What areas should be avoided when relocating (Salt Lake City, West Valley City: apartment, renting)

[cjsmom02]

Hi,

DH & I are still in the negotiation stages of new jobs, but we would like to know what areas of SLC to avoid. I thought I remembered someone saying to avoid the southern parts of SLC, but not sure.

We will also need to be close to public transportation as my son and his PCA would need to take public transportation for shopping, Drs, etc. (one is disabled the other mostly blind).

We might be looking at renting until we can find something to purchase, but that also depends on how long it takes to sell our house here in Wisconsin. When we do purchase, ideally we want to purchase a duplex so our friend and son can be close by for any help we might need to give them.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Mol1112]

Where are your jobs? We have TRAX (lightrail) on the east side - soon (hopefully) for the westside.

And what are your parameters for a home purchase?

You need to be more specific. This is a big valley.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Where to avoid depends on what you are trying to avoid. Long commute? Soft soil in an earthquake? Lots of LDS? Crime?

SLC itself has a good bus sytem but they are making cutbacks every year, of routes and times.

[cjsmom02]

Mostly what we are trying to avoid is unsafe living conditions. At one time when we lived in CA, we were told that an apartment was located in a safe neighborhood, yet our car was broken into twice within a month. Kicker was it was parked in a locked and gated garage.

I will be working doing home health care and hospice, so for me, location isn't that important. For my husband, he would be working at ARUP, which I believe is close to or part of the Univ. of Utah. We don't want to have more than an 30 minute commute for him, so areas to look at or avoid around there would be appreciated.

As for the home parameters, as I mentioned earlier, we would ideally be looking for a 3/3 BR, 1/1 BA duplex when we purchase. Obviously, when the time comes we will be working with a realtor, but just as a heads up, we kind of wanted to do some research on our own ahead of time.

Thanks again for the help!

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Sugar House will likely be the best bet for you. It's generally safe - but no guarantees anywhere these days - and less expensive than the Avenues or Foothills (again, generally). All 3 areas would be close and safe. All 3 have some duplexes.

[kwm03160]

I would avoid the Rose Park area. If you are looking at West Valley, local knowledge is needed (there are very nice parts of WVC, but there are also some scary parts). Kearns (part of unincorporated Salt Lake County) also needs local knowledge. There really aren't a lot of "bad" places in Salt Lake County, and even the "bad" parts are no where near as what the rest of the nation considers "bad."

[markg91359]

Hi,

DH & I are still in the negotiation stages of new jobs, but we would like to know what areas of SLC to avoid. I thought I remembered someone saying to avoid the southern parts of SLC, but not sure.

We will also need to be close to public transportation as my son and his PCA would need to take public transportation for shopping, Drs, etc. (one is disabled the other mostly blind).

We might be looking at renting until we can find something to purchase, but that also depends on how long it takes to sell our house here in Wisconsin. When we do purchase, ideally we want to purchase a duplex so our friend and son can be close by for any help we might need to give them.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I'm speaking of the entire Salt Lake Metro Area below. It wasn't clear to me if you were considering living there or just in Salt Lake City. Anyway, here goes.

Personally, I would avoid Magna. Its very run down in places. Rose Park is a good place to avoid.

A general rule of thumb is that the property on the westside of the Salt Lake Valley is cheaper, but less desirable (West Valley City). Property on the east side is valuable and very desirable. Salt Lake City proper tends to be older, but has neighborhoods that vary tremendously. Some are very new and expensive (Federal Heights and Upper Avenues). Others, Central City and the lower avenues are old and not in great condition. South Salt Salt Lake (the city) should probably be avoided. However, when you get as far south as Murray the properties are newer and nicer. Murray, Midvale, Draper, and Cottonwood are all very good.

Good luck.

[dcisive]

Well if you want to try to avoid crime as much as possible (since I work in the security business I know where it is) stay away from:

Rose Park
Glendale
Kearns
West Valley City
Taylorsville
North end of West Jordan
South Salt Lake
Central Salt Lake City and near West Side

Residents of those areas will likely be offended by my suggestion to stay away from there. However percentage wise they have the highest reported crime rates in general. Just the facts that can't be argued with. Crime to some extent is everywhere of course. Just mentioned the worst of the worst. Good luck with the move

[Tim Tim Tim]

there arent alot of super scary areas here. Id avoid west valley ( most of it ) and rose park, like said before. seems the more west you go in west valley, the nicer it gets. It doesnt come across as dangerous to me, just gross. just low class people that dont take care of anything. There houses are freaking nasty inside and the outside looks like a junk yard. I havent worked in rose park much yet, I Did one house and it was pretty nice so im going to assume that wasnt the area everyone talks about lol

[Keliko]

Originally Posted by dcisive

Well if you want to try to avoid crime as much as possible (since I work in the security business I know where it is) stay away from:

Rose Park
Glendale
Kearns
West Valley City
Taylorsville
North end of West Jordan
South Salt Lake
Central Salt Lake City and near West Side

Residents of those areas will likely be offended by my suggestion to stay away from there. However percentage wise they have the highest reported crime rates in general. Just the facts that can't be argued with. Crime to some extent is everywhere of course. Just mentioned the worst of the worst. Good luck with the move

Ditto to this. Crime isn't much compare to Watts or Compton but these places are generally dirty and trashed, people don't take care of their homes, have ran across gang activity, shootings, quite a few robberies and breaking and entering, etc...

Holladay, Sandy, Murray, Avenues, Foothill are pretty nice areas.

Sugarhouse is iffy these days, the further east you are, the better off you are I think.

(Don't know if you want to move that far south) Draper, Riverton, Herriman(sp?) are all good bets.