Are residence of the St George area welcoming to newcomers? (St. George: fit in, real estate)

[Dmarq44]

Hi All,
I currently live in Mississippi but anxiously looking to get back to the western part of the USA. I am a widow with 2 children still in school. (High school and Junior high).
I’m wondering how welcoming the locals are to outsiders coming in? Since becoming widowed I’ve moved around way more than I’d like to admit. Came back south for family, but truth be told.....I have seen them maybe 4 times in the almost 2 years I’ve been back. It’s just not a place I enjoy living and education is seriously low here. So really no reason to stay other than the cheap cost of living.
I briefly moved to NH at one point and was treated like a serious outsider. My kids (4 in school at the time) didn’t make any friends at all. The school informed me that “we are a tight knit community, so it can be difficult to be excepted”. Needless to say, I left.
Anyway, I am Christian but not LDS. I do not know much at all about the religious beliefs however and would be willing to learn. Will that be an issue for my children? I was looking at smaller areas around St George, such as Hurricane. Thinking it may be cheaper to live there.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks In advance,
Dana

[Dmarq44]

When my husband passed away, we had just moved to Las Vegas a couple of months before for his job. I stayed there a few years after but noticed my kids starting to change into people I didn’t want them to be so I moved. So, the heat I know well. We use to drive to St George often because we wanted Chick Fil A and Vegas didn’t have any at the time.

[CVee]

I have been in St. George since 2005. Used to be great here.

Too many Californians came in - crazy traffic now, rude people and prices of home ridiculous.

My daughter tried to buy a house here 3 months ago; in two days, there were 16 offers.

As to people being welcoming, yes they are and always have been. Now, most people here are from elsewhere - everyone blends in.

PS - Hurricane is also becoming very busy with newcomers.

[Hrothgar]

Originally Posted by CVee

I have been in St. George since 2005. Used to be great here.

Too many Californians came in - crazy traffic now, rude people and prices of home ridiculous.

My daughter tried to buy a house here 3 months ago; in two days, there were 16 offers.

See above. All true.

[Celesteren]

My husband and I moved to St. George in June and have found people to be most welcoming - even when we tell them we're from California. (I apologize to CVee and Hrothgar for having come, but if you had grown up in LA and witnessed the changes, you would understand why we felt the need to flee.)

But - we have no children, so we can't answer as to how easy it will be for the children to make friends. I can see that would be a huge consideration.

[hertzian56]

It's no different than any other place, when Utah was isolated and small population that would be more likely to have been true but that's not been so for 20 years or so. In smaller isolated towns up to the 90's it would most likely have been hard to fit in simply because everyone was LDS but again with all the refugees and growth and word gets back it's just full of all sorts of people living their lives.

It's a big assumption by new people on the ground here, and in your case totally disconnected, that because everyone is busy with life, work and one church that somehow it's a hostile environment, not so. If you are single it is really hard to meet anyone, LDS mostly create LDS families because of the singles wards and that pulls a lot of the majority population out of the singles scene. It's hard to meet anyone at all here if you don't have some socially oriented hobby or a job that gets you out and about. If you need or want to meet a lot of people for friends or looking for a partner it's not something that will happen for the first few months or years here without a lot of effort which most people don't do anywhere. Kids in school will make friends regardless, if they are not LDS or do not become so as they get older they may drift from LDS friends, but that happens with any friends you naturally grow apart from as you get older. The church keeps people very busy all the time, even outside of Sundays, if you are a full member who gets married in the church, temple recommended, heavily invested in the belief system and encompassing social system that it is. That class of member will naturally separate as they get into it more and more, nothing deliberately hostile with it, it just is, but that's not really exclusive to any religious organization even though mormonism is more so in that way than the vast majority of them. There is a mormon church on every block and the vast majority of new subdivisions have new mormon churches built in them, some have 2-3 in one neighborhood, an older building and a newer one etc. So you won't be able to avoid noticing it all over everywhere.

The huge amount of retiree and second home/snowbird people are usually very insular as well, or not around during the summertime so there's that. The very hot summers in the town can also be a problem if you're looking for things to do outside away from pools/lakes etc but it's pretty easy to go about 30 miles for camping or other outdoors stuff during the summers. If you are into nightlife this isn't the town for you, there are less than 5 bars here, again if you are willing to drive 45mins to mesquite and it's casinos there's that, but mesquite is overwhelmingly 55+ retirees everywhere. Vegas is a couple hours away. There's just much less of everything in lower pop areas and towns everywhere.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Celesteren

My husband and I moved to St. George in June and have found people to be most welcoming - even when we tell them we're from California. (I apologize to CVee and Hrothgar for having come, but if you had grown up in LA and witnessed the changes, you would understand why we felt the need to flee.)

I'm another Californian considering moving to the area. I've also seen the changes here in the Bay Area, and they're not good IMO, so I'm totally with you on that. If/when I move there, I definitely don't plan on bringing the mindset of California to the area. We Californians have to be super careful about not recreating the problems that we fled from.

[PCDoc54]

If you haven't moved yet and you're hoping to find the same low cost of living that you have in MS, it's not going to happen. Check Craigs List and Zillow for how much properties are selling or renting for, you're going to get a nasty surprise. I moved here from New York 6 years ago, and quite honestly if I were doing it today, I wouldn't be able to afford it!

I don't have kids, but I have been told that they could have problems making friends if they aren't LDS. It is not as dominant as it once was, but it is still the primary religion in the area, and it is a very large part of people's lives.

There isn't a lot of work here. The biggest industry is tourism, so it's mostly service industry jobs which don't pay well.

Things are likely to continue to get more expensive too - we are running out of water, and I have a feeling southern Utahn's are about to find their water bills are going to explode.

[Code Stemi]

Originally Posted by PCDoc54

Things are likely to continue to get more expensive too - we are running out of water, and I have a feeling southern Utahn's are about to find their water bills are going to explode.

What are your thoughts on the Lake Powell Pipeline? Genuine question. I think residents in Washington County need to better embrace conservation tactics. I have my eye on relocation to the area, but the water situation does give me pause, I admit.

[hertzian56]

Yes this is not a place to come to and try to do it on the majority of work available here unless you are in the building industry(and are decent with savings/investments bc it can die at any moment), dr, dentist, gov worker or some other way that makes decent money and willing to start off small/old in terms of housing. An RV living situation would work for a while as well if it's one with some sort of AC.

Water I would not worry about, other than the cost going up. From the hysteria you'd think even more abnormal cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix would be ghost towns, has not happened and won't. Lake Las Vegas anyone? The city/developers are overdoing it no doubt making it much less of a quiet place to live, a lot more traffic, changing demographics, crime, drugs, luxury only stuff of all kinds, etc The pipeline is mostly for the proposed Warner Valley new reservoir to sell high end real estate and development, it's gone amok the gov/dev greed/lust. There are already 2 reservoirs in this relatively small town so the purpose of a new one is evident. I think eventually it will happen, too much money on all sides, UT is only claiming what they have not claimed of their water rights, it's not stealing water. The Powell levels are low because they've been draining it all last fall/winter to now much more than has happened in the past, it's purely political. That being said the whole Colorado River Dam system is an ecological disaster and is just one huge evap pool. The river normally is way below the surrounding area in the shade, moving, much less evap, almost no seepage into the sandstone, means more water is kept as liquid. It would be much better to not have the lakes, just the river and just parceling to each state what it's owed, on new more equal terms. But money and politics happen.