Do people like living in Las Vegas. We love the weather in Southern California but we can't afford the houses?

Vegas is a horrible place to live. It has high crime and an avalanche of homeless and foreclosures. The weather is unbearable. The summer is from May to November and the combination of incredible heat and wind is inescapable. The traffic is VERY bad as well. All available jobs are extremely low paying service industry types. Recreationally there is nothing to do. Red Rocks is a place for hikers and climbers only. If you like climbing sheer faces in 120 degrees with NO shade ANYWHERE you will love it. Bonnie Springs is a touristy faux ghost town with one lousy restaurant. You go there once you wont go twice. Mt Charleston is 30 minutes away and it is great to escape the heat in the summertime for an afternoon but there is nothing but a mediocre restaurant at the top to go to and while you are sitting there you will simply start to think about how unbearable the weather is when you go back down to town. Lake Mead is a terminally choppy mess because of the constant 30 mile an hour winds and it is 130 degrees all summer long. There is literally nothing to do but feed the carp if you don't have a boat. In closing, dont be fooled by all the "outdoor recreational" things that 95% of people will mention and less than 1% will actually do, (do you climb sheer rock walls or like being outside in 130 degrees?). Regular things like going grocery shopping turn into ordeals. Imagine walking into the grocery store where it is 70 degrees and then walking back out 20 minutes later where it is 130 and your car is now 170. If you live a mile away you can do nothing but roll your windows down and gun it home because the air conditioner cannot cool the car down before you get home. The entire town is concrete so when it is 118 it is really 140 when you are walking on the sidewalk. It NEVER cools down at night. You will take the trash out at midnight and it will still be over 100 degrees out. You cannot play tennis or basketball or golf from June through September as it is beyond hot. These are the REALITIES that few will bother to share. Oh, and the beaches of LA and San Diego are 300 miles away so you CANNOT get there in "4 hours". It is a MINIMUM of a 5 and a half hour drive. The traffic is bad and when there is any accident it will take easily up to 8 hours to complete that drive.

You can probably find a cheapo house in 2011 in Southern Cal. in Inyo or Riverside county near Palm Springs, maybe Orange county.