If I wanted to move to UTAH (Salt Lake City, West Valley City: houses, neighborhoods)

[purplecatfish]

could I afford a nice house in the 0-$125,000 range in a nice nighborhood with a good school system. From what I can see Utah isn't that much different $$ wise than CT (I could be wrong) and from other post see Utah is growing more and more. I've looked at houses in different areas but haven't seen anything in my price range that has jumped out to me and said I'm a nice house that you can afford. My Dad lives in West Jordan and if we moved out there I know he would be as happy as a pig in mud, but I didn't see anything that didn't look like it needed major TLC in that price range. I also know very little about the neighbor hoods and how safe they are. Some of the houses I saw look like the houses we have here in CT in the not so good areas and that worries me.

My husband do want to move out of CT but can't decide where quite yet. I've been to this forum looking at TN, NC, SC and Utah. Utah would be the only state other than CT that has family but seems so much farther away than the others and that is a little scary.

We haven't fully made a decision of where to live because it's hard to see what a house is truly like as well as the neighbor hood without seeing it up close and personal. But any help anyone here can give would be great.

Thanks

[coolcats]

Originally Posted by purplecatfish

could I afford a nice house in the 0-$125,000 range in a nice nighborhood with a good school system.

Depends on your definition of "nice", but you would be looking at $200 k at a minimum, and probably more like $250k

[RockyMtnr]

[quote=purplecatfish;270374] I also know very little about the neighbor hoods and how safe they are. Some of the houses I saw look like the houses we have here in CT in the not so good areas and that worries me.

PCAT, I can tell you to avoid Rose Park, West Valley City, Glendale, Westchester, Magna, some parts of Midvale and nearly anything with a "near North Temple" heading. Your relatives are in West Jordan - that's not so hep anymore either. South Jordan is a tad better but also pricier. Generally, for neighborhoods, stay east of State St. (anything on the waffle-grid with an E. in the address). The houses may not look so good in pictures 'cause the weather wreaks havoc on exteriors, i.e., cold, sometimes freezing snow and wind to really hot, high-UV heat at other times.

[askslc]

fish-

I think you will have a hard time finding anything for $125K that is very nice in Salt Lake. I used a tool called zillow.com that shows you property values of Salt Lake. It is hard to find much that is less than $175K, and those won't be very nice.

There may be more opportunities in a smaller town, away from the cities, but I'm not that familiar with those options. You might also look in Logan. It tends to be a little cheaper up there.

Good Luck.

-askslc

[purplecatfish]

I was afraid of that to tell you the truth. It will make my dad sad but we are looking more toward the NC area. Utah looks great but like I was telling my husband I think it might be harder to live in UT than it is in CT only because we odvously have to pay the morgage off on this house when we sell and we won't have anything close to bring a morgage of say $200-$250 down to what we can afford.

Thank you for your help though.

[DP525]

Originally Posted by purplecatfish

could I afford a nice house in the 0-$125,000 range

Probably not anywhere near $0. My house was considerably more.

[purplecatfish]

Ha....lol ;-)..........

[mountainfaith]

You had me laughing with that one DP525!

Originally Posted by DP525

Probably not anywhere near $0. My house was considerably more.

[Aerorick]

This may or may not be of much concern about Utah but if anyone moves here who travels a bit there's one thing to consider. The state really only has one airport to speak of. And that's in Salt Lake City. If one lives in the southern half of the state, St. George, Cedar City etc. Vegas is the practical alternative. In either case if your not going to drive to the airport you'll have to figure taking a commuter flight to get started. And they don't fly nearly as often as some folks might be used to in more populated states.

[nicoolio777]

You could find a house in Spanish Fork for $125,000. It's a small town just south of Provo. I lived there right after I was married and I really liked it. I haven't lived there for 8 years so I'm not sure how the schools are though. We still have our house there and the neighborhood is cute with lots of families and little kids.