The Ride To Reno,dogs & Best Digs (Las Vegas, Sparks: fit in, best neighborhoods)
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I am moving from CHATTANOOGATennessee to RENO in January.
I used to make these transcontinental moves with the greatest of ease. I was 22, had a 280Z, and everything I owned fit in the back. I did Sacramento to Nashville in one shot! Now, I have 2 big dogs, a cat and a bird. My wife and I have to follow each other. My leg goes to sleep after 700 miles. In the summer, this would be a ride to enjoy the scenery, stop at frequent opportunities to check out the vistas and leisurely walk the dogs. But it is the dead of winter. My job will require me to be in RENO the first week of January. I am atemtping to get AAA to find me lodging every 900 miles that will take my animals overnight.
This is a 4 day trip if I average 900 miles a day and make three lodging stops.
Right now I have two concerns:
I want to minimize BAD WEATHER yet not sacrifice too much time. Can anyone with experience, help me choose the best route.? I-40 appears to be the safest in terms of avoiding really bad weather. 1-10 is the safest but hundreds of miles out of the way. Biggest question is - Is it best to go to RENO via 95 through VEGAS, 395 at the edge of Death Valley and the Sierra Nevada, or just go a little out of the way and take 99 to Sacramento and thru Tahoe?
The other is with Temporary living. I do not expect my employer to offer it and my dilema is that making such a long trip, my wife and I starting work almost immediately, gives us very little time to scope out housing and the best neighborhoods. Does anyone have any suggestion as to apartments, condos, realtors who handle homes, or corporate housing that is partially or fully furnished that will allow dogs?
I received some very helpful information in my last post about RENO and am wondering if anyone can tell me about other desirable and lesser known communities that could offer more house for less money or a more natural lifestyle. I just noted a house fr sale on Craigslist in VIRGINIA CITY. I never see it mentioned when talking about popular places to live around RENO. A member suggested PORTOLA on the CA side. I have looked for houses there but can't find anything. I am not a suburbanite by nature. I like the ammenities, the security to some degree, but not the structure and order of subdivision living. Either I like elbow room and a place to look at the stars or some place closer to the city that has created it's own natural enviroment of hiking trails, lakes and parks. It seems so defeating to some to a place surrounded by such natural beauty and spectacular sunsets to obstruct that by being crammed into a subdivision. But if you tell me, "that is what you are going to get in Reno - no exceptions unless you have a mil", then I will accept that and ask, "where is the best of the worst?"
RENO is a little confusing from the outside. It is high priced for what you get. In Florida, the houses are priced in a median of about 400k, like RENO but you also get 4000 square feet - not 1800. Yet RENTS in RENO for a 400k house are 1500. They'd be 3000. in Tampa Florida. Screwy.So, perhaps someone that has lived in the area can suggest where I might find the best bargain for the buck and my dogs won't be a problem.
THANK YOU.
Boy,,, Take a southern route, but remember anywhere can be icy and nasty in January. Las Vegas gets snow sometimese, then 95 as I mentioned elsewhere. As far as apartments, there is a glut of apartments in Reno, contact Dickson or Ferrari realty to start. Virginia City is a great place to visit, not much housing in the town and it is built over 700 miles of mine tunnels and shafts. Virginian City Highlands is worth looking at. Palomino Valley,, there are 5 acre parcels at $327,000 right now, with water and power.
I'm pretty sure the Truckee River Lodge still accepts pets and is an option for short term living. Furnished but with kitchens etc. The location is downtown so not exactly family oriented but it's not too bad. A friend used them a few years back when she moved to town with dogs. There are reviews of the place on tripadvisor.
501 W 1st St
Reno, NV 89503
(775) 786-8888
You're right about the rents in Reno. The whole thing is out of wack. The rents you see now are very close to what they were in 2001 but the house prices aren't. It's a sign that things are over valued here.
I would take 95 not 395. 95 runs through the desert while 395 has many mountain passes and runs along and through the Sierras.
Love the town and it's like living in an old postcard..all classic wild west.
Renting in this sprawling Sommersett subdivision that is pretty absurd.
A real developmental bastardization of natural beauty that obviously is
to Californians what honey is to bees. Overpriced, cookie cutter tract homes and cluttery cluster homes that are way overpriced - except for people
that have been used to bending over all their lives in California and they think it's a bargain!!! I have the equivelent of a mansion in Tennessee that costed me a third of the outer-space prices here. Real Estate is absolutely absurd here but I have to think that there is a bottoming out and, as much as Realtors tell you, it already has "corrected", you know they are lying. PEOPLE WHO WORK HERE are hurting while retirees from Caifornia play golf all day.
Dogs made it fine but I am going to have to find COMMON SENSE housing with a real back yard by summer. I';d love to remain IN the city in the old bungalow district but even those little cracker box 1930's houses with 800 sq feet are selling at 350 and up for a FIXER UPPER!!!
Like I say - love the town but for people who really work here on regular money, it's a bit limited.
Love the town and it's like living in an old postcard..all classic wild west.
Renting in this sprawling Sommersett subdivision that is pretty absurd.
A real developmental bastardization of natural beauty that obviously is
to Californians what honey is to bees. Overpriced, cookie cutter tract homes and cluttery cluster homes that are way overpriced - except for people
that have been used to bending over all their lives in California and they think it's a bargain!!! I have the equivelent of a mansion in Tennessee that costed me a third of the outer-space prices here. Real Estate is absolutely absurd here but I have to think that there is a bottoming out and, as much as Realtors tell you, it already has "corrected", you know they are lying. PEOPLE WHO WORK HERE are hurting while retirees from Caifornia play golf all day.
Dogs made it fine but I am going to have to find COMMON SENSE housing with a real back yard by summer. I';d love to remain IN the city in the old bungalow district but even those little cracker box 1930's houses with 800 sq feet are selling at 350 and up for a FIXER UPPER!!!
Like I say - love the town but for people who really work here on regular money, it's a bit limited.
Hate to tell you this Dude...but you jumped right into the middle of the most expensive place in Nevada. And more expensive than many places in rural CA.
Check the prices before you move...not after.
Regular people don't live there. They go to the outlying areas...
hey welcome to Nevada. Most people who move here only think about whether they should after they arrive. Works out OK mostly .
Actually, most everything I read before I decided to take this job in Reno, indicated that NEW CONSTRUCTION was brisk and commanded high dollars at a median of 400 plus..on the other end, the spew from Realtors was that the market still held lots of value in homes from the lower two hundred thousands up. I made my "educated' decision based on the likelihood of my wife and I both working, eventually buying but renting in the first year. She has yet to find one. (too over-qualified for the market and to accomplished for th professional pay scale)
As I said in a previous post, rents on the same propertes that are listed at between 400 and 500k are at LESS THAN HALF of the normal mortgage payment...so all I can think is that most of these people must either have paid cash for their homes, or have I.O. loans to be able to rent at such low rates. The more likely story is that may of the people who are buying in Reno,
are just investers who buy to flip. It is why I left Florida. The market was so overinflated and the competition for a regular person with a home to sell was tough against these "flippers' who weight the market down and can afford to sit on price. But, even here, that is why the flips are renting them out cheap. Too much buildng. They can't move them as fast...and builders are offering all kinds of incventives and price reductions to get inventory moving.
What the Realtors do not tell you about those "bargains" at the bottom end of the range is that they are most often poor construction and built ten or more years ago. Most often the ONLY advantage is that they have a real yard - not a clump of dirt with some gravel over it. Construction here isn't the best and isn't very consistent
WATER is the biggest problem here yet, they build mega developments like there is an endless pipe. Water is also VERY expensive so plants, trees and grass is out unless you want to make a car payment for water so you can have a green oasis on a normal lot.
I frankly do not undertsand how an average person afford to live here unless they have been in their home for over ten years and have equity. Now, the idiot mayor wants public support for rasing taxes.
My view - California ought to annex this place. They have taken it over anyway. When the people of other states escape thier misery in the paradise elsewhere, they shouldn't bring their plague with them. I bought land in Costa Rica. I have been going there for two decades and love he natural beauty.
The west coast money pockets moved in about six years back, bought everything up, more than quadrupled the asking price of land after they dissected and subdivided it, build condos and spas, with no supporting infractructure and feel PROUD that they have INFLICTED THEIR WAY OF LIFE
ON EDEN. It takes no brains to have money..and to ruin paradise somewhere else while escaping your own hell... It seems to be the American way and obviously, no place is immune. BOZEMAN MONTANA is another one. I remember in the eighties when land there was 265.00 an acre. I could have been a millionaire if I'd bought then....then I could afford to live in RENO now! :>)
I just relocated to Sparks and I agree with what you are saying about the real estate market. My advice is to rent for the next few years because these prices haven't bottomed out by a long shot. I feel sorry for all these people who are jumping on the buying bandwagon when they can't afford it in the first place. Like you said it makes no sense that $400K houses are renting for 1300-1500 a month. So why buy when you can rent for half the price. You could take the extra money and save it for when the prices become reasonable. I am a single guy and renting an apt for $800 which is pricey but compared to the condo prices I'm getting a bargain. There are some old condos they are trying to sell for around 160-180K. Do the math and that's over $1200 a month not including condo fees or taxes. There are even some new condos over by Spanish Springs that start at $280K. I laughed my ass off when I saw that. Driving through Spanish Springs just made me want to puke. Cookie cutter homes as far as the eye could see. Maybe some people like that kind of housing but that's definitely not for me. You said someone already mentioned Portola to you so you might want to check out Loyalton as well. I checked out Portola and its a cute little town. The prices are starting to rise as far as land goes though. It's a good hour drive from Reno but it has trees and I saw some of the houses on acre lots. There are a lot of manufactured homes in that area. I guess it all depends on what you want. For me it seems obvious that buying when prices have peaked is a no brainer, you just don't do it.
My view - California ought to annex this place. They have taken it over anyway. When the people of other states escape thier misery in the paradise elsewhere, they shouldn't bring their plague with them. I bought land in Costa Rica. I have been going there for two decades and love he natural beauty.
Nevada has been an economic colony of California since the Comstock.
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Dog friendly accommodations.....
Again thanks!
