What Nobody Will Tell You About Living In Salt Lake City, Utah

In this article, we’re going to talk about what nobody will tell you about making a move here to Salt Lake City, Utah. Let's jump in.

So obviously, I make blogs about what it's like to work, eat, sleep, live and play here along the Wasatch front. That includes cities such as Salt Lake City, Provo, Orum, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Park City, Towilla, Bountiful, Caysville, and more. We talked about all different cities here along the west side front, including most of Northern Utah as a whole. And having grown up here, I obviously have a very unique perspective. However, there are things that I talk about that are a little bit biased or I might see a little bit different than somebody who didn't grow up here or who hasn't lived here their entire life.

Because of that, I decided to interview some of my past clients, asking them, hey, what are some things here about Utah that you did not know and nobody told you about before making that move here? These are people just like yourself who might be families, couples, or maybe just individual people who didn't live here and then decided to make the move here and ended up purchasing a house with me as a real estate agent. With that interview and the questions that I asked, I said, hey, give me the good, give me the bad, give me the ugly. I want to know everything about this, whether it's positive or negative. Me growing up here, I obviously have a unique perspective.

But somebody who just moved here within the last six or twelve, maybe 18 months, they're going to obviously have a different perspective. And there are some things that they didn't expect or didn't know about that they now do know about. And I want to be able to share that with individuals like yourself who are thinking about making that move here to Utah. And that leads me right into that next point. If you are thinking about making that move, make sure to get in touch with me, I’ll include my contact details at the end of this article.

That's exactly what these people did and ended up having a successful home purchase after making that move here to Utah. I absolutely love it when you guys reach out. I've had people from all across the world reach out to me all across America, even in Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, I mean, Asia, all over the world. And I absolutely love it. And I can't wait to hear from you as well.

Reach out to me anytime and I look forward to hearing from you. So without further Ado, let's jump in and know exactly what they had to say. Being a native here, I just kind of tell you a little bit about what my thoughts are on that subject as well. So with that being said, first off, we do have a negative.

We do have pretty tight alcohol regulations here. You cannot get shipped wine in. You can't ship in wine from like wine clubs or anything like that. And unfortunately, there are rules about how High Point Beer can and cannot be sold.

We do have stricter rules here than you would find in most States. All of our liquor stores are state-owned. And so if you want High Point Beer, you want liquor, you want wine, anything like that. You do have to go to a liquor store. You will not be able to pick that up at Costco or at the grocery store or the convenience store.

You can get just regular beer, anything under 5% at the gas station or the grocery store. But anything stronger than that, you do have to go to a liquor store. And like I said, unfortunately, you cannot get any wine clubs or anything like that where they're going to ship wine directly to your door.

Next, we've got a positive, and here's exactly what he said. “The snow is so fluffy that you don't hear yourself skiing.” This is a stark difference from what you expect in the Northeast when you're skiing there, where it's just icy and you hear yourself scraping along the ice as you go down the mountains. Something that actually made me laugh out loud, very hard because it is so fluffy. I mean, when you're skiing and it's a powder day, if it's snowing, it is just dead quiet. You can't hear a thing and it's absolutely phenomenal.

It's the best thing in the world. It's totally quiet out there. You're just having a blast, you're having fun. And it's just great to kind of feel just at peace and just like one with nature in that sense. It's really cool feeling.

So that one definitely made me laugh out loud because I've never thought about that. I've just kind of grown-up skiing in the mountains here and I don't know much difference. Of course, when we have just like a normal day here, it kind of sucks for us locals. We're really spoiled with how close we are and the type of snow that we get here.

Next up, we've got retail stores that are thriving and there are a lot of options however, there are not enough of them open on Sunday. This is kind of a positive and a negative, right? We do have a lot of retail stores and there are a lot of options out there. But unfortunately, not a lot of them are open on Sundays. And that is because of the religious influence that we have here in the state.

Obviously, a lot of things are closed on Sunday because of that. And it can be kind of a drawback. I always look at it as a positive personally, just because that's the day that I want to go to the grocery store. That's the day that I want to go to the shops and boutiques just because it's a little bit less crowded, more people are staying at home. And so it gives me an opportunity to just not have as many people in my way when I'm doing my thing right.

It's true. There is a lot of stuff closed on Sunday, Unfortunately.

All right, next up we've got “Parking is everywhere.” Grocery stores, retail shops, etc. And all have parking.

There's no street parking like you see in other big cities. And this is something I thought about. And I thought, yeah, you know, actually there is. When you go to a grocery store, it's easy to get parking. Yes, you might have parked ten spots away from the front door, but it's awesome compared to a lot of other big cities along the coast or just in other areas of the country.

This is a big benefit that we have here in Utah, and I think that if you go downtown Salt Lake, of course you're going to have to park in the parking garage or on the street at the meter or something like that once in a while. But it's actually relatively affordable compared to other cities. So of course, we do have that. But out here in the suburbs, parking lots are basically everywhere.

So it's not hard to get parking. It is free. It's just something that we've come to. It's kind of just the norm here. And so when I go somewhere else, I'm really frustrated because I'm looking at it and I'm like, man, I got to pay for parking or I got to park a mile away.

It's kind of frustrating. But here we've got tons of parking and it's basically everywhere.

Next up, we've got “Homes in Utah almost always come with a lot of bedrooms” and it's true. There are a lot of big homes out there and they almost always have more bedrooms than a lot of people need.

When I talk to locals, they're just used to it. If you grew up here, having a four, five or even a six-bedroom home is kind of just normal. I don't know. It just seems like that's just normal. You just get used to it.

But if you're coming from out of state, a lot of people are like Holy crap, what am I going to do with five or six bedrooms? I only need like three, maybe four if I got a big family. But for us here, that's kind of the norm. It's just that way Unfortunately, I do think there's a gap in the market here where a lot of builders and just kind of like people remodeling homes and whatnot they are not quite realizing that there is this gap in the market. And it's really hard to find a nice two or three-bedroom home that maybe still has some other space for extra leisure activities or an office or maybe two offices or something like that.

I think here in Utah, we've always kind of looked at things as like, hey, we need a lot of bedrooms for the kids, whereas with things and where they're going out in the future, I think it's going to be more important to maybe only have a three-bedroom home, but then have a really nice office and a really nice kitchen and kind of have that extra space in the home, especially in the higher end price ranges. Be focused more on not only not creating more bedrooms but creating a home that's nicer and has more amenities and features beyond just a lot of bedrooms. This is something that I hope changes over time because a lot of people look at this, and this is something I hear from almost everybody who's moving here. It's like, hey, where do I find a nice house that's not six bedrooms right as you go up in square footage? Unfortunately, that does come with a lot of big bedrooms just naturally.

So I do think this is something that I hope will change. I don't know. I do think it is kind of going in that direction, but I still think we're a long way out before we see this as kind of shifting to be the norm.

Next up, another positive negative. “Neighborhoods can vary in age and niceness, meaning that they were not always developed at the same time”.

This is often because land that was traditionally farmland is being sold off and new homes are being built. This is totally true. A lot of areas here along the west side front can have homes that might be 20, 30, 40, maybe 50 years old. And maybe they're kind of starting to fall apart. They're not in the best of shape.

But then right next door, like the one street over, you've got nice big brand new homes going in that are brand new and they're in perfect condition. So you don't really have that clear line of development in these different neighborhoods and stuff, especially up north, like in Davis and Weaver counties. This is really common because there's a lot of farmland up there. I would say it's less common in Salt Lake County.

We do see it and maybe in the middle in Utah County to the south. But I think this is something that we see just growing up here. You don't really notice that you're just kind of used to it because that's just the way that we've always built and developed here in Utah. But coming from the outside, I could see how this is definitely something that's a little bit unexpected when you've got nice, big brand new homes next to a neighborhood that was built 50 years ago and it was maybe much smaller homes are just kind of run down or you don't really know if it's like a good part of town or not. So that's a very valid point.

Next up, “we've got friendly people here.”. This is awesome. This really made me smile because this is something that actually every single person that I interviewed made a comment about this in a positive light. We've got friendly people here.

One person even commented and said, “Hey, the neighbors are extremely friendly and almost seem like the picturesque neighbors that you would see in the movies.

“. This kind of made me smile because it's true. We've got a lot of nice people. I think just being nice and friendly is kind of just a cultural norm for us here.

Everybody tries to get along, and of course, we're not perfect, but I think everybody tries. And that is just kind of part of the way of life that we have here. So that was really cool to see that. Every single person I interviewed actually did make a comment about this. One person even commented that they got a box of chocolates and a card saying, welcome to the neighborhood, whereas in his last city, he actually got his car broken into the very first day in town.

So, there’s a pretty stark difference as to your first day in town and how that would actually turn out. So that's actually really cool and I love that part about Utah. Again, it's just something that me growing up here, I've kind of just gotten used to.

It just seems like normal, I don't know anything different. So it's really cool to see other people actually notice that and point it out.

Next up, “We've got hardcore athletes.”. This one is interesting. If you think you're good, come to Utah and you'll realize that you're probably just average, whether it's hiking, whether it's climbing, it's skiing, or it's anything of the like, we do have some hardcore athletes here, and we've got people who are extreme and at the very top of their sport.

I mean, I know a guy who's actually into trail running, and he might go run a trail that would take you like three days to hike. Right. You get on the trail, you go up, you stay overnight, you hike again. The next day, you might go up to the peak of the summit and then come back down and then hike home. That third day, he'll go and run that entire trail in one day.

He goes very light, so he's moving quickly. He's running the whole thing, and you're up at like 10,000, 11,000ft. He'll run the whole thing in one day. Whereas most people it takes him three days to complete the entire height at a leisurely pace. So people like that are extremely hardcore here and definitely something that we see here, regardless of the sport that you've got.

If you think you're pretty good, come here and you'll definitely see that there are people who honestly are better than you are, probably.

Next up, we've got one about the weather and the sun’s direction. This is an interesting one because I think I just get used to it living here. It can be an adjustment to get used to the winters here if you're not used to it. If you're coming from California, you're coming from Texas or Florida, or something like that, adjusting to the winters can be a little bit more difficult.

You have to prepare to go outside. You have to shovel snow before you leave. You have to scrape the ice off of your car before you leave. Things like that are things that you have to adjust to as you can make your move here to Utah if you're not used to it. If you're coming from another snow area, It's probably going to feel just like home.

So maybe it's not that big an adjustment. But, something to consider if you're moving from a warmer climate and with the sun’s direction, it's also important to note that, yes, in the sun, it is a lot warmer here during the winter. The sun is obviously off to the south in the winter. And so if your home faces South, you're going to get a lot of sun hitting the front of the house, hitting the driveway, melting that snow. But unfortunately, if your home faces North, you're not going to get quite as much sun and you're going to have to shovel the driveway.

The snow will stick around longer and it's just one of those things where you're not maybe not used to having it disappear as quickly if your home is facing that north direction. So just something to kind of consider and think about during your home search process. So with all that being said, guys, thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed this blog.

Last but not least, don't forget to contact me. I love it when you guys reach out. My information is listed down below. Call me, text me or email me any time.

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

Cody Steck, Realtor

Real Broker, LLC

801- 244- 2297

Cody@fastutahhomes.com