Family areas in SLC (Sandy, Bountiful: for sale, renting, co-op)

[hiker4]

Hi, my husband, 15 month old son, and I are thinking of moving to the SLC area from Phoenix, AZ. Both of us grew up in small suburbs of larger cities. We are looking for an area that will give us that small town, community feel in and around SLC. We currently commute in the Phoenix area about 30 minutes each way. We would preferably like only a 15 minute or less commute to the downtown area. We want a great school district (preferably public) and an area that will have a community. We are not LDS and we want lots of opportunities for our son for sports, play, education, etc... Does SLC have these kind of family friendly areas. We are both teachers so we won't have a huge salary between the two of us so finances will be an issue where we relocate. Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated.

[DShattuck]

Hi, we are moving to Lehi in May from Gilbert AZ. I have my 6 yr old granddaughter with me and I have the same concerns as you. Not LDS. I have been checking out the public school systems and am getting mixed info. There seems to be an issue with crowded classrooms. Check it out. Good luck. Oh and one more thing...I was very surprised when I started looking at houses in the area. The style and type of houses are very different from Phoenix. Most have basements and many are not finished basements yet they are still counted as sqftage living space. Don't get excited about home listings on the internet until you actually see them in person. People have a 3000 sqft house and are only living in half of it. Crazy. Some very nice homes though. Many have very small yards. We really only looked in the Lehi, Highland, Sandy, South Jordan area but we looked at 30 houses in two days. So I recommend looking a lot!!!!

[BuhByeCalifornia]

Hi Hiker-

We moved to UT the beg of Aug. from California. We are currently building a house in North Salt Lake and renting in Bountiful. This area is literally just 10 minutes north of downtown SLC. This is Davis County where the schools are great!

You may want to check out the Foxboro area of North Salt Lake (west of the I-15) but still 10 - 15 minutes to downtown SLC. These are all newer homes at very affordable prices. There are also 2 very good charter schools in that area (my dd attends 1 of them).

There are plenty of activities for the kids here (sports, dance, arts, etc.). We love it here so far and so do my kids.

Good luck!

[sp2007]

BuhByeCalifornia, can you suggest a website to find the Foxboro area sales?
Thanks

[goldenmom7500]

Hi,

My parents are visiting from SLC; they said the original poster should look at "Sugarhouse" (also seen as "Sugar House"). My mother says "it is super non-Mormon" (in Sugarhouse).

I also know of a super nice realtor

[kaytidid]

Here is the website for Foxboro in NSL. It is a pretty nice area with a new elementary school, a charter school (or two??), church and some parks.

New Homes Utah - Utah Homes- New Homes For Sale in Utah, Woodside Homes

Good luck!

[sp2007]

Is it easy to commute from south Davis County to downtown?

[kaytidid]

"Easy" is a relative term. What exactly do you deem easy?

I don't live in Davis County, but I think toward the southern end it probably wouldn't be too bad. There is a new highway that will be opening soon called the Legacy Highway that is supposed to ease the congestion some. That will be located on the west side though, I believe. Sometimes, just varying the time that you leave in the mornings and evenings to go home by only 15 minutes or so can make all the difference. I used to commute to Davis County 3 times a week during the afternoon rush from Tooele County. Some days I could make it there in 30 minutes, other times it took me an hour. I was only going to Bountiful. This was when there was construction on I-15 though.

[BuhByeCalifornia]

There are 2 charter schools in the Foxboro area - Legacy and Wasatch Peak. Both are excellent schools. Legacy's focus is the fine arts. My dd (a 4th grader) went on several field trips already in the few months she's been there - a tour of a copper mine, a ballet, a ceremony for the introduction of the new quarter where they got to meet the governor...

Wasatch Peak's big focus is teaching Spanish as a second language - they actually instruct the kids in Spanish and English so that all of the kids eventually become bilingual.

The commute to downtown from South Davis is GREAT (of course this comes from a Southern Californian who spents HOURS on the fwy DAILY). But there are definitely times where the fwy gets congested...but since the proximity is so close, it's not that bad.

[hiker4]

Thanks everyone. I think we are definitely going to check out Bountiful and Foxboro. Where exactly is Sugarhouse though? I can't seem to find it on a map? Being from AZ the charter school craze is really strong here. There are some great ones too. I actually worked at one for awhile and thought they did a great job. Are the charters schools good out there? My child is not school aged yet...but are there co-op preschools in the area? I really like how those work. How far is the university from Bountiful and Foxboro and is it easy to get to?

Thanks for your help