Living in South Jordan (West Valley City, Provo: low income, fit in, rentals)

[Calmeg29]

This was actually a reply to a question asked about what Daybreak is like, in South JOrdan, but it is pretty all -inclusive.

Daybreak is actually a 14,000 home "Super Community," that is still growing. It's gorgeous, and SOuth Jordan is great. Great schools, great people, out of the downtown area, 12 miles south of airport, good freeway access. Hope this helps anyone looking to moving into the area!





I have lived in Daybreak for about a year and a half. We really do love it! We have lived all over the country, and had no idea what to expect when moving here. We have teenage girls, and wondered how the schools were, how the community would be, and of course, everyone has heard about the Mormon culture!

I did extensive research before moving to South Jordan. Here are some of the things that I found, and can confirm, after living here!

1) Schools: Daybreak has it's own elementary school. My daughter is in 6th grade, and when she started, in all honesty, they were at the 4th grade level. However, she is a straight A student, and gets bored easily. They put her in advanced classes, and she is actually taking a pre-Algebra class. If you arrive early enough, your child can apply for the ALPS program, which is for advanced children studies, at another school. I noticed fairly quick that a lot of children get permission to attend other schools. That is, they get a voucher of sorts, and take their child to a neighboring school. It is common practice.

For Middle Schools, Daybreak is in Elkhart district. There are only two Middle schools here- South Jordan Middle School is the other. Both of my children are athletes, and extremely competitive. We therefore are going to take her to South Jordan Middle School, which has a much better athletic program, attached to the High School Program. More importantly, the academic programs at South Jordan are actually th best in the State. (Do a Google search for best Middle schools in Utah, and you will find that middle school number one by several organizations.) We have a couple of neighbors who told us that South Jordan is equivalent, if not harder, than the programs that their children went through in the ALPS program!

High school is Bingham High School. The high school is very good, the kids are good. High school starts in 10th grade, something we were not used to. My daughter took Physics (she is a Sophomore) and was only 1 of 5 sophomores in the entire school taking it her 10th grade year! They have a "friends" group, that she was asked to participate in, as she was a transfer from out of state. They have made her feel welcome. The school is pretty huge- it's a 5A school, but it's not unreasonably hard to get around. Their athletic programs are OUTSTANDING. Most teams have state championships under their belts. She plays basketball, and the girl basketball team holds the current state championship title. Girls basketball coach is by far the best in the state- 18 years experience, and very, very fair. He gives everyone a fair chance. She also plays softball, and softball team finished in top 4 in state. I noticed the boys coach is excellent, Golf team is awesome, as is volleyball team and swim team. Overall, the outlook is grades first, sports second. You can't Google that information anywhere!

2) The Daybreak Community is very, very nice. It is known as the "ritzy" neighborhood. The posts on here about it being low end in 2 years, and comparable to West Valley City are way, way WAY off. The "cheapest" house in Daybreak is $300,000 at minimum! Yes, there are renters, but I would say out of the 14,000 houses in Daybreak area, it's less than 1%. Rentals are primarily run by CDA properties, who keep a close leash on them. We have a neighboring family who rents, and they are wonderful, as most of them close by are. The experience posted before is a RARE occurrence. Also, the three neighbors that were renting over the last year, nearby to us, primarily all bought houses in Daybreak eventually. They were only renting short term. Most people pay $1400 to $1700 a month for a rental, when they could be an owner for that! I am not trying to sound snobbish, but my experience here has been that people who have a low income can't afford to live in Daybreak, let alone rent for a long time here! That doesn't mean someone has to be loaded, it just means they could rent nearby for a WHOLE lot less!

Across Bangerter Highway is the District, which is growing daily. They have the most amazing movie theatre. The kids love it! They have a huge Target, Hobby Lobby, Lowes, Harmon’s Grocery, Sports Authority, Payless Shoes, Super Cuts, Applebee's, Beans and Brew, Village Inn, an Ice Cream Shoppe (Can't recall- think it's called Marble Stone Creamery!), DSW Shoes, JC Penney's, Chase Bank, and several new stores are coming soon (Journeys, etc). Just North is Albertsons, Mountain Mikes Pizza, tanning and Subway, State farm Insurance, lots of little businesses. Daybreak is about 11800 ("118th), North to about 7800 is a huge outdoor Mall with everything you need and more! They have everything from Sam’s Club, Sears Grande, and Super Wal-mart, to Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que and Iggy's Sports Bar. Restaurants are EVERYWHERE. The High School is on 104th (turns into 106th to Sandy, down by I-15 Freeway) and there is yet another mall there. Shopping is everywhere. Costco, which is amazing, will be in by end of 2008 they say.

Of course, Utah is the Scrapbooking capital of the US! In draper, there is a wonderful outlet, the lady who actually created ALl My Memories. Her retail store is there, although I heard she sold the line to spend more time on the store. It is WONDERFUL! I printed out a list of scrapbook stores in Utah- literally HUNDREDS in our area alone!

Uintah Golf is everywhere. Golf Galaxy and Golf Headquarters are popular as well. Of course, Skiing and Snowboarding in the winter, on "The Greatest Snow on Earth," appeals on a huge scale to the "locals." Brighton is great for kids- my daughters took a one day lesson (skiing in the morning, snowboarding in evening) for $95. It included everything too! In the summer, we make trips down to hike in Moab, beautiful and known for Arches National Park (Google it- it's gorgeous!). Also, St George is very, very nice. Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and Yellowstone National Park are all doable in less than a one day drive.

3) Culture : 49% of the population is LDS/Mormon, and this last year (2007), the population grew by 65,000. Utah was the third largest growing state in the US, and I heard that 40,000 were in new births! I don’t know if that last part was accurate, but it would not be surprising. Of course, many families are HUGE. It’s nothing to see 9-12 kids in a family, andi n fact one of my daughter’s teammates have 11 younger brothers and sisters! There’s almost a de-sensitivity to the large family being an “unusual thing.” For us, coming from all over the USA, it’s been an adjustment for us to see the culture here as “normal.” However, most families see their lifestyle as the “norm.” It has been a bit of a humorous experience for our kids to have conversation with a lot of the LDS/Mormon friends they have made. It became very apparent to us, very quickly, that people who have lived in Utah all their lives do not realize that Utah is nothing like the rest of the United States! In fact, we had a neighboring family who’s son went to college in Southern California. He was culturally SHOCKED when he left Utah and arrived elsewhere! There are approximately 300 LDS churches that are within driving distance. When we Googled a Churches in South Jordan, (population 25,000 people), it showed one Christian, two Catholic Churches, and one Presbyterian! My kids looked at me like, You are kidding right? J One thing you should be ready for, and not offended by, is for anyone, at any given moment, to ask you if you are LDS. I was taken aback and slightly offended by that the first, say 10 times I was asked! Now it’s so common, I think nothing of it.

It is hard to “fit in.” There is a definite invisible line between the LDS/non LDS community. However, it is by no means impossible. Like everywhere you live, it’s what you make of it. We decided to take the approach “If 51% of the population is Non LDS, we are not alone!” We have made good friends, and the kids have too. Becoming involved in activities, especially here at Daybreak, has opened our eyes to how diverse our community is. There are people, all ages, from all over the world here. We have found someone from almost every state! We even found someone who lived 30 miles from our home town! The Homeowners Association is not too bad. (They occasionally tend to focus on things like the trash being out of place, instead of the big things that need focused on, but other than that, they do a good job) There are clubs galore. There are community events that take place, with a LOT for the kids to do. There is a Community Center attached to the elementary school, that has a fitness center and basketball court, with Spin (Bicycling) club- that’s big here too! The only main drawback is no swimming pool at all for older kids. It was by far a huge disappointment to us. They have a toddler pool, but there was a bacteria that hit Utah hard last year, so it was closed for much of the season. It’s hot here in the summer, and no Pool is a drag for the kids. Also, the pool is so crowded, it’s hard to enjoy. I do believe they are working on a pool, but honestly, in a community this big, one pool will be too overcrowded as well. There are community pools that kids can go to, and water parks are easy to access.

WOW this is long winded! I looked everywhere when moving here though, and it was HARD to find info! We moved here blind as well, and have been very happy with Daybreak. It’s definitely upscale, and a nice neighborhood. The Lake is great, with the boat rentals. Walking paths are everywhere- Utah is great for the family that likes the outdoors!

My daughter babysits, and is getting a reputation for being one of the best. She is 16 years old and American Red Cross certified, so she is well prepared! Feel free to email me if you would like to use her services! She babysits up to 6 kids at once!

Oh, and last the COMMUTE! I work 20 miles away from Daybreak- it takes me 45 minutes to get to work in Salt Lake/far East side. With no traffic it is only 30 minutes, but the traffic is always there! Bangerter goes straight to the Airport, so it’s an easy 12 mile (or so) trek. My husband works near West Valley City (Hint- I don’t care what they say, it’s NOT a nice area!- I would never let my kids live there!!) He takes about 35 minutes to drive that. South of us is Provo area- that’s about the same in traffic. I-15 isn’t far away from any given point from Daybreak though.


Hope this helps. EMAIL me if anyone has questions- I promise I will find out what I can for ya!


Take Care!

M and C’s Mom!