The warmer sections of Utah? (Provo, St. George: real estate, home, income)

[Dino1]

My wife and I are considering retiring to Utah. I have read that the climate various throughout the state with the southwestern part being the warmest (which is what we want). Can anyone recommend towns in that part of that are retirement friendly and have mild winters? Any tips and advice would be welcome and appreciated. Such as housing costs, etc. Thank you in advance.

[mlb]

Warm? Try hotter than %#*&%^!~

Like Las Vegas Hot.

I've not lived in Southern Utah - but I'd suggest you visit here - esp in the heat of the summer - before you settle on it.

It's pretty blazin' hot.

Also - like everyone says - never settle on an area before you spend significant amounts of time checking it out.

[Dino1]

MLB: Yes, I agree but I figured I would pinpoint the areas to visit before I came.

[kwm03160]

I would focus around St. George. It is a LITTLE cooler (but not much) than Las Vegas. The city was hit hard by the real estate crash, so it has become more affordable, but housing is still not as affordable as Las Vegas. Plus, Las Vegas does not have a state income tax.

[Katzpur]

Mild winters mean scorching summers. As long as you're okay with that, then St. George is the place you should be looking. Personally, I could take the summer heat there (up to 110 on occasion) but unless you could too, think twice about moving there.

[Les Hackmeister]

Misquite Nevada is between St. George and Las Vegas. There is a Del Webb retirement community there.

[Lamborgotti]

Pretty much every city in that region fits your parameters. St. George is nice, I wouldn't mind anything in that metro. Hurricane, Kanab, and Cedar City are others to consider, though I personally would much rather be in St. George.

[Dino1]

Thank you all very much. Your time and expertise is appreciated.

[osugirl2]

My Utah experience is very limited, but just from what I've seen driving through I'd say Cedar City would be a gorgeous place to live and retire to....

[ChrisC]

If you're looking for mild winters, Cedar City isn't going to work. It's closer to SLC in winter temps and snow than it is to St. George.

Your choices are limited to St. George and the immediate surrounding communities. The elevation increases rapidly as you leave St. George (thus, colder winters as you get farther away). St. George is unique to Utah at around 2800 ft in elevation--which is about 2000 ft lower than almost all of the rest of Utah. Cedar City is at over 5800 ft, which is well over a 1000 ft higher than the SLC or Provo area.

Kanab may be a little warmer in the winter than further north, but still has an average of an inch of snow on the ground in Jan and Feb; they have an average Jan temp range (nightly low/daily high) of around 22 and 47 degrees.

Your best bet is St. George. You'd better like heat, though. Here are the official high temps for the months January through December:

Jan 53.6
Feb 59.8
Mar 67.9
Apr 76.6
May 86.0
Jun 96.2
Jul 101.7
Aug 99.5
Sep 92.6
Oct 80.0
Nov 64.8
Dec 53.9

Jun through Aug is stifling heat (at least for me). Also keep in mind that the standard deviation of temps in Utah tends to be larger than many other places. In other words, the average may be 101.7 , but that is the AVERAGE. Some days are hotter, others cooler. Those days tend to have a wide spread at times, so that you have a few days in the high 90's and a few up around 105 or so... but they average to 101.7 . So you'll seldom get all days in a given week or month right at the average (or really close) as tends to be the case in coastal or lowland plains areas.


As far as home and land prices... well, I won't go there. Let's just say... "overblown."