Stead

Stead is north Reno’s workhorse, a grid of subdivisions and manufactured-home streets spread around the Reno-Stead Airport, the 5,000-acre field that began life as a World War II air base. The neighborhood grew from base housing sold into private hands after the base closed in 1966, and it has been adding rooftops ever since, with newer tracts like Silver Dollar Estates filling in the sagebrush edges.

Lending in Stead is value-entry country: FHA with 3.5 percent down, Down Payment Assistance for first-time buyers, VA for the veterans this neighborhood has always drawn, and manufactured-home financing done right, foundation certification and title conversion included. Art walks the property type before the offer so the loan matches the house.

Geography is simple: US 395 runs the west edge, Stead Boulevard and Lemmon Drive carry you to the exits, downtown Reno is about fifteen minutes, and the paycheck side of the equation keeps moving closer as distribution and fulfillment centers rise along Moya Boulevard and the new Reno AirLogistics Park next to the runway.

Per 2026 northern Nevada market guides, Stead generally trades from the mid 300s for manufactured stock through the 400s for site-built, with newer subdivisions pushing toward $500. Ask Art which streets fit your payment this season.

Stead began as Reno Army Air Base in 1942 and was renamed in 1951 for 1st Lt. Croston Stead, a Reno native lost in a P-51 training crash here in 1949. Through the 1950s its survival school trained some 80,000 airmen, including early astronauts, before the base closed in 1966 and the housing sold into private hands. The National Championship Air Races made the field famous from 1966 to 2023, and today the runways anchor north Reno’s fastest-growing job base.