in, where congestion causes everyone to creep along, although it does get noticeably heavier. On a Sunday morning, you can fly through on either 95 or 15 and cross the city in 25 minutes. The infrastructure has a few strange things not found in other seasons - the joke here is that the paving contractors store their cones on the street and only move them when they need them for the next job. Really, you will find miles of roads with a lane closed and nobody working during the day (it's too hot during the summer, so they only work a few hours in the morning) where in any civilized city they would be required to open the lane back up when they are not actually doing work. That said, the roads are hard on cars here in the summer. The heat can soften the asphalt and tars, causing them to stick to your car and create "grooves" for tires, but the cities and municipalities are very slow to repair anything.
The Drivers here, however, are part of the issue. The big issue is actually the mix of driving styles - you have the weekend tourists from SoCal (and there are a LOT of them) that are always over the speed limit, swerving through and around other people, tailgating, and blowing signs/lights. Add to this the tourists from everywhere else, lost and confused, not paying attention or doing 5-15 MPH under the speed limit simply because our streets have higher speed limits than other places while being confused about how to get places or following GPS instructions, and you have frequent near misses. Somewhere in between is the locals, people who know where they are going and constantly switching from "Jesus Christ, this ******* is going to kill someone!" and "Move that piece of **** out of the way!" added to the attitude of "I'm late, get out of my way!" (Really, its the prevailing theme - more on that in people later.)
The DMV. Okay, these are bad everywhere, but honestly, the ONLY way to get things done is to make an appointment ahead of time. Really, it's a nice thing that you can do this online, but show up without an appointment, and you will spend hours there. The people who work there are generally nice, but the complexity of doing a simple transaction like getting your car registered from out of state is enough to make you wonder why there are not a significant number of mass shootings there.
HOA's. I expected an HOA when I bought a townhouse. What I didn't expect was to find the local mob running it. The "Old Boys Network" is strong and proud in this town, and one of their key areas is the infiltration into property management. Count on paying extra for a place with no HOA, and since you will most likely have one anyway, be prepared to deal with some of the stupidest people possible who run them.
The Ugly:
I'm going to put "The People" down here. First off, a good portion of the population is either transient (not intending to stay after a job is completed) retired or "last chances." Lots of people who left CA to find someplace cheaper to live, but who want to move out ASAP. Lots of people here seem to have "An Angle" on the world, and it's pretty common to hear "I'm doing XYZ for now until my Web Based Beer Brewing and Solar Powered Flashlight company takes off."
I think the key is that this city can bring out the worst in people. There are many factors, but it's understandable - there are people who move here looking for an opportunity and find themselves stuck. There are a lot of personality types here that clash. Parts of Vegas is a real slum, and you have wannabe gangsters from SoCal who would get stomped in LA pretending to be badasses coupled with military and retirees. Mix in a healthy dose of dreamers ("I came here to become a pro-gamer, and now I park cars for a living") and straight up scammers ("Call us for a free solar install estimate today! /buy our magic pill and be a new man / "Your car needs a new serpentine belt (it doesn't have a serpentine belt!) / In a Wreck? Call Shouldwee, ****em, and Howe and get your check!") coupled with the simpletons doing stupid **** like, oh, crossing a road with 45 MPH speed limit where everyone does 55 or 60 in the middle of the night while wearing all black then getting pissed that the drivers can't see you.
The converse to my own opinion on the people here is that once you tune your bull**** filter to the local flavor, finding genuine people to hang out with is not too difficult. However, work does seem to be the center of social circles.
Jobs. Be careful, there are lots of companies here that think nothing of giving you a line of bull**** to get you here. I know people in the hospitably industry here that were promised things like "full time" but are kept at just short of enough hours to qualify for benefits, were promised a salary then were given something much lower because they "expect you to include your tips to make what you were promised" and scams - We hired you as a waitress, now take your clothes off 'cause you are a stripper!
Education. Holy hell, I'm glad I don't have kids(that I am aware of.) Consistently ranked near the bottom in all national education assessments, Nevada and CCSD does an excellent job in preparing Nevada's children for a future career in the gaming industry and "adult entertainment" fields. I don't think it's the teachers, but the career bureaucrats who are in administration. Young teachers move here thinking it's an opportunity, then leave once they realize how bad they have it. Many of the public high schools are filled with "people being trained for prison or single motherhood." The older teachers primarily talk about how many more years they have until they retire. Most people with kids and any kind of sanity enroll their kids in the charter schools.
So much truth here, great balanced view for those who are considering moving in. No place is perfect or the worst place around, this captures the good and bad well. The comment about everyone having a side project that is going to make them rich is so spot on, I have lots of friends that make six figures and still they think of their job as just a placeholder until their million dollar idea takes off. One friend lost his 250k+ job because he was pushing his side business too much and some clients complained to his bosses.
I'm pretty interested in Vegas. How many of you just leave Vegas in the summer? Seems to be the only drawback.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
