Marycrest Is One Of Las Vegas' Most Desirable Downtown Neighborhoods

Marycrest Estates has been home to some of the most recognizable family names in Las Vegas. Liberace, Marnell, Foley, Tiburti, Greenspun and many others have made Marycrest their homes. Some still live there.


Marycrest is one of the nicest pocket neighborhoods, featuring all custom built one of a kind homes on lots ranging from 7000 to 16000 sf.

Marycrest encompasses a square bounded by Oakey on the North, 15th Street on the east, Maryland Parkway on the west and St. Louis on the South. The "Liberace" condos on St Louis are technically called Marycrest Manor, but are generally considered part of the neighborhood. The old Gorman High Campus (now Eldorado Preparatory Academy) is also part of the neighborhood.

The homes themselves, being custom, range from a very small house on Oakey at less than 1000 sf all the way to the biggest which is almost 4600.

A quick driving tour of 15th street, 14th Street (and the cul-de-sacs which run off of 14th) as well as Bonita is a true trip back in time.

There are 3 homes for sale in Marycrest. They're priced from $365k to 525k. We're proud to be representing 2 of them at 1701 and 1720 15th street.

If you'd like to see what I aspire to have all of Very Vintage Vegas eventually look like, take a walk or drive thru Marycrest.

An east side pocket neighborhood you should know about

There's lots of these really nice little neighborhoods on the east side of Vintage Vegas. Spacious homes on good sized lots. Many have pools, many even have garages (at least the ones that haven't been converted).



Let me introduce you to Carriage Square. These were built as semi-custom homes, and there's only 62 homes in the subdivision. It's located between Desert Inn and Sahara and can be accessed from either Mojave or McLeod. All the homes are on Liberty Circle North or Liberty Circle South. Built in 1969, right at the end of the era we call Vintage Vegas, they're still charming and cute, with a dash of mid-mod.



They're well known for having extra large bedrooms and living rooms, and garages. Carriage square is one of the last all single story neighborhoods to be built till they became popular again in the late 90's. Most of the lots were 7000 sf, but there's a few in the corners of the neighborhood that ranged up to 11000 sf.



All the homes have 2 bathrooms, and 3 or bedrooms, though the living area ranged from 1200 to 2100 sf. There is one home that had a 2 story addition added to it.

Currently there are 2 homes for sale, and 3 have turned over in the last year. The 2 for sale are at $305,000 for a 4 bedroom 1996 square feet and $309,000. for a 1880 sq foot, 3 bedroom with a pool. Both still have garages.

And... we found some fun "yard art" while driving around to take our pictures.

Rancho Sereno, a suburban look in a VERY VINTAGE LOCATION

What we jokingly refer to as "Very Vintage Vegas" is not only about the age of the homes, but also about the location.
There was still lots of land left to build on in the 70's that was still close to the action and could be considered downtown if we stretch our imaginations. Rancho Sereno was built between 1978 and 1983. For ALL practical purposes, it's in no better or worse of a location than McNeil or Scotch 80's, and we all know what we think of those locations!

Most of Rancho Sereno is accessed from Paseo Del Prado, which is one traffic light west of the Palace Station on Sahara. The neighborhood was cut off from access onto Rancho a few years ago, which orphaned about 20 properties with access only from Rancho Dr.

El Cortez Avenue off of Rancho Drive will take you into the orphaned group as well as "Rancho De Monaco" which we reported on earlier.

There's 2 types of home in Rancho Sereno. There are detached single family and there are Patio Homes. A Patio Home is like a duplex, but with 2 different owners...one for each side. All the homes, whether attached or not, have good sized backyards, 2 car garages, tile roofs, and an early Mediterranean flavor to them.

There are 5 homes for sale at the moment, ranging from $236,000 to $309,000
In the last 12 months, there have been 10 homes sold between $225,000 and $315,000.

There are people who like the VVV location (who wouldn't) but want a little newer of a home than our typical 40's, 50's and 60's homes that we all love so much. I always make sure that they know about Rancho Sereno in the Northwest corner of Sahara and Rancho, behind the US bank tower.

A map of all the Very Vintage Vegas Neighborhoods

I had lunch yesterday with Phil Hagen, the editor of VURB magazine. We're collaborating on the creation of a map for an upcoming issue, and for our VeryVintageVegas website.

We're going to color and number code ALL the neighborhoods of Vintage Vegas. Most everyone knows where McNeil or Huntridge is. But I'm about the only one who knows all the names of all the little pockets of small subdivisions that are spread amongst the better known ones.

A good example is the John S. Park Historic neighborhood. The boundaries are Oakey on the south, Charleston on the north, Las Vegas Blvd. on the west and 9th Street on the east. But it's REALLY made up of several smaller subdivisions such as Desert Park, Vega Verde, Paradise Grove, Park Manor, Park Place, Belair, and Radlick Park.

I'm trying to get those names resurrected to create pockets of identity that are smaller than just calling the area downtown or mid town. Another thing that's lost to most of us is that if you're not in the city, then you actually are in a TOWNSHIP of the county. Paradise Palms South of Desert INN is actually in Paradise Township. Paradise Palms North, is in Winchester Township, as are The Las Vegas Country club, much of Fran Park, and Las Verdes.

If any of you techies out there are aware of a simple map building program (preferably share ware, or cheap if we have to buy it) please give us a hint.

We finally sold a "REXFORD CO-OP"

The Rexford, as we've reported before, is a totally cool MID MOD building at the Corner of Rexford and Oakey.

We started looking into it for a buyer who's downsizing, but wouldn't think of leaving Very Vintage Vegas. We put the deal into contract on Thursday, and thought we'd say a little more about CO-OPS.

"Cooperative Ownership" is used all the time in NYC, and on the east coast. I only know of 3 here in Las Vegas. A Co-op owner doesn't really own the real estate. The Real Estate is owned by a corporation, and each share of stock comes with the exclusive use of one of the units of the building. Since it's a privately owned company, they have the ability to decide who they want to be partners with. They can look at the credit, and financials, and public record and police record, and do security checks and interview any prospective buyer. Unlike a condo or house, you can have a say as to who moves next door. They are still subject to the fair housing laws. They can't make decisions based on discrimination.

So what you own is a share of stock. That share gives you the exclusive right to USE the unit that's attached to it. Once you own it, and are therefore a partner in the corporation, you also get to be picky about who you let become a partner in the future.

This will be an interesting escrow, since I haven't found an escrow company yet who wants to handle the escrow. It's pretty easy, since there's also no title insurance, transfer tax or recordation at the county. But still they don't want to do it, and can't say why. I'll continue to report on how I figure out how to protect the buyer.

Wally and the Beaver moved here in 1967

Welcome to "Leave it to Beaver Land". Actually it's called Paradise Crest, and hands down, it's the prettiest neighborhood in all of Vintage Vegas. All of the 170 homes were built between 1967 and 1971, in the WAY OUT FAR SUBURBS near Flamingo Rd and Pecos Rd.



We visited it on the History Hunt, and and it was everyone's favorite. All the homes are custom built, on 12,000 to 23,000 foot lots. Most have pools, and terrific landscape. I only found 1 house, period, with a bad landscaping, some neglect, and it's the one I used for the "how to screw up a dimensional roof" post, the other day. I'll leave it to you decide which one it is.



Paradise Crest is located south of Flamingo, between Sandhill and Pearl. Prices range from $495,000 to $4,065,000. and there's only 5 for sale and 2 under contract at the moment.

L'octaine Apartments Downtown.

Ahh. Yes, I think it's finally time to leave Green Valley. I found exactly what I'm looking for and the price is just right! The building at 801 S. Las Vegas Blvd. sits on the corner of LVB & Gass, just North of Charleston. It's owned by Southeby's Realty, I believe & they are finishing up work on the real estate office space as we speak. Next door on the ground floor is a fun looking little restaurant called Potato Valley that is open Mon.- Fri. from 8am to 4pm.


On the other side of Southeby's realty is another low-rise entity owned by the same. It's a rent-controlled apartment building appropriately named L'octaine. It ranges from one to three bedroom units & a few very lucky residents (*cough* brian paco alvarez) have balconies or patios facing the Strip.

I understand it was built about 2-3 years ago, & yet the 'hot-mod' lines totally had me fooled. My application's already in as of this morning & I believe there's one more two bed unit, & 1 one bed unit still available as of this morning, if you're in the rental market.

I'm just glad to hopefully be soon where every thing's happening, instead of a half hour drive from it.

Cute little neighborhoods that get no attention

One of them is Oakridge. Only 25 homes on 9th Street south of Oakey, and around the bend on Hassett Ave.




Cute little brick homes in downtown. Some have weeping brick and some have traditional mortar.







They were all built with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom in 1952. Some of them have been expanded, of course, with the addition of more bedrooms and baths. The lots were modest at the time, and ran from 5200 to 6500 sf.





We bring up Oakridge because we have a new listing at 1704 S. 9th. It's just cute as a button, with real origional hardwood floors, a truly original, and nicely preserved bathroom, and covered carport. The kitchen has been updated, but still looks and feels vintage. There's a family room with skylites and french doors that's been added to bring the total sf to 1104. It's priced to sell now at 227,500.

Renowned artist and downtown resident Steven Ligouri bought it for his mother, but she's now not able to live on her own, so it's available to one lucky buyer. Give me a call to see it, or any of the other great homes in all price ranges in Vintage Vegas.


There's more pictures of 1704 S. 9th Street HERE

Rancho De Monaco

There's a gorgeous little Vintage Vegas neighborhood hiding away under the shadow of Palace Station and the US bank Tower at Rancho and Sahara. Unofficially it's called "Rancho De Monaco, but the tax rolls say it's actually part of Westwood. I'll do a post on the rest of Westwood another time.

It's a real treat to drive down the one and only street called Westlund Ave. There's only 27 homes total. they rarely come to market, but the last one sold for 575,000 in January of '06.




From Rancho and Sahara, go north to El Cortez go west to the first street which is Westlund and you'll see what I mean.

A stroll thru Rancho Bel Air

One of the premier guard gated neighborhoods of Vintage Vegas is located on Rancho, between Alta Drive and I-515.

Rancho Bel Aire is all custom one of a kind homes. Prices range from 725k for a bank owned Repo to 1,250,000.

There's every shape and style home you can imagine, from Mid-mod to Contemporary South Beach. It's really a fun drive, if you can get in the gate.