Costs for living, i.e. utilities and so on (Salt Lake City: transplants, apartment)

[Libal6]

We are relocating to the Salt Lake City area from California in December and are looking at living in Draper, Sugarhouse, Cottonwood Heights, Sandy and possibly the Farmington area. Can someone possibly give me an idea of the general cost of living, i.e. monthly utilities and so on?

Any advice on where to live? We are a family of 6 with 2 elementary age kids and twins that are preschool age. My hubby will be working in downtown Salt Lake.

Any advice is greatly appreciated as we are not familiar with the area at all!

[eggalegga]

Most homes are heated with natural gas supplied by Questar gas Co. Power (AFAIK) is supplied by Rocky Mountain Power. Cooling is either by central a/c or evaporative coolers (swamp coolers). Swamp coolers are much cheaper to operate power wise, but only cool outside air temperatures 20 degrees. So on days above 95, sometimes they aren't as comfortable as central a/c. Water/sewer varies by water district. My co-worker lives in White City (a part of Sandy) and her water/sewer rates are much higher than mine. I live in Taylorsville. Don't know anything about rates/suppliers in Davis County (Farmington).

Maybe someone else can chime in about utility bills for a home in those areas. I have a 1500 sq ft home and my utilities have averaged about $110/month for power, gas, water, and sewer for the past 7 years. But there isn't a family living in my home so your results will vary.

Avoid a north facing driveway. Snow/ice are slow to melt.

Are you looking to rent or own?

[drh3010]

I live in Draper in an upscale 2000 sqft. townhouse. Power bill averages 60 dollars per month and gas bill averages 50 dollars per month. 85 dollars for broadband (you can get cheaper with local services but not much less than 50-70.) I haven't had a phone land line for 10 years so no clue on that.

For a downtown commute with a family your size I would go to Cottonwood Heights first. Not to mention the houses in Cottonwood Heights tend to retain their value. Mine had a contingency on it in 4 days and sold in one month during the peak of the housing crash.

Draper is a little far -- same with Herriman -- but both have new high schools and a lot of mid to young families which may be appealing. There's also FrontRunner and TRAX light rail that goes straight to downtown from Draper.

[mlb]

We live in Sandy in a 2200 sq ft. tri-level home. Rocky Mountain power bill averages $60/month.... but in winter when we fire up the hottub it can go as high as $90. We, too, are California transplants from LA - 23 years ago. Gas bill is low in summer - $15-20.... in winter it's much higher as we have gas heater....upwards of $80-90.

We have a swamp cooler for summer - but I HATE it. Keeps the power bill low tho. We do use AC for temps above 90 and when there is any trace of humidity - as the swamp cooler won't work when there's any humidity in the air. Power can go as high as 80-90 in the summer if we use the AC. All depends on the kind of summer you have - and they have been all over the board here.

Water is the other variable. In summer we have had water bills as high as $100 a month - for 3 months.... then it evens off. We have a .19 acre of lawn - and my husband waters it with our automatic sprinklers. Our base figure for water is $42 a month...and that's what it pretty much is fall through spring.

You can do equal payments with water - but I refuse. I usually balance the high water bills in the summer with the high gas bills in the winter.... those two variables make paying utilities manageable. When one is low - the other is high.

Sewer bill is $25 a month.

We have DISH satellite - just switched from DirecTV- and pay $29. Comcast for internet at $39.99. T-mobile land-line atop our dumbphone bill which is a total of $66 for two of us.

But we are thrifty cheapskates.... and have no children...

YES to the avoid a north-facing home. We shovel twice as much as our southfacing neighbors.

[Tim Tim Tim]

I was going to post a new topic but figure Ill hijack this slightly instead.

How have prices changed in the past 5 years there? My family is considering a move back from florida, when we were there previously our insurance (auto) was half of what it is here, utilites seemed to be about what you guys are saying which is cheaper than here as well.
Im noticing that home prices here are quite a bit lower than they are in UT though

[dcisive]

Wow I'm astonished at some of the lower bills ya'll are paying. I know ours is average or low compared to some of the neighbors in Herriman. Rocky Mt. Power is on the averaged plan at $128 a month, Gas is also on an averaged plan at $43 a month. the sewer is $25 a month and we now have to pay once a year for the garbage pickup now that the County council cleverly disconnected it from the tax base (and needless to say didn't remove the amount they get in taxes from their tax assessment), that is $127 a year. It is just my wife and I in the house. Oh and the Herriman City Water runs about $35 from Oct through March and gets up to $125 in the summer, and that's low compared to neighbors that water their lawns more.

[mlb]

I've heard that people are getting greedy in their asking prices for homes here.

There's a house two blocks away that's been on the market for over a year - asking $325K. No Freakin' Way.

More like $280K.

When the supply increases next spring I expect there will be more homes on the market and the prices will be more competitive.

[Zoolander08]

Anyone have any ideas what these figures might look like for an apartment? Are these things usually included/lumped together? Let me know!

Thanks a bunch

[eggalegga]

Aside from some grass in the backyard for the kids, consider xeriscaping the rest of your lot to save money on a water bill.

[eggalegga]

Garbage, water & sewer (and sometimes cable) are usually included in rent. Power & gas are not. Haven't lived in an apartment for 15+ years. Someone else will have to give you those numbers.