I have a couple of my friends that already moved to Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world. Why? Because the city provides a lot of job opportunities and the house prices are much cheaper compared with the prices here in California. One of my friend recently sold his home here in southern California in which he made a profit of $175,000. He then used this equity or profit to purchase a house in Vegas, where the median price is around mid $200,000. So his mortgage payment will be a lot lower from what he was paying before for the same size of house. To me that was a pretty good deal. Besides, the job opportunity is better in Vegas than here in California. Almost every year, there are quite a few hotels that are sprouting in the city and each hotel creates 10,000 job opportunites such as accountants, dealers, hotel managers, housekeepers, information systems analyst, waitress, security officers, hostess, etc.

My other friend did not own any home so he was looking for homes for rent in Las Vegas before he moved there. He has a better chance of purchasing a home in Vegas than here in California with the same income level. Housing affordability has become out of reach for people like him and his dream of owning one is a lot better in Vegas than here. So I can see that person buying his home within five years as long as he can get his own savings program going.

Moving is tough for a lot of people because of what they are leaving behind. However, sometimes people have to make a choice of what’s good for the family and the future. Financially, it would be better living in Vegas but emotionally it would be tough for a lot of people initially.