Anyone move from Pacific Northwest to Las Vegas? (Reno: ski resort, sales)

I would choose Reno over Vegas. A mild four seasons, much easier to get around, friendly people, prettier and lots of outdoor activities year round with Tahoe only 45 minutes away.

Reno is way too cold and boring compared to Vegas. No thanks. But I do know a family friend who moved to Reno after the kids moved out. Tax reasons mainly.

OP, my two aunts and two uncles all moved from Portland to Las Vegas many years ago. They love it and never looked back! I’m also moving two months from today to Vegas for some of the reasons you cite. Two days ago it was warmer in Anchorage, Alaska than it was in Portland and yesterday was 68 and cloudy, an absolute pile of dung. I’ve never seen such poor weather anywhere as this place. It’s beyond baffling when people ask, “Why are you moving??” Gee maybe because it’s a reasonable expectation not to ever need a jacket in JULY! It should be blazing hot all summer long, not freezing cold! I moved about 60 boxes yesterday from garage to living room so I could take apart shelving units and I actually went outside to cool off!! That’s how cold it is.

I’m especially sick of this place at the moment because I start to get ticked when it’s mid-summer and still not nice and I’m sick of the lousy people here who have zero standards for quality living. They’re frankly just stupid. They literally don’t know any better. “Oh doesn’t everywhere have a 10% income tax...? Wait not everyone pays the 2nd highest rate in the nation? Heh well can’t fix the weather can you? Traffic is bad everywhere right? Like 9th worst in the nation is still better than 8 cities!! Why would anyone want a restaurant open past 9 pm? That’s when the kiddos go to bed! Great entertainment?? We have that! There’s the rose garden you can walk around and Saturday Market that doesn’t at all get boring after a few times seeing it, not at all.” I don’t know if these people just need to travel more or what but you’d have to have some of the lowest standards in the world to think it’s great in a place that’s objectively terrible. One of the gloomiest, cloudiest places around, crushing income taxes in OR (at least you have zero in WA), horrible traffic, nothing open late, nothing in the way of quality entertainment at all, just the sleepiest, most boring rainhole.

Seattle has gotten incredibly expensive. It’s a boom city for sure but I’ve been to Seattle dozens of times, I didn’t find it much cooler than Portland. In all honesty it’s not much to write home about in my opinion. The main thing you have going on there is great jobs, which I couldn’t possibly care less about.

We're moving back to Las Vegas from Portland. Part of the reason is weather. I had severe depression here and need the sunshine there. I'm from Texas myself born and raised so heat and humidity are my norm. Las Vegas is even better because it's a dry heat and I can still walk all over outside in the hot months without being too bothered. However, you can go from your air conditioned home to your air conditioned car to whatever air conditioned building you're visiting that day with no problem.

We lived in Las Vegas for three years before that Eugene for three years. I've been in the Pacific Northwest since 1999 and have traveled and lived all over it. It's beautiful here. I came for the quiet peace of mind and wilderness in college. Plus both sides of my extended family lived there so I got to know them. Our favorite family holidays were to Seattle where we had a 65 ft yatch. We'd take it to the San Juan islands and along the coast. Those days are gone now as we've all grown up and moved on with our own families.

I had alway heard about Portland but I have to agree it's over hyped, over crowded and over priced these days, but beautiful and offering exciting innovation with the new influx of energy. The traffic is the worst here that I've seen not counting LA. The PNW is a different culture from the SW for sure.

The SW is more like Southern California between Las Vegas and Arizona both. It offers a whole new different set of outdoor adventures and a line of my family history that I recently discovered there that goes back to the pioneers that settled Nevada. One of my Grandma's on my Mother's Father's side five generations ago was the first doctor in the area and she started a maternity hospital there. She's even in some Nevada history books. So for me I found I have deep Nevada roots and come by my love for it naturally. I never knew my Grandpa on my Mom's side since he died a year after I was born and Grandma rarely talked about him, so that bit of my family history was lost to me until I'd lived there. I have extended family in Las Vegas I've never met.

Coming from the PNW and being a Texas native was still culture shocking to me in the SW. Both TX and the PNW are more casual laid back. Texas is very friendly so I grew up seeing people as my friends and loving everybody for who they are. In the SW people are health conscious and about their looks and their cars. It's a car culture for sure. There are so many beautiful people there, but Las Vegas is an entertainment town close to LA so it makes sense, and being healthy is good for you. It's healthy in a different way though from the natural looking no make up wearing healthy in the PNW.

One thing that shocked me in Las Vegas was all the bars on the windows and doors around town and a security guard at most regular stores greets you at the doors. I don't like it when they hover. You can also buy liquor in the grocery stores and gamble there 24/7. I don't gamble so I don't pay much attention to it but the convenience of alcohol is nice. There are tons of local discounts too and happy hour is very much a local thing there for dinner out. We really love happy hour prices as does the rest of the town. Another surprising thing is how many great places there are eat off Strip. The food is amazing. We also have a Chinatown/Korea town area.

The housing is another difference. In the PNW you have wood homes with porches on land and in Las Vegas they have stucco homes with tile roofs on smaller lots. With barrier walls instead of fences. There are a lot of nicer areas too on the outer rims of the city with the older homes built on the inner rims like a donut they say.

The shopping is another thing here. Since it's a high volume tourist town it's really out of this world! You can find real designer clothes at Ross, TJ Maxx and Marshall's for pennies on the dollar. I've found $300 BCBG shoes for $25. I absolutely love shopping here and the sales in January and July are the best! I save my 'Mad Money' for then and go crazy shopping! My friends and family come to town and go crazy too with me. We even found tourists planning their entire trips around doing their annual clothes shopping here. They said it's cheaper to come here and have a vacation too then travel and shop at home. It makes sense.

I found a really good quality of life for the middle class in Las Vegas. Better than I can have in the PNW even, or at least I like the advantages more there and adapted to the lifestyle the best. Plus I have way more friends there as I was involved in the community. I found people receptive to my friendliness and with positive helpful attitudes. I call them an Army of Angels. Whatever you're into you can find it there or some version of it.

The apartment living is also great. Most properties are resort style living with elaborate pools and 24 hour gyms with club houses. I noticed this time the housing has gone up and apartments are full so I'm looking more for a house rental which there are plenty of. I'll just get a gym membership or a stationary bike and treadmill for home. I'd like to go on some of the hikes and trails on the west side. The mountains there are beautiful but not covered in trees. They are like dark rock surrounding the valley, but there is a ski resort on mount Charleston about 45 minutes away depending on where you live. The mountains in winter do get snow capped and it's breathtaking like the sunsets with palm trees.

Okay, property tax wise, my house is 2300 sq and my property taxes are 2,400 yearly. Definitely cheaper.

Hi, I moved here 6 months ago. I moved here from Miami though but can comment on some of your questions.

I find that availability of entertainment in Las Vegas is nothing short of incredible and not necessarily expensive either. There are a tremendous amount of community based things going on as well. Sunshine? Yes, there is plenty and it is hot here, but I was surprised to see just how cold it is in here in the Winter, something I did not know.

The availability of restaurants here is also somewhat mindboggling to me. I've never seen the kind of selection and various price points in restaurants and similar places (desert, smoothie, coffee, etc. etc) in the US. I have lived in several very big US cities, etc., etc. Vegas is pretty unique.

There's great shopping at several off-strip malls and the iconic casinos on the strip each has retail outlets of the world's best brands and high fashion, for those who want that kind of shopping, it is readily available as well.

I'm an east coaster and interaction here is IMO very west coast oriented, kind of laid back, kind of quiet. People are not as engaging here as they are in Miami, but generally everyone I've encountered here has been nice and I have some genuine friends I've made here already.

Yeah, there's no traffic here. Truly.....holy cow, I really can't believe it. Good highway infrastructure. Yeah, there's a minute or two here or there of minor traffic. I literally can get anywhere, and I mean anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley within 45 minutes any hour of the day.

Property taxes are insane in some places. When I lived in downtown Portland my $730,000 condo cost $11,000/year in taxes alone and they charged me taxes separately on both parking spots and the storage unit lol. The house in Vegas is the same price and I estimate taxes won’t much exceed $6,000. I pay more than that right now for a $550,000 home.

I’m with Merry, the weather gets too depressing for me and takes an active toll on my mental health. I have no idea what kind of person can tolerate clouds every day almost all year long. Certainly not me. Even just seeing the sun makes me happy, I get energy from the sun whatever it’s the actual Vitamin D or the general sense of happiness seeing it.

As for some things like bars on windows in Vegas, come on, only in the bad areas and that’s true of ANY bad area anywhere. I’ve lived in Long Beach with bars over the windows all over me, SE Portland has the same thing, and if you’re in Green Valley or Summerlin there aren’t any bars on windows. If I start seeing that I drive away lol.

The off Strip dining is also surprisingly cheap coming from Portland, where most of the time it’s very challenging even at average places finding a meal for under $12-13. Vegas has more places seemingly like back in the day where you can get a lunch for $10. I like that!

The biggest thing I love about Vegas is probably that it hits way above its size. It’s as famous of a city as NYC or LA yet it’s way smaller and it has way better food options than any city of its size, in fact some of the best in the world, and same with entertainment because the city is built on those aspects. Yet you get off the Strip and the good areas feel so normal and lightly trafficked compared to what I’m used to seeing.

I will tell you that property taxes are much cheaper here than you are used to in the PNW. However, healthcare here is awful. We have a severe shortage of doctors & the ones we do have aren't great. There's a joke the locals have here: "Where do you go if you need any medical care in Vegas? Answer: Straight to the airport!"

I’ve heard there are plenty of concierge doctors that provide great service, and you’re a 40 minute flight away from some of the best specialists in the world in CA. I don’t get the big deal with complaints about healthcare. It’s not a grocery store, how often are you actually going to a doctor? I haven’t been to a doctor in years.