Cost Comparison: Las Vegas vs Carlsbad, CA
Apt. rental (one BR with dog), vehicle registration, sales tax,
average cost per gallon of gasoline, power costs (electric and gas),
groceries, etc.

Hello, Fillmalot. Leaving Las Vegas, eh?  The cost of living is,
overall, higher in Carlsbad, California than in Las Vegas, Nevada. 
Here is some information to factor into a move.

Apartment Rentals
I didn’t find specifics on one bedroom apartments, but did locate the
following city comparison from Homefair.com:

Community Close-up       Las Vegas, NV       Carlsbad, CA             
National
                         89108               92008                    
Median

Housing characteristics 
Total housing units 	18,469 	             14,493 	               3,448
% owner occupied 	56 	             50 	               58 
% renter occupied 	38 	             43                        32 
% vacant housing units 	06 	             07 	               10 
Median rent 	        497 	             635 	               285 

http://www.homefair.com/homefair/servlet/ActionServlet?pid=13&cid=homefair&rptcode=communcalc&destzip=92008&srczip=89108

Monster Moving and BusinessWeek also provide a “Compare Two Cities”
analysis.

Cost of Living		     Las Vegas, NV	Carlsbad, CA
higher value = higher       80                  105
cost of living
(100 = national average)				

http://businessweek.monstermoving.com/Find_a_Place/Compare2Cities/results.asp?srcCity=975&dtnCity=176


Vehicle Registration
The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles has a handy calculator to
determin your auto registration fees. California’s DMV site,
unfortunately, does not. For comparison’s sake, I’ve taken the total
registration cost for a 2001 Ford Taurus SEL from the Southern
California AAA article “Your Driving Costs In Southern California” and
entered a comparable vehicle in the NV DMV Calculator. For this car,
worth an approximate value of $15,000, you’ll pay:

Auto Registration Fees
Nevada		$257
California	$234

Southern California AAA “Your Driving Costs In Southern California”
http://www.aaa-calif.com/members/corpinfo/costbrch.asp

Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles Registration Estimates Response
https://dmvapp.state.nv.us/estimate.asp

California Department of Motor Vehicles General Fee Information
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/tocd3c6a2.htm
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/tocd3c6a4.htm

To find out what you’ll pay to register your specific vehicle in
California, call the DMV at (800) 777-0133. California auto
registration fees include a $28 fee is for all vehicles, a vehicle
license fee based on the car value, a use tax (similar to sales tax),
county tax, and a number of other smaller fees. And watch out for
penalties – they kick in if you don’t pay non-resident fees within 20
days of the date they are due.


Sales Tax
According to the respective state boards, the sales taxes for Nevada
and California are:

Location	 Rate
Las Vegas        7.25%
Carlsbad         7.75% 

California State Board of Equalization
http://www.boe.ca.gov/rates/po/cityC.htm

Nevada Department of Taxation
http://tax.state.nv.us/taxnew/taxmap.htm#cities

In addition, note that Nevada has no state income tax, while a married
couple with two kids with a $50,000 income will have state taxes of
$517 living in Carlsbad. Neither location charges local income tax.

BusinessWeek.com --  Find a Place
http://businessweek.monstermoving.com/Find_a_Place/Compare2Cities/results.asp?srcCity=975&dtnCity=176


Average cost per gallon of gasoline 
GasBuddy Organization Inc., a registered non-profit organization,
tracks retail gasoline prices in Las Vegas and San Diego.

Here are high and low prices, as of Sunday, April 28, 2002:

City			Highest Retail Price		Lowest Retail Price
San Diego, CA		$1.79				$1.49
Las Vegas, CA		$1.49				$1.36

Las Vegas Gas Prices
http://www.vegasgasprices.com/

San Diego Gas Prices
http://www.sandiegogasprices.com/


Power Costs
Home Energy Saver computes a home's energy use on-line based on
methods developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Results of
the “Estimated Energy Bill For Average House” for Las Vegas zip code
89108 and Carlsbad zip code 92008 are as follows:


			Carlsbad 92008			Las Vegas 89108
Heating 		 $ 234				$ 193
Cooling 		 $ 127 				$ 297
Hot Water 		 $ 126 				$ 154
Appliances 		 $ 343 				$ 240
Miscellaneous 	         $ 446 				$ 179
Lighting 		 $ 104 				 $ 66

Total		         $1380				$ 1128

Home Energy Saver
http://hes.lbl.gov/

Grocery Costs
The 20th edition of the Las Vegas Perspective provides a comparison
for grocery costs.

City       Ground T-Bone Sugar	½ gl	Dz    Bananas Bread  Coffee
           Beef			milk    eggs
Las Vegas  1.88   7.99   1.74   2.02    1.57  .59     1.03   3.49
San Diego  1.75   8.27	 2.13	1.62	2.00  .66     1.33   3.66

lasvegas.com Relocation Guide - Las Vegas Perspective & Cost of Living
http://www.lasvegas.com/relocation/perspective.html


Other Sites of Interest

The City of Las Vegas
http://www.ci.las-vegas.nv.us/

The City of Carlsbad
http://www.ci.carlsbad.ca.us/

HomeStore Community Calculator
http://www.homefair.com/homefair/usr/hoodform.html

MonsterMoving City Profile Reports
http://www.monstermoving.com/Find_a_Place/Cityprofile/



Search terms
California Department of Motor Vehicles
Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles
California sales tax
Nevada sales tax
Gas prices, Las Vegas
Gas prices, San Diego
San Diego energy costs
relocation

://www.google.com/search?q=California+Department+of+Motor+Vehicles
://www.google.com/search?q=Nevada+Department+of+Motor+Vehicles
://www.google.com/search?q=California+sales+tax
://www.google.com/search?q=Nevada+sales+tax
://www.google.com/search?q=Gas+prices%2C+Las+Vegas
://www.google.com/search?q=Gas+prices%2C+San+Diego
://www.google.com/search?q=san+diego+energy+costs
://www.google.com/search?q=relocation

Hope this information helps. Good luck,

Zrica

Thorough - exactly the information I needed. Well-presented.