Vegas retirees placing their bets on Cedar City
By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune
CEDAR CITY - They're trading neon lights for quieter nights, blistering sun for balmier fun, a garish Strip for a muted Main and blackjack tables for redrock canyons.
Yes, more and more Las Vegas residents are finding it a safe bet to move to southwestern Utah. So many seem to be relocating - though there are no exact numbers - that Cedar City could be dubbed Nevada North.
That influx is changing Iron County - more homes, more condos, more traffic, more money.
Real estate agent Jennifer Davis says Vegas buyers have created a robust housing market in Cedar City (population 25,000 and counting). So far this year, about 40 of her clients have been Vegas area retirees who can afford a nice place in Cedar City and still have plenty left to stash in the bank.
"They are still real active and like mountain biking, skiing, fishing and visiting the national parks.," she says, noting that many move-ins became familiar with the area by skiing at Brian Head, attending the Utah Shakespearean Festival or visiting the nearby national parks and monuments.
All this activity has boosted the median home price to about $215,000.
Patty and Don Stockwell moved to Cedar City from Vegas in October.
"We have a lot of friends here who . . . like it because it is a quiet, friendly town," she says. "There are a lot fewer people, and it seems they have a lot more time."
Besides the draw of a more-relaxed lifestyle, the couple also wanted to escape Vegas' searing temperatures.
"My husband was in construction and worked outside all the time in the heat," Patty Stockwell says, "and we wanted to get away from that."
Nowhere is the Vegas invasion more apparent than at Brian Head, a resort town 27 miles northeast of Cedar City, and it's going to become even more evident. During the next two to three years, more than 800 condominiums and homes are expected to be built.
One 72-condo project (with each unit going for about $400,000) already has been sold to Vegas residents who trek 200 miles to the resort town to ski in the winter and to dodge the desert heat in the summer.
Most new Brian Head units are secondary, not primary, homes, explains Town Councilman Kent Kroneman.
Either way, the population leap has brought bustle to the normally laid-back resort, which soon may see even more skier visits, Kroneman says, with the town pumping $900,000 into an interconnect project to join the two ski mountains.
"You used to have five bars and one police [officer]," he says, "and now it's one bar with five police officers."
What makes the Vegas crowd tolerable to locals is the cash they are willing to cough up on everything from "Brianberry" pies at the deli to pricey sweaters at ski shops and enticing entrees at restaurants.
"We say, 'Keep Utah green. Bring Nevada cash,' " Kroneman says.
Councilman Hans Schwab moved from Vegas to Brian Head more than two years ago but still has a house in his hometown.
"Like me, most [Vegas folks] just want to get away from it all - for a while," he says.
Some just get away for college. Southern Utah University, with 7,000 full-time students, is a magnet for high school graduates from the Vegas area.
Admissions Director Stephen Allen cites Nevada as SUU's top feeder state - after Utah.
"When I meet families thinking of sending a child to SUU, many have heard of the school from having a summer home in the area or a place at Brian Head or word of mouth," he says.
These Nevada students bring "a sense of diversity that benefits the college experience," Allen adds.
Cedar City takes the whole Vegas influx in stride.
It's inevitable, Mayor Gerald Sherratt shrugs. "I don't know of a way to stop it."
Especially given the spotlight being focused on his city. The February 2006 issue of Where to Retire magazine highlighted Cedar City, and a 2002 edition listed it among eight ideal "sun-and-ski" areas, along with Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Steamboat Springs, Colo.
"In the past, the mind-set here was that people just came to see the parks and move on," he says.
No more. The precise number of Vegas residents relocating to Cedar City is hard to pin down, Sherratt says, noting that Iron County's population swelled by 6.4 percent last year, twice the state's rate and second only to neighboring Washington County.
"I get calls every now and then from people who want to limit the growth," Sherratt says. "Many of the complaints are from newcomers who want to close the gate now that they are here."
mhavnes@sltrib.com