Tips on Finding a Place to Live in Las Vegas

Trying to find a place to live in Las Vegas isn't always the easiest thing to do. We moved here six months ago and I still feel completely lost. Finding a good school district for our children is one of our main priorities. We want a nice neighborhood, but we also want it affordable. When will we be able to find what we are looking for?

I never realized how hard it would be to find a place to live in Las Vegas. Before we moved here, I had only vacationed here a couple of times and all I knew Las Vegas for was "the strip". Though the strip is nice and all, I knew nothing about the town. We wanted an apartment or a home, minimum of 3 bedrooms as we are a family of four.

The first thing that we needed to do was find something in our price range. Being from Minnesota we were in shock because things cost a lot more in Las Vegas. The average price of a house out here is 300,000 and in Minnesota it's 209,000. That is a big difference. Luckily, the reason why we transferred out here is because of my husband's job, in which he received a big raise to move and relocate.

We also wanted to live on the south end of town because we both work down south and did not want to have a big commute. Well, things are a lot more expensive on the outskirts of town so that is making it more difficult to find a place. What are our other options?

Well first of all there are condos. Basically, condos are apartments that you own. Since there is a huge population in the Las Vegas area and they do not have a lot of land, they had to build up instead of out. Condos are quite popular out here because they are an affordable way to own something. But we wanted a yard for our children to play so we had to rule condos out of the question.

Then there are apartments. A very affordable way to get into a place but we still have the problem of having no yard for our kids to play in. The apartments out here are beautiful and very safe, but another problem is that most do not come with garages. We want a garage because we have a lot of kids toys that we like to store so they do not take so much space up.

Also you can purchase a town home or a house. Since we really could not afford anything on this side of town, are only other option is to rent a home. There is nothing wrong with renting a home, a lot of people actually do it because you can have the house but not have to pay the price. And right now the market for home sales is terrible and people cannot get rid of their homes so they are on the market for rent so they can pay the bills.

I look in the Sunday paper every week and see dozens of homes in my price range. The main difference from renting an apartment to renting a home is typically there are more deposits, so you will need more money up front. But, it is better in the long run because you will have a lot more space and you will not be sharing any walls with anyone else.

I wish you the best of luck in your home search in Las Vegas. The best thing for you to do is to weigh your options and figure out what is best for you. There are plenty of options and finding a realtor will help you in your search.