Young Married Couple Moving From Cali to Salt Lake? (Salt Lake City: low income, apartment complexes)

[Jordan_Williams]

I am 22 years old, a high school graduate. My wife, who has a degree in social science and English, and I live in California but want to move to Utah, the Salt Lake Area. I grew up in Riverton/Sandy before moving to California a few years ago, where I met my wife. We came back to visit a few times and she agreed that it would be wonderful to move back to my original home, the valley. We're on a small budget right now. $1500-$1800 is our monthly income, about. My question is: where would be a good place for us to look into? I really want to be close to the Sandy, Draper, Riverton, SoJo (South Jordan) areas if possible, but I'm also looking for apartments to rent somewhere closer to the $500 range and to no avail. The Salt Lake Valley seems pretty expensive on living. Any advice on where to look/what to do?

[Molli]

I'm not sure where to tell you where to look for the rent you can afford. I do have an idea, though. I've known a couple of people who had little to no income who ended up becoming an apartment manager in the general Salt Lake area. I don't know how they came about doing that, and I don't think they had any particular skills for this at the time. One of them was a single mother as a matter of fact. As part of the salary they got a free apartment. It might be something you might want to look into if it was something you and your wife thought you could do.

Another possibility is to find a basement in a home for rent -- that is very popular in Utah.

[MisfitBanana]

Originally Posted by Jordan_Williams

I am 22 years old, a high school graduate. My wife, who has a degree in social science and English, and I live in California but want to move to Utah, the Salt Lake Area. I grew up in Riverton/Sandy before moving to California a few years ago, where I met my wife. We came back to visit a few times and she agreed that it would be wonderful to move back to my original home, the valley. We're on a small budget right now. $1500-$1800 is our monthly income, about. My question is: where would be a good place for us to look into? I really want to be close to the Sandy, Draper, Riverton, SoJo (South Jordan) areas if possible, but I'm also looking for apartments to rent somewhere closer to the $500 range and to no avail. The Salt Lake Valley seems pretty expensive on living. Any advice on where to look/what to do?

Compared to California, the valley isn't even a little expensive. But $500 will be hard to come by in every city that you mentioned, especially if you're looking for apartment communities (like what you would find online). A lot of landlords advertise apartments by sticking signs on lawns - one of those apartments would be a lot cheaper than a corporate owned apartment building, but you have to drive around every neighborhood looking for them. Like the other poster said, there are a fair amount of basement apartments - but again, it seems that they mostly advertise with a sign on the lawn, and I'm not sure that they would be as low as $500 (though you may find something small going for that).

If you're Mormon, then you may contact your old ward's current Bishop, and see if he knows of any local apartments for rent that fit your budget (or if you have Mormon family members that still lives here, ask their Bishops).

You may have to go out further from SLC to get a cheaper rent like that.

[Molli]

Another possibility is to try to find a job with one of those storage places where you live onsite. There are some creative way to find free accommodations.

[justducky2]

Lots of basement apartments in SLC. We rent them on airbnb.com whenever we go to SLC. Maybe there are some basement rentals available monthly? We really liked them. Best wishes.

[Geo-Aggie]

Come out west, it's less expensive!

Many Salt Lakers will try to lead you to believe that the west side is "bad" or "rough" but in reality crime rates of West Valley and West Jordan are significantly lower than Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake and Murray and newlywed couple are abundant on the west side.

There are certainly areas you should avoid (Redwood Road...) and low income apartment complexes are going to be low income apartment complexes wherever you go, but you can definitely find a nice basement to rent for under $600 or possibly even purchase a nice west side town-home in the $600-700/mo range if your credit is good and you plan on staying a while.