Custom Home in Utah - Area Recommendations? (Sandy, St. George: how much, home builder)

[BuhByeCalifornia]

Hi there-

Our family (we're in our mid-30's with 3 kids 8 / 5 / 2 yrs old; LDS) is seriously considering moving to Utah by next summer. DH has one more year left of MBA school at UCLA so upon his graduation, we would like to move out there.

DH and I actually went to SLC last week to visit the Parade of Homes and look at a lot we were interested in in Draper.

We would love to build our "dream home" in Utah through a custom home builder but we're still narrowing down areas.

The idea is to start the build process now so the home will be done by next summer / fall.

Alpine was highly recommended but we heard it's about a one hour commute into SLC. Since dh does a 1 - 1.5 hour commute here in Los Angeles, we're so done with that.

Other areas we've heard about are Eaglewood and Mueller Park and Fruit Heights.

Any input is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[RCL]

I would caution you on the St. George area (in case you were thinking about it). You'd have no difficulty here becoming established since you are LDS, but homes here are sharply over-inflated right now and there are not as many employment opportunities as there are further north.

If you can find work, though, the weather here in St. George is great year round and when you want snow it's just a short drive away up to Cedar City (45 minutes).

[Elder_Shawn]

Did you look at homes in Suncrest? A new temple in the Suncrest area just had its groundbreaking ceremony. Suncrest is on the top of the mountain between Alpine and Sandy. Did you look for home in the Park City and Heber City Areas? The commute will be about an hour, but these towns are all about custom homes.

A good rule of thumb for homes in the Salt Lake Valley: East Side homes are typically older and have smaller yards, while the far west side is all new with larger homes and yards for the money. People do pay a premium to live on the East side of town because of the demographics of the Salt Lake Valley.

[coolcats]

Suncrest was just on the news. Apparently there is some disagreement about how geologically stable the mountain is that the homes sit on.

I guess it depends on how much money you will make. Alpine is real pricy. Park City is real pricy and real dicey for commuting in the winter. Heber City is cheaper but quite a bit farther with the same mountain pass commute issues as Park city. If you can afford a nice east side home go for it.

If all you can afford on the east side is a cracker box, The far west side of the SL valley is cheaper. There are some really nice homes down in Herriman and now beginning to be built all the way up the “West Bench”

[RCL]

One thing I forgot to mention, I don't know about up north in SLC but here in Southern Utah we have what's called blue clay. It creates instability in the strata underneath the top layers of soil several feet below the surface. Some people have ended up with homes on lots that were thought to be OK, but then later the blue clay was discovered when the houses started sliding. It can also affect ground water quality and/or the ability of the land to perk if you are going to put in septic as opposed to being on sewer.

Only mentioning it to you, just as coolcats mentioned about Suncrest, because if you are going to buy land somewhere and have a custom home built you will want to know what potential things to be aware of. I'm sure you are already on the ball and will be sure and have the lot very well surveyed and tested by engineers before you finalize your deal so you don't end up with junk land or have to pay tens of thousands extra for a specially engineered foundation, or special septic, etc. But, unfortunately it does happen here and people find out the hard way.

Good luck on your move!

[BuhByeCalifornia]

Thanks for you replies...

RCL, we definitely want to stay on the north side, near Salt Lake. Our best friends live in St. George (Ivins, actually) and while it's beautiful with the red rock views, the job market in SLC is much better for dh.

A good friend of mine lives in Suncrest and although she grew up in Utah, she's having a tough time with the crazy amount of snow she gets up there as opposed to lower elevations.

Since we are pretty much native Californians, we definitely have to be eased into the snow.

We are concentrating our search east of the I-15 and although land is more expensive, compared to our current home lot of about 6000 - 7000 square feet, even a 10,000 square foot lot will be huge to us.

Due to the nice equity we have in our current Los Angeles home, we have a nice budget for a custom build in Utah.

Elder Shawn, what do you mean by the "demographics of the Salt Lake Valley" and why people pay a premium for that?

Another area I'm looking into which comes highly recommended from my Utah friends is Cottonwood Heights. I spoke to a builder who is building a little enclave of 9 homes (all custom lots). The coordinates are 7200 South - 1300East. From what I've been told, it's a very nice area.

[Elder_Shawn]

What I mean about demographics is the higher porportion of college grads and people whom you may identify with better.