Reno, NV 1 of 10 Active Retirement Communities Location

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State: Nevada

City: Reno

Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the fourth most populous city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas. It sits in a high desert valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada.

Reno, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World", is famous for its casinos, and is the birthplace of the gaming corporation Harrah's Entertainment. City residents are called "Reno-ites". Reno borders Sparks, a city of approximately 100,000 population. Most call the metropolitan area "Truckee Meadows"; the metropolitan area including Sparks and Reno has a combined population of about 420,000.

By January 1863, the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) had begun laying tracks east from Sacramento, California, eventually connecting with the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory, Utah to form the first transcontinental railroad. Lake, realizing what a rail connection would mean for business, deeded land to the CPRR in exchange for its promise to build a depot at Lake's Crossing. Once the railroad station was established, the town of Reno officially came into being on May 9, 1868. CPRR construction superintendent Charles Crocker named the community after Major General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer killed in the American Civil War at the Battle of South Mountain.

Nevada's legalization of casino gambling in 1931 and the passage of liberal divorce laws created another boom for Reno. Ernie Pyle once wrote in one of his columns "All the people you saw on the streets in Reno were obviously there to get divorces." In Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead, published in 1943, the New-York-based female protagonist tells a friend "I am going to Reno," which is taken as a different way of saying "I am going to divorce my husband." Among others, the Belgian-French writer Georges Simenon, at the time living in the US, came to Reno in 1949 in order to divorce his first wife.

The presence of a main east-west rail line, the emerging interstate highway system, favorable tax climate and relatively inexpensive land created the ideal conditions for warehousing and distribution of goods to the growing population in the surrounding eleven western states. Today, Reno has the largest concentration of distribution-related property per capita in the United States.

Reno has experienced a growing economy which has resulted in new home construction around the metro area. A direct result of this growth and the "housing bubble" has been a dramatic increase in housing prices in the area, Reno-Sparks being named the 44th most overvalued housing market in the nation in 2006. As of January 2007 Reno's housing market has fallen by 7% bringing the median home price down to $315,000.

The University of Nevada, Reno is the oldest university in the state of Nevada and Nevada System of Higher Education. In 1886, the state university, previously only a college preparatory school, moved from Elko in remote northeastern Nevada to a site north of downtown Reno, where it became a full-fledged state college. The university's first building, Morrill Hall, still stands on the historic quad at the campus' southern end. The university grew slowly over the decades, but has begun to expand rapidly along with the rest of the state and currently has an enrollment of approximately 16,000, with most students hailing from within Nevada. Among its specialties are mining engineering, agriculture, journalism, business, and one of only two Basque Studies programs in the nation. It also houses the National Judicial College, the only judicial college in the United States.

Before the late 1950s, Reno was the gambling capital of the United States, but in the last twenty years Las Vegas rapid rise, American Airlines' 2000 buyout of Reno Air and the growth of Indian gambling gaming in California have somewhat reduced its business. Older casinos were either torn down (Mapes Hotel, Fitzgerald's Nevada Club, Primadonna, Horseshoe Club, Harold's Club, Palace Club) and smaller casinos like the Comstock, Sundowner, Golden Phoenix, Kings Inn, Money Tree, Virginian, and Riverboat closed, and some converted to condos.

In an effort to bring more tourism to the area, Reno holds several events throughout the year, most of which have been extremely successful. They include Hot August Nights (a classic car convention), Street Vibrations (a motorcycle fan gathering and rally), The Great Reno Balloon Race, the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off (held in Sparks), a Cinco de Mayo celebration, bowling tournaments (held in the National Bowling Stadium), and the Reno Air Races.

The Reno area boasts 14 ski areas within two hours of the city.

The resort region around Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada borders have formed the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition to make a bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. They cited the airport, close mountains, and compact geographic area in which the games could be held. Squaw Valley Ski Resort, which hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, is considered a major advantage to the bid.

Income & Housing Costs Numbers:

Estimated median household income in 2008: $51,447 (it was $40,530 in 2000)

Reno:

$51,447

Nevada:

$56,361

Estimated median house or condo value in 2008: $298,200 (it was $147,900 in 2000)

Reno:

$298,200

Nevada:

$271,500

Mean prices in 2008: All housing units: $324,822; Detached houses: $361,528; Townhouses or other attached units: $220,606; In 2-unit structures: $229,233; In 3-to-4-unit structures: $207,381; In 5-or-more-unit structures: $162,042; Mobile homes: $41,949; Occupied boats, RVs, vans, etc.: $31,129

Median gross rent in 2008: $872.

Dec. 2009 cost of living index in Reno: 93.4 (less than average, U.S. average is 100)

In-Depth Facts and Figures as listed below, plus other information:

· Climate Charts

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· Tornado Activity History