Stansbury Park Pros and Cons? (Taylorsville, Tooele: fit in, short sales, apartment)

[Wookiee Roast]

My husband and I have been looking for an affordable house for our little family. I'm about 4 months away from finishing up college and we're yearning for a house with a yard in a nice, safe neighborhood. Last fall we took a saturday drive out to see some houses and we fell in love with Stansbury Park! Everyone seemed so friendly, the neighborhood looked nice and well-kept, and we even talked to a couple of the neighbors who told us the elementary school was great and it is a nice place to live.

I've been keeping my eye on houses out there while I finish up with school, but now that I've calmed down about our first few visits to the area, I wonder about the realities of living out there so far away from conveniences, like having a grocery store within walking distance. And what's it like being jammed between two freeways? Will I feel landlocked or will I bask in the peace and quiet? The nearest library is about 10 miles away...

I also worry about us being not particularly religious and whether it will be hard for our family to be accepted into the community if we don't go to church. That's how we feel out in our apartment in SLC...people are nice enough, but if my husband doesn't want to hear the discussions, forget about being friends. It makes me a little wary about settling down here for good.

Please give me your opinions and pros and cons on living in the Stansbury Park area and what you think. We want this to be the right place for our family and a good place for our kids to grow up!

[kaytidid]

Well, I live in Stansbury and love it here! We are not LDS, but non practicing Catholics, have many friends and fit in just fine. We have two daughters (15 and 11) and they also fit in.

Pros-It is a quiet suburb that is very safe and people are super friendly. The schools are excellent and 2 of the 3 are new. The commute to Salt Lake is very quick and easy.

Cons-there really isn't much for teens to do here. Other than school activities (which many do attend!), the bowling alley and movie theater are in Tooele. Many teens do just hang out together at each other's house for movie/game nights and in the summer you can find them hanging out at the skate park, pool or the lake.

Stansbury does have its own grocery store now. It is a Soelbergs and is located just behind the Maverik. We also do have a library. It is located in the clubhouse. It isn't as vast as the Tooele library, but it is convenient and free. We are charged $25 a year to use the Tooele library.

If you have any specific questions, let me know. I would be happy to answer them!

[irman]

Originally Posted by Wookiee Roast

Stansbury Park! --what's it like being jammed between two freeways?--Will I feel landlocked or will I bask in the peace and quiet?

Just to satisfy my curiosity, which two freeways ?
Can you really *hear* the traffic of I-80 ?
I live about 1/2 mile south of I-215, and only *hear* the freeway when the wind is in the *wrong* direction.

Having lived in an area where everything is *two hours away* by Congested freeway, I have found Utah to be a *Big Village*. I live in the good part of Taylorsville (just for Dcisive !!, average lot size 3/4 acre @ 500K, never had crime problems ... and NO HOA !!! ) and almost everything is within 20 minutes.

To me Stansbury Park, is just about right, if I was looking for a place to live in peace and quiet. Kind of *small town living*.

[Field Mouse]

For the most part Tooele, (Stansbury Park included) is a commuter county. For this reason the two highways are very busy for the morning and evening commute. The rest of the time, not that much traffic. We usually get less snow in Stansbury. The snow removal is very good, even in the residential areas. We have a lovely, quiet, safe community. I have no desire whatsoever to go back to SL county. I've lived here over 7 years, and don't feel boxed in at all. I wouldn't want to reside next to either highway, but for the most part the neighborhoods are great. I really only have one negative comment. If a bad accident occurs on I-80 or Highway 36, there is no alternative route to Salt Lake, unless you consider a 100 miles out of your way through Eagle Mountain a viable choice.

[UTES]

I have a sister who lives out in Stansbury Park and really likes it. She's owned and lived in two different homes there over the past 15 years.

My sister likes that SP is out of the Big City and that they can ride their ATV's right out into the desert from their community. There's a Walmart nearby (Tooele) and other mainstream stores/fast food places. She feels like she gets more house and property for the money out of the SLC valley.

The downside is my sister does not like the commute to and from her job in SLC. She does what she can to avoid peak load hours as it can really pack up (especially in bad weather). There is a UTA bus route with daily service between Toole and SLC and it comes into Stansbury Park.

Bill

[bdb5853]

This post is over a year old. But for anyone else who is wondering about Stansbury Park, we love it here. We moved here in November. My husband commutes to the airport every day and it is about 25 minutes. Soelbergs grocery is a very nice store. Everything else you might need is in Tooele (other grocery stores, Walmart, Home Depot).

We have found our neighbors to be great. We are not LDS and our kids are grown. Everyone is friendly. The lake froze hard this year and we had lots of dead fish, but those are mostly cleaned out now. There was a bunch of algae floating on the lake but that is getting better too. Occasionally the lake smells 'fishy' but that is part of living by a lake. Haven't noticed bugs to be a problem yet.

For anyone wondering about new developments out here on the water, Henry Walker homes is going to put in 60+ houses on the lake starting construction this spring/summer. They are getting permits, etc. now.

[sp2007]

It seems like a lot of foreclosures near the high school south of Village Blvd. Any reason for that?

[kaytidid]

They probably didn't pay their mortgages...

I am not sure why there would be so many in that neighborhood. It really wasn't an expensive neighborhood to begin with. The only thing that I can think of, is just like many other homes, people bought them at an inflated price during the boom a few years ago. Since then, the market has taken a dive. Several companies have had layoffs (Battelle, EG&G, et.al) and those workers have had to transfer to other states or look for a new job. I know that my brother in law was one of those workers. They can't sell their homes for the payoff now and people looking to buy in Stansbury can buy a much larger home with interest rates so low.

Not to mention that banks seem unwilling to work with the owners for a short sale, which leaves them no recourse but to let it go to foreclosure to secure new homes in their new state.

This is just my $.02 of course.

[sp2007]

Of course that is probably a reason, but I find it odd that it seems that one particular area is just full of short-sales and foreclosures where it seems like most of the other new areas and the Country Club areas are fairly free of those.

Just odd.

[dcisive]

You'll just have to assume since Stansbury has been one of the more affordable areas, probably a lot of folks who were marginal to begin with got in and couldn't stay in and lost their homes. It happened a ton up by me in Herriman. I'm guessing mommy and daddy upped for a down payment for the kids who had lots of kids and they couldn't stay in. In the years from about 2005 to 2011 there were rarely less than 2 or 3 per block. It's quieted down considerably as they were all sold off as short sales by now finally. A $480k home across the street sold after 5 years on the market for $310k. That's how bad it got.