[klegrand]

I want to be closer to my aging parents. I am moving with 2 children, 15 and 11. I have a job offer of 65K plus several good perks. My biggest concern is housing and housing areas. I feel comfortable spending 150K on a house. Is this even possible for a decent area? Thanks for any info anyone can give me.

[BobKovacs]

7-10 years ago it was possible to buy a brand new, 3BR, 2BA house with granite countertops and 10' ceilings in a gated community in a great part of town for 150k (I did it in 97 for 120K). Today, there's not a house under $200k that you'd want to live in with kids anywhere in the valley. I'd plan on being in the $250k-$300k range, honestly, unless you're willing to compromise on something- safety, schooling, or whatever.

However, you could find a nice 3 BR apartment for probably $1200-$1400/month, and rent until the market cools (or is that "if" the market cools? lol).

Bob

[olecapt]

Single Family Homes in reasonable areas start at about $225,000. You can find condos down to about $190,000. If you have a down payment you could likely buy. If not the rental market is reasonably good. You can get a reasonable three bedroom house in a reasonable neighborhood for $1000 to $1200. You can save up some money and buy in a year or so.

I do not project a substantial price break...but I don't see any substantial run up in prices either. So you likely lose nothing if you wait a year.

[RedWingsFan]

You will not get a good home for that in Las Vegas. Not by a long shot. If you want to be in the better areas of Vegas and want a single family home it will cost our more like around $300k. Let's put it this way, last month we sold our 1100 square foot townhouse in Las Vegas for $205,000 and it was in a not so desirable area of town. That's what you get for that kind of money. For $150k you will be lucky to get a small condo. Housing in that town has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. It's rough on people wanting to buy, but great for us sellers. I bought my townhouse 8 years ago for $95,000!

Be advised: Las Vegas has one of the worst school systems in the country. Do a search for Morgan Quitno Press, they put the list out each year and Nevada ranks 48 out of 50 states, almost last. I spent two years subbing in that school district and I can tell you they are horrible. If you want the better ones (and they still aren't good) you will need to go to Summerlin or Green Valley, where houses will be at least $300k.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by RedWingsFan

You will not get a good home for that in Las Vegas. Not by a long shot. If you want to be in the better areas of Vegas and want a single family home it will cost our more like around $300k. Let's put it this way, last month we sold our 1100 square foot townhouse in Las Vegas for $205,000 and it was in a not so desirable area of town. That's what you get for that kind of money. For $150k you will be lucky to get a small condo. Housing in that town has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. It's rough on people wanting to buy, but great for us sellers. I bought my townhouse 8 years ago for $95,000!

Be advised: Las Vegas has one of the worst school systems in the country. Do a search for Morgan Quitno Press, they put the list out each year and Nevada ranks 48 out of 50 states, almost last. I spent two years subbing in that school district and I can tell you they are horrible. If you want the better ones (and they still aren't good) you will need to go to Summerlin or Green Valley, where houses will be at least $300k.

With all due respect to our substitute teacher...Teach knows not of which he speaks..

The schools of Las Vegas are better than those of LA or San Diego and not quite as good as those of Phoenix.

The MQ ratings are dull. Effectively you compare the heavily metropolitran population of Nevada (Almost everybody lives in Clark or Washoe County) with states with large suburban and rural populations. If you correctly compare Las Vegas to large metropolitan school districts in the SW it does OK.

I will not argue anecdotal experience. Then again I have a friend who teaches in a nice Summerlin school and considers it the best teaching job in the US...go figure.

There are bad schools in Las Vegas...as there are in all major metropolitan areas...but the good ones stand well against good ones else where. Don't live in a bad school district...

[RedWingsFan]

olecapt.... I would take a guess that you probably haven't spent one day working in a Las Vegas school. Like I said, I spent two years doing it - at all the middle and high schools in that valley. While the schools in Summerlin may be a little better, they are by no means good! That school system is stagnet because of so many illegal spanish speaking immigrants in it that are holding it back. They refuse to speak English, don't pass the tests, need bilingual teachers at taxpayer expenses, etc. The elementary school that my daughter WOULD HAVE went to if we stayed living there (but I would never have allowed it) was taught half the day in English and half the day in Spanish.

Over the course of the last 3 weeks there have been three students found with guns.

The schools are bad there!

They started this school year SHORT 400 teachers! People that are not qualified are filling those classrooms! Don't try to twist the statistics showing Nevada schools at the bottom to make them sound better. That's what politicans do and everyone knows they are full of it.

[RedWingsFan]

P.S. - you said to not live in a bad school district in Las Vegas. That shows me how much you know about the schooling there. There is only ONE school district there... the Clark County School District. It's one district that handles Las Vegas (Summerlin included because Summerlin is an area of Las Vegas, not a town of it's own), Henderson, Boulder City, Mesquite, etc. ONE in the same!!!

[doll]

If you want to get some better schools in Vegas, if you have the money send your children to private/Catholic school. The best private/Catholic schools in town would be Our Lady of Las Vegas (which is in a pretty decent part of town, most other schools are, well, to be blunt..in the ghetto.) or St. Elizabeth, which is a bit far from the middle of Vegas. If you send your kids to public school you'll have to worry about them much more than you will with private school, because I think around 4 kids have been found with guns in schools over the last month or so. It is definitely ridiculous.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by RedWingsFan

P.S. - you said to not live in a bad school district in Las Vegas. That shows me how much you know about the schooling there. There is only ONE school district there... the Clark County School District. It's one district that handles Las Vegas (Summerlin included because Summerlin is an area of Las Vegas, not a town of it's own), Henderson, Boulder City, Mesquite, etc. ONE in the same!!!

Actually I know a good bit about it. Summerlin for instance is partially in the City of Las Vegas and partially not. North Summerlin is in the City. South Summerlin is in the County of Clark.

In a twitty way you are of course correct that there is a single school district...but it has multiple zones. Various elementary and middle schools have quite low Language challenged students. There are a number under 5% and a couple at 0%. Interesting that one of the top five schools is at 11% and has 25% on free lunch.

The best middle school in town is Hyde Park...by a significant margin. It is almost 10% language challenged and over 40% on free lunch. There are however a number of middle schools with Language challenged students at below 5%.

Again the middle and upper middle class neighborhoods are indistinguishable from their equivalents in the SW states. The poor neighborhoods are not so hot...as in any other major SW city.

It is not an exceptional school system. But it is in the middle of the pack.

The schools are not bad there...just in the middle of the pack.

[olecapt]

Might I also suggest we stop the nonsense about kids with guns? It happens anywhere. You think Columbine was a bad school system? You want to go rural to protect your children? How about the Amish country of Pennsylvania?