LAS VEGAS - Once a sleepy desert settlement known for its brothels and cotton ranches, Pahrump is developing into a bedroom community for Las Vegas, an alternative to the city's fast-paced lifestyle, congested freeways and skyrocketing home prices.
The growth is evidenced by billboards lining Highway 160, the main route through Pahrump, advertising new-home communities starting in the $150,000s, and by the number of real-estate offices offering land and homes.
Population has topped 30,000, tripling in the last 10 years. There is a new elementary school and a new junior high. A new hospital is on the way.
But the crown jewel that marks the progress of Pahrump is the Wal-Mart supercenter. That saves a lot of trips to Las Vegas, which sits 60 miles to east.
"It's been a little slow to develop, but it's also been steady," said Hollis Harris, principal of Hollis L. Harris Realty and developer of Desert Trails, a 600-acre master-planned community in the northern part of Pahrump Valley.
"It's going to continue to the tune of what's available with water rights. We have enough water rights to double our population."
Harris said the "big boys" are coming to Pahrump and tying up water rights. Home builders such as American West, Beazer and Concordia are picking up quite a bit of land.
Rising land costs in Las Vegas are lifting those in Pahrump. An acre has gone from about $35,000 to $70,000 in the past six months to a year, said Tim Hafen, who began parceling out Hafen Ranch in 1992 when he sold 610 acres.
Hafen, a former Nevada legislator in the 1960s, is developing Artesia at Hafen Ranch, a 480-acre master-planned community at the south end of the valley with views of Charleston Peak.
"I've always been an advocate of growth," Hafen said. "I think people want to see us get to the point where we're a self-sustaining community."
Leslie Bausher, vice president of American West Homes, said the company has about 4,000 lots in the Mountain Falls golf course community in Pahrump.
The Las Vegas-based home builder is working with Nye County planning officials on the early stages of a master plan for the development.
"We have the luxury of taking our time on it," Bausher said. "The issues we have to deal with are serious, water being first among them. They have a difficult time seeing the big boys from across the mountain come out there and throw their ideas around."
Mark Stark of Prudential Americana in Las Vegas said Pahrump presents a great opportunity to get substantially more home and a large lot for $150,000, something that's nearly impossible to find in Las Vegas.
There's also a segment of the population that doesn't like Las Vegas, that wants the rural lifestyle, he said. As condominiums become entry-level housing in Las Vegas, people are going to have to make a decision between urban life in a condo and having their own single-family home.
Van Dishong, a real-estate agent with Re/Max in Pahrump who lived in Las Vegas for six months before moving to Pahrump six years ago, prefers the quiet, rural atmosphere.
"You don't have to lock your doors. You can sit out at night and see the stars, actually see the Milky Way haze. The crime rate here is pretty low. It's a quiet town to live in and people are pretty friendly."
