We were married in LV 28 years ago. Have gone 2-6x/yr since.
We got married there 30 years ago. We went frequently in the 1990s but once we had 3 kids that went away.
But over the last couple years we have become VERY concerned about access to water. Lake Mead is nearly depleted.
We don't want to sink several hundred grand into a home & find it worthless in 10 or 20 years
The water issue is a concern. I do feel that the "third straw" puts Las Vegas in good shape compared to other places. I realize that the potential exists that there might not be enough water for even the third straw. But, Las Vegas is an area with 2 million people. I just see no possibility that in the near future (10 to 20 years is near future) that houses will be worthless because LV is uninhabitable. I just don't see that happening. Could water become expensive? Could there be water restrictions beyond the current situation? Sure. But, I just don't see that size city dying in the relevant time period (I'm 68 and DH is 74).
Also Albuquerque. Have never visited--why do you think there is nothing to do? It's a sizable city with a bustling arts scene & tons of outdoor activities.
Curious what activities attract you.
I don't mean there is literally nothing to do. Just nothing to do beyond the ordinary or that particularly appeals to me. I don't really care about the bustling arts scene. And, I don't like outdoor activities. Hence, living in the desert in Las Vegas doesn't bother me.
What activities do attract me? I enjoy dining out at a wide variety of restaurants, both expensive and very much not expensive. ABQ has some dining out, of course, but not the variety I would like to have.
In LV, I always enjoyed the shopping and the occasional show.
DH and I used to play duplicate bridge a lot (pre-kids) and particularly enjoyed tournaments in, wait for it, Las Vegas. ABQ does have a bridge club and the occasional tournament but there is just far more of this in Las Vegas.
Most of my other activities I enjoy can be done anywhere. I enjoy playing video games and enjoy a specialized genealogy activity (identifying unknown parents or grandparents through the use of DNA).
So, sure ABQ would let me pursue the activities I could do anywhere. I could play bridge there. I could go restaurants. But, there would be no more activities for me there than I have right now in Texas. In fact, less since I would be going from a metropolitan area of over 7 million people to one with under a million. The biggest draw of ABQ is the lower cost of housing.
(Oh -- when I was researching ABQ people are very worried about water there also).
I live in centennial hills, 89131 zip, since we moved here in 2005 from Wisconsin. Zip 89131 was brand new, nothing up here but now there is almost too much of everything..traffic, shopping. You mentioned healthcare….I have cancer and my husband COPD. We have had same primary care doc, dentist and eye doctor for 16 years. My cancer and hospital stays have been good. We do have PPO insurance so we can go to any doctor we want. If you go to HMO is where you’re going to have some issues with doctors coming and going.
Thanks, this is helpful. Centennial Hills and Skye Canyon are both on my short list of places to check out. We are on traditional Medicare so we can see any doctor who takes Medicare. My understanding is that some people have trouble finding good primary care doctors where you can quickly get an appointment so many go the concierge route which we are prepared to do if necessary.
Oh and one more thing…I don’t know how old you are but we were late50’s when we moved here with no health issues. So many times we have been grateful that we bought a nice sized but smaller house with hardly any work and it was ONE STORY. No stairs! And now we need those walk in showers. Never used those massive tubs so out they go! Love it here.
2) I highly recommend not going with a 2 level house late in age. Think about what happens when one of you has mobility issues as you age. I was shocked with our current house how minimal the level changes from the garage to the house, it made things easy when my mom used to visit with her walker.
The w story thing is one of those "it depends" things. DH really had 2 criteria when we moved into our current house. One story and no pool. Well, he gave in on the pool since almost all of the houses where we were looking had pools. I do love looking at our pool (more so than actually using it), but it is a lot of upkeep and we want to minimize upkeep as we get older. So he is very insistent now on no pool.
However, he has become less firm on the one story thing. Our last 2 houses have been one story and we do enjoy one story living. We will certainly look hard for an acceptable house that is one story. Most of the houses in our price range (maybe 85% of them) are 2 stories. Now, that does leave 15% that are one stories. However, my perception from the listings is that the one story houses tend to be older and tend to be on worse condition. Also many of the one story floor plans are just, well, bizarre. I don't really understand it. I haven't seen this anywhere except LV. Just really odd, non-functional floor plans and that is very common in one story houses.
So, yes, we really want a one story. But it isn't a complete deal breaker.
I have a friend with a large 2 story house. Her mother lives with her upstairs so they bought a stair lift. I've been over there many times and seen it operate and it really does work well. My friend is my age and is totally mobile herself, but she says she finds the stair lift very helpful in doing things like carrying something upstairs. She puts the idea on the chair and just sends it up. So, I think DH and I would consider a 2 story if it was conducive to a stair lift.
On one thing that is so odd to me about LV 2 story houses. The vast majority of them that I've seen listed have balconies. I've lived in lots of 2 story houses and none have balconies. I don't want a balcony because of 2 reasons: (1) security and (2) I would never open it because I would worry about my cats getting out. I guess I could just close it off, make it as secure as possible and pretend it doesn't exist....
One thing Mesquite does not have is natural gas, so people who want to heat or cook with gas have large propane tanks that need to be filled.
That is actually a plus. In our existing house we replaced all of our gas appliances with non-gas. We only use gas for our pool heater.
Thanks for the info on Mesquite. I might look at it if we don't find what we want in Las Vegas.
