Hi all,
First, I'd just like to say I'm really glad I found this site. :) What an awesome place, and I've spent a couple of days trolling around the forums and reading up on all of the content here. Lots of great finance and lifestyle blogs out there, but the community here seems just amazing and I'm happy to be joining it.
So, here's my situation:
I currently live in Daly City, California (just outside of San Francisco). After wasting most of my 20s floundering around, I went to grad school and was lucky enough to land a great job when I finished, about a year and a half ago. I make about $90k, but given real estate prices around here, it would still take at least another year to save up for a down payment.
I have an opportunity to move to Las Vegas this year, as my company is starting up an office there and they offered me the chance to run it. It wouldn't be a promotion, per se, but I'd get to keep my same salary at a much, much cheaper area. I'm married, but my wife is currently unemployed (just got out of school herself). In the long term, we would really like to settle in the Bay area, as both of our families are nearby and we love the area. We have no debt and about $25k in liquid assets, along with another $20k in retirement funds. My thoughts on this currently are:
-Go to Vegas this year and buy a house right away (from browsing around Zillow, there are some really nice-looking ones in the $100k range).
-I anticipate my wife and I could live for around $2k/month in Vegas. My take-home pay would be $6k/month in Nevada (with no state income tax), not including bonuses and whatever work my wife would be able to find. That's at LEAST $48k/year, and likely more like $80k once wife income + bonuses are taken into account.
-Stay in Vegas for between 1-2 years, then move back to the Bay area with a nice down payment in hand.
-Depending on the market in Las Vegas, either sell the house there or keep it and rent it out (my best friend lives there, so I would have somebody around to keep an eye on the place).
I'd love to hear peoples' thoughts! And if any of you are located in Las Vegas, I would especially love to hear any input you could offer about the state of the real estate market, or even just which neighborhoods are desirable and which I should stay away from.