Frankly, i think alot of you native Utah people need a reality check. I moved here from Virginia a year and a half ago. This state is a paradise for families who are conservative and enjoy the outdoors.
My job requires me to travel all over the Mountain West, so i have hands-on experience to compare. Colorado is great, but their reality has skyrocketed even more than UT and the whole state is hostage to the insane liberals in Denver. Wyoming is great, but it is desolate, and all the things that comes with living in a desolate state; poor schools, crumbling infrastructure, rampant meth and alcoholism, no jobs, etc. Montana is great as well, but its a bipolar state that switches between Billings (a long forgotten oil refinery with some houses around it) to Bozeman (a bourgeoise utopia that no one actually lives in) with the astronomical sky high reality. Idaho is an almost even runner-up, but everything UT people complain about; IE Californians moving there and jacking up the limited housing, is 10 fold more of an issue there. There has been a bunch of articles written that CA people were scared to live in UT under Mormon rule, so they moved to ID instead, thank the lord.
What else is left? Nevada? Which isnt a bad state, but youre stuck living around LV (ugh) or Reno (dealing with the CA invasion as well). Oregon? HAH! Want your child to be taught how to have anal sex in kindergarten? Sure, go move there. Washington? While i love the Spokane valley, the state is as well a hostage to Seattle insane liberals. Spokane was legit scary to drive through recently. The homeless "problem" has turned into literal cities within the city, and everyone is forbidden to deal with issue on high command from the WA Governor. I will be there again this week and i will make sure its only a day trip. Arizona? habla espanol? yo no se? No, por favor. New Mexico? lol, you should go check it out first before considering moving there.
What about outside of the Mountain West? Well, if you need a job youll be stuck moving near a metropolis and pretty much everything east of Colorado has precisely zero public land. I dont think people here, who have never lived elsewhere, can really fathom what literally everyone else in this country endures to enjoy the outdoors. You better be rich, or know a rich person, pay out the ass for private land access, or grit your teeth when you have to camp 5 feet from your adjoining campsite's generator.
Utah has a robust economy, very low crime, excellent schools, low traffic issues (compared to other metropolis'), excellent access to public lands, climate with all four seasons, excellent infrastructure, very conservative state and local government, excellent gun rights, low police presence, and within 6 hours travel to almost all of the natural beauties our country has to offer.
What does Utah do wrong? Real estate is high, but thats literally an issue in every state right now and UT's problem is exacerbated by being near 80% public land or un-buildable. Food isnt great. Career opportunities can be limited. Inversion sucks. Sometimes really nice people knock on your door and offer to help you with things. Drivers have an issue with getting out of the left hand lane. Looks like UTV thefts are on the rise. The hunting system is confusing and very restrictive. I cant think of anything else.
I grew up in rural farm country Virginia outside Washington DC. My county consisted of working farms, commuter couples and poverty stricken enclaves of sharecropper families. In my lifetime (I am 38 years old) i lived and watched my county transform into a place i no longer recognize. It became an exclusive bourgeoise get-away for rich NGO CFO's who moonlighted on K street. I could no longer afford to live in the county i grew up in. I couldnt even afford to buy the house i grew up in as a college educated engineer with a paralegal wife. My parents bought that house new in 1994 on a single income salary. The county next to ours (Prince William) became unlivable almost overnight. It became a hot bed of illegal immigration and crime became rampant almost immediately. The county executives attempted to thwart the tidal wave that the DHS and ICE refuse to even acknowledge (ID checks, limits on numbers of people in a household, language restrictions on licensure, etc) and they were slapped down by the supreme court. Gradually, the old people left or died and the new people moved in. Now PW county has a "woman" representing them in the legislature. Isnt that amazing! How progressive! My FIL found a dead body the other day in an alley way while working in PW county. Im not even going to get into the issues with the public schools (Loudon County) or the commute (1-1/2 hours one way, if your lucky) or police issues (Let BLM shut down 234 to riot and burn, but if youre a certain skin color and your inspection sticker is dead, WATCH OUT! LIGHTS AND SIRENS, WE MUST STOP THIS CRIMINAL!!!).
I know i am rambling, but i find it astonishingly naïve some of the replies i am reading in here.
