Sunday, July 15, 2007 | 2:31 a.m.
For all the challenges they share as two of the fastest-growing cities in the country, Henderson and North Las Vegas are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to million-dollar homes.
Per capita, Henderson far and away has the most million-dollar homes in the Las Vegas Valley, and North Las Vegas the fewest.
Of the 5,953 single-family residential properties appraised at more than $1 million by the Clark County assessor's office - a figure that doesn't include luxury condo complexes - only 10 are in North Las Vegas, recently named the fastest-growing city in the country by the Census Bureau.
In comparison, Henderson has 1,888 homes appraised at more than $1 million.
The discrepancy shows how residents in two of the five largest cities in the state live different lifestyles.
North Las Vegas has remained a blue-collar town and even its nicest communities feature homes within the financial grasp of the middle class.
The most expensive homes in North Las Vegas aren't as grand as their $1 million price tags might suggest. They derive much of their value from their acreage. Seven of the 10 homes are less than 3,500 square feet.
And North Las Vegas' median single-family home value is about $60,000 less than that of a Henderson home, $267,203 to $329,700. The median appraised value of a home in all of Clark County was $289,446.
Although North Las Vegas may be mansion-challenged, it's overcoming its reputation for hardscrabble neighborhoods.
As the master-planned community Aliante continues to grow and the planned 15,000-home Park Highlands starts to take shape, a few more $1 million homes will likely pop up.
North Las Vegas is simply trailing Las Vegas and Henderson in its residential makeover, City Manager Gregory Rose said.
For now, the lower property values contribute to a statistic frowned on by North Las Vegas residents. Currently, North Las Vegas has the highest property tax rate in Clark County - $1.18 for every $1,000 of assessed value.
In comparison, Henderson's property tax rate is 71 cents per $1,000.
The reasons for Henderson's rise as an upper-middle class suburb are obvious.
"Where are the golf courses?" said Dennis Smith of Home Builders Research. "Lake Las Vegas, Summerlin, MacDonald Ranch." Two of those neighborhoods are in Henderson.
Smith and other real estate analysts say economics and demographics explain why North Las Vegas is growing quick ly while remaining firmly middle-class .
North Las Vegas has a median household income of $45,227 , compared with $65,667 in Henderson, according to the 2007 Las Vegas Perspective, a statistical abstract published by the Nevada Development Authority. The countywide median household income is $47,320.
So North Las Vegas lacks the wealthier communities that Henderson boasts, such as Lake Las Vegas, where the median household income stretches into the six figures.
On the other side of the valley, the median family income in Summerlin tops $72,000 and 12 percent of all single-family homes are appraised at more than $1 million. Las Vegas has 1,708 residential properties valued at more than $1 million, second most among Southern Nevada's municipalities.
But Henderson is disproportionately represented in the million-dollar-home club, with nearly a third of the valley's highest-end homes. Las Vegas has almost as many - but has five times the population of Henderson.
"A $1 million home is generally beyond the reach of all but the top 1 percent of the population," said Steve Bottfeld, executive vice president of Marketing Solutions, a housing-market analyst. "It's still something pretty special."
And luxurious homes breed luxurious homes. After all, most people are reluctant to trailblaze a neighborhood with the first million-dollar manse.
"You could," Bottfeld said. "But it wouldn't sell."
But dozens of $1 million homes sell each year in the valley.
The median sale price of a valley home was $310,000, according to the 2007 Las Vegas Real Estate Market Semi-Annual Review by Sotheby's International Realty. But the numbers spiked in some Henderson neighborhoods.
In 2006 the average sale price for a home in the Seven Hills was almost $2.4 million, according to the study. Homes in Anthem Country Club and MacDonald Highlands cost more than $1.5 million.
Although it's possible to stereotype million-dollar neighborhoods, not so the owners. They include, in Lake Las Vegas, headliner Celine Dion and, in North Las Vegas, Janet Combs, a member of a family of pig farmers.
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