Men’s Journal named Reno, NV as one of the best places to live in the country.
From the article…
Reno is really all about location and its extraordinary proximity to four seasons of outdoor adventure. The Sierra Nevada range, just to the west, harbors the world’s greatest concentration of ski areas, not to mention cobalt-clear Lake Tahoe and millions of acres of publicland playground. That quick mountain commute invites Reno-Boulder comparisons, but if you’re a skier, Reno is king. A South Reno–dwelling downhiller is 15 minutes away from the 45-degree chutes of Mount Rose, and more fabled resorts like Squaw Valley and South Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly are within an hour of town. Snow gets measured in feet up in the mountains, but only in occasional inches where Reno lies, at 4,500 feet.
See the complete article here: 25 Best Places to Live 2010
skeptical
The article makes several outstanding points regarding why Reno is such a great place to live. However, the glaring omissions are: the state of the economy (and jobs), the condition of the state’s finances, and the poor quality of Nevada’s schools for those with kids.
Take away those and Reno is, indeed, a great place to live. Considering the demographic of the magazine’s readership — young, single males — and I believe Reno is rightly placed within the list.
MikeZ
Speaking as someone who thoroughly enjoys the outdoors, Reno is a fantastic place to live. It’s almost hiking weather again which means weekend treks to the top of Mt. Rose again, a ritual I discovered some years ago.
GratefulD_420
I have to agree with the Men’s Journal.
I’ve traveled all over this country and a few times around the world. There are many, many places with better cultural communities (schools, arts, crafts, music, etc). However, there are hardly any places for people who love the open outdoors, epic down hill skiing, water skiing in clean lakes, canoing, endless mountain hiking, camping (from the black rock to the desolation wilderness), river fishing (little weak here, but some big boy browns in the Truckee!) and lake fishing.
In addition there are many choices to the above (only one river though)!! many epic skii spots, dozens of amazing lakes all within an hour. Then if you need to really mix it up… three hours to the City (SF), the ocean, and ~3 for Mammoth or Yosemite.
You just can’t get all of that anywhere else. Believe me, my company has offered me promotions in many other cities…. but I just can’t seem to do it. Only place that came close was to move to Portland. I looked to move outside of Portland on the Sandy River (way better than the Truckee)! half way between Portland and Mt. Hood. Only problem is there is only ONE skii resort within 1 hour and it is NOT epic. Within three hours is Bachelor, but you can’t go there for a few runs… before your chores!
Steve Herschbach
Hi,
It is easy to find things not to like about Reno, but you can find things not to like about any place.
I’ve mentioned in a few posts before that I’m a life-long Alaskan looking for a place down south. I’ve got the entire country to choose from.
I like the western US. For me Reno seems like a nice, central location that gets me within driving distance of the western half of the country. Reno has a nice temperate climate by my standards. The winter is half as long as I’m used to (2 feet of snow in my front yard right now) and yet not too hot in summer compared to places farther south. I like hiking and so like having lots of public land nearby, and Reno has that.
Bottom line is I’m voting with my wallet and will be closing on a great little brick house in Old Southwest soon. Just a ten minute walk down to the river and the parks and shops. I was down there a few weeks ago and spent hours just walking around the area and loved it. You do not see brick in Anchorage and so it seems exotic to me. Lots of character.
But mainly I’m looking forward to just hopping in my car and exploring the western US. We have three ways to drive here in Anchorage – south to Seward or Homer, north to Fairbanks, and east to Valdez or the border. I’ll be like the kid in the candy store with new places to go explore in every direction from Reno.
I think I am paying more than the property would currently appraise at, but hey, it is what my wife and I wanted. The folks in the place are upside down and wanting to buy a larger place from someone else in the area who is upside down and also asking too much. So me paying them too much is allowing them to pay too much. Ha! But I got what I want at a price I can afford, and I have faith in the long term value of the property. And locked in what is probably the lowest interest rates any of us will see for the rest of our lives. Mainly I dodged a bullet. The last place I offered on was a major fixxer-upper. This one is move-in ready so I think I’ll have ended up spending less money overall with this place.
So there you go. One less house on the market, and outside money moving in. It is not all gloom and doom. Reno is a nice place, and Old Southwest a nice neighborhood, so I’m pretty darn pleased right now. I’ll be down in a few weeks to get my keys!
billddrummer
To Steve,
Congratulations on your home purchase and welcome to the area!
MikeZ
Yes, ditto, welcome to the area!
MB Realty
How feasible would it be to live in Reno and commute to San Francisco two days a week (just one round-trip per week, with an overnight stay in the Bay area)? Do you know of people who do this sort of a thing? It seems like the dollar stretches much further in Reno, and it looks like a nice respite (it’s hard to turn down being so close to incredible skiing!).
Thanks,
MB
Raymond
MB,
It depends on how much of a road warrior you are. And you must take into account that between the middle of October and the middle of April there will always be the possibility that the trip between Reno and SF (or back) could end up taking 10 hours.
GreenNV
MB,
I did just that for a couple of years. Pre 9/11, I would fly. Verdi to RNO to OAK and BART to my desk in the Financial District in 2 hours 15 minutes. It was so easy that I would day-trip it. Now you would have to factor in security time on both ends, and SWA has significantly cut their flights on this route.
Driving it was more of a problem. Weather is certainly one reason, but the real wild card is Sacramento. What a traffic nightmare, and it starts early and runs late. Forget leaving Reno before 7:30 AM – it is not worth the frustration. And you have to leave the City by 1:30 PM or risk getting jammed on the trip back, especially on Fridays.
I ended up just ditching the Bay Area all together!
Catherine
Reno is only a great place to live if you like cold weather… which I do not. Can’t wait to leave!
Carney
MB
There is no way you could be assured of making the trip in any particular amount of time, especially in the winter months. The Sac traffic can be really bad, and so can the traffic once you approach Berkeley.
I would not advise you to consider this unless you are the complete master of your schedule, and it does not matter when you get there and when you leave. It is just too far and too unpredictible.
Reno is not a bedroom community of SF.
Carney
It’s all relative Catherine. To a guy like Steve, Reno’s weather will seem temperate all year round. To a guy who lives in San Diego, moving to Reno will seem like ass feeezing time for 6 months out of the year.
Inept One
Steve-
Congratulations and welcome to Reno. Just moved here myself and am enjoying it here immensely. Lived in Truckee,CA(30 Mlies east and a world away) for the past 23 years and now reside in Somersett (NW Reno). Plenty to do here as mentioned above. The Truckee/ Lake Tahoe area is known for the great skiing, but the mountain biking is also fantastic. Whatever your outdoor interests are you can probably find it within an hours drive of Reno. Hope Ypu like it here!
Steve Herschbach
Carney, you are a mind reader.
I saw Catherine’s post and got a real chuckle. I live in Anchorage, what we call the “banana belt” of Alaska. Winter is 6 months long. But we only get below zero on a rare basis. Only a week or two below zero. So the guys 300 miles north who get 50 below for weeks on end think we have it made!
Guy Johnson
Steve,
Thank you for your post.
…and welcome to Reno.
– Guy
GratefulD_420
To MB Realty…
I commute quite regularly to the Bay area. However I choose to travel at night. If I need to get somewhere I go the night before and get a hotel close to the area. Otherwise…. traffic is the nightmare. Both going and coming.
There is absolutely no way you could do it each week and keep your sanity.
With the right vehicle and tires… I don’t think the pass is as bad as some say, There are definately a few times a year it is closed and definately a few times a year it takes MANY, MANY hours. Otherwise…. during the day it can be one of the most impressive drives in all the country. I still enjoy driving the pass when the traffic is light.
EdBear
One thing I’ve always liked about Reno is the people. On the whole, I think they are decent, down to earth folks, and I’ve always enjoyed my visits to your city.
When my wife and I considered Reno as the place for a second home, the people were way up on my list.
Lurker
MB Realty – I commute to the Bay Area every week. I fly SWA and have lots of company. I was surprised at how many do this. SW has cut back flights significantly but still very doable. Hope to see you at RNO one of these days.
Steve Herschbach
Hi All,
Thanks for the welcome!
Guy… great site!! It helped me a lot in deciding when to pull the trigger. I’m sorry I could not repay you by working with you due to a prior commitment. But the fact is there is great info here for Reno shoppers, and I will do my best to send business your way in the future. I’d like to buy you a coffee or beer, as your tastes may warrant, in the near future.
Guy Johnson
Thank you, Steve. I may take you up on that beer. And, of course, any business you’d like to send my way would surely be welcomed.
Best of luck with your move.
junkhole
I hear you can buy 2 houses in Reno? 1 to live in, and the other to wipe your ass with !
is there any truth to this?
geopower
Steve,
Congratulations on your new home, that’s a great neighborhood, and the brick homes are beautiful. One small note on that though- the reason you don’t see brick homes in Anchorage is the same reason you don’t see many in the Bay Area. Unreinforced masonry structures are terrible in earthquakes. Alaska, California, and unfortunately the part of Nevada close to the east side of the Sierras, are at high risk for major earthquakes. Building codes in these places (including Reno) don’t allow these types of buildings to be built today. But Anchorage and the Bay Area have had recent earthquakes that removed a lot of unreinforced masonry structures, while Reno hasn’t…yet. There are a lot of old structural brick buildings in the original neighborhoods in Reno, unfortunately these are some of the nicest places to live in my and many others’ estimations. Many of the brick buildings are just veneer over wood frame, which is considerably more sound. you might want to look into which yours is. Here’s a link to the 1974 EQ hazard map of Reno, I’ll see if I can dig up something more recent:
http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/dox/urban/4Ai.pdf
for the links to other areas around reno:
http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/EQ/Home_EQfaultfinder.html
geopower
another factor in hazard analysis is amplification in basin sediments- here’s an amplification hazard map made by John Louie, a geophysicist at UNR:
http://www.seismo.unr.edu/hazsurv/reno-draftmap.pdf
Sully
geo; can you legend the different colors? I assume the dark pink is worst falling to light orange, etc.
geopower
you would think so, but it’s the opposite- the key is just below the map, higher amplification (more shaking) factors are yellow and orange.
Sully
I can’t go below the map; its only one page.
geopower
yep, and on that page the big box is the map area, right below is are “field amplification factor” and a color bar with 1.0 (no amplification) at the purple end to 2.5 (high amplification)at the yellow end
Sully
Oh OK, thanks. I somehow missed that??? 🙂
Ty Lynady
Hi would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using? I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique. P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
geopower
Try checking the bottom of the page- it’s WordPress
Guy Johnson
Ty,
Thank you for your question. As geopower points out, WordPress is the platform used for this blog. The theme is: Twenty Ten 1.1 by the WordPress team