Las Vegas, Nevada

What is it like to live in Las Vegas?

Like others have said, it is what you make of it, like any city. Vegas can be the craziest, wildest, most dynamic, and exciting city you have ever lived in. On the flipside though, most of us live in a different world than the 40 million visitors who visit a year. Contrary to what many people think, Las Vegas is a pretty much normal town with many churches, schools, libraries, parks, and recreation. We go to school or work, attend our kid's softball games, and rarely venture out to the Strip, usually when relatives are in town.

Most times we just sit in our mostly new, stucco and Spanish-tile roofed houses, like average folks in our easy chair, enjoying the benefits of modern air-conditioners while the temps in the Summer climb to over 115 degrees. One of the great things about living in Vegas is the 24-hour access to great restaurants, nightlife, and even shopping at 3 in the am (seriously do you know how many people I have seen at Walmart shopping for groceries when the rest of the world is asleep?) . Because there are a lot of residents that work in the hospitality industry at all hours of the day and night, it is not unusual to see people at a car dealership looking at prospective vehicles at 2 in the morning, especially along Sahara Ave.

The traffic is bad, I won't lie, but it depends on when and where you are. The freeways like the 215 beltway on the west side of town between Durango north all the way to Summerlin Parkway, usually moves fast and is rarely clogged. Others like I-15 from Tropicana north to Charleston, is frequently jammed and every day it seems like the news warns us about an overturned semi or a suicidal jumper near the Spaghetti Bowl. In the other direction the 215 going from the west to Henderson, is not bad a lot of the times, but tends to back up off of Paradise and the Airport Connector.

Most of the surface streets are laid out well, with wide lanes in a traditional urban grid pattern. During rush hour, it is very easy to hop off of the backed up freeways and take surface streets to your destination. Some major cities like LA and San Fran are a nightmare to navigate when you do this, and you could spend hours taking one road after another just to get back to where you started.

What is it like to live in Las Vegas?

Lots of misinformation. Been in Las Vegas now for 20 years. Came from southern CA - lived in OC worked in El Segundo.

Las Vegas is not cheap. Cost of living and housing is right about the US average. It is cheap compared to coastal CA and NYC other than that it is average.

It's school system is virtually the same as all the big school systems. In fact it is better than NYC or LA or Chicago. No great claim to fame in all that..;it is simply a little smaller which tends to make it a little better. Practically though it is the simple and standard drill. If you look at the census tracts you are considering and they have high income you will find the schools workable. If the census tract median household income is below $30,000 you will not like the school. And it is actually easy to find out how good a particular school is. Just check the Accountability report which has all the good data.

The culture knock is pure snobbery. It has quite good music, first rate Broadway plays and more really good musicians than anywhere else on earth. The Smith Center is world class and lots of the shows that hit the strip are top of the line.

It is not a good tech town. If you have a tie coming in its fine. There is activity around like Zappo and the blow up space station and the support of Nellis. But basically high end techies would be better off in Phoenix or LA.

If you have a propensity to get addicted it is the worse place on earth. But that is actually pretty rare among locals.

The weather is over worried. The climate is seldom above 105 and even then the mornings are pleasant. In general we find if one makes it past two years you get to like it. I doubt very seriously my wife and I would ever live anywhere not hot at this point. We are very mature so it is likely a final decision. In fact we tend to go to Mexico in January to escape the cold.

What’s it like living in LV?

Ok I’m brand new to Vegas so I don’t have much room to talk… also I’m coming from San Francisco and we have kids so I have a specific point of view . But allot of these negative comments seem to be personal to the individual, I was a bartender and will be again after covid/getting my covid vaccine. I have girl friends at a few places who assure me this won’t be a problem at all with hundreds of options on and off the strip. My husband works from home .

My two kids are going to a charter school that has amazing numbers and I got them into an awesome tutoring class so they can keep up their Chinese language skills. (Before they went to a Chinese speaking school and there aren’t any here)

The house we bought was a fraction of what we would pay anywhere in the Bay Area and our neighbors seem nice with kids playing nicely at the field up the street and kids biking/scootering around. We also have a community pool that will open in spring with covid guidelines. I haven’t met them but I’m sure that’s probably a covid thing.

I already had some friends here but they are never bored my best friend bought a house on a golf coarse a few years ago and loves it here (pre-covid) I went to Lake Tahoe a week or two every year and it’s still a drivable distance, I hike with my kids and now I found out there’s an awesome indoor rocking climbing gym I hope to join. There’s the same things every city has bowling allies and movie theaters and malls and clubs and hobby shops gyms conventions and shows etc etc I don’t understand people who say Vegas is boring, what do other cities have that Vegas doesn’t? And this is all faaar cheaper than San Francisco. My kids want to join soccer and hip hop classes after covid and they have both here with good reviews for most ages. We are a pretty active family normally and positive people and I don’t get the negative “vibe” others are describing at all

Vegas won’t solve your problems but people here arent flakey or “looking for the next best thing” that’s all individual based, generally it’s just another city. Maybe with more extreme weather but more things are indoor than other cities so it seems decent. Also to take a weekend trip to La or Lake Tahoe is a pretty easy trip… might get season passes to Disney land and go with the kids during school breaks.

What’s it like living in LV?

I agree with some of the things above, but overall I still think it's a great place to live. Coming from chicago, taxes are cheaper here. Sure, housing market may be overpriced, but Vegas still has a lot of room to grow. I'm happy with the amount of equity our house has made in the last two years.

Vegas has a lot of fun things to do. Actually, it has almost everything. Want to go party? It's got Fremont Street and the Strip. You can party with the best of them. Want to go hiking? Take your pick between Red Rock, valley of fire, and lake Mead. Visit a park? There's a bunch of beautiful ones around. I feel like the suburban life is very vibrant with a lot of things to do. A lot of people from different places across the US have decided to make Vegas their home, making it an incredibly diverse city. Sure, overall the people may be more standoffish than they would be in a southern state, but it's better than Chicago.

Day to day it's just like every other city.

Pros & Cons of Living in LAS VEGAS