how's this neightborhood? (Millcreek, East Millcreek, Highland: work, house, suburban)

[hueimo]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

On my way to St. Marks' Hospital, I drove into this neighborhood (E Urbandale Ln). The houses are identical, very close together, with hardly any yards. WHile the one the OP asked about is a single, the ones across the street are semi-detached. A PUD is designed to get around the zoning requirements for house size relative to lot size. My house is R1/5000, which basically means 1 house per 5000 sq ft lot. These houses are on small lots.

Yesterday's SLTrib had a real estate article, this zip code had a median house price of $259,750, down 2% from last year. I don't think this house is worth the asking price.

To the OP, what is most important to you?
house size? yard for kids/dogs/BBQs? access to transportation? resale value in the next 3-5 yrs? appearance of surrounding neighborhood? groceries/pharmacies/gas stations in easy reach? A lot of factorsd go into making a decision!

thanks for checking out this house for me!
The realtor doesn’t seem to be in a rush to sell it to me since I only offered 335K, they seem to be very confident about selling it with something close to their asking price. You asked what’s important to me, well, this house is close to my husband’s work place, grocery stores..etc.which is nice. The schools aren’t all that great, though I do know that I can do a school district exemption for my son; I do notice that the sale price for that zip code went down 2% this quarter. The realtor just sold one of the new homes next to it last month for a little more than 380K, so sounds like she’s confident on finding a similar buyer. I do worry about getting an overpriced home when all of these homes are in the earthquake overdue zone and the home price are apparently going down, so we’re still debating. What’s your opinion on why the realtor isn’t pushy to sell me this house when no one is making an offer yet? Is this some kind of trick? She even insists that the pricing will not go down much due to the healthy economy in SLC she said…..also, how do you all deal with not knowing if you'll be changing a job in the future hence might make the wrong decision of purchasing the wrong home location?

[hueimo]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

The entire valley is in an earthquake zone. I don't have the link available, but the U has a seismic map that shows the fault lines. There is one that runs along the base of the Wasatch Mtn.s, one along 1300 East, another one near the U, and several others I wasn't concerned about. If your house is on bedrock, it will shake and roll but the ones in the flat valley will likely pancake down (think the L.A. quake a few years ago). That's why I would only consider the East Benches area. We are over-due for a big one. There are small, not felt earthquakes almost every day. See the U or the USGS sites.

To SouthernBelleInUtah, is this house that I'm interested in considered in the East Benches area where you recommended to live at? so sorry, I'm really too new here.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

NO, it's not. The benches are the areas of stepped land up from the valley floor. I think the first one is at 1300 east, but that varies as 1300 East rises and falls between the Avenues and way out in the south. I may be wrong about this particular location, but it seems pretty flat there. The land rises at Highland Dr to the east of there. Also, I would not call the transportation good as 1300 East is the only north-south street you have access to until you go either to 3300 S or 3900 S.

As to why she isn't pushing you, sdhe could be afraid of seeming desperate or she could really believe someone else will come along. Those houses are attractive, just not to my taste.

[slcmo]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

NO, it's not. The benches are the areas of stepped land up from the valley floor. I think the first one is at 1300 east, but that varies as 1300 East rises and falls between the Avenues and way out in the south. I may be wrong about this particular location, but it seems pretty flat there. The land rises at Highland Dr to the east of there. Also, I would not call the transportation good as 1300 East is the only north-south street you have access to until you go either to 3300 S or 3900 S.

As to why she isn't pushing you, sdhe could be afraid of seeming desperate or she could really believe someone else will come along. Those houses are attractive, just not to my taste.

My husband works around the Kmart on foothill drive, so I do consider that as very close by to where this house is..I could be wrong, since I'm so new here..am I?

so, do you mean the houses closer to the mountains near the foothill drive is considered the safer east bench area?

[Lmejh]

Just a quick couple of comments:

Where you live is definitely not a bad neighborhood. I couldn't locate it on Google Maps, but if it's that far up on the east side, you're pretty much guaranteed a good neighborhood.

Granite High does not have any boundaries, on account of it's an alternative school. I doubt you would go there if it was a normal high school, I'm guessing you would either go to Olympus or Skyline (the former probably being the case as Evergreen defaults onto Olympus). With that said, I went to Olympus and Evergreen and my brother is currently attending Evergreen. I know Evergreen is somewhere around the top four in the district (it competes against Olympus Junior [there's an Oly Jr. and High], Wasatch, and Churchill in more ways than one) and everyone says nice things about Olympus, and I think it's a pretty good school too. Just my two cents.

As for earthquakes, where the house is located along the fault line has pretty much no effect on the price, from my experiences. Although there are areas more prone to liquefaction than others, the exact spots are little-known and with the magnitude of the earthquake that's forecast to hit sometime in the future, all of the city is screwed.

Good luck with the house in any event, and don't let the agent, the earthquake risk, or anything else deter you.

[slcmo]

Originally Posted by Lmejh

Just a quick couple of comments:

Where you live is definitely not a bad neighborhood. I couldn't locate it on Google Maps, but if it's that far up on the east side, you're pretty much guaranteed a good neighborhood.

Granite High does not have any boundaries, on account of it's an alternative school. I doubt you would go there if it was a normal high school, I'm guessing you would either go to Olympus or Skyline (the former probably being the case as Evergreen defaults onto Olympus). With that said, I went to Olympus and Evergreen and my brother is currently attending Evergreen. I know Evergreen is somewhere around the top four in the district (it competes against Olympus Junior [there's an Oly Jr. and High], Wasatch, and Churchill in more ways than one) and everyone says nice things about Olympus, and I think it's a pretty good school too. Just my two cents.

As for earthquakes, where the house is located along the fault line has pretty much no effect on the price, from my experiences. Although there are areas more prone to liquefaction than others, the exact spots are little-known and with the magnitude of the earthquake that's forecast to hit sometime in the future, all of the city is screwed.


Good luck with the house in any event, and don't let the agent, the earthquake risk, or anything else deter you.

thanks for so much good info here, the home street name is so new that google map didn't include it yet, so i always enter the Bit Lots address which is farely close by:

3320 S 1300 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84106 (Big Lots)

it looks like it's between this Big Lots and St. Mark's hospital on 1300E on the map.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Originally Posted by slcmo

My husband works around the Kmart on foothill drive, so I do consider that as very close by to where this house is..I could be wrong, since I'm so new here..am I?

so, do you mean the houses closer to the mountains near the foothill drive is considered the safer east bench area?

Everyone has a different idea of "close." I wouldn't call it close but it's better than being downtown for work. And yes, the K-Mart area is safer than further out in the valley. My neighbor is a geologist and she says we (a little east of 1300 E) will get a "god-almighty thump but no rolling waves" and no liquefaction. For what it's worth, take it with a grain of salt!

[cottonwood2420]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

Everyone has a different idea of "close." I wouldn't call it close but it's better than being downtown for work. And yes, the K-Mart area is safer than further out in the valley. My neighbor is a geologist and she says we (a little east of 1300 E) will get a "god-almighty thump but no rolling waves" and no liquefaction. For what it's worth, take it with a grain of salt!

What will be felt farther east of 1300 East (2500 East)?

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Originally Posted by cottonwood2420

What will be felt farther east of 1300 East (2500 East)?

I think the rolling waves, but I'm not the geologist!

[Lmejh]

Originally Posted by slcmo

thanks for so much good info here, the home street name is so new that google map didn't include it yet, so i always enter the Bit Lots address which is farely close by:

3320 S 1300 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84106 (Big Lots)

it looks like it's between this Big Lots and St. Mark's hospital on 1300E on the map.

Alright, I can tell you that Evergreen will be your junior high and Olympus will be your high school; that's a definite. The area is nice, I have friends that live there (I live higher up by 23rd) and it's a nice, quaint area and the people are nice. Good luck with the house!