Help find a city close to SLC best for non-LDS (Sandy: crime, houses)

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by Rachee3

I see it was voted CNNMoney.com best place to live 2007.
That's nice to know!

I've lived here for almost 27 years, but know the rest of the city very well. I've lived in the Highland Park/Sugarhouse area and in the Harvard/Yale area. Cottonwood Heights is really a nice area. Oh, and BTW, a realtor friend of mine told me that in her line of work, it's known as a "non-LDS-friendly" area.

[skrit]

Originally Posted by Rachee3

We would like to be close to SLC, no longer commute then 35 min.

Unless I missed it somewhere, you will need to narrow you choices like this:

FIRST with the amount of money you are willing to spend on a house large enough for your family. Most hoods close to downtown SLC are populated with adorable bungalow style houses which tend to be smallish with very small yards. Don't be fooled by square footage numbers, most houses have basements which can be quite worthless as quality usable space. The larger the house you need, the farther from the city center you must go unless you are willing to spend over $400K. The farther east you go, the larger the houses and the more expensive. There are a bunch of large newer spec homes in areas like West Jordan with Sandy being to the east. Not my cup of tea down there so I can't speak on it's behalf. I prefer a little more funky then keeping up with the Jones's. Also you might want to know where the seedy, higher crime areas are....

SECOND with your commute time....does this mean 35 min sitting in traffic on I-15 in rush hour or 35 minutes steady freeway / side roads driving? I-15 is the only major North/South freeway with a bunch of not so great drivers and really huge tandem trucks so your husband needs to be prepared for an adventure if he has to rely on it as his sole means for getting to work and back.

THIRD with your assumption that Park City is expensive...there are suburbs of Park City closer to SLC that are not so expensive...I am hoping to move to one of them soon.

FOURTH with your reliance on "best places to live" lists. I read those for years and they are only slightly helpful in helping you with your place of choice. They do not take into consideration the varied pocket neighborhoods in an area which can be so wonderful to live. Do un-biased research and read local papers and independent rags online to get a sense of the community you are going to live.

Once you have those 4 figured out and you don't choose a house in Utah County (south of SLC, next valley down) or parts of Davis County (north of SLC) then you shouldn't have any worries about being accepted in your selected community even if there are a few LDS folks living there.

[Rachee3]

Thanks for that, Skrit! Okay, so we will be renting to start out. So I have been checking the KSL news page for rentals in all the areas we are looking at. Is there another local paper or site that is good to rentals on that you know of?
I do like the idea of being on the outskirts of town, close enough but still some privacy without the big city feel. I grew up in the country and really like a little space. I don't mind having neighbors, but I don't want a home that is back to back with other houses with no space between them. I like the neighborhoods that have houses on a little bigger lots. We have 3 children, all under school age so playing in the yard is something we do alot of. This also means I would like a house with a min. of 1,850 sq. of living space, excluding the basement.
The commute and traffic, being in the South valley in California we have our fair share of gridlock traffic, I know it varies as to whose on the road. So an average commute time is what I was shooting for. Now, as for suburbs close to Park City, do you know any names you can give me? We are very open to any suggestions, but we will only be visiting 2 more times before the big move and only for a couple of days each. So we really need to make the most our time. I would ideally like to have a good group of several places to check out when we go. Oh, and if you know some names of some of the more seedy high crime areas, I would appreciate it.

[proudflatlander]

North Ogden

[Rachee3]

North Ogden

I heard Ogden isn't very pretty?

[kaytidid]

Some parts of Ogden are very nice, others...not so much.

Rose Park tends to have a bit of a higher crime rate than other parts of the valley.

[cz4ever]

Salt Lake City proper has about the highest concentration of non-LDS citizens in the state, despite housing the world headquarters of the LDS church. Within SLC, the neighborhoods that frogandtoad mention are your best bets. As F&T said, even in heavily LDS suburbs like Sandy or Holliday, there are areas, mostly up in the foothills like Olympus Cove, that are more diverse.

Park City is the most "non-LDS" part of the state, thus its nickname "Park City, Colorado", but is very expensive and would require a fairly hefty commute to a job in SLC.

If you can afford it and value "diversity" (which in Utah mostly means religious diversity), stick to Salt Lake Valley, either SLC or along the east side. The more rural the area, generally the fewer non-LDS/out-of-staters you will find, which means you have to decide which of your preferences are most important. Conveniently, since you plan to rent, it's not a huge deal if you choose wrong since you can always pack up and move (a hassle, but not the end of the world).

In terms of beauty, all of Utah's major population areas are nestled in the mountains. Parts of Ogden are pretty, but others are run down. That said, you probably don't want to commute that far. Even with the work done to increase the capacity of the north-south freeways, the commute down into SLC from the northern bedroom communities during rush hour is ugly (not SoCal ugly, but imho not worth it). Personally, I would not even want to commute from Layton, but then again I hate commuting.

[Rachee3]

Thanks cz4ever! This was our idea exactly, re. renting. We figured it made more sense! Move in, found out you hate it, no problem! Yes, moving is no fun, but at least it will be an option. Thank you for answering my questions! Everyone who has replied has been so helpful! With so much great info and opinions, I am starting to notice trends in the like and dislike area. Giving me a pretty good idea of some places. I think we will steer clear of Ogden!
Thanks again!

[Tim Tim Tim]

I just moved here about a month ago and were in south sandy right next to draper and its a bit mormony here. We are moving to west jordan and that area seems really diverse wherever you may go. Of course, expect to see and run into mormons daily, its the primary religion in the area but I personally havent had a single issue so far. Im sure there are some retarded families that give the rest of them a bad name. What religion doesnt have a few idiots who make everyone look bad though? generally the one I have met have been very nice and dont mind that I am not a mormon.

[Tim Tim Tim]

Also, when people here say something is "far" its really 10 minutes away haha. I live pretty much in draper right now and go all the way downtown every morning in rush hour and it takes me about 25 minutes. we were looking into moving into the suncrest area which is in draper on top of the mountains, it added about a 10 minuted commute but had amazing views of the entire vally and its a smaller community. Park city is nice but expensive