We are a couple looking for the best place in Utah that offers a small town feel but isn't judgy of a part member tattooed couple. We have ZeRo interest in bars or urban life. We want a very down to earth more "nature-y" and a "homey" feel. Someone told us Sugar House but that was not our vibe, like at all!

Welcome to Mission Implausible.

What could possibly go wrong?

Grantsville enjoys the cleanest air I've ever breathed.

Tooele offers the most ideal water in Utah.

Literally.

I've lived in both Idaho and north Utah, and am familiar with southern Utah as that's where I'm considering retiring to.

I like both places, but for an ex-Mo, southern Utah has my heart the mostest, because it's the most ex-Mo friendly IMO.

It has the best climate for one thing. The best views for another. And outdoorsy if you like the national and state parks practically out your front door.

It also has shopping and entertainment in St George and hospital and doctors, etc.

Southern Idaho has some of the same, but it is more backwards. I hate to admit it, because that's where I was born and raised. It is still predominantly LDS country. Whereas southern Utah although there are Mormon churches on every corner it has an open air concept and diverse atmosphere I haven't found north of there except perhaps in SLC or maybe Ogden.

Salt Lake is more expensive IMO to buy a house, and more dense in terms of congestion, smog, and traffic.

Although, that being said, it may also have more job opportunities than St George does. So if you're in need of finding gainful employment, Salt Lake City area may be a good place to look for the job market.

So for Utah if I were moving today it would be: St George to retire. And if I needed to work: then Salt Lake City to find a job.

Logan is nice, yes. But like Caffeind mentioned, the road Hwy 89 is one long piece of business lined frazzle dazzle between there and Ogden. It has really become congested too, as has the highway between Ogden and Salt Lake City since I lived there in the mid 1970's. I barely recognize it anymore with the traffic nowadays. It's grown up so much from when I lived in Ogden as a teenager.

Lots of people have tattoos. They're as common in Utah as they are elsewhere. You'll be quite at home in Utah with your tattoos. Trust me on that! :)

As for housing market, it's expensive to buy both in St George or Salt Lake City. I've watched the real estate market climb since I've been watching the housing market for the past seven years there in Utah. St George has taken a steep climb in the past several years. A real estate cousin expects the housing market to stabilize over the next couple of years there because it has risen exponentially, and can't see it maintaining at that level. However what if it does? It hasn't started dropping yet.

Ogden is less expensive to buy if you're looking to buy in that area. So are some suburbs outside of SLC. Same for St George if you start looking at outlying areas further away like Hurricane or Toquelerville, and further out you can find properties that are lesser expensive than in St George. Even Moab is less expensive but quite further away from there. And far away from the amenities of city living.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2019 06:44AM by Amyjo.

Water is the best in Tooele? That's a surprise to me since I was always changing plumbing parts because of corrosive hard water deposits and rust. And not to mention the salt air that caked everything in rust. Tooele is literally getting eaten up by the salt.

But as for rednecks with Tattoos, ya it's the place to be. No one ever cracks open a book, the local culture is Walmart, besides that there is none. Everyone drives to salt lake everyday instead of trying to fix their own homes or communities.

Logan is great if you want asthma 7 months of the year mixed in with seasonal depression.

I would recommend Ogden for cracks and tatoos though, plenty of old run down houses to fix, and more than it's share of slum lords not doing it!

St. George is the fastest growing city in the country. So if you want a new neighborhood with overtaxed roads this is the place to be. St. George Blvd is a real joy to navigate :)

"Logan is great if you want asthma 7 months of the year mixed in with seasonal depression."

Amen! I hate it here. The wife and I are runners. We need to retire and move asap.

HH =)

huh ?

What I meant was we are a married couple. We have tattoos. One of us is a member of the church the other agnostic.

Thank you for clearing that up. I was wondering which part of whose member was tattooed...

Good luck with your search :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2019 03:37PM by Soft Machine.

Bahahahahaha! No. No one's "member" is tattoed.

Park City or St. George maybe? Did you only mean near Salt Lake City?

I'd suggest Logan and environs, but US 89 and US 91 (especially) has become a long stretch of national franchise commerce. Cache Valley is very attractive, with skiing and national forests closeby for outdoor activities. People have recommended Logan because of the academic and cultural amenities of nearby Utah State. 60-90 minutes from Salt Lake.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2019 12:29PM by caffiend.

Logan sounds great actually.

I remember my first visit to Logan in the 1970s. I was a young, newly baptized teenager visiting from California. My friend who lived there pointed out every house where pregnant, unmarried high school students lived. I was shocked. I thought Mormons were supposed to be so moral, lol.

Logan seemed like a very dismal place to me, but I loved Lagoon.

Park City is pretty but costly I hear it's kind of elitist as well.Yea, prob around SL area.We do like St. George though.

Park City is for the uber rich who follow their dream there to live the jet setter lifestyle in ski country style. It's the "Sun Valley" of yesteryear for the stars and the elite. It is way too pricey for average income people to afford to live there.

*warning*: Logan air is terrible.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678137/Salt-Lake-City-and-Logan-are-two-of-the-most-polluted-cities-in-America-study-says.html

Only for the weeks around February. It is in a deep valley with the largest mountains directly east of town, and frequent snow cover on the ground. This is the perfect setup to create winter inversions.

I would recommend Park City to everyone! Like caffiend says, it is pricey. Good hospitals, good schools, skiing, summer fun, boating on Jordanelle, great people, a positive vibe. There are cultural events, plus 30-minutes to SLC and all their events.

Being a part member tattooed couple, tells me nothing about you, at all, though.

Do you work? Park City isn't a bad commute into Salt Lake City for jobs, but in the snow, that freeway can be scary.

Do you have children? You would need to consider school districts. In SLC, there are many neighborhoods where kids ride their bikes, play in the street, walk to school. Our neighborhood is like that, and the non-Mormons out-number the Mormons. The closer to downtown SLC, the closer to the U of Utah, and the farther East = the fewer Mormons in the neighborhoods. Yes, the higher the prices and the smaller the houses, the less Mormon-y. Mormons like big houses for all their kids, and cheap areas. Draper and Herriman are very Mormon. The closer you get to Provo, the more Mormons.

I agree that Sugar House is not great.

You would like Sandy. Less Mormon, but higher prices than places further south and west.

Even when Mormons are in the minority, they are still obnoxious, and they try to dominate in the schools and the community. I think you will have that problem, no matter where you live in the Moridor. Do you have to live in Utah?

You say you want a nature-y homey feel. If you want the real thing, there are a lot of charming smaller towns, such as Midway, Tremonton, Paradise, Kamas, Oakley, that are near enough to a big city to provide some diversity.

I know two couples with older children, who live in Roosevelt, Utah, and they love it. One couple has a small farm, and they both teach at the University of Utah extension there. The other couple have technical careers, and can live anywhere they want.

Vernal, Utah is ideal. I have an artist friend who moved there, when Heber became too populated. He was looking for natural beauty, and that old-time feel, and he doesn't like the desert.

I don't like the desert, either, but I know a quite a few non-Mormons who live in Moab. They have a fun social life, are rather intellectual, and are active hikers, bicyclists, river-rafters. One is a doctor, and she says the hospital there is good. Another is an attorney, and he goes to SLC a few times each month. His children are happy.

Do you want land? Horse property? Richfield is nice. Fish Lake is beautiful. It's far away from everything. There's a charming little town in Central Utah called Mayfield, near Gunnison. Sanpete County is overrun with Mormons, though.

You didn't didn't mention your financial situation.
You didn't mention your interests and hobbies.

Southern Utah, particularly St. George is for retired Mormon golfers who like hot weather and rocks, and who don't care about night life or culture. The wives stay in their air-conditioned condos and read and watch TV and cook, or they go do temple work. I have spent time there, because of friends, and I would never stay there by choice, for more than one day, passing through. To be fair, I have two non-Mormon widow friends (who don't know each other) who both stayed on in St. George, after their golfer husbands died, and they are happy--I don't know how.

My advice is to hire a good real estate agent--worth their weight in gold! Also, an agent will work a better deal for you! The seller pays the commission, not the buyer.

Wow. Thank you for all of that. DH is a mechanic. I work very P/T teaching yoga and meditation. As for hobbies, we like being outside, massage, holistic well-being, hot tubbing, reading. Really,we are hippie homebodies! Haha.

"Southern Utah, particularly St. George is for retired Mormon golfers who like hot weather and rocks, and who don't care about night life or culture. The wives stay in their air-conditioned condos and read and watch TV and cook, or they go do temple work. I have spent time there, because of friends, and I would never stay there by choice, for more than one day, passing through. To be fair, I have two non-Mormon widow friends (who don't know each other) who both stayed on in St. George, after their golfer husbands died, and they are happy--I don't know how."

The times I've visited St George were meetups with non-Mos, ex-Mos, including never-Mos. They LOVE it there. (Besides my Mormon realtor cousin, the others are in the prior grouping.)

The ones who retired there told me it's gotten much less "Mormony" over the last ten years or so, just since they moved there. They are not at any want or shortage for things to do if they get bored or restless.

There's plenty of activities community wide and events to get involved in if that is your schtick. For home bodies who just like to chill out, it's perfect too. With lots of walking and hiking trails, places to eat, and vistas to explore.

There's a garden club. Artsy nature things, museums, etc. There's less and less Mormon influence there ongoing, even though there is still some. But that is a part of Utah that is a given there is really no escaping no matter what part you're in.

It also has a very low crime rate. The police stay on top of the petty crime there, and violent crime is practically unheard of. The jail @ Purgatory is kept very busy 24/7 with its revolving doors in and out because of the crimebusters aka St George and Washington County cops doing their jobs.

ETA: Plus many of the retired Mormon golfers head north in the summertime because they can afford two homes. Hence they snowbird in the winter only during the winter months. And avoid the hot temps of summer by staying cooler up north. Many of the St George homes are 2nd homes for those folks. Must be nice to be that well off. (People actually own second homes there from all over the world, not just from northern Utah and Idaho btw.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2019 09:43AM by Amyjo.

I'd like to run away, but wherever I go I'll always end up right back where I started. (jkz)

I wouldn't want to relocate to somewhere that is high crime, congestion, traffic jams or smog. There aren't too many places left where you can find that. St George still has that small town charm, but it is quickly dissipating ...

It is the fastest growing city in America, per US Census data released last year. "We also have some industry establishing itself there. Tourism is a mainstay of the Washington County economy. It's a big second home, vacation home community. That's part of the challenge of estimating the population there and understanding how much infrastructure and services are needed, because on any given night, 20 percent of the occupied housing units are occupied by people who are not even showing up in the numbers that we're talking about."

On strain the growth is putting on infrastructure

"Water is the big constraint down there. In our state projections, we see that Washington County is gonna triple in size in the next 50 years, surpassing half a million people — that really will fundamentally change the character of the place and put enormous pressure on infrastructure."

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/03/26/st-george-utah-fastest-growing-metropolitan-area



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2019 11:47AM by Amyjo.

Washington. Go to any place easy of seattle. Oregon. Any place. Why Move again?

Why move? Where we currently live is becoming a little thugged out and DH and feel like we've never experienced that kind of vibe in Utah the many times we've visited. Utah seems to have the mountains and beauty and also is safe. So that is why. We are also consdering Idaho. I have heard amazing things about Idabo.

Best place to live in Utah ? As far away as possible ! I am so glad I escaped from Utah.

I think it's better to look for a place that isn't a tiny exception. Choose a state where most of the towns are acceptable to you. That way, there's less chance that these little pocket communities will go the way of the undesirable surrounding area.

I'd recommend Moscow, Idaho or Eastern Washington or anywhere NOT Utah.

If you do have to live in Utah, avoid Tooele at all costs. Calling Tooele locals judgmental is like calling the Pacific Ocean wet.

I've never lived there, but I have relatives who live in the Tremonton, Garland, Elwood area on I15/I84. I've been there a few times to visit my brother and his wife in their 80's and they quite like it (except for the unbearable cold) and the only place in Utah that doesn't have that is St. George.

It seems clean, very farm-y. I don't know about your other requirements.

The Avenues?

Just don't move to Redwood or West Valley City. Better yet, stay completely on the East side of town, much safer there.

it is not nearly as crowded as down South. It is quite beautiful. I have mountains on 3 sides of me. Plenty of outdoors places to go. My boyfriend has a house on the bench that overlooks the whole valley. He got it for a very good price. THOUGH houses are kind of high in price in Utah right now.

We do have the university and it is NOT BYU North like some people like to believe. It is a party school. My sister left here and went to BYU (she regretted that move). It is a lot more crowded than it used to be, but still is a much smaller feel than down South. My boyfriend (never a member of the lds church) always comments whenever we go down South about how much prettier Cache Valley is. He has said that if it was in another state, then it would be more of a resort area like some place in Colorado (can't remember the name) that he used to take me to. Estes Park? Is that it? We have several canyons. We have 2 ski resorts. Skiing is cheap at Beaver and it isn't far from Logan. Not nearly as crowded as other resorts ESPECIALLY on Sundays. Bear Lake about 45 minutes away. One of the prettiest lakes you'll ever see. Logan Canyon is gorgeous.

Anyway, they don't pay as much up here, but cost of living is also less here.

Tremonton is mormon central. My dad taught school there. I have friends who live there.

I live in Hyrum and there are a lot of mormons here, but I don't know many people even if I've lived here for 33 years. I work at home. BUT we miss a lot of the inversion in January as we a little higher than Logan. My boyfriend also misses the inversion as he is on the bench. It usually only lasts a few weeks in January. The past few years, we haven't had much of it. As long as it keeps snowing or blowing, it keeps the inversion from forming.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2019 11:12PM by cl2.

So in Utah, what exactly happens to people with tattoos?

Electroshock "therapy".

Shocking as that may seem. I worked with many college kids at Sam's Club and they all had tattoos. Of course, the mormons don't have tattoos, at least that we can see.

Nowadays they allow tattoos if you had them before you asked to go to the temple. When my dad found out about that, he was furious. He worked with men who had been in the military who had tattoos. They were required to have them removed before they could go to the temple. The girls aren't supposed to have more than 1 piercing either. When I was young, we weren't supposed to have even 1. I didn't. I see people with tattoos all the time here in Cache Valley.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2019 10:28AM by cl2.

Check out Mountain Green up Weber Canyon. It's also at the base of Trapper's Loop to the ski resorts and that is a beautiful drive. Lots of good leaves in the Autumn. Still close enough to Ogden or SLC.

Also closer to Park City without the "Park Citiness" of it all, there is a chain of counties heading north with some reservoirs and lots of great hiking and wild flowers in spring. These are all on the other side of the mountains from SLC and Bountiful and Farmington. I think that's like Wasatch, Heber, Summit County, Coalville, through echo and back to Morgan where Mountain Green is. Hardscrabble in Morgan is beautiful too. Really.

Sunday. Snow Basin is close by, too. Huntsville and Eden. Beautiful area. And not overpopulated.

I love Huntsville and Eden. Love.

Where do we go? Where do we go now? Where do we go? Ay, ay, yay, where do we go?

Great thread. We need to move there, too.

I hear Provo is lovely, kathleen. Really. I swear. Would I lie?

Check out Kamas.

Is there a Krampas, UT?

Maybe Moab?

I appreciate all of the info.