Moving to the Salt Lake City area (West Valley City, Provo: daycare, new house)

[MovingtoUtah99]

Hello,
Our family is currently in the Midwest and are looking to move to the Salt Lake City area. My husband is going to be working at the University of Utah and I will either be working from home or looking for a job at the University. We are researching housing options and daycare options. Is there anyone that can help us?

1. We have a 2.5 year old and we want to send her to a good center based daycare at or near the University. Any suggestions for me?

2. We want to buy a house there, preferably a 4 bedroom that is not too old i.e. less than 20 years old in a good neighborhood.

3. We want to live in an area where there are good elementary public schools and according to greatschools.org there are a LOT of crappy schools in the area especially where housing seems affordable. When I look in the area that is East of I-80 the schools seem better but housing prices seem pretty high.

4. When I look up North from the University i.e. Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington the school ratings are really good and the commute from there to the University seems to be about 30 min on Google maps but is that a realistic time for a commute? Or does it drag out to a much longer commute at rush hour?

Is there any one here who works at the University that can give us some pointers regarding commutes/schools/daycare etc?

Thanks in advance

[Geo-Aggie]

1. Sorry, no idea..

2. Less than 20 years and under 250k, you're certainly looking outside of Salt Lake City proper, which is mostly older. Bountiful, Centerville and Farmington will also be mostly older, unless you have a lot of money - but you can find a few places, built in the 80s/90's, under 250k there too. North Salt Lake, West Jordan (WJ) and West Valley City (WVC) will probably be your best bets for a newer affordable neighborhoods. I bought a late-90's 5-BR in a good WVC neighborhood for 190k. Murray and Taylorsville will be affordable, but a little older. You can find homes that age under 250k in Sandy too, but the commute along 215 and Foothill Drive is awful.

3. Schools in WVC & WJ will have lower scores, but honestly this has far more to do with the areas having more "working class" families that don't value education as much as it sounds like you do, than it does with the teachers. I visit 4th grade classes throughout the valley about once a month and the teachers in West Valley and West Jordan are just as helpful and attentive as the ones in The Avenues or Canyon Rim. The classes are no bigger and they have some exceptionally bright kids as well as ones who are just completely uninterested in science-those ones drag down the scores. Education starts at home, especially in Utah, where all schools are underfunded and overcrowded.

4. I used to commute from Layton to Downtown SLC. It was about 30 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the evening. The university would be about 10 minutes more. From Bountiful it would realistically be maybe half that, so like 25 minutes in the morning and 35 in the evening. Probably add 5 minutes for Centerville and another 5 minutes for Farmington. Traffic in the SLC area is pretty good everywhere. I-15 between Taylorsville and Riverton is probably the biggest problem area, along with Foothill Drive.

Additional advice: Bountiful, Centerville and Farmington are very religious. If you're not Mormon your neighbors may not like you as much... or you may get a good neighborhood where they don't care... but having grown up in Bountiful I can assure you that South Davis County is almost as bad as Provo (where BYU is), when it comes to religion. If you move to Salt Lake County, don't live between about ~300 East and ~2000 West, unless you go further south (like 6200+). Those areas really aren't great to raise a family. They're not bad, because honestly it's Utah, it really doesn't get that bad anywhere, but they're certainly not the best either. Don't redline it either though, Taylorsville genuinely has some great neighborhoods. Just really check it out first.

[MovingtoUtah99]

Yeah we are definitely NOT morman and we are not white. We are Indian (the country not American Indian). I know that we will be the religious minority in Utah but its a great job opportunity for my husband. Here in the Midwest the town we live in is a college/military town and so there is a LOT of diversity in our neighborhood. We have people of all colors and from all around the world just on our street. SO I am pretty sure I will miss all that in SLC. We also have a less than 15 min commute to anywhere here so I am sure the commute is something that will take some getting used to.

What is it with Mormon not liking you if you are not their religion? I am not Mormon but religious and I appreciate ALL religions and their values......

[Geo-Aggie]

Not necessarily. We have some diversity in Utah. The most diverse neighborhoods you'll find in Utah are near the Air Force base (Layton and Clearfield), Salt Lake City, and West Valley City. Outside of those 3 places you may find that we're quite homogeneous.

Sorry if I made Mormons sound bad, not all are - in fact like 95% of them are like, "Oh hey neighbor, I don't drink beer, but if you do I don't care - please have one, and I don't really want to talk about religion. You should just do your own thing. I'll do mine. We'll be neighbors and friends and be happy. Oh by the way, my wife made you some green jello cake." Personally I like Mormons - they're nice and well behaved neighbors.

Unfortunately because there are a lot of them in one place you do get the occasional a-hole Mormon who is like, "Your kids aren't Mormon, I don't want mine hanging out with yours. My kids only have Mormon friends." (Seriously, that happened to me as a child) or "Hey, I'm your home teacher - want to come to church with me? No? Never? Not at all? Okay, I'll invite you next month anyway for the rest of your life until one of us moves."

Again, you may never meet one like that ... or you might. The odds are higher in Utah than they are in the Midwest, I'm certain, and I just wanted to warn you that the odds of that are even higher in places like Bountiful or Farmington than they are in SLC or WVC.

[MovingtoUtah99]

WVC is West Valley City? I read somewhere to avoid that area because of the gang related issues??? Like I said we will be moving from a 40k population town with 20k+ of those being students.........I am not used to hearing words like gangs !

The Bountiful and Farmington homes look so good...our budget is about 400k.

I think bottom line I am looking for a max of 30 min commute to the U, good elementary schools, good neighborhood, well maintained homes less than 20 years old with a sizable yard, 4+ bedrooms all for under $400k. Is that too much to ask?

Also can you suggest any GOOD realtors in the area?

[Geo-Aggie]

West Valley City (WVC) doesn't have gang issues any more than Salt Lake City does, a lot of Salt Lakers just like to pretend it does (I live here, it's great). The only real gang issues are isolated to a couple of neighborhoods. In West Valley it's mostly the northeast parts and in Salt Lake it'll be the west-central parts. That being said, check out any neighborhood first. Those neighborhoods are typically older and poorly maintained anyway. The newer and better maintained parts of both cities are very nice.

You can find homes in Bountiful and Farmington for 400k, fairly easily. Farmington may put you outside of 30 minutes to the U, but it'll be close enough. South Bountiful will have some beautiful new homes for right around 400k (and up.. but you can find 'em for <400). About 20 minutes from the U. North Salt Lake has some really nice brand new developments for 250-350k that will have decent elementary schools (like I said before, you will find very very few elementary schools in Utah that aren't both underfunded and overcrowded, sorry). It should also be about a 20 minute commute to the U. Unfortunately at 30 minutes to the U, there aren't a plethora of new neighborhoods, but you can find what you want in Bountiful.

[MisfitBanana]

If you can get past wanting a new house, with $400,000 you could purchase a home closer to the U, directly in SLC. Look around SLC near Parley's and Foothill, and also check out East Millcreek. These are good neighborhoods with good schools and only about ten minutes away from the U. I don't know about Daycare, but I know that Beacon Heights and Dilworth are good elementary schools, and both are close to the U.

There will be more diversity and generally less judgement about not being Mormon in SLC. Also, it should be a lot easier on your kids, since they'll be growing up in this region and will make friends in school.

[jeanjeanvaljean]

Originally Posted by MovingtoUtah99

WVC is West Valley City? I read somewhere to avoid that area because of the gang related issues??? Like I said we will be moving from a 40k population town with 20k+ of those being students.........I am not used to hearing words like gangs !

The Bountiful and Farmington homes look so good...our budget is about 400k.

I think bottom line I am looking for a max of 30 min commute to the U, good elementary schools, good neighborhood, well maintained homes less than 20 years old with a sizable yard, 4+ bedrooms all for under $400k. Is that too much to ask?

Also can you suggest any GOOD realtors in the area?

My husband works at the U and we live in Cottonwood Heights/north Sandy. His commute is about 20-25 minutes. I used to work downtown and my commute was about 15. Having easy access to 215 or I-15 is very important if you're out in the suburbs.

My son will be starting at Silver Mesa for kindergarten next year - the Canyons District has some great foreign language immersion programs (as do other districts like Granite.) There is some diversity (Indian, Chinese) in my particular neighborhood and many of my neighbors are not Mormon.

In Utah, many of the nicer homes and neighborhoods will be with slightly older homes - mine is about 30 years old and is lovely.

Good luck!

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Remember that you cannot mention Realtors by name on the forum. You can send a DM to the OP.

[CCSLC]

MisfitBanana is right. If you can get over the idea of a "newer" house, you can find some VERY nice homes near the University for $400k. Keep in mind that these "old" homes are not what you may typically think of when it comes to old houses; many of the historic homes in the East Central/University area have been completely gutted and renovated and are practically new in function and interiors... they just still also retain a nice historic quality on the outside.

If you want diversity, you definitely do not want to be in Davis County. Cottonwood Heights would indeed be an improvement, but you won't REALLY find many diverse families (both religiously and ethnically) unless you're in Salt Lake City, West Valley City, or South Salt Lake City. South Salt Lake is, overall, not a desirable area (you could probably buy 3 homes for $400k there! [I kid!]), and West Valley has nice areas, but can be hit and miss, it's 20-30 minutes from campus, and $400k is oodles out there.

In short, consider at least looking at some homes in your price range in the 84102, 84103, and 84108 ZIP codes before you rule out SLC proper.