Good Neighborhoods to live in, in Saint George (St. George, Price: low income, section 8)

[kshoffeitt]

My Husband and I are interested in moving to St. George. Where are some good neighborhoods to live in? Which ones should we avoid?

[toby04]

There are several threads on this. It is really hard to say, there are really no "bad" neighborhoods. The Dixie Downs area has some of the older, cheaper homes and some problems. But I hate to paint a wide brush because there are a few bad apples.
If you can be more specific, it can help.
Price?
Retirement type area?
Close to shopping?
Golfers?
Young family?
Schools?
Amenities?
Use Google Earth or Google Maps to "see" areas.
There are not of St.George people that post here, so be patient!

[nicknageli]

I'm partial to most anything along Snow Canyon Parkway (NW side of town). Many like Coral Canyon out in Washington, but it might be too far away for some.

[sadiemae62]

Was out there recently looking around. Green Valley, Entrada, Sunbrook, Sunriver, Bloomington, Coral Canyon, Sky Mountain, the Ledges, Sand Hollow & Southgate are all golf course-centered communities throughout Washington County that are all very nice, and some homes are very affordable with the current state of the economy.

[jbkmam]

My parents retired here 15 years ago from new england and I visited them (and met my now husband) and have lived her 8 years.
The big questions is if you have school aged kids. My parents choose a nice PUD community in Green Valley near sunbrook and it works great for them but I could not live there because of the schools.

Schools vary greatly in st george area. Literally within a few miles schools have a 1 star to 10 star rating. Education was my number factor in where I live now , Bloomington hills. You can look at greatschools.net and it gives a ratings system and test results and school info. Even if you do not have kids it is good for resell to be in a good school area IMO.

If kids are not a factor the other issue is PUD/CCR's vs not. My parents choose a community with CCR's and an association, they did not want to do yard work and didn't want a big yard and liked all the rules about what can and cannot be in your front yard etc. Some communites are stricter then others (like no yard sales, restrictions on vistors, parking) so a good realtor (if you choose to not use a realtor CCR's are on file at title companies) read the rules! My opinion is assocations are great but if you have a husband who likes wants to tinker on his car or build stuff in a workshop or you have grandkids visiting alot they may not be the best choices.

I choose bloomington hills for the schools(from elementary to high school the top rated schools), I got a larger yard and a more diverse neighborhod of homes, different styles, and lots of trees. I would have been happy with little valley, or blommington as well.
There are places like green springs and kaytena which are for retirees but the schools are not great.

The neighborhoods to avoid are dixie downs, black hills, some of green valley(older parts) downtown, washington city (not the fields), downtown hurricane, laverkin. Again this is based on crime and schools.

One thing that is very odd to me is that in st george you can have a wonderful community of homes and one block over is trailers/section 8 then the next block is middle class homes/ then apartments/ then million dollar homes. When I first moved here I lived in a middle class neighborhood (250k homes) and in front of me there were million estates and behind me low income condos. As time went on since I moved crime from the condos spread into vandalizlism and buglary of the nicer subdivision next door. The only areas as of now that have no trailers, low income housing or apartments are bloomington and little valley and washington fields. In bloomington and bloomington hills you get golf courses and older larger homes (most have full basement, and were "the" homes of the 80's so they have huge master baths, but it looks like something out of casears palace for decor) and little valley and washington fields have newer homes but the price is higher and you rarely see a tree, let alone landscaping.

Also the job market is not good at all now. 6-7 years ago many homes were under 100k, and wages were low but people could afford to live. Housing boom happened, and now that it is gone it is estimated that 35% of the working age population was in real estate or construction. The jobs are gone and I saw a relator (that had his face on lots of signs a few years ago) working as a cashier at walmart the other day and he said he was happy to have that job! The only good job to have here is health care, the need is great and rising, wages are low compared to other areas.

[runrunning]

I'd avoid living in St. George. Have you checked out Mesquite, NV? No state income taxes, no traffic & close enough to St. George if you should ever have to go there.

[markg91359]

The properties along the Snow Canyon Parkway between St. George and Ivins are definitely some of the best in the area. I'd take a close look there. A word of warning though: Even with the recession, property values have not come down much.

[slcmommyof5]

Washington Fields is 5min from downtown but it has a small town feel with wide open spaces. It's very calming and peaceful out here

[nicknageli]

I've been told by one Realtor that it's cheaper in Washington Fields because people are concerned about noise once the new airport is built. Another relative-in-law told me that it can be difficult to get in and out of Washington Fields because of the two-road-only access out there.

Love to hear some input about that. Is it that bad out there?

[6fuepic]

this is to jbkmam your an uneducated (obviously) person you talk sh*t on all these ppl i happen to live in one of those areas and take my kids to a very nice highly rated school (coral cliffs) and u can sit here and tell ppl to avoid these areas WOW ppl like u make this city stink with your nose high up in the air, think your better than all the places u named and probably ur own neighbor..... ne way you should be slapped for saying the sh*t u talk .