Well the time has come.  Planning to relocate to Ogden area from FL this summer.  What can I expect?  

Rental property?  Jobs? Traffic? People?  Schools?

My family and I have visited your great state the past three years and love it!  Any insight from people living in Ogden and surrounding area will be appreciated.  

I’ll give you the same advice another forum member gave to me just over five years ago.  Look just a bit further north.  We bought a house in Brigham City and I wish that I could remember who recommended that we buy here.  It was stellar advice.  I moved from Georgia and had never even visited Utah prior to moving here.  We love it here.

I remember that thread.  Glad you’ve been happy.

OP…why Ogden?  Not challenging or saying don’t move there just wondering?

And I’m south of Ogden so I just don’t know much about it.

It does have a rougher reputation, warranted or not.  

I will look into that.  Thank you.



Why?  There's so many beautiful places in Utah and the wife and I just picked a STARTING point since I don't have a job lined up yet, figured 30-45 min commute any direction will be feasible.  The misses works remotely so she's good to go on the job front, me on the other hand is still looking.  We're planning on renting for a year then decide where we would be buying a house.

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There are some nice places in greater Ogden. But you'll want to look around carefully, as there are a lot of crappy places too. As GlockFanUT notes, north of Ogden can be quite nice, albeit a farther drive to get to Salt Lake City. Brigham City or even Tremonton are quite nice, but much more small town and rural feel.

I wouldn't buy anything in Salt Lake County right now, as it's crazy expensive compared to historical values. And while it's dipped a bit, I don't see it going down much. Tooele county and Utah county are possibilities. If your goal is to have some proximity to SLC (and this might or might not be your goal), you can either pay a lot and be close or pay less and drive more.

Yeah, our plan is to look around the Ogden area.  As stated were looking at it as our short term move to get into Utah area so were planning to rent for one year then buy a home where we see we like or close to my job wherever that me ay be.  So, the norther part is not out of the option down the road but for the now this is the plan.

We took a long hard look at Ogden a few years ago with a special emphasis on North Ogden (which we found is not a location but a separate city) and Pleasant View.   I liked both particularly properties that backed right up to the bench, but my wife felt like they weren't different enough from the greater SLC metro area.   Ultimately, I agreed with her for our needs.

We both really liked Huntsville/Eden/Liberty as well as Morgan.    Lately I'm leaning more toward something like Cedar City, Enoch but she hasn't visited yet so it's TBD.

We have lived in Draper, Eagle Mountain and now in Ogden for 10 years and prefer it, Draper and Eagle Mountain were great places to live but Ogden just fits our family better. When we were looking into Ogden most of our friends and neighbors warned us that it was this scary place full of gangs and criminals, now that we live up here, we laugh at that perception. Utah is growing, fast, and Ogden is no exception, it's just growing differently that the rest of the state, more developing what was already here than developing new communities.

I don't think you can really pick a bad place to live in Utah.

Thank you for your input.



I hear you, we are being advised to stay away from the WEST part of Ogden and yes there's a lot of ideal locations in UT, that's what makes it hard to chose one!  

If you haven't seen it already, the KSL Classifieds is probably the default place to look for jobs and rentals. The Utah Department of Workforce Services website used to be a good place to look for job listings too but I haven't used it in a while. You can probably look at companies in the Ogden area and check out their websites for job listings as well.

I'll second Brigham City, it's a great place to live. If you decide to look into eastern Box Elder county for jobs I can give you some links to some companies' websites. Alot of it is production shift work though, heads up.

Thank for the info.  I will look into these suggestions.  

No problem. I did forget to mention that Hill AFB is in Ogden, might be worth looking into as well.

As an Ogden resident I don't think its any worse here than any other city.

Ogden is small enough that traffic is not usually a problem, however the commute to Salt Lake can get pretty bad.

Lots of new apartment buildings going up in the area.

Here is a link to the City Data page for Ogden:https://www.city-data.com/city/Ogden-Utah.html

Gary

Thank you Gary.  As a resident, in you opinion what is considered a "better part" of Ogden?  What's the desirable area to live in?

People call Ogden the ghetto of Utah, but honestly they don't have the highest crime rate and they don't have the lowest rate. It depends on what you are used to, its nothing like LA or Chicago.

Lets start with what most people call the "bad" part of Ogden. Basically its the central city area, from roughly 20th to 30th streets between Harrison and Jefferson. Also west of Washington between 26th and 35th. Lots of old houses that have been converted into apartments and old apartment buildings, most of them are rent subsidized. This is about the only part of town that I see meth heads or open drug use, and then mostly by the apartments on 25 and Monroe. Ogden is working on cleaning up neighborhoods in this area and has more officers patrolling the central part of town.

Homeless people. The homeless shelter is west of Wall on 33rd street, the main branch of the library is on 25th and Jefferson quite a few homeless people hanging out at the library and park. The homeless population is not like big cities, no tents everywhere, no crapping on the sidewalk.

The "best" part of town in the south east area near the university. Most of the EXPENSIVE homes are on the foothills behind the university. They have built some new apartments about a mile south of the university that look nice. further south along Harrison the Uintah and South Ogden areas are nice. They have been building new apartments along the Ogden river west of Washington that look good, walking distance to downtown.

With your wife working from home high speed internet is going to be Xfinity in Ogden. Fiber optic internet is available in some of the smaller towns in the area, Check with Utopia if that is important.

Gary

In odgen, the "bad" part is really quite small.
That little area around the temple, and just south of the temple i would avoid at all costs.

My anti gun neighbor lived in that area and complained about having bullets passing though their apartment during some altercation...

(I got uninvited for delicious tacos one day when i got "busted" cleaning a black pew pew in my garage.. lol )

Most of odgen is quite good.

West of odgen is good, just go far enough west.
Well past 1900w.

Thank you for your input.  Shame about missing out on some great tacos because people make your business there's.

Those tacos still smell so good, cul-de-sac, and it's the neighbor next door so the smell gets strong.


It's a little awkward now, but whatever!

Anyways,
Just remember that a bad neighborhood in utah is nothing like a bad one in another state.

Our takes on it would be pretty much 0 crime is expected for a decent neighborhood.

My advice would be to check a neighborhood out during the weekend during the day and saturday night to get an idea of what you're in for.


My neighborhood has been quiet, but I'm west of the rail road tracks, well past 1900 w.


But one of my new neighbors have California plates...



Weber county is also a 2a sanctuary, if that matters at all.

I lived in downtown Ogden from 2006 to 2019. Downtown is considered the worst, but I felt fine there. I love Ogden.

You will find many neighborhoods in and around Ogden to be perfectly normal and safe: South Ogden, "The Bench" and North Ogden are all wonderful places to live. Ignore the Ogden haters.

I hear you brother.  Actually heading to Utah tomorrow and will be looking at town homes to rent in Layton, Roy, North Ogden and West Haven I think.  Looking forward to moving.  

Hi, Welcome to Utah! Got a job yet? Lots going on at the base depending on your experience, education, career field, and clearance. Hill is the depot for MM3 boomsticks, new Sentry ICBM, F16, 22, 35, A10, and other assorted things. I was stationed at HAFB (91-93) and did USAF contractor gigs (2016-2023).

Davis/Weber counties are fairly similar to each other. Find a realtor for local area info and housing details (Make them earn that 3%). Good time to rent/lease for now. Fingers crossed for interest rates to cool. The closer you get to SLC, you'll see the purple-hairs and man-buns. The majority of liberals are close to the colleges but YMMV. Up north, we are good to go. Once you learn the area, your location choices will become clearer. I live 15 minutes west of the base, traveling on surface streets (I-15 is the devil!). My town is somewhat rural but still close to the class 6 store (AKA Shopette).

If you and your family are cool with winter conditions, then you're good. It's typical "high desert next to a salty pond" type weather. Last winter was a pain in the ass. It was too cold for too long; however, the last two months have been great.

Davis Co. outdoor gun range is well worn but friendly (Bountiful has a range but it's sketchy). Weber Co. outdoor range says no steel-case so I'm avoiding for now (website pics look nice). There's also BLM land and an ass-ton of indoor ranges.

Get moved in, look around, do some stuff, and enjoy yourself.

Yes We finally made it a few days ago, just in time for this heat wave!  I have to concentrate on getting a job here first then some fun times at the range.  I'm looking into jobs at Hill and the many defense company out here.  If you have some contacts it would be helpful.  Glad to be in UTAH!

Howdy! Welcome to Northern Utah! Hope your move went well. Transition is hard. Clown world makes it even more difficult. Jobs at Hill come and go. Employment depends on your vocation, experience, and clearance. Indeed and USA Jobs is all I'm familiar with. Tune up your resume and start applying. Most contractors use an ATS (applicant tracking system) to weed out the unworthy. Civil Service has a lot of jobs too. IRS has a big ops center in Ogden if you're into evil.

From my experience, Mondays and Fridays are hard to do anything on base due to WFH and 5/4/9 workers. Traffic around Hill sucks Tues-Thurs during duty hours. Getting a job can take a while so be patient. If you have a TS/SCI, you will get right in. If you're an engineer, you can start tomorrow. If you have ICBM/F35/F22/F16 experience, you'll be OK. Otherwise, dazzle the HR lady and interviewer with your awesomeness!! PM me if you have questions or issues. I'm happy to help!

I just sent you a poorly worded email. Sorry I didn't reply to your PM. Hope you're completely settled and you're happily sipping your "dirty soda".

Has anyone tried a dirty soda? Sounds bad but there's always a line at the drive-thru. There's also a "Wedgies" too. I want to ask for a real wedgy, just like they did in grade school. Pretty sure it's been asked before...

Thanks brother!  Yeah I got your message, I was wondering who it was at first but then realize it was you.  It took approx. 5 months to land work and I'm very thankful.  I'm great friends now with Mike (GlockfanUT), he's been very helpful since I moved to Utah.  My family and I are enjoying life here definitely .

Howdy! Where did you actually settle? How was your dirty soda?

Welcome, fellow transplant!

We moved from WA, left Father's Day weekend last year and settled in Eagle Mountain.

Make sure you order your SxS early! It seems 3/4ths of the people have at least one down here.