Living in Henderson, NV – How it is after 3 years

Living in Henderson, NV – How it is after 3 years

I have been living in Henderson, NV for almost 3 years now.  I lived in Los Angeles most of my life, but was in Las Vegas at least once or twice a month, so naturally moving out here wasn’t too big of a change for me.  Ironically, I live here now, but go to Los Angeles like once a month, too.  Let me start off by saying Henderson is a beautiful city.  With a population of a little more than 300,000 people, it is the second largest city in Nevada. 

 

A lot of people asked me why I chose Henderson over Summerlin, which seems to be booming, but I’m not sure.  Just something about Summerlin didn’t grab my attention like Henderson did.

If you live in a nice quiet neighborhood, you can probably relate to the reasons why I like Henderson.  If you are from Los Angeles, Miami, New York, or any other city that doesn’t sleep, you may like this change.  It took me a little while to get used to the whole city becoming dark and quiet after 9:00 PM, or not being able to order food delivery at 2 in the morning.  But it turned out this is how most of the nation lives.  When I lived in L.A, I was walking distance from restaurants, cafes, bars that were full and popping until 2:00 AM daily.  On weekends, even though L.A law prohibits alcohol sales after 2:00 AM, restaurants are still filled with people who don’t want to go home yet, and eat and socialize, and sober up until sun up.

When you first move to Henderson, or any of the surrounding areas in Nevada, the first thing you will notice is probably Smith’s.  There is a Smith’s grocery store everywhere you go.  Smith’s grocery stores, which is owned by Kroger, also owns Ralph’s and Food 4 Less, which is probably more known to the people from other areas.  Henderson does have Whole foods, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and other grocery stores too, but Smith’s is probably the one you will see most of.  So far I have no complaints about Smith’s.  Quality is good, and prices are very competitive with other grocery stores.

Another things you will notice a lot of?  Terrible Herbst.  I’m not sure how many there are in Henderson and Las Vegas, but I do know they have over a 100 locations altogether including California and Arizona.  Terrible Herbst is known for their $30 / month for unlimited car washes deal.  When I first heard about this, it sounded too good to be true.  Where I come from, Los Angeles, 1 car wash is around $20.  And you’re telling me for $30 a month, I can get unlimited car washes?  It turns out it is true.  I signed up right away and took advantage of the deal.  You can go once a day, every day.  You can get a FULL car wash, which includes vacuum, wash, and outside hand drying, but of course gratuity is separate.  If you are in a hurry, you can stay in your car, and just run your car through the wash and get just the outside done.  Some Terrible’s even have drive thru car wash machines which you can access with your monthly pass 24 hours a day.  I have to admit, every once in a while, I still hand wash my car myself.  Terrible’s is definitely worth the $30 a month, but at the same time, they are not a professional detailing place, so you will need to get your car detailed, and/or do it yourself here and there.

Ok, I know not everyone who moves here gambles.  I myself don’t really gamble anymore either.  However, most of the people who do move here, do gamble.  Living in Henderson, you are not that far from the Las Vegas strip.. But also, Henderson has local Casinos too, Sunset Station and Green Valley Ranch.  Both are part of the Station Casinos line, and are actually pretty nice.  Aside from the Casino, they both have restaurants, arcades, and movie theaters to keep all ages entertained.  Sunset Station has a bowling alley too.

The Green Valley Ranch area itself is just an awesome area.  The Green Valley Ranch casino is right next to The District shops and residences.  I do not live here, but I love to visit this area.  Not only do they have some of my favorite restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, and Lucilles BBQ, they have a road with shops and residences, very similar to the Americana at Brand, for those of you who are from L.A.  The houses and townhomes in the Green Valley area are beautiful too.

Henderson is also home to the Valley Auto Mall, which has more than 20 dealerships.  The Valley Auto Mall pretty much has all the major dealerships here, and a Carmax, Auto Nation, and a Enterprise.  New Cars, Used Cars, Financing, Repair, and Service all from 1 location, here in Henderson, NV.  The Valley Auto Mall is located at 300 Auto Mall Dr, Henderson, NV 89014 and is open until 9:00 PM Monday thru Saturday.  Yes, that is right. Monday thru Saturday!  Where I’m from, Sundays are probably the busiest days for car dealerships.  Clark County however, has a law where new cars cannot be sold on Sundays.  I heard that this law was put into effect to protect the Used car dealerships.  I also heard that this was to prevent dealerships opening 7 days a week.  Nonetheless, no car dealerships are open on Sundays in Clark County.

Today, there are 13 states in which car dealerships are forbidden to sell vehicles on Sundays. These include Colorado, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maine. Dealerships that make sales on Sundays are transgressing from their licensing and bonding obligations, and can face legal issues.  In another seven states, car sales on Sundays are restricted in specific counties or during certain hours. The so-called mixed states are Nevada, Utah, Texas, North Dakota, Michigan, Rhode Island and Maryland.

If you have ever been to a hospital in the Los Angeles area, you know what a nightmare it can be.  Even in some of the nicer areas in LA county, there are really long wait times and overworked staff which can be a unpleasant visit on top of what it already is.  Unfortunately I had to go to numerous hospitals and urgent care centers here, and was very impressed with the service and the cleanliness.  Especially when I had to go to the Henderson Hospital emergency room, and there was no waiting at all, I couldn’t be happier.  Some of the emergency rooms in LA even have people who are bleeding, and people yelling because of their pain, still in the waiting rooms.  I was able to walk-in to Henderson Hospital ER, told them I had trouble breathing, and they started to help me right away.  They were super nice, and super helpful.  The state of the art ER room even had a small pull-down TV, and I was able to watch the Angels VS Rangers.  (I was not happy with my $8000 bill, and my insurance not taking care of the bill for me, but that’s a whole other topic)

Ok, I can go on about all the good things about Henderson, but now let me throw a few of the bad things about this area in here.  #1 will definitely be the weather.  I have been here for 3 years, and I am still not used to the weather here.  It is 113 degrees here as I am writing this post.  Yes, that means you have to have the air conditioner on 24 hours a day during the summer.  Not only is that bad for your health, you can imagine what the electric bill is like during the summer.  The winter time is not that much better either.  During winter, its around 30 degrees when I go to work in the morning.  So yes, during the winter you have to have the heater on.  Out of the whole year, there are maybe 3 weeks where the weather is average and normal and California weather like.  Second thing?  The water quality here is really bad.  Nevada and Arizona is known to have the worst water quality in all of the United States.  I knew the water was not that great when I first moved here, and started having skin problems, and water stains that won’t go away no matter how much you try to clean it.  But I knew for sure when I bought a drinking water filter.  The filter was supposed to be good for months, however only lasted about a week.  YES, that’s how bad the water is here.  Now I have to buy all my drinking water at a water store.  The conventional home water purifiers just won’t cut it with the horrible water quality here.

So what keeps me here in Henderson?  The cost of living is cheap, the people are great here, and I love my job here.  I lived in Los Angeles for so long, and I had a few small businesses, so sometimes I couldn’t even go eat without running into someone I know.  So I am actually enjoying the isolation too.  However, the weather has been affecting my health too, so I have been thinking about moving back to California lately.  Not sure though.

I think that’s about it.  I can’t really think of anything else I don’t like about Henderson.  So if you can get past the dry desert weather, Super HOT during summer, Super Cold during winter, and the bad water quality here, Henderson is an awesome area to live in.  I didn’t really touch on the subject of houses in my posting because like most major cities, Henderson has everything from $700 a month apartments, to multi million dollar mansions.  Did I mention there is no state tax in Nevada?  Yes, that is correct.  Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming have no income tax – for any residents.  I thought it was awesome at first, but on the flipside, the DMV fees in Nevada are through the roof!  Car registration is more than double what it was for me in California, and the DMV agents told me it was because they don’t collect any state tax.  I’m sure if you do the math, paying more for DMV fees are still better than paying state tax, but regardless it wasn’t fun paying $800 to register my BMW here.  I think it was like $400 in California.  My Bimmer is 5 years old now, and I still payed close to $600 for registration last year.  I wonder how much it’s going to be this year.

Although there is a awesome pool and bbq area where we live, most of the time it’s either too hot or too cold to really enjoy the amenities here.

 

I think it’s known that most people who move to the Las Vegas area who weren’t born here, or lived here since they were young, don’t really end up staying here for that long.  Some people can’t stay because of gambling and easy access to casinos, some like myself can’t stand the weather maybe?  I’m not sure, but I can tell you this.  In the apartments that we live in, we are already the longest living people in our building section, and surprisingly (ok, not really) half the cars in this area still have California plates.  Stats don’t lie!  =)  D.I

 

JULY 27, 2018 BY DAVIDIN