Las Vegas fifth in poll of desirable places

By Emily Richmond

Friday, Aug. 31, 2001 | 10:51 a.m.

Forget the traffic jams, smog and water woes -- Las Vegas ranks fifth in a new Harris poll as the city to which other Americans would like to move.

The poll, conducted during a nationwide telephone survey, asks people what city they would most like to live in, or near to, if they had to move. New York City ranked first for the third consecutive year. San Francisco and San Diego tied for second place followed by Seattle. Las Vegas and Denver tied for fifth place.

"It's the wild west land of opportunities," Las Vegas City Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald said this morning. "I don't think there's anywhere else in America where there are so many firsts still to be accomplished."

There's also the low property taxes, no state income tax and a usually-temperate climate, Boggs McDonald said.

"Obviously many of the people who wanted to move here already have, given our population explosion," she said.

Pamela Wilferd of Liberty Realty in Las Vegas said she gets calls from across the country and even overseas from people interested in relocating.

"People from California love it here, because for what they would have to spend on one house there they can buy several properties here," Wilferd said.

Potential home buyers are also flooding in from Florida, New York and New Jersey, Wilferd said.

"I even have clients from Singapore and Tel Aviv," Wilferd said. "We're attracting worldwide interest."

Residents are able to take advantage of the area's many tourist amenities on a year-round basis, said Erika Brandvik of The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. In a study conducted last year by the LVCVA, locals listed going to the movies, gambling, dining out and playing golf as favorite pastimes.

Las Vegas has been climbing steadily since first making the list in 1998, when the city ranked fifteenth. The following year Las Vegas moved to twelfth and last year was ranked sixth.