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Carson City, the capital of Nevada, sits next to Lake Tahoe near the Nevada-California border. As a combination of a smaller city, a lake town, and the state capital, Carson City offers a mix of lifestyles and an abundance of activities for everyone. D.R. Horton offers new homes for sale in Carson City, allowing you to settle into this tranquil yet active community with the peace of mind a new construction home provides. D.R. Horton's Carson City homes are adaptable to any lifestyle, with spacious, open kitchens and living areas, multiple floorplans to choose from, and a smart home technology package that can be programmed to fit your daily needs.

Why choose Carson City

Smaller than most capitals in the United States with a population of around 60,000, Carson City, Nevada has a unique city atmosphere with a close-knit suburban feel. The city has plenty to do year-round, both indoors and outdoors, offering a variety of festivals, museums, shops, and markets, and lots of outdoor recreation. Carson City’s dedication to outdoor living shines through its well-maintained trails and parks, and you’ll find opportunities to participate in just about every outdoor sport imaginable thanks to Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains.

There are plenty of opportunities for employment in and around Carson City, especially in healthcare and manufacturing, and even more options are available just about half an hour away in Reno, Nevada. Proximity to Reno also allows easy access to the Reno/Tahoe International Airport, just under 30 miles from Carson City. Ground transportation is simple, too, with easy access to several major highways, multiple local and commuter bus services, and the nearby Amtrak passenger train system.

Community life in Carson City

Whether you enjoy attending a festival, learning about art and history, listening to live music, or enjoying a day on the town, Carson City always has an activity for everyone. Nevada is one of the only states that celebrates its founding as a state each year, and they do it up big. Nevada Day features a hot air balloon launch, military flyover, parade, World Championship Single-Jack Rock Drill Competition, a beard contest, and a street festival with vendors and live bands.

If you’re looking to celebrate Nevada’s history in a more traditional sense, Carson City is home to multiple museums and galleries, several of which, like the Nevada State Museum, highlight Nevada’s heritage and culture. The Nevada Railroad Museum is another popular historical attraction, including actual trains and cars from historic railroads of the state. The museum also offers train and handcar rides, as well as lectures and demonstrations about railroad history and equipment operations.

You can also indulge in a piece of Nevada’s history at the annual Mark Twain Days event. For this event, Carson City and Virginia City come together to celebrate Mark Twain's life, literature, and time in Nevada. The event is packed full of events from morning to night, like art fairs, wagon rides, art and writing workshops, and so much more. Most of the events are free to attend, and several area museums offer free admission during the event.

If you’re more interested in art and music than history, you can check out the annual Silver State Art Festival. Each year, over 40 award-winning artists from Nevada and California share their art at this unique festival, with exhibits including everything from photography to woodworking. And of course, hosted by The Nevada Gourd Society, the event wouldn’t be complete without gourd art. Another beloved artistic tradition in Carson City is the Carson City Murals and Music Festival. Multiple local, national, and international artists are brought in for about a month to paint new murals all across the city. When the murals are complete, the festival begins, and the city is filled with artist lectures, movie screenings, art activities for kids and adults, and live music. Live music can also be enjoyed all summer long during Carson City’s summer concert series. Held each Saturday from June through August at the Brewery Arts Center downtown, the free concert series hosts a wide variety of genres, from Celtic to blues to rock.

Downtown Carson City is also a great place to eat, drink, or shop small. Carson City has implemented improvements to the downtown area to make it easily walkable, with enlarged, oversized sidewalks, extra crosswalks, and a plaza. Throughout downtown, you’ll find antique stores, boutique shops, cafes, galleries, restaurants, and more, all with a backdrop of mountain views. The plaza downtown, known as McFadden Plaza, is not just a place to hang out on the town, but also the home to a few events throughout the year. One popular downtown event is the annual Capital City Brewfest. The festival takes over the plaza and brings together over two dozen brewers, live music, and multiple food trucks for a day of beer, food, and fun. If you’d prefer your food come fresh from a farm or ranch, you can head to the Carson City Farmers Market each Saturday from June to October.

With so many activities, events, and places to hang out around town, Carson City has a little something for everyone in the community.

Outdoor fun in Carson City, Nevada

Carson City, Nevada, offers many ways to enjoy the outdoors, thanks to its location under the Sierra mountains and proximity to Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America. Part of Lake Tahoe’s shore is in Carson City's city limits, so residents can easily enjoy the crystal-clear waters, several secluded, beautiful beaches, trails around the lake, and water sports, like swimming, kayaking, boating, fishing, water skiing, and even scuba diving. If you’d rather just enjoy the views of the lake, you can drive the 72-mile loop around it, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. At Lake Tahoe’s Sand Harbor State Park (formerly known as Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park), you can enjoy the views on horseback on the 12-mile Lakeview Hobart Loop. If you prefer to enjoy the terrain by bike, the Lake Tahoe area provides several great road or mountain biking opportunities. You can take your road bike out on Kingsbury Grade, also known as Nevada State Route 207, which is a road perfect for challenging, high-grade road biking to Lake Tahoe. For mountain bikers, the Lake Tahoe Flume Trail is an advanced difficulty trail recognized for its mountain biking and hiking opportunities, drawing in both residents and visitors. This steep, challenging trail overlooking Lake Tahoe is carved into the granite where flumes in the 1800s delivered water to Virginia City. The trail is covered in snow for part of the year, but it usually becomes accessible around Memorial Day. Another challenging route with Lake Tahoe views by bike–or advanced hike–is the Capital to Tahoe Trail, also known as the Cap to Tahoe Trail. This is a long, remote, and rugged trail with grades reaching as high as 19%. The 9.8-mile Cap to Tahoe Trail can be combined with several other trails, like a portion of the 7-mile Ash to Kings Trail, for a complete 16.8-mile trek from Carson City to Lake Tahoe.

Carson City has even more biking available all through town and is recognized by the League of American Cyclists as a certified bronze Bike-Friendly Community. This ranking is thanks to the total mileage of bike routes, laws and ordinances protecting cycling, and more. Carson City’s street are widely bike-friendly, and there are multiple places to rent bikes in the area. Plus, the weather in Carson City allows for road biking and mountain biking opportunities nearly year-round. In addition to enjoying the numerous trails available in the mountains and around Lake Tahoe, mountain bikers can take part in the annual Stetina’s Paydirt gravel race. This race takes on three segments of remote trails and roads with a twist–extra non-biking challenges that translate to time bonuses. Examples of these additional challenges include riding a mechanical bull or throwing tires. Road bikers can explore the Old V&T Railroad Trail, which is a paved trail that follows the old 1800s Virginia and Truckee Railroad tracks. They can also ride along the 2.5-mile Kit Carson Trail, which travels through Carson City’s historic district past almost 50 historical landmarks of the city. Both of these road bike trails are also suitable for walking or hiking.

More hiking opportunities can be found at Riverview Park in Carson City, a 109-acre natural area featuring wetlands and a paved trail system. The trails are relatively short on their own, ranging from less than a mile to four miles, but many can be combined to make longer routes. The trail system also allows for self-created loops, so you can choose whether you want to go anywhere from one mile to 15 miles. Riverview Park is an especially great place to walk or run, but the trails also allow horses, bikes, and dogs, if careful and under control. If you’re looking for trails that are a little tougher, you can check out Prison Hill Recreation Area. Named after the former Nevada State Prison in the area that has been closed since 2012, the space is now a popular spot used for outdoor recreation. The North Loop and Desert Peach Trails are popular among hikers at Prison Hill, which are both accessible from the other. Both trails are considered challenging.

The Prison Hill Recreation Area is not just limited to hiking. While there are several opportunities for hiking, biking, and horseback riding at Prison Hill, this area is most praised as a location for fun on off-road vehicles. Prison Hill has a designated OHV area, so you can take your dirt bikes, side-by-sides, ATVs, or rock crawlers out for a spin. Other spots for off-road vehicles in Carson City are the King’s Canyon Trailhead, which has a waterfall and a trail system allowing for numerous activities, and Goni Road, which is part of the 40-acre Goni Canyon Open Space.

With Carson City’s dedication to maintaining a positive outdoor experience for everyone, this is just the beginning of what the city offers. There are numerous other trails and open spaces for walking, jogging, hiking, biking, and horseback riding, as well as multiple parks in town. The city’s parks also host special events, like farmers markets, livestock events, dog training competitions, car shows, and more. There are also plenty of fishing and water sport opportunities, in addition to those available at Lake Tahoe, with the 180-mile Carson River flowing through town. You can enjoy a relaxing float there in one section or brave the bold rapids on a kayak or raft in another. There are also three golf courses in the city, as well as unique outdoor opportunities like hang gliding and hot air balloon rides. And of course, wintertime brings snow to the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe, opening up numerous ski hills just an hour or less from Carson City.

Businesses and economics in Carson City, Nevada

Chromalloy, Click Bond, and PCC Structurals are all headquartered in Carson City, each with their own focus in engineering and manufacturing for the aviation, aerospace, energy, and military industries. Chromalloy and Click Bond are two of the largest employers in Carson City, alongside state and city government employment and the education, service, and healthcare industries. Carson Tahoe Health is another top employer in Carson City, with over 35 medical specialties and a network spanning across the region. The Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center is the main location in Carson City.

Carson City is also only about 30 miles from Reno, allowing residents to commute if desired. Reno is considered a great location for startups, with multiple groups and organizations supporting entrepreneurs. If you’re not looking to start your own business, there are plenty of opportunities in trade and service, healthcare, higher education, and technology-based industries in Reno.

What makes Carson City, Nevada a great place to live

Carson City, Nevada is a great place to live for those who appreciate both city amenities and outdoor adventure. In Carson City, you’ll get all the benefits of a large metropolitan area without dealing with the high population density typical of other cities, and you can participate in just about every outdoor sport and activity you could dream of just minutes from your house. Whether you’re a family seeking opportunities for family-friendly activities, a working professional looking for an area that offers opportunities for a great work-life balance, or a retiree wanting to settle into a peaceful town that still has lots to do, Carson City offers something for everyone.

New construction homes in Carson City

D.R. Horton offers a variety of new homes in Carson City, so you can enjoy the area’s events, outdoor adventure, convenience, and a peaceful community with plenty of entertainment and experiences offered year-round. Browse our Carson City new home listings online, visit one of our model homes, or contact us today to find a new construction home near you.