Farmington or Layton? (Ogden, Clearfield, Kaysville: houses, neighborhoods, high school)

[TahoeHeath]

We are moving from Lake Tahoe,NV area to the Farmington/Layton area. We are a young professional family with 2 small children (2 and 0). I have been looking at Farmington and hear great things about it but it seems that all the newer nice housing developments are going up in Layton? How far is Layton from Farmington? My husband will be working right in Farmington. We really like the small town rural feel and hear that is what Farmington/Kaysville area is like. But we want to be around other young families. Any ideas? Does anyone know of any new nice develpments going up in Farmington/Kaysville? Are all the new developments all on the west side of I-15? And can anyone tell me a little about the area? I would greatly appreciate any info! We are really looking forward to moving there. Thank you so much.

[shanenlori]

Farmington is only about 10 miles away from Layton. There is alot of new development going on in Davis county. I live in a new community in Clearfield (Layton is 5 houses away). There are alot of people moving to this area from other states and also alot of young families. Most of the new developments are on the west side of the freeway, but not all of them. There is a new Ivory Homes development going (up not sure if it is Kaysville of Farmington), just east of the freeway. Farmington and Kaysville have alot of older neighborhoods, (I guess more established is a good way to discribe them.) I feel that a new neighborhood would be more open to new move ins, at least that is how my neighborhood was. Everyone is in the same boat, you are all starting fresh, everyone is trying to make friends, not alot of established cliques. This part of Utah seems to be more diverse than say Utah county. We have all faiths and races represented in my neighborhood and we all seem to get along. I'm not sure how small Lake Tahoe is but to me this area does seem like a small town, (until you're stuck in rush hour traffic). Davis high school has a great reputation and although that is a few years away for you, it's good to know that there are good schools around.
We have recieved our first snow of the season, but none of it has stuck around for more than a few hours.
I would be happy to answer any other questions you have.
LORI

[alligatorob]

I lived in Farmington from 1995 to 2000 and would go back there if I was moving to Davis county. Layton is ok, but Farmington is nicer. If you are not a Mormon, Layton is a bit more diverse than Farmington, but we were not Mormons and had no problems in Farmington.

When we were in the market the best deals on homes were houses on the lower bench, but above 89 and the freeway. There were a lot of them built in the 60s and 70s that are well built on nice lots selling for well below the price of the new developments, the lots were larger and the climate a bit better as well.

[TahoeHeath]

Thank you two so much for your advice. It is still amaizing to me that there are people out there who are so nice and willing to share thier two cents and opinions. I really appreciate your help and opinions.

[cslaughter1]

Kaysville was just ranked on the TOP 25 small suburb of a major city in the nation by BusinessWeek magazine. We also just moved to Utah from Texas and fortunately we chose to build in Kaysville. There are many nice new neighborhoods going up in Kaysville. We chose not to build on the bench side because we wanted at least 1/2 an acre and those are scarce on the east side of the freeway. The west side of Kaysville is building up with nice new neighborhoods.

Just make sure if you build on the west side, that you are up on the elevated ground to avoid flooding issues which is what we did. Ask a lot of questions about that because even my brother-inlaw who lives in North Ogden close to the mountains has flooding issues in his basement.

Watch out for the neighborhoods building up high on the bench .... a lot of news stories of homes sliding this spring in Weber, Davis, and Salt Lake counties. Another reason we stayed away from those lots and went with flat ground. We liked the view that these lots provided but we were scared off when we saw the fill that they were placing under the homes on these view lots. We opted for a bigger lot instead of an over-looking view. We still have a view of the beautiful mountains.

Layton has great shopping but its a very busy town. A lot of people I met here said they used to live in Layton and hated it. I like the shopping there but the traffic would drive me crazy. Homes are less expensive in Layton. I went to North Layton Jr High when I was a child and back then it wasn't a great school. Hopefully it has improved since then.

Where we're building in Kaysville still has that rural neighborhood feeling. We're building in west Kaysville close to Farmington. Farmington is similar to Kaysville but homes are pricier there than Kaysville. I would recommend Kaysville or Farmington over Layton unless you like to shop all the time and don't mind traffic. All three areas have the older homes and the newer developments as well. My kids will be attending Davis High School and last year it was ranked #1 in the nation.

[cslaughter1]

in an earlier post, someone mentioned Ivory Homes. True they are building in East Kaysville but as we're building, I did a lot of research on builders and Ivory has a high better business complaint volume. I also think their homes look cheap but that's my personal opinion. Sorry if I offend anyone. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes.

I liked Woodside Homes, Richmond American (though their complaints were on the high side too), and Symphony Homes. We ended up going with Woodside because they had 1/2 acre lots still available and since we didn't use a realtor, we were able to bargain 3% of the price of the home in free options.

As far as living on the east side or west side of the freeway .... its not like in other major cities ... where you have the slums on one side of town. This entire area has been kept clean and nice. There are older neighborhoods but they have been kept clean. The difference you are going to get is being closer to the mountains or not.

[EricM]

I live in Farmington, and from what you've described as your preferences I'd highly recommend you choose here instead of Layton. There are tons of young families in my area (the newer homes in West Farmington; the east end probably has a lot of older folks). Also, the prices of homes in Farmington are rising much faster than in Layton. Friends of my parents built the same house as we did, but in Layton. In the past few years, our house has risen to about a $320K value (we bought it at about $185K), while my parents' friends' house has only risen to about $250K, even though they added more features and spent around $200K on their home. While both areas are nice, I definitely recommend Farmington. That being said, there is a lot of future development plans in West Farmington, so a lot of the rural areas will be built upon. Not all, but a lot of the land closer to I-15.