Leaving Los Angeles For Las Vegas-A recent news story from Fox News stated that Los Angeles, California is leading the nation in people leaving LA for other states. 53,421 people left LA County between July 2024 and July 2025 for other counties in California as well as other states. Why is this happening? In this article, I will call it like I see it. First off, as someone that was born in LA, I spent almost 30 years of my life in the city of Los Angeles, I have some insight as to why people are leaving as well as why I decided to leave for Las Vegas, Nevada back in 2003.
Quality of Life:First off is the most obvious thing. Quality of life…. I haven’t been back to Los Angeles since my mom died in 2020 during Covid. With all of the lockdowns in that state I was not able to say good bye to my mom when she passed away in May 2020. All I got was a call at 10:30 am from someone that was housing my mom and they told me she had died the night prior. With that being said, I really did not want to go back to LA anymore. I had enough. I hated that city that I grew up in. Recently, I had to go back for passport issues and when I went back to LA in December of 2025, I barely recognized where I grew up. Businesses had closed, the streets were in disarray, homeless people and their tents were all over the place. It was like being in a Mad Max movie set.
The streets were dirty, traffic was still bad on the 405 Freeway and yet things were familiar to me but it was foreign at the same time. Crime is out of control and the LAPD (My former police department I served in) is useless and it’s politically controlled since the 1992 riots. You cannot police a city when the people do not want to be policed. Riots all the time, crime data and stats are lied about or changed. That’s been going on for years even when I worked for the LAPD in the 1990’s.
Nothing changes, nothing improves. With less people moving to Los Angeles, are you willing to gamble with your home’s equity? Pricing will continue to drop as inventory stays on the housing market longer with no new home buyers in the LA market. Housing has also become extremely unaffordable in LA. Los Angeles is tied with New York as possible cities to watch for housing bubbles to burst. According to this Fox Business article, Miami, Los Angeles and New York City face a housing bubble that could cause people to lose equity. Cashing out your home’s equity and moving to a cheaper more affordable place to live is a smart idea. I help people all the time from California and I can help you too!
The City of Los Angeles is bankrupt. Currently, LA City is facing a 1 BILLION DOLLAR deficit and the tax base will continue to shrink due to the January 2025 fires in Pacific Palisades and property values continue to decline which means less taxes are collected from homeowners. All of this and horrible leadership has driven away people like me to find other places to live where I do not have to worry about my quality of life. The LAPD and LAFD more than likely will face severe budget cuts and a hiring freeze will be put in place this year. So much for your tax dollars at work! Billions spent on the homeless yet from 2022 to 2023 the homeless population in Los Angeles rose from 47,689 to 61,249 people. I doubt those numbers are correct since Dodger stadium could sit almost 56,000 people yet when I was in LA in December it seemed to me that there were a lot of homeless people all over the place in West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley when I was driving all over my former stomping grounds. I rarely saw homeless people in the valley growing up and even when I worked for the LAPD in the West Valley division in the 1990’s. Now it’s a common fact of life to see them all over.
According to several internet posts the money spent is around 953 million to over 1 billion dollars per year on the homeless. As a graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District math isn’t my greatest subject but let’s do some simple math here: 1 billion divided by 61,249 is $16,326.79 per person which I think is quite low if you factor in all of the property taxes and sales taxes that are collected. This is also not factoring in the state’s 24 to 37 billion dollars it has spent. This is insane. Homelessness continues to grow in LA yet more money is thrown at the problem with negative results. The problem is leadership and failed ideas and policies. People are homeless for a reason. Throwing money at the problem isn’t solving the issues that surround the problem.
LA has been falling apart since the 1990’s let’s just be honest about that. Failed leadership and ideas have caused a mass exodus to happen since the early 2000’s. People are selling their homes with a lot of equity in them and they are making a smart move to find another state that doesn’t steal from you with huge taxes. Nevada has no income taxes, our property taxes here in Clark County (The Las Vegas Valley) range from .65% to .75% on resale homes and for new build construction that number jumps to 1% to 1.1% of the sales price per year. Our quality of life is good. Do we have homeless? Yes we do but not at the levels LA and CA has. We have clean wide open streets, nice freeways/beltways where traffic actually moves and our government functions decently. Summerlin which is 14 miles to the west of the Las Vegas Strip is where I live and sell real estate.
I moved out here in 2004 after building my home. I love it here! Plenty of parks, outdoor trails for hiking and mountain biking. Downtown Summerlin is a great place to hang out, walk your dog, take in the fresh air. Is it paradise? I think so. I think it’s as close to paradise as you can get. I have everything I had in LA except for my favorite 2 restaurants Las Fuentes Mexican food in Reseda (The Best Mexican food ever!) and Musashi Japanese restaurant in Porter Ranch, CA. Las Vegas and Summerlin has turned into a foodie’s dream! I know it has for me. Our food is great… not just on the strip but even in Summerlin too. Want some places to check out here locally? I’ve got plenty of them to share with you!
When you drive around Summerlin, the first thing you notice is how new everything looks and feels. Summerlin is broken up into villages. There are also parts of Summerlin such as Summerlin West, Summerlin North and Summerlin South. Over 28 villages make up Summerlin.
Be sure to check out my You Tube Channel with over 650 videos of aerial footage of the Las Vegas Valley as well as highlighting new construction projects in Summerlin. If you are thinking about relocating to Summerlin, this You Tube Channel is designed for you. Being able to show you the community from the air gives you a new take on how to search for a home and a community to live in.
Summerlin has become it’s own city almost without being incorporated as a real Nevada city. With over 140,000 residents, Summerlin continues to grow and expand it’s footprint. New home construction is still going strong as well as new commercial development too. As a master planned community, Summerlin is well thought out. It’s functional and every place and building has a purpose. Unlike LA freeways, we plan things out here for future growth and traffic. The 215 Beltway project continues to change due to the needs of the community. Currently, the 215 beltway and the Summerlin Parkway is going through a massive improvement project.
Summerlin home prices start around $500,000.00 and can go over $21,000,000.00 for custom homes. If you are looking for a gated golf course community, a high end luxury home community or new build construction, Summerlin has it all for you. Even if you are looking for a second home, Summerlin has beautiful townhomes that will make a great second home for you.
As a Summerlin Realtor, I specialize in all property types here in Summerlin. I know all of the new home builders and what’s coming into the area. As for luxury high end homes, I also specialize in that too. I can help you buy, sell or build a home here in Summerlin. Enough of my rant. For more information about Summerlin please call me directly at: 702-768-2552 or visit: www.michaelbondi.realtor for plenty of current information, pictures and drone footage of Summerlin and the Las Vegas Valley.
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