I'll toss a few more thoughts into the pot. I'm in Henderson. I'm also retired, so I'm approaching things from that slant.
Vegas has many high crime areas. We have plenty of scam artists, bangers, druggies, homeless, petty criminals, and so on. More than our share due to the lure of Sin City. Do due diligence on where you want to live. You'll pay more for a nicer neighborhood, but your peace of mind will be substantially greater. I belong to a local gun forum and the stories posted by some of the guys who reside in the less desirable neighborhoods are mind blowing.
When we moved here, I searched and explored for two years prior to buying a place. We ended up in Anthem in Henderson. It's an age restricted community. Each neighborhood has an HOA run by old fogies who watch for weeds and God forbid - the dreaded unpruned bush! It's also an
extremely safe area where you can walk your little foo foo dog at 2 in the morning without fear. The advantage of an age restricted / out of the mainstream neighborhood is non-resisdents stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. I picked a neighborhood off the beaten path, and appreciate that decision more each day. We seldom get people up here who don't belong. And each neighborhood seems to have a few of those weed hating old fogies who gaze out their windows all day long keeping an eye on things. If they see someone who doesn't look right, they're on the phone to the po po even faster than they fill out those weed reports. Bless 'em.
The Anthem area of Henderson is high in elevation. Maybe a dozen miles off the strip but around 1500 feet higher. Good views and no risk of flooding. Once in a great while a touch of snow in the winter.
And yeah, it's hot. Around June we break a hundred and stay there until September or October. A few 115 days each summer. Not "feels like" 115. We're talking stick your head in an over, fry an egg on the patio, honest 115. Lots of people run their errands early in the morning or wait til the sun goes down during the summer. Being a 24 hour town, many markets are open 24 hours.
Course the winters are a little more tolerable than many places. We've had a mild winter this year and I've been wearing tee shirts for the last couple weeks. Temps this month have been in the 60s most days, hitting 70 once or twice. Makes the reports I keep hearing about snow and such back east kinda hard to relate to.
And no green. Forget lawns and forests. Think desert landscaping with rock hardscape and desert plants on drip irrigation. Accept the numerous varieties of cactus into your life and bid farewell to seasonal flower gardens. The heat is just too brutal on most plants. My wife keeps a rose in a pot in our courtyard, and it's so sad looking come August you just want to put it out of it's misery. I've had several neighbors that didn't like the dry hot climate, or missed the green, and went back where they came from after a couple years. Me, I love the heat and desert. But some find the adjustment to be too much to take.
Plenty of nice air conditioned casinos. More buffet offers than I can take advantage of and still maintain movement. Lots of decent restaurants. We get all the headliners performing on the strip. And many casinos have movie theaters, bowling alleys and live entertainment in their lounges.
Oh, one more thing. My buddy and I go shooting year round. From my driveway to our shooting spot in the desert, twenty minutes.
