St. George or Cedar City (Salt Lake City, Provo: how much, house prices, job market)

[Lynnie Miller]

Good afternoon, I am planning on a spring trip to Southern Utah to look at single family properties in St. George and Cedar City areas. Both communities look very nice to me.
My main concern is employment. I work in an office environment doing accounts payable/receivable and other office work. I don't want an hours commute to work. Can anyone give me there thoughts about St. George and Cedar City as a place to live?
I would appreciate it.
I have raised my family and now looking to get back into the work force. I was a little concerned this morning after receiving this e-mail. Thank you!

http://jobs.utah.gov/opencms/wi/press/tlextra/

[LlasaLost]

Lynnie--as no one has answered you yet, I'll take a shot at it: Do not know the job situation in either place but, because Cedar has around 40,000 people and St. Geo (and surrounding area) is over 100,000, I would think that, if you're qualified, you should be able to find work. I would be a little hesitant about just moving without the possibility of work though---but then I'm a cautious soul!
Cedar City is close to 6,000' in elevation and has Winter snow; St. Geo is around 2,400' elevation and rarely has snow--but lots of sun (and heat!). Cedar is high-desert but backs up to a beautiful mountain with access to wonderful mountain canyons; St. Geo is low-desert and has spectacular vermillion, white, and pink sandstone cliffs and easy access to Zion Nat'l Park. St. Geo is home to a college, and all the golfing you might want; Cedar is the site of a university--and the Utah Shakespearean Festival (outstanding!). St. George area probably has more shopping (more people), but both towns have more shopping areas than any place you'll find between the Vegas and Provo areas.
You can easily drive from Cedar to St. Geo in less than an hour, and both are within a day's drive of Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon Nat'l Parks, with a few National and State Parks thrown in for good measure.

Cedar was settled by direction of Brigham Young because of the iron deposits in the area; St. George was also settled under his direction and they raised cotton (hence the name "Dixie"), cane, grapes, and, to a lesser degree, even tried raising and weaving silk (you'll still be able to find mulberry trees in the area, used originally to feed the silk-worms). The area was home for a short while to miners from all over---brought there by the discovery of silver, but that didn't last too long.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a presence in both areas but there are many other denominations available, also

It's good that you're planning on a trip to the areas; nothing like seeing it all up-close-and-personal. Good luck to you.

[NYtoVT]

My wife and myself just got back from Cedar City. We didn't get the time to go to the St. George area other than passing thru to go to the airport in Las Vegas. That being said, both my wife and I fell in love with Cedar City. From and "outsiders" point of view, we found the town to have retained some of it's "old town" feel yet with a thriving downtown. Some major big box stores are there: Wal-Mart, Home Depot. The scenery is not to be believed.
We did encounter a possible problem. The whole area was suffering from an "inversion" that caused some air quality problems. If you have a respiratory condition, maybe further inquiry would be prudent. That still didn't stop us from putting down a deposit on a new full-time residence. So UT here we come.

[LlasaLost]

Hey, NYtoVT (to UT)---wish you well! You've picked my hometown!!

Hope all proves to be all that you hope for. As for the "inversion"--that's something I've never heard of in that area (of course, when I think of inversion I think of LA). You sure it wasn't frost-fog, or the results of a good windstorm---both of which happen there??

[coolcats]

The inversion is truly a nasty thing. The air quality outside lately, has been frankly disgusting for the past three or four days. It is caused in winter by high pressure trapping air in the valleys. Fortunately (or unfortunately) this inversion has the worst I've seen since we moved here last year. They seem to last several days and then go away for a few weeks and then come for a few more days. Inversion season is from November to February according to the weatherman on the news. It is definitely not something that sticks around all winter, but is something to be aware of.

[coolcats]

Originally Posted by Lynnie Miller

Good afternoon, I am planning on a spring trip to Southern Utah to look at single family properties in St. George and Cedar City areas. Both communities look very nice to me.
My main concern is employment. I work in an office environment doing accounts payable/receivable and other office work. I don't want an hours commute to work. Can anyone give me there thoughts about St. George and Cedar City as a place to live?
I would appreciate it.
I have raised my family and now looking to get back into the work force. I was a little concerned this morning after receiving this e-mail. Thank you!

http://jobs.utah.gov/opencms/wi/press/tlextra/

Getting back to your original post -- St. George is definitly larger so there should be more job opportunities there. St. George is expensive. I was looking online, and it seemed like there was about a $100,000 premium on houses over Salt Lake, probably due to the huge population growth outstripping supply of new houses. St. George is much warmer in the winter, and hotter in the summer than Cedar City due to the elevation change, despite there only being 50 miles between the two. I don't think either city has a major industry or corporation, but for office work I think you could find something.

[LlasaLost]

Hey, coolcats! Where are you talking inversion? SLC and surrounding area (which has always had a problem---actually probably less now than years ago, before they put scrubbers on the oil and copper refineries), or CC? Like I mentioned, if you live in Cedar and it now has bad inversion, that's sad--especially since it's not actually in a bowl (like SLC, Reno, LA), and the winds normally come down the canyon at night and blow through the town. If it's not frost-fog or debris from the wind and is actually a smog condition, that's very sad indeed! Of course, the air isn't like it used to be before the industrialization on the Navajo Res.

[dgoboy204]

Hi

I recently returned form St. George and I experienced the same "inversion". I am very chemically sensitive so it caught my attention. When i returned home i spoke with a friend who previously lived in St. G and he said that sometimes, due to weather patterns, etc. pollution out of Southern Calif. floats heavily into St. G and the area. Not sure how often, but i was glad to find out all of the haze i saw wasn't a regular thing! Other than the inversion, I found St. G to be the cleanest place its size I could imagine. I just didn't see litter and I walked all over for several days! Several others I met commented about this, too.

I cannot speak to the job market, but I was struck by how much growth is apparent (buildings, etc.) and by the "hustle and bustle" of the town. I would bet the job market is great for lots of fields. Finally, the Utah forum often has questions about "not being Mormon". Certainly, my experiences were not like living there, but I am not Mormon and in the 10 or so days I spent, no one seemed to care. I was suprised, in fact to find large numbers of Spanish speakng people of Latino/Mexican descent. I was told that the big growth is bringing in people of all races, religions, etc., and honestly, I believe that from what I saw. Good Luck!

[coolcats]

Originally Posted by LlasaLost

Hey, coolcats! Where are you talking inversion? SLC and surrounding area (which has always had a problem---actually probably less now than years ago, before they put scrubbers on the oil and copper refineries), or CC?

I was talking about the Salt Lake Inversion. I wasn't around years ago to see it in its heyday, and glad I wasn't. The last few days were pretty bad, but today it's all better. I was a bit surprised to hear about CC, but hopefully its the fog or something else.

[carlessbiker]

Originally Posted by dgoboy204

Hi

I recently returned form St. George and I experienced the same "inversion". I am very chemically sensitive so it caught my attention. When i returned home i spoke with a friend who previously lived in St. G and he said that sometimes, due to weather patterns, etc. pollution out of Southern Calif. floats heavily into St. G and the area. Not sure how often, but i was glad to find out all of the haze i saw wasn't a regular thing! Other than the inversion, I found St. G to be the cleanest place its size I could imagine. I just didn't see litter and I walked all over for several days! Several others I met commented about this, too.

Quite often it comes from Vegas. It is really sad, Zion NP actually has had some days well above federal standards due to the smog coming in from Sin City. It doesn't last however. Also with all the construction, we can get dust deposits that sit in the valley for days. The city is trying to sort out all of the new challenges of growth but one thing they have done well is litter. They are very aggressive within city limits on keeping everything clean.

Housing in St. George is settling down and I now think that Salt Lake City has passed us once again for house prices. Just FYI, there is a great home show in St. George in Feb, if you are thinking of relocating, you might want to check it out.