A lot of people speak poorly about how expensive life is in California these days, but I disagree.
California is a GREAT place to live IF:
- You hit the Power Ball and never have to worry about money
- You marry (and then divorce) an ultra-rich celebrity
- You’re looking to sponge off the government and live for free
For everyone else who works hard and pays bills, the Golden State has lost its luster. In fact, more people than ever are opting to move out of state because of financial reasons, including to Nevada.
Here are 5 reasons you’ll have sticker shock (the good kind) once you move to Las Vegas or anywhere in Nevada:
- Real estate prices
Let’s get right down to it and talk about home prices in Las Vegas. The good news is that if you’re coming from California, property prices in Nevada will seem almost comically affordable. But the bad news is that if you’re coming from 1990, the home prices may not look like anything special to you.
But seriously, let’s get into the numbers. Currently, the average sale price in the greater Las Vegas area is $303,000. Yes, the median home price is near the low 300ks. That’s also a significant +8% from last year. The price per square foot in Las Vegas is $172 right now, which has gone up +5.5% since last year.
So, what does that mean? It’s like the clock was turned back 20 years (no exaggeration!) from California real estate prices, where you can get a rental property or condo in the mid $100,000s, a simple townhome, starter home, or older house in the mid $200,000s, and a typical 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom property that’s very nice in the low $300,000s.
I just did a quick search for homes with at least 4-bedrooms in Las Vegas between $300k – $400k and there are about 13 pages of results, with plenty of 2,000 sq ft, 4-bed, 3+ bath newer homes starting in the low to mid $300k range.
Wow! Just imagine the possibilities if you had $500,000 or even $1,000,0000+ to drop on your new home in the Las Vegas area. Please contact me if you’d like to see a list of homes in your price range!
- Rents and rental property opportunities
You’ll definitely want to buy a house when you move to Las Vegas, but I’m guessing that once you get settled, you’ll quickly see the opportunities that investment properties offer in the Las Vegas area. My advice is to skip the time share and look at buying a nice condo or, even better, a single-family home that can be rented year-round with one stable tenant.
Right now, the median rental price in Las Vegas is about $1,057, which is relatively low compared to California of course.
But there’s also high demand for rentals, since only 53% of all housing units in the Las Vegas area are owner-occupied, which is much lower than the U.S. homeownership rate of 63.9%.
Add in the fact that tourists are in and out of town incessantly and there are a lot of seasonal or temporary workers, execs, entertainers, and other businesspeople and there’s gold in the Las Vegas rental market.
- The reasonable cost of living
Now that you have your living situation sorted out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the overall cost of living in Las Vegas. In fact, the good life in Nevada is way more affordable than you’re used to in California or just about anywhere else.
To put Las Vegas’ cost of living in perspective, let’s compare it to Sacramento, CA and San Francisco, CA.
In Las Vegas, consumer prices are 12.32% lower than the prices in Sacramento, CA. Likewise, utilities, including electricity, water, etc., run 3.9% lower in Las Vegas than Sacramento. When you go grocery shopping in Las Vegas you’ll really see the savings, as it’s a mind boggling 23.9% less expensive than Sacramento! Even the average gym membership in Las Vegas is 42% lower than in Sacramento (and they’re way nicer!)
Add it all up, and the cost of living in Las Vegas is approximately 6.08% lower than in Sacramento, including purchasing power. So, to simplify, if you make $4,000 in Las Vegas you can live as if you made $5,000 in Sacramento.
Now let’s turn to the cost of living in Las Vegas vs. San Francisco.
You’ll be amazed by the savings compared to a high-cost city like SF, LA, or SD, with consumer prices 25% lower in Las Vegas. So, you need to make only $4,370 in Las Vegas to live the same quality of life that you did making $8,300 in San Francisco!
- Taxes (what taxes?!)
We’re already at #4 on our list of reasons you’ll have price shock in Las Vegas, and we haven’t even mentioned the potentially best part – the tax situation. In fact, many people move to Nevada solely because residents of this state pay no income tax – one of only 12 states that offer such tax amnesty.
The minimum Nevada sales tax rate (a combination of state, county, and city sales tax rates) is 8.38%, including Nevada’s sales tax rate of 4.6%. However, the Las Vegas sales tax rate is 0%!
The savings just keeps going, as Nevada’s property taxes are also some of the lowest in the nation, with an average effective tax rate of just 0.69%, below the national average of 1.08%. In Las Vegas (Clark County), the average homeowner pays $1,763 in property taxes annually, compared to $1,720 in Nevada or an average of $2,700 across the United States.
You already saved a ton of money when buying a house and the day-to-day cost of living, and you’ll be able to keep it instead of giving it to Uncle Sam!
- Starting biz
If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur, one of the first things you’ll notice is that Nevada is an EXTREMELY business-friendly state, and that extends to Las Vegas and even local municipalities. Just about every aspect of business ownership from getting started to permits, leases to insurance, and employment to taxes pencils out in your favor when you operate in Las Vegas.
Seriously, you’ll wonder how the heck you ever did business and made a dollar in California!
But it gets even better for business owners, as Nevada collects no corporate tax, franchise tax, or inventory tax.
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In light of these 5 reasons you’ll have sticker shock in Las Vegas, are you ready to move, buy a home, and start your business? Contact me to talk about it and I have a GREAT free resource for you.