Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We moved from Florida to Salt Lake last year. I teach in Park City and increased my salary by $15,000. My husband, on the other hand, has been struggling considerably in the construction field. He is a plumber by trade, but has been a project manager/estimator for the last 6-or-so years. We have found that mechanical companies here pay much less and expect him to juggle much more work that when he worked in South Florida.
It's been an interesting financial journey, for sure. What I don't understand is how people afford to buy houses here. Of course, we are in love with east Salt Lake, which comes with a much higher price-tag.
I have seen nice houses, 4bd 2+ bath with basements and attics on about .35 acre of front/backyard going for $250k in Sandy/Draper as well as a few $275k closer to Murray and Holladay. Maybe that's high compared to the south or midwest, but I think with SLC you're paying for the other amenities (weather/views). With two incomes it seems doable to save around 5-7 years for a downpayment. Then again, we are very patient and strict savers, putting sometimes 20% of our salary away to afford something we want. We plan on buying in that time frame with enough for a 25% downpayment. We could probably even qualify for a 3.5% downpayment since we would be first time homeowners.
That is, of course, if everything goes according to plan, haha!
275k for a third of an acre in Draper? ... maybe in 2012. Even in Sandy, 275k is going to be short-sale or main road territory, only. Something modest, but nice in Draper or Sandy will run you 500k or 400k, respectively. Here's a nice resource for that from the Salt Lake Tribune (Click). You'll be able to find <300k in Murray, but good luck being the top offer. Also, keep in mind that the "huge" houses you're seeing typically include basement square footage, as is common in Utah. (What? I uh.. I swear I don't passively house shop Salt Lake County time to time, from my computer... )
I can appreciate your husband's desire for mountains. I too am a geologist and living in the Midwest is tough. I've not seen an outcrop in months. It's weird. The Appalachians are beautiful, but 4 hours and 2 states away, and the Keweenaw Peninsula, despite being in my state, is even farther. I really miss the mountains. I will warn you that the market for geology work in Utah wasn't great in 2015. Admittedly, my information is 3 years out of date for that sector and hopefully things have changed in the mining/oil world since then.
Also, don't forget to factor in the winter inversion with your weather and views optimism. You won't see the mountains on a typical January/February day. Air pollution is about on par with Los Angeles for most of the winter and while it doesn't look as bad in the summer, Ozone gets pretty bad too on a a 100+ summer day.
It's very doable to live there on two professional incomes. I'd even say comfortable! Certainly more-so than Los Angeles, but don't think you'll be living in the desirable places of Salt Lake at Palmdale prices. Nice parts of Salt Lake will more closely mirror Santa Clarita prices.
275k for a third of an acre in Draper? ... maybe in 2012. Even in Sandy, 275k is going to be short-sale or main road territory, only. Something modest, but nice in Draper or Sandy will run you 500k or 400k, respectively. Here's a nice resource for that from the Salt Lake Tribune (Click). You'll be able to find <300k in Murray, but good luck being the top offer. Also, keep in mind that the "huge" houses you're seeing typically include basement square footage, as is common in Utah. (What? I uh.. I swear I don't passively house shop Salt Lake County time to time, from my computer... )
I can appreciate your husband's desire for mountains. I too am a geologist and living in the Midwest is tough. I've not seen an outcrop in months. It's weird. The Appalachians are beautiful, but 4 hours and 2 states away, and the Keweenaw Peninsula, despite being in my state, is even farther. I really miss the mountains. I will warn you that the market for geology work in Utah wasn't great in 2015. Admittedly, my information is 3 years out of date for that sector and hopefully things have changed in the mining/oil world since then.
Also, don't forget to factor in the winter inversion with your weather and views optimism. You won't see the mountains on a typical January/February day. Air pollution is about on par with Los Angeles for most of the winter and while it doesn't look as bad in the summer, Ozone gets pretty bad too on a a 100+ summer day.
It's very doable to live there on two professional incomes. I'd even say comfortable! Certainly more-so than Los Angeles, but don't think you'll be living in the desirable places of Salt Lake at Palmdale prices. Nice parts of Salt Lake will more closely mirror Santa Clarita prices.
I've just gone off what I see on the "zillow estimates" for square feet, some I definitely do not believe.... But there have been a few homes around $275k here and there. Ultimately though we don't need that much house, what we're finding is the much larger homes (you say they include the basement square footage?) 3000sq ft 5+ bedrooms are on small lots very close to neighbors. We would much rather have a smaller home on more land (1-3acre), or at least some breathing room from neighbors. That seems very difficult to find in city limits under 300-400k. We'll be renting a nice apartment in Cottonwood Heights until we have enough to for a house, so there's no rush luckily.
Where we live now, we're renting a 2 bed 2 bath apartment for $2100 a month, the one we'll be renting in Cottonwood Heights is $1100; it's bigger and just as nice. On our combined income we can comfortably afford where we are now, but we just hate it here lol. We're 2+ hours from decent sized mountains in LA, but he prefers the Sierra, another 5 hours away. There's constant traffic, fires and smoke year round, no rain or snow, no breaks from heat and concrete. Gosh, the traffic is killing me. I drive 1hr each way to my job. There's a 1.25 mile stretch of freeway that can take you 25 minutes to get through.
We vacation a lot too, SLC is the perfect distance from the Sawtooth, Yellowstone, Wind River Range, cool Colorado mountains... There's no perfect place to live, so we'll try SLC out with open minds and a positive attitude and see where that gets us! (:
PS My husband loves your tag, he told me he just licked some chert today
I myself came to Utah 4 years ago and have loved living along the Wasatch. There is some possible sacrifice in terms of pay cuts, but other factors such as my decreased living costs have more than made up for it in many ways. Moving outside of downtown made some things a bit easier, and I use services such as [url=http://www.rideuta.com]Utah Transit Authority[/url] to get around when I don't want to drive. Even these have equivalent service as some of the larger metro areas but also cost less. I personally now live in the Daybreak area of South Jordan and my commute time to work is about the same as it is from downtown Salt Lake.
Last edited by SouthernBelleInUtah; 04-09-2018 at 06:57 PM..
I've just gone off what I see on the "zillow estimates" for square feet, some I definitely do not believe.... But there have been a few homes around $275k here and there. Ultimately though we don't need that much house, what we're finding is the much larger homes (you say they include the basement square footage?) 3000sq ft 5+ bedrooms are on small lots very close to neighbors. We would much rather have a smaller home on more land (1-3acre), or at least some breathing room from neighbors. That seems very difficult to find in city limits under 300-400k. We'll be renting a nice apartment in Cottonwood Heights until we have enough to for a house, so there's no rush luckily.
>>>snip<<<
We vacation a lot too, SLC is the perfect distance from the Sawtooth, Yellowstone, Wind River Range, cool Colorado mountains... There's no perfect place to live, so we'll try SLC out with open minds and a positive attitude and see where that gets us! (:
Basements seem to always be included in square footage. However, in a great many cases this isn't totally unreasonable since so many houses are built into a slope with a grade-level entrance downstairs and full size windows in some of the rooms. This is pretty much the norm for houses facing east on the east benches (Cottonwood Hts, Holladay, E Millcreek etc).
As for small house on large lot: forget it. Just doesn't happen here. In fact, it's shocking to me that the developers seem to be able to sell huge houses on tiny lots. You'd need to buy the land and do it yourself. In the SLC metro area this would be difficult and certainly very expensive. Larger lots (and other esthetic considerations in general) don't get any play here.
Basements seem to always be included in square footage. However, in a great many cases this isn't totally unreasonable since so many houses are built into a slope with a grade-level entrance downstairs and full size windows in some of the rooms. This is pretty much the norm for houses facing east on the east benches (Cottonwood Hts, Holladay, E Millcreek etc).
As for small house on large lot: forget it. Just doesn't happen here. In fact, it's shocking to me that the developers seem to be able to sell huge houses on tiny lots. You'd need to buy the land and do it yourself. In the SLC metro area this would be difficult and certainly very expensive. Larger lots (and other esthetic considerations in general) don't get any play here.
Vacations:
Yep, we had same issue with rentals, most either 3 bed or then jump up to 6 bed with a huge rent increase
The problem is I guess that people have so many kids there and big families so I guess would not sell smaller properties(although change in this now with alot moving in )
Yes spot on about the yard thing too. Friends just had a huge place built in Daybreak but has literally a cricket strip for a yard ! (or narrow alley lol ) Know alot of outside space but seems crazy for such a big property. Said exactly that that costs a fortune to do a yard and also land cost expensive
I have seen nice houses, 4bd 2+ bath with basements and attics on about .35 acre of front/backyard going for $250k in Sandy/Draper as well as a few $275k closer to Murray and Holladay. Maybe that's high compared to the south or midwest, but I think with SLC you're paying for the other amenities (weather/views). With two incomes it seems doable to save around 5-7 years for a downpayment. Then again, we are very patient and strict savers, putting sometimes 20% of our salary away to afford something we want. We plan on buying in that time frame with enough for a 25% downpayment. We could probably even qualify for a 3.5% downpayment since we would be first time homeowners.
That is, of course, if everything goes according to plan, haha!
I'm sorry but I'm going to have to disagree with you entirely... I'm on the MLS daily and we're going to open houses in Sandy & South Jordan every weekend.
The term "nice" is highly subjective what you consider nice I may consider a disaster. We went to 3 open houses in Sandy last Saturday. All were between $415k - $475k which is more than we want to spend. All 3 were North of Dimple dell and West of Union (2 were below the dip on 700E in the gully). The homes were 4/3 or 4/2.5. All were decently updated but needed work and most had major problems with them.
Please show me an livable 4/2 2k+ sqft home in Sandy for $250k. Please do so!
I used to think SLC was expensive. Then I moved to So Cal. Some salaries are higher but it doesn't come even close to offsetting the much, much higher col here. I miss my old place in Utah. I can't dream of ever affording such a place out here. Not even close. At all. As in light years away from becoming reality. It's absurd here.
I used to think SLC was expensive. Then I moved to So Cal. Some salaries are higher but it doesn't come even close to offsetting the much, much higher col here. I miss my old place in Utah. I can't dream of ever affording such a place out here. Not even close. At all. As in light years away from becoming reality. It's absurd here.
LOL! You were hit by a reality check. SLC is NOT expensive by national standards, it's middle of the pack. But if you're from CA, Chicagoland or the northeast corridor it's a bargain. Those that consider it expensive are either old timers recalling the time when it really was cheap (not so long ago, in fact) or those coming from places that really, really are cheap (rural south, midwest, etc).
There was a nurse who lived in Mesquite, NV that used to drive the 75 miles every day to a LTC/Rehab facility I work at, and I asked her, one time, being closer to St. George, UT, why she didn't find work there at a LTC/Rehab facility, and when she told me what they were paying nurses and nursing assistants, I thought she was exaggerating, but not so.
I can see now why she drove every day down to Las Vegas. $20 an hour for an LPN, $16 was offered to her in St. George. Nursing Assistant being paid $3 an hour less in St. George.
And with the high housing costs in UT, where do people live on those wages?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
... maybe in 2012. Even in Sandy, 275k is going to be short-sale or main road territory, only. Something modest, but nice in Draper or Sandy will run you 500k or 400k, respectively. 
)
Happy transplant
