Pros And Cons Of Living In Salt Lake City, Utah In 2022

Hey, guys, today we're gonna be talking about the pros and the cons of living here in Utah in 2022. It's going to be specific to this year because we've had a ton of stuff happening. We're talking about Salt Lake Park City, Provo, Ogden, Tooele, everything here along the Wasatch front. So let's jump into it.

My name is Cody, and I make videos and articles about what it's like to live, eat, work, sleep, and play here in Utah. So if you're interested in learning more about Utah, specifically, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and check out my website every week where I release new articles every Wednesday weekly. If you're thinking about making a move here to Utah, reach out to me. I've had people reach out from all across the world who are making a move here to Utah and looking to purchase a home and I absolutely love it when you guys reach out.

My information will be listed down below, and I would love to hear from you soon. So with that being said, let's jump right into our first pros, and then we'll talk about some of the cons that you need to know about. There's a lot of crazy stuff that's happened in this year of 2022. So make sure to stay with me in this article.

Jumping into Pro number one.

Utah is set up to be one of the best states for economic recovery after the coronavirus. We've had so many changes. There's been unemployment all over the place.

People are in mortgage forbearance people have lost jobs. People have been out of work. People have been stuck at home. And so much has changed. But Utah, according to Forbes and one of their reports, Utah is poised to be one of the best states for economic recovery.

I think there are a couple of different reasons for this. We've got a ton of strong job growth. We've got a very reasonable cost of living compared to a lot of other major cities. And we have the most amazing access to the outdoors. These are just a few reasons why Utah and Salt Lake City specifically are going to recover a lot better than other cities and States.

Jumping right into number two.

We have the most amazing access to the outdoors here in 2022. The access to the outdoors has gotten even better. A lot of people come and travel here to Utah to be able to access this stuff. But with a lot of the travel being shut down and a lot fewer people traveling, that leaves more of it for the locals here. So we've been enjoying it here locally.

You've been able to get up into the mountains, get out on the Lake and see a lot less traffic than we normally see. This is going to continue. And as more people come into the state, these things are going to get busier naturally for at least the year 2021 and most likely the year 2022. We're going to see less tourism here in the States. So that leaves more access for us who are living here locally.

This is a great option, especially if you're moving into the state. You need to take advantage of it. If you want to go skiing, hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, anything outdoors, now is the time to take advantage of it.

The third Pro on our list is Jobs.

We've got strong job growth here in the area, and there is a huge demand for a strong workforce here.

When it comes to jobs such as in tech, the tech industry is going like crazy right now. There are so many companies who are opening up positions here in Utah, and to be honest, a lot of those don't even require that you live here. However, a lot of people are still moving here just because of the great quality of life that you can get here. So you've got great access to a lot of jobs and great access to a good quality of life. Other industries that are going like crazy are the healthcare industry, which is seeing a lot of jobs opportunities.

Just in general, as the community grows, you're going to see more healthcare jobs, right? We've got an aging population and we've just got an increasing population as well. So there are more opportunities in healthcare. And the last one that I do want to point out and give a special shout-out to is the construction and contracting industries. These are going like crazy.

I've been trying to get contractors to come out and do some work for me on a couple of different places that I own, and it's absolutely insane how far out they are. It's hard to get calls back. It's hard to even get bids right now. So if you are a specialist in one of those industries, definitely come out here. There's a ton of work to go around.

The fourth Pro on our list.

Utah is still very positive and optimistic people and super kind. Even though everybody's social distancing right now, everybody still seems to get along and life is moving along just like normal. Doesn't seem like everybody's kind of stressed out. So that's just what I've noticed, and I think it was worth adding to the list here.

Now, with that being said, let's jump into some of the cons of living here in Salt Lake City or even just Utah in general, as we do that. Make sure to share this article with a friend or a family member who might also be interested in learning about what I have to say about living here in Utah, share it with your husband, share it with your wife, your girlfriend, your brother, your sister, even your kids or grandparents share it with them. And let's jump into the cons.

Con number one, Housing prices are increasing.

This is kind of a positive and a negative and hear me out. Stay with me here. So it is a Con because housing prices are going up. Nobody wants to pay more for a house tomorrow if they could get it for a cheaper price today, right?

I think that's a given. But if you're on the other side of it, if you own that real estate, you've got a very good chance that that real estate is going to be worth more in the future. So if you look at it in the sense of an investment, you can still buy property here today that has a very good chance of being worth more in the future. I know that for me, I'm still purchasing real estate and rental properties specifically. And I think that there are still a lot of opportunities out there.

You have to be a little bit more careful with what you're looking for, but there is a lot of homes out there that can make great real estate investments over the long term.

The second Con, Congestion.

With so much tourism here and with so many people moving into the state, we are seeing that it's getting more and more congested. The infrastructure has just not quite been there, at least at a level that I think we should have seen to accommodate a lot of these people who are coming in now.

Thankfully, a lot of people are working from home right now. So that has helped with traffic over the last couple of months. But it is a concern for me in the future because the East-West access that I've talked about a number of times on my YouTube Channel is not great. If you're going from i-15 and you're trying to get out to West Jordan, where you're going from i-15 down on the Southern end, and you're trying to get out to Herriman, the access to do that is not the best. I mean, it's kind of crazy that there's no better access for a lot of these East-West roads.

North and south are getting better, so I'm not too worried about that. But here in Salt Lake County, specifically, east to west is not great. So we're seeing a lot more congestion. And I think that as the state continues to grow if we don't do anything about it, it's going to continue to get worse.

The third Con on the list, Air Quality.

We're still seeing the air quality as a concern and again, with more people moving into the state, it's going to get worse. This means more cars on the road, more transport, more shipping. A lot of these things that produce the gas that kind of cause this issue in the first place is continuing to happen. So we're going to see more and more of that over the coming years.

I think it's something that Utah is working on. The government is trying to be better about it. A lot of people are switching to electric vehicles. I've made the switch. I think a lot of people are trying to contribute and trying to help the air quality problem that we have here.

But it is still a concern, and it is something that needs to be corrected sooner than later, and again, all of the fires that they've had in California, all of that smoke is unfortunate blowing over here to the east, which is ending up in the Utah Sky. So this has not been great for us. I know a lot of people in California have been suffering from that with really bad air quality, but we're suffering too. A lot of the air is blown over, and it's making it pretty unfortunate here.

We've had worse air quality this summer than we normally have. So thankfully right now it's kind of cleared up. We're enjoying some nice fall weather. But I'm a little bit concerned with the air quality. Again, it needs to be addressed or else it's going to continue to get worse.

So I think we're on the right path. I think we're going to see those improvements, but it is something to kind of take note of, especially if you come to visit, check out the air quality, do some research on it, and see what your thoughts are for that particular reason.

The fourth Con, a lot of Establishments are closed on Sundays.

I want to talk about is that a lot of places are closing early, they're opening late, or they're just closed entirely on Sundays. There's a large part of the LDS population who generally doesn't go out on Sundays, and so we're seeing a lot of those places be closed down. 

It's something that can be a little bit frustrating or hard to adjust to just because we're so used to everything being open all the time. Right. So I think this is probably an issue that everybody's experiencing, regardless of where you live. But I've definitely noticed it here in Utah. I mean, I went to the bank the other day and it was shut down at 02:00 in the afternoon.

So a little bit frustrating that I had to go drive to another bank. Not a big deal, not the end of the world, but just one of those things that do kind of come as a downside to living here in Utah at this time.

Thank you so much for staying with me here. If you're making that move here to Utah and you're looking to purchase a home, make sure to get in touch with me. Again, my contact information is listed down below.

I would absolutely love to hear from you. Even if you're just looking to rent for the first year and then purchase later on or if you're looking to invest in a second home or even rental properties here in Utah, I would love to be a resource for you so reach out to me. Make that connection. I'd love to hear from you. Share this article with a friend or a family member.

With that being said, I'll catch you in the next one.

Cody Steck, Realtor

Real Broker, LLC

801- 244- 2297

Cody@fastutahhomes.com