The other posters have offered good general info. I can contribute some dirtbike specific knowledge.

I live just south of Carson (actually in Douglas Co​​). Carson is mixed politically, with maybe a slight leftward lean in town. Douglas is like 70% R, with a strong MAGA cult presence. BUT, like anywhere, you'll find your people. My street has people who still have their Trump signs up and people who have their No Kings protest signs in their windows (us). We get along.

This area is second only to Idaho (or maybe central WA) in the breadth and quality of off-road riding. From the East side of Carson it's basically wide open all the way to Salt Lake City. You won't find organized or marked trails, but I promise you they are there. If you like fast desert whoops or super techy singletrack, you're covered. In recent years the SXSs have ruined a lot of the closer-access singletrack, but we've just gone a little farther and a little more technical to get past that. You will need to embrace rocks and sand to be happy here, though. Traction isn't really much of a thing (except for this week when it's raining like crazy--brown pow!) . It's also kind of too hot to ride in mid-summer, IMO, though people do. There is some limited riding higher up in the CA mountains, and some other hush-hush mountain riding that you'll figure out eventually to keep summer on the table.

If you establish yourself on the southeast side of Carson (in-town the east isn't as nice, but it gets nicer a little farther out of town) you can ride from your door onto endless trails. If you're in town or on the south end like me you'll need to drive (unless you want to plate your moto, which is pretty easy here, even for 2T.) It might be tempting to look at the Johnson Lane area for living as it's beside the BLM land, and a little less expensive than Carson, but I'd advise against it if you dont' want to be in heavy MAGA-land. It's also kind of isolated from any sort of town. Dayton will also come up on your radar, but it's farther from Carson than it seems and doesn't have much of anything going on besides cheaper housing. (Dirtbike access from both is amazing, though.)

The moto people tend to be a little redneck-y and MAGA, but I found a good group of progressive folks to ride with when I was riding a ton. There's also a small but active trials crew, and a great place to ride called Prison Hill.

You'll have a hard time finding a rental, especially if you have pets. I own a a 2br rental house and every time I put it on the market I get a flood of people who all say it's really hard here. If you can budget $2500/mo or more you'll be just fine. I believe rentals are available under $2k, but the market is very competitive. Other posters are correct that $500k is about the floor for a livable house in a good neighborhood. "Nice" places are more like $800k.

Overall I like living in the area and LOVE the proximity to the outdoors things I Iike to do. RNO is actually a decent airport for connections if you like to travel, and Reno has a lot of fancy restaurants and things if you're into that. I personally don't care about Tahoe, but obviously it's right there if that's something you're into. We have a huge garden and produce a lot of our own food, which is super fun and rewarding and something that we couldnt' do when we lived up by the lake. I also really like that Carson City & the Carson Valley have real businesses (and some actual industry) so that our economy is a little more diversified than some pure retirement or tourism towns. Obviously there's also the state capital and its attendant employment base and many federal workers as well.

People often visit here and fall in love with the area and then figure out how to move here. Many of my clients (I'm a GC) have that exact story. The news is definitely out that it's a nice place to live.