I also posted this in hometown but I don’t know how active that forum is so I figured I would post here as well.

So my wife and I are planning on making the move to Southern Utah. We live in central Florida now and are over it. The humidity is awful and our area is growing out of control. We want to live somewhat near to the St. George area but we want a piece of property in a rural area. We are willing to commute a little for work maybe 45 min or so to be able to live more rural. So my question is whats life like in that area? What is the job market like? Just going on indeed I see a lot of lower wage jobs. I have worked in Natural gas and propane for 20 yrs and now in Safety at the same company. My wife isn’t currently working but has experience in management and HR in the health care field.  Anything else We should know about life out there would be great. We love the outdoors and southern Utah is such a beautiful place.

st George is mostly a retirement area no industry to speak of. a lot of touristy stuff outlets and such. if you need to find Real work that isn't the ideal spot unless you want to work retail or fast food

St George is one of the fastest growing cities in the country right now. It's a beautiful area but prepared for hot and dry because its very hot and very dry in the Summer.

You are within a few hours of Zions, Canyonlands, Moab, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Lake Powell which are all amazing in their own right.

I have family in Hurricane (pronounced Hurr-I-Kin) and its about a 30 minute drive outside of St. George and its a much more rural/suburban type area.

My grandparents lived down in St George my whole life so I spent a lot of time down there visiting, hiking, rock crawling, etc. I can't do the heat in the Summer so I live up north by SLC but its a beautiful place.

Also, make sure to do your part and help us primary Mittens in 2022 please.

What The actual fuck ? oh a 13'er

Sorry Utah is full

Im thinking I would trade hot and humid for hot and dry. Here the humidity is relentless 6months out of the year.

We have been through Hurricane and we like that area as well. Also Kannarraville is nice. I just say St. George area because its more known. We are open to anywhere in the southern area we just don’t want to live in a ton of snow in winter. My Wife is not willing to live in tons of snow.

We currently live in a cabin in a remote part of Kentucky about 40 minutes from the nearest populated area. We lived in St. George in 2017 and honestly if I were ever going to live anywhere else in the world my choice would probably be southern Utah. Absolutely beautiful area, we enjoyed our time there very much.

I will trade out with someone wanting to move to Florida lol. I say the same thing about Florida. People are moving here in droves.

You a fan of ol’ mittens?

He means to get rid of him, in other words vote for a primary challenger.

Your post was technically a 13'er also.  3313.

"Primary" meaning, primary him out...

Cmon guys, I don't have a pouch...

If I was going to work in St George and commute to a rural area I'd be looking at Pine Valley.

That is nice to hear. It is beautiful. Seems like breathtaking views everywhere you go. Florida is a freaking swamp. You cant see more that a few hundred feet in any direction lol.

i'd say it is. maybe DU is issing an idiot?

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

What is the deal with water rights on property? I see some big pieces of property for sale cheaper and some smaller pieces more expensive.  Im assuming that has to do with access to water?

Make sure to bring a flat brim for the visits to Salt Lake City

Absolutely. No water means the land is virtually useless. It's a desert after all.

I am retired in St George. I wake up every day happy to be in such a clean and safe place. You will not find a job here unless you are a medical professional.

I know this is stereotypical and if you’re mormon I mean no offense, but is it difficult to get good jobs in utah if you aren’t mormon? Personally the mormons I have met in the past have been super nice. You always here people say you don’t want to move to Utah because Mormons. I don’t have a problem with it you just hear things.

Wages in UT are much lower than you are probably used to.

5% flat-rate income tax for UT residents.

St George & Hurricane are growing at a ridiculously fast rate (for UT anyway), faster than the Wasatch Valley.  There is competition between home buyers & investment buyers (who buy homes to turn into vacation rentals for National Park visitors).

If you’re looking to buy a SxS and/or enjoy the outdoors (state parks, NPs, ...) you’ll be in heaven.

Some smaller communities that are 100% LDS are still insular and resist “outsiders” (non-LDS) from buying/living there....not by violent/confrontational means, but will ignore you & give you the cold shoulder.  You might not think much of it until you are trying to get some work done or repairs to your home done, and nobody will respond.  Can’t say I blame them, they are trying to preserve as much sanity as they can in this crazy world and are trying to provide a safe environment for their families & communities.

You might luck out and find some rural property out towards Hildale, but much of the larger private plots have been bought up by developers and anything over 5 acres can be tough to find.  You might have to look farther north to New Harmony or Kanarraville.  

The farther out of St George you get, the more you will encounter Fundamentalist LDS & polygamist families (yes, polygamy is legal now in Utah).  You’ll know them by their quiet demeanors and the “Pioneer” clothing they wear.  The women & girls are discouraged from talking with strangers, especially males; try not to engage any females in conversation if there is a male present in the group.  Many of our neighbors are FLDS & polygamists, we get along great with them because we don’t judge them and we all help each other out....we get along for the most part because we all just want to be left alone.  We’ve gained the trust of most of them once they realized we were not out to steal one of their wives or daughters.

It’s a different way of life in southern Utah, but one that we cherish & love.  We have owned property here since the last economic downturn and have made many friends in our community.  Once you gain the trust of established locals, they will literally give you the key to their home.  I wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world & will die here.

If you’re looking for patriotic events and want to feel good about being a real American, just go to the local rodeos, county fairs, and Stampedes.

Park city is nice

My Wife Has a business degree and has year’s experience managing several offices for a family medical practice. She also took care of all their HR. I work in gas utiliies.

Check dms I sent you my email

Conservative immigrants welcome.

I was stationed in UT for 6 years and I can't wait to get back there. It's currently holding my #1 slot for retirement locations.

Wow great info. Thank you.

We like to be left alone as well so we would fit right in.we are respectful people and dont bother anyone else either.  I will say there is ZERO sense of communty in Central Florida. It’s because everyone is from a different place.

I dont mind going a little further north, we like that Kannarraville area as well.  Its really just work dependent for me. I will be happy as long as there isnt too much snow and I can have a piece of property without neighbors on top of us.  We are looking for peace and quiet and privacy. Something that is a rare thing in central Florida.

Water rights are an interesting subject; I just secured our water rights to our property.  They were deeded to the property we purchased many years ago, and we have been on extensions until recently when the county & state patented our rights to us.

It can be a bit of a tricky process; basically you have to prove a “Beneficial Use” to secure water rights, such as irrigating a pasture, orchard, or for watering livestock.  You are accorded basically 1/4-acre of beneficial land use for every 1-acre-foot of water rights.   You’ll have to hire a certified engineer (aka surveyor) to come out the measure, confirm, and document the Beneficial Use.

If your property doesn’t come with deeded water rights (beyond the residential use of a well for your home), you’ll have to purchase them from a seller, and they can be pricey...some sellers ask $10k per acre-foot and I’ve seen some as high as $25k per acre-foot (one acre-foot encompasses roughly 1/4-acre of Beneficial Use for agriculture).  In some counties, the water-rights seller must be selling water rights to the same aquifers you are drawing from; do your homework first.

It can be tricky but it can be definitely done by doing your due diligence.  Many smaller counties have very helpful county employees who will take the time to explain everything to you & even document exactly what you need for your property to secure water rights.

No, it's not legal. That said, it is common in some small fundamentalist towns down there near Saint George.

Saint George was once more of a retirement community. Now it's being filled with Californians and Las Vegas escapees...

There are worse places to live, for sure.

No water horrible choice.

Thanks for the info. We would only be using it for a well for a house. Im not planning on growing anything or raising any livestock. Don’t know if that makes a difference.

Look into the Utah Green Belt Initiative; once you’re accepted into it, your property tax rates are capped at agricultural rates, even if urban sprawl encompasses your property, which it was intended for.  We’ve been through some zoning & tax rates battles with our county already in the recent past, and are currently almost done with the 2-year “proving period” for the GB.

I live near St. George and want to move to Florida

OP - not a ton of real jobs or industry in that area. Tourism, retirement, medical. Your wife could probably figure something out eventually. For you, you might find yourself driving over to NV and working on drilling sites, etc if that is your background...that is a certain kind of lifestyle though...

Realize that when you make these kind of moves in life you often end up making big sacrifices professionally. Just be prepared for things to not work out, for you and your wife to be making $11/hr working some shitty retail job while you continue to try to land something better, and coming to the bitter realization that you can't eat the views and the recreation, nor will those things pay your mortgage. But maybe you'll defy the odds and everything will fall perfectly into place...never know if you don't try.

As someone else previously mentioned. Please do your part and primary mittens.

Do that and we'll make an exception.

You would still have to get a well permit and there are lots of places in the state you won't hit water anyway.

This thread is pertinent to my interests.

They need any fabricators for racing industry out that way?

All I've ever known is SC my entire life but as I've gotten older and the north people come down and dilute us I've realized #1 I want to live somewhere that's not a swamp, both because of landscape and weather and #2 The west has been calling me for years. I think I lived there in a past life I swear. #3Sxs, dirt bikes and 4 wheeling is what I'm into and I want to go somewhere where there is more to ride than you could possibly do.

can't  speak for Southern Utah that's a retirement town. Utah is great for outdoors and kids. Terrible for night life and drinks, but St George to Vegas is not far

if you got the cash it's a great place

I raised my family in Utah and left after 25 years.
Many in this thread have mentioned “hot”. OP, you have no ability to understand the kind of heat they are talking about so let me help.  It is like living on the surface of a frying pan hot in the summer. It is 2’d degree burns for touching your dark vehicle hot. “But it’s a dry heat”; yeah, single digit humidity will dry your skin into lizard scales. So, just like in Florida, you go from your AC home, to your AC car, to your AC work. Power down-good luck living there.
And just like FL-in the winter (when it is actually nice there)  the place fills with snowbirds-.  
Then there is the residual radioactivity from the nuclear tests....Down Winders they were called....but I’m sure that’s all fine now.
There is a lot to say about Utah.... it’s a strange place to live...where they continue to elect Rino traitors for example. But I’ll stop now. Best to you in your search.

PM me your address and I’ll have a couple of nice young men
come and talk to you about it.

Calling someone a "Mormon" is almost considered an epithet and you will not be doing yourself any favors by doing so. It would be better to say a member of the church of Jesus Christ.

Im not about to move without at least one of us securing decent employment first. So there will not be any $11 an hour jobs in my future. We have zero debt so that helps.

We already get those. Young boys in white shirts on bicycles.

Thank you everyone for the great advice and info. I appreciate you all taking the tome to respond.

We aren’t dead set on the St. George area by any means. We are ok going north. We just want rural without too much snow. A little is ok, but my Wife has never driven in snow and doesn’t really want to and I have limited experience driving in snow. I was born in New Hampshire but moved when I was still a kid so never had to commute or work in the snow. That said I dont mind it. I just dont want long winters like New Hampshire had.

Thanks. Email sent

Start looking on indeed and other employment sites. Its free to look and you never know what may pop up. I have seen a few jobs here and there come up for fabricators/ welders. Not for racing though. Im always browsing indeed for that area.

Utah just bumped up a notch on my "list".

Aren't you a Californian transplant?