Editorial: Dream homes dream of water

Monday, April 17, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

In the city that has re-created half the globe in the architecture designed for its tourists, it is only natural that fantasy facades permeate our neighborhoods, too.

According to a story in Friday's Las Vegas Sun, if residents believe what their subdivision names suggest, they dwell in sophisticated Italian villas, the rolling hills of Scotland, pine-spotted forests or on bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

For when it comes to selling homes in the desert, the geography of other places sells. Las Vegas Valley Realtor Jim McEachern told the Sun he has a list of roughly 1,300 names of local subdivisions illustrating that builders know that a community's image and its ability to attract buyers starts with the name out front.

Of course, in the arid climes of Southern Nevada, buyers fancy water. Neighborhoods around the valley sport lakes, creeks, coves, shores and even a few corals in their names. "It's appealing, even if it's not realistic," one Pulte Homes marketer said.

And probably no city in the United States can pull off being unrealistically appealing as Las Vegas can. Certainly other cities name subdivisions for geographical elements that aren't there or for features that were bulldozed in the building of the homes. But the Las Vegas Valley has an entire subdivision named for Beatles songs. And a new southwest valley community with an Old West theme even includes a park with a giant windmill and picnic shelters that look like covered wagons.

Maybe it's human nature to dream of being somewhere other than where we are. Maybe it's just all in fun. Whatever the reason, it does no harm - not a drop of water is wasted by simply naming a community Pacific Green.