Mechanical Engineer considering move to Utah/SLC (West Valley City, Clearfield: house prices, quality of life)

[Fordie22]

As per the title, my wife and I are currently living in Central Washington having recently come over from the UK. We had intended on moving to the Boise ID area but have had no luck with jobs in my line of work (mechanical engineering, my last role was with Ford) so am now looking further afield. We can technically move anywhere but initially want to consider places that have similar parts of what we liked about Boise:

Good outdoor pursuits (mainly watersports and karting)
Sunny climate with cool winters
And so on.

I have done (a little) research and it seems like the Salt Lake area might fit the bill, but I would be grateful for input from residents and such as to what the area is like to live and work. Is there any Mech Eng work? Are house prices reasonable? Climate? Quality of life?

Thanks in advance.

[Coffeequeen]

Do you have a green card?

[Fordie22]

Yes, I am fully eligible to live and work in the US.

[Geo-Aggie]

You should come live by me if you're into outdoor water sports, reasonable house prices, and designing car parts. I hear Ford has a little shop or something in Dearborn

I digress - SLC could work for you. There's not a ton of R&D in the valley, but it definitely does exist. Most of those jobs will be in West Salt Lake/West Valley City or the Clearfield Freeport Center and either area has nice suburban communities within a 20 minute commute distance with homes in the 300-400k range. The winters aren't mild though. Utah is a desert. So while it's definitely sunny for 9 months of the year, it's blazing hot in the summer and frigid cold in the winter, much like Boise. Also, since you're from the UK, you may not be aware of the stereotype - Mormons. There are other threads if you want to learn more about that topic, it's generally frowned upon here to go down that tangent in an unrelated topic, but I wanted to at least make you aware of it.