Crossposted from Las Vegas Lifestyle... not sure how many people actually go to that sub.

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 a 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 neighborhood.

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!

Ehhh I'm pretty sure you're gonna get way better responses in the LVL forum. But from the pros and cons you listed, I'd say go for it!

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

Just left the Rio, if you need cash you better bring it, the ATM charges $10, to get you money so you can spend it there, WTF SMH.
I didn't play just hung out with a friend he has a friend from back home there so I got tired of all the stories, "Remember the time we..." had to run out of there. I would rather hear a hour of Bad Beat stories then another story about the time when they were kids.

If you're going to correctly analyze cost of living, you should use no data from the strip.

You have to use the data from the strip if you go to the strip for entertainment, If you do not plan on ever going to the strip then maybe you shouldn't.

The strip has went from cheap entertainment when I first got here in 2001 to very expensive today. If you just want to work, go home eat at a fast food place then Vegas is not that expensive but I do not live to just grind my life away working.

Now with all the big corporations owning all the casinos they want to squize ever cent out of you they can, so if you want to go to the strip every time you go out it is very expensive, $15 to self park in a garage, $10 to use a ATM, then the $2.50 for a bag of chips you get for .75 , $11 for a pack of cigarettes in a machine. Forget the prices of food, they want to fleece everyone as soon as they walk in the door, that why they get to pay the over paid executive of the casino but pay the workers less.

When I first moved her valet parking was free so you would tip the guy $5-$20 to park your car but now the Casinos, the Bellagio charge $30 so they more or less took the workers money, still pay them $10 hr but cut the tips down by 90%+ so no more $5-$20 it is a buck or 2. But if you do not go to the strip there is still Dotty's. Parking is free and the hookers are cheap, just pick off the crabs and scabs.

there may be no state income tax, but like anything else they're going to get their money.

i just saw where property taxes throughout Clark County are on a steep rise (upwards of 40%+ increases for some residents).