“We are thankful for the Californians because you are helping our market,” says real estate agent Trish Nash, of Douglas Elliman. “What started all this was COVID. We started to see people make lifestyle changes and really take a look at what their living situation was. And we started to see this influx of buyers from California, and it was just absolutely crazy.”
The craze for luxury homes continues. Las Vegas recorded its highest number of $1 million-plus sales in the first quarter of 2023, though median home sale prices have declined recently to around $415,000, after peaking in 2022 at $482,000. (In contrast, the current median sales price for a home in Los Angeles is around $980,000.)
It’s no longer just a place for Strip regulars like Wayne Newton and Donny and Marie Osmond; a new pack of power players led by Mark Wahlberg are relocating to Las Vegas, the land of no individual state income tax and lower-cost living. Nevada also has one of the country’s lowest property tax rates, at 0.55 percent, per Business Insider.
Last year, Wahlberg sold his 20-bedroom mansion in Beverly Park for $55 million and bought into the exclusive Summit Club in the Summerlin community, where he purchased a $14.5 million townhome and has also acquired a $15.6 million 2.5-acre lot. Wahlberg is also planning to build a production studio in the city. In March, he told Fox News it was “absolutely” his goal to turn Vegas into an entertainment industry center: “We’re looking to create 10,000 jobs in the studio alone. We want to train people both in front of and behind the camera, create jobs, most importantly, first and foremost, for locals … And then, after that, I think we can attract a lot of people. The housing market is great.” He’s also said that his family loves living there: “The kids are really happy, and it’s all about them.”
Concurs real estate agent Melissa Tomastik, of The Agency, “The value of the dollar stretches considerably farther in Las Vegas. Several of our clients have expressed that their real estate investment in Las Vegas equates to what they would have otherwise allocated toward taxes.”
CSI creator Anthony Zuiker — who grew up in Las Vegas and recently purchased a $6 million home in the suburb of Henderson — has seen the town go from a mob hangout to a first-class city. “We’re into the next level of professional sports, the A’s baseball, the Raiders, some really high-end, $2 billion Sphere, hotels, Resorts World,” he tells THR. “It’s definitely gone into a more fashion-forward direction.” The city will also welcome the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in November and host the 2024 Super Bowl.
Some are buying because they have soured on California. Earlier this year, outspoken conservative Superman actor Dean Cain (who has said he opposes California’s fiscal, crime and homelessness policies) purchased a $3.9 million, five-bedroom modern contemporary in a gated community in Henderson. And venture capitalist Marc Andreessen — while continuing to own a record-breaking $177 million Malibu spread as well as a Tuscan-style mansion in Atherton, California — purchased a $36.2 million, 4.47-acre lot in The Summit Club in 2021. Last year, he tweeted, “Like Rome in maybe 250 A.D., we live amidst an enormous flowering of culture and creativity, but the roads are becoming unsafe and nobody is quite sure why.”
Other recent celeb real estate deals include Celine Dion’s sale in May of an estate in The Summit Club for $30 million (she still owns a $5 million home in Lake Las Vegas) and Oscar De La Hoya’s purchase of a $14.5 million mansion in Henderson in 2022.
Developers are doubling down on the new Vegas cachet. Gated communities like The Summit Club, MacDonald Highlands, The Ridges and Ascaya offer the luxury and security of Los Angeles without the sticker shock. “It feels like Las Vegas is just getting started from a growth perspective. Because of the influx of people we’ve had from other states, the luxury market has been continuously growing,” says agent Ivan Sher of IS Luxury, adding that, “We have a new playing field of sophistication and architecture and design.”
The Four Seasons brand has also bought into the trend, with the Four Seasons Private Residences set to open in early 2026. And it seems that bet is paying off — of the 176 residences, which start at $3.5 million and go up to $29 million, 48 are already under contract, exceeding expectations. A home in The Summit Club is currently on the market for $23.5 million; listed with Coldwell Banker’s Lillie Shines, the 9,800-square-foot house features nine bedrooms (five in a private, attached casita) and an outdoor kitchen with pizza oven and bar on a parcel of just over one acre.
For decades, Las Vegas was where Zuiker escaped on the weekends, after spending his week working in Los Angeles. But now he’s living and working in Vegas full time, flying into Southern California for events. “I think things have flipped,” Zuiker says, “in terms of where we’re working and where we’re spending our weekends.”
