You’ve certainly picked a heck of a time to relocate. United Van Lines ranks Las Vegas as the sixth-popular relocation sites, with retirees leading the way. (Job seekers were a distant second.) Between July of 2013 and 2013, Nevada was the second-fastest growing state in the nation. "Nevada, like Florida and Arizona, is luring retirees who want warm weather, low taxes, entertainment and master-planned communities. Lower housing prices have made the state more attractive for them to move here," reports the Las Vegas-Review-Journal.
We’d recommend starting with the comprehensive guide provided by the Las Vegas Sun. It covers moving services, utilities, how to find a bank or handyman, vehicle-registration information, a transit guide, and a listing of every school in the area. Perhaps most important for your purposes, it points you toward reputable realtors and where to find an apartment in the area. An alternate site, Area Vibes, provides many of the same home-finding services, in addition to indexing the cost of living in Las Vegas. It even ranks the price of coffee in Sin City ($4.63, 9% above the national average). It also rates the city on a neighborhood "livability score" (Green Valley Ranch comes out tops). Pizza, by the way, is a bargain in Sin City – 14% below the national average.
Moveline.com provides its own in-depth guide for those moving to Vegas, including asking whether or not you’re ready to buy a house. For instance, who knew there were so many food-delivery options? The information here, though, is not quite as nuts-and-bolts specific as that provided by the Sun. But it does provide some unusual links, such as one to Tesla’s "Project 100." It can also direct you to coupons and bargains like this. (It overlooks the LVA Member Rewards Book, however, earning it a black mark in our book and a query regarding its comprehensiveness/independence. Once you move here, we recommend Vegas Seven, the freebie magazine that features weekly column "The Deal," by our own Anthony Curtis, plus myriad other insider tips for getting the most out of Sin City.)
Basically, the Moveline site is for people who have just moved here, while the Sun is for those about to make the leap. Other websites tend to be more subjective or niche in the information they present, such as informing you that you have to go to Pahrump to find legal prostitution. Much more helpful is the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, whose site walks you step by step through the moving-to-Vegas process, complete with links to service providers like AT&T and CenturyLink, not to mention essentials like NV Energy and the Las Vegas Valley Water District.
And once you’ve completed your move here, the Chamber can put you in touch with the trash man, so you can discard or (preferably) recycle all those packing materials from your move.We hope we haven’t given you an information overload and wish you good luck on your imminent move. As the sign says, Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!
