North Las Vegas and Aliante: The Part of the Valley Buyers Overlook

A lot of buyers rule out North Las Vegas before they have driven through it. They heard something once, or the map made it look far, or they assumed the north end of the valley was one thing.

It is not one thing, and a lot of the move-up families I work with started there. When they sell their first house in North Las Vegas to buy in Summerlin or Henderson, the buyer on the other side of that deal is usually getting more house for the money than anywhere else in the valley, with a commute question they need to answer first.

Here is the north end, plainly.

North Las Vegas is its own city, north and east of downtown Las Vegas, running up along the 15 toward the mountains. The 215 beltway forms its northern and western edge, the way it does around Summerlin and Henderson on the other sides of the valley. Nellis Air Force Base sits on its eastern side, and the Veterans Affairs medical center is here too.

The 15 is the story of the location, the same way it is on the south end. It runs straight down to the Strip and downtown, and along it, north of the city, sits the valley's warehouse and distribution corridor, one of the larger concentrations of jobs in the region. If you work in that corridor, at the base, at the hospital, or downtown, North Las Vegas puts you close.

The older city, closest to downtown Las Vegas, has the smallest homes and the oldest housing in North Las Vegas, some of it from the 1950s and 1960s, on lots that are often larger than anything built since, and mostly without an association. It is the part of the north end that gets judged from the freeway. Some of these streets are in good shape and some are not, and the difference is block by block, which is why I drive it with you rather than describe it in a paragraph.

The 1990s and 2000s subdivisions, spreading north and west from there, are where most of North Las Vegas's housing is. Three and four bedroom tract homes, many two-story, built in the valley's big building years, a lot of them now on their second air conditioner and second roof. This is the first-home stock. It is where many of my move-up sellers bought when they started, and it is where a buyer who wants a real house at the lowest price in the valley usually ends up looking.

Eldorado and the neighborhoods along the 215 came a little later, with more planning, parks and an association.

Aliante is the north end's master-planned community, built mostly in the 2000s in the northwest corner where the 215 turns. It has the structure people associate with Summerlin or Anthem: a golf course, a nature park with trails, a town center, and a set of neighborhoods with association rules, plus Sun City Aliante, an age-restricted single-story community inside it. If you want a master-planned feel on the north end, this is where it is.

The newest construction is along the north 215 and beyond it, where building came back in the mid-2010s after the long pause that followed 2008 and has continued since. New floor plans, small yards, association dues, the same trade as new construction anywhere. The builder's sales office works for the builder. Bring your own agent.

More house for the money. Usually the most in the valley for a comparable house. For a first-time buyer working against a rent number, that is often the difference between buying and waiting another year.

A short commute to the north-end jobs. The distribution corridor, the base, the hospital, downtown, and the Strip's north end are all closer from here than from Henderson or Summerlin.

Range. Older no-association streets with big lots, 2000s tract homes, a master-planned community with a golf course, an age-restricted option, and new construction, all inside one city.

Craig Ranch Regional Park and the Aliante Nature Discovery Park are two of the larger parks in the valley, and both are here.

The commute to the west and southeast. Summerlin and Henderson are across the valley. At five o'clock that is a real drive. If your work is in either place, do it once at rush hour before you decide.

Block-by-block variation in the older parts. The map does not tell you which street is which. A drive on a weekday evening does.

Reputation. Some people will react to the address. That is a reason to look for yourself rather than a reason not to.

Summer, as everywhere. A 2000s two-story with the original air conditioner is a July power bill waiting to happen. Read my piece on that before you fall for the square footage.

A lot of the families I help move up are selling a North Las Vegas house they bought as their first. The math usually works because the equity is real and the buyer pool for a well-presented first home here is deep. Selling to buy is one move, not two, and I wrote a whole piece on how to sequence it so you are not carrying two payments or sleeping in a hotel.

If your work is on the north end or downtown, look here first, not last. If you are a first-time buyer and the numbers in Henderson or the southwest are not working, look here before you give up on the year. If your work is in Summerlin or Henderson, be careful, because the savings on the house can go straight into the gas tank and the hours.

Call 702-881-6562 or email JArendt658@gmail.com. Tell me where you work, what you want to spend, and whether stairs matter. I will tell you whether North Las Vegas is where your money does the most, and which streets I would actually show you. If you own here and are thinking about moving up, tell me the address and you will get the real number on the house you are leaving.

John Arendt, Realtor, has sold homes across the Las Vegas valley for 20 years, in Henderson, Summerlin, Southern Highlands, Anthem, Boulder City and North Las Vegas.

This article describes neighborhoods and housing, not the people who live in them. Community names and dates are from public sources and can change as the north end builds out.