I'm 33, my wife is 28. No kids yet but planning to start in the next couple of years.

I'm a freight broker, which means that I'm self employed and need to start working every day around 9am EST at the latest. I normally wake up at 5-6am so this doesn't seem like a huge problem even with my preference for hitting the gym in the morning before work.

I make la decent living with my wife helping out with the business 10-15 hours a week. We'll be able to afford a house in a nicer area most likely.

I'd be coming from Louisville, KY which has higher taxes but a moderately cheaper cost of living. In my particular case the taxes seem to beat the COL increase, but I'm interested in hearing about anything that is weirdly cheap or expensive in Vegas.

My Pros Currently:
Cheap flights to everywhere for travel.
Great weather 9 months per year.
Twoplustwo social network. I've already gotten significant gains from networking I've done on 2p2 but that's all been online interaction. I assume there are vastly more 2p2ers living in Vegas than in Louisville, and I tend to make friends with people who view the world through a similar lense (like most people)... How should I value this?
6% (KY income tax) is a lot of goddamn money.

My cons:
More crime.
Houses are less appealing and more expensive, although not so expensive that they make up for 6 freaking %.
Moving expenses.
Renting another year.

What am I missing? Thanks!

vegaslocals subreddit has a lot of good info on this as I'm in very similar boat plus kids

When I moved to Vegas (and since I have moved away, MD--> Vegas --> DC/VA) I've noticed these C.O.L. differences.

General Groceries: Above average
Beer/Wine/Liquor: Below average
Fuel: Average
Electric Bills: Above average (summer & pools will spike these costs in the summer)
Auto Repair: Average ($80/hr Domestic & $100/hr Import average labor rate)
DMV Fees (License, Auto Registration/Renewals): Above Average, especially auto registration costs as they are based on what you paid for the vehicle and renewed every year. If you purchased a Vehicle in NV for approx $25k financed, that's about $320 in registration fees for the first year and it goes down a little bit every year until year 5.
Fast Food/Mom & Pop Fast Casual: Below Average
Rent: Below Average

We already shop at Whole Foods. I wonder how much more expensive it can actually get? I'm in transportation and Las Vegas is a terrible outbound freight market, so 3-5% probably just on increased transportation costs

Do you like living in the desert? Do you think you will like living in the desert? Because you'll be someone who has to like living in the desert, and that is certainly not for everyone. There are no trees- particularly compared to where you live now- and everything kind of looks the same.

WHY are you thinking of moving here (v. somewhere else) ? Other places have cheap flights and great weather.

Do you gamble, does your wife gamble ? If so, that may offset the projected 6% savings on State income tax.

Sounds like your work is a good fit, getting into work at 6:00 am has some advantages here

Figure out a price range for your house, s.f. , $/s.f etc, Definitely get a nice pool. The good news is you likely will not need to rent for a year, you should find something in 6 mos, tops. There is a lot on the market currently.

The public schools here are pretty lower end, due to lack of funding and lack of public value on education. . CCSD is no powerhouse educational system.

Hit or mostly miss medical care, cost of food is pretty low and decent quality available.

Weather takes getting used to in the summer; it's 109 today, June 4. Again, get a nice pool.

Are you religious ? Several active religious groups here .... and folks are used to new arrivals in town.

Generally speaking, yes, you need a strong tolerance for "brown" and for dry heat.

I really like living in the desert, but admittedly have a travel escape at least monthly and a home with a pretty good trees, a pool and a garden.

You actually can get a green environment here, but you pay a lot for it.

We don't gamble. Business and investing have more than enough ups and downs for us to get that particular itch to get scratched absolutely bloody. I was one of those poker players who hates the variance of it more than anything and doesn't have anywhere near enough gamble in him. I wasn't very happy lol.

EDIT: Not religious at all. Traumatized pastors kid actually.

What’s the reason for Vegas if you don’t gamble? That sounds like choosing San Diego even though you hate the ocean or Kansas City if you don’t like sports and BBQ.

Something to keep in mind if you're having kids. I've heard the schools here absolutely suck. You might want to do some research into that.

I will definitely agree food prices are more here at the chain stores. But if you're shopping at Whole Foods to begin with, that shouldnt be an issue, because you really dont care how much you spend if you're shopping there. There are ethnic grocery stores where the vegetables and meat are dirt cheap and as good or better quality than chain stores. I would also say in my experience alcohol in the stores is more expensive as well.

If you enjoy ethnic food of ANY kind, you'll find it here. I was surprised at how varied the restaurants and grocery stores are.....you want a hard to find Bulgarian food item? There is a Bulgarian grocery store here so no worries.

Fuel prices will also be higher coming from the midwest.

If you are into any type of outdoor activity ie golf, hiking, climbing, mountain biking, Vegas is a great location. Vegas is definitely a golf town. You can even go snowboarding 30 minutes from Vegas up on Mt Charleston. This is one of the main reasons I moved here. Everything I enjoy doing---golf, poker, hiking is so close. Add to that the Sierra Nevada's and Utah are so close, and your outdoor possibilities are endless.

Having grown up in the midwest for 18 years and having lived in the south for over 20 years (I would consider Louisville on the border of the south/midwest, I am definitely biased. Biased in how each of those two areas absolutely suck. So as long as you have no problem living in a desert environment and you can afford private school for your kids, moving here would be a no brainer.

hotter then f**k, dry and you get nose bleeds for no reason.

Cost of living is always going up so nothing is cheap any more. The $8.99 full rack of ribs is now $19.99 at Ellis Island, the Orleans buffet was $13.99 last year but they remodel the dining area but didn't change the food but it is now $21.99 Drink were cheap , very cheap but now a drink in a low level club is $9 for a beer.

I does get too cold in the winter but I moved here from Florida. No humidity here, it is a dry heat kind of like sticking your head in a oven and the breezes feel like a blow dryer.

The shows were cheap a few years ago but now they are over $100 a seat. Parking is no longer free, they charge $15 to park your car to spend money in the casino or to a over priced show.

If you are a Movie nut they have some of the nicest theaters that all play the same movies.

There are more scum bags and hustlers trying to scam you at every stop. Every where you go there are machines calling your name and once you learn to walk past them you will do alright.

Other then that it is a great place to live but not raise a family.Well unless you are looking to raise a stripper. Just look at the billboards, girls to your room, AKA Hookers.

But we got legal weed, that is a good thing, stop in and pick up a quarter for the price of a half when it was illegal but now the real criminal want their cut. AKA the Politicians

Is crime really worse in Las Vegas than Louisville?

I've been there three times for the Oaks/Derby, and crime seemed to be pretty rampant.

Not to mention the absolute gouging that goes on during Derby Week..$50 motel rooms rent for $550. Parking spaces, food in restaurants, souvenir crap, EVERYTHING at least doubles or triples in price..the town becomes a gang of pirates for that one week each May.

As Andy Beyer said "Louisville is a city with no redeeming qualities"..

1. Pretty sure anyone moving here realizes it's hot.
2. There are drink specials all over town. Some even offer 1/2 off their entire menu during happy hour. If you're a local, you wouldnt go on the strip to drink anyway.
3. There are plenty of places along the strip and downtown to park for free.
4. Learn to walk past slot machines? Uh ok. Sounds like a personal problem there. Scammers? Havent run across a single one.

If you just want to avoid state income tax, go to Washington or Texas or Florida.

Really only interested in Austin for Texas, and the COL there is high enough to more than make up for the tax savings. I personally hate FL for numerous boring reasons. WA won't work because the time zone starts mattering when it's 3 hours behind the eastern time zone where my customers are.

Austin is an amazing place to live. Austin's winters are slightly more mild than Vegas's but the summers are much more humid. Having never lived in Vegas, I would think the dryness would be a major positive.

BTW, if I'm comparing weather of various cities I like to go to this site: https://weatherspark.com/y/2228/Aver...tes-Year-Round

You know Vegas is in the Pacific time zone as well?

/thread

Yeah that was odd.

Also from my research using greatschools.org, there are a lot of good suburb communities in Vegas that have good-great schools.

Blah thought it was MST for some reason. I MIGHT be able to get by this. WA has a much higher cost of living and no 2p2 network.

How credible are those scores? I just checked the school district we live in, expecting horrible ratings. But according to that website there are a bunch of 8+ rated public schools. Not a single of our friends has their kids in a public school here. They all either moved across the state line to get to a different school district or buckle up the $1500/month for each child to send them to private school.

FWIW, I don’t think it’s a very good idea to sacrifice QoL for a little lower taxes or CoL unless financial constraints force you to. There’s probably a reason why Vegas is rated pretty low in most QoL rankings.

Austin is an amazing city, but CoL there will keep skyrocketing because of all the start-up hype.

Other cities in the SW may be worth checking into. Almost everyone I know that has lived in Las Vegas hasn't given it high marks for families.

Phoenix (Talking Stick has a fantastic poker room), Salt Lake City (no casinos), Reno, Portland, Tucson (new Amazon fulfillment center), Albuquerque, etc. All just a short flight from Vegas.

In all honestly my wife and I are about 90% likely to homeschool. We have zero confidence in any public school system and probably can't afford to send our kids to private schools we would actually trust.

I don't want to turn this into a debate about education, but we're less sensitive to the local school system than most since we aren't planning to utilize it.

Do you have a link to poor quality of life for Vegas? I'm seeing and hearing different things. It seems pretty average to me.

I don't really play poker anymore and I do exactly 0 gambling except for special situations. I'm a self employed guy who also invests on the side... I feel plenty alive without turning up the volume. I'm looking for a low tax environment with good cost of living. I'd be very open to SLC if it weren't for my wife hating cold.

I could theoretically be interested in Reno. Haven't really considered it. AZ, OR, NM aren't really on my radar for tax reasons.

Does anyone know anything about the Vegas job market? Paradoxically it would be better for me if it were worse.

Pretty credible imo. It’s vased off standardized test scores, graduation rates, and I think college enrollment rates too.

Anecdotally, we found our neighborhood and school district we are very happy with using greatschools.org.