Pros and Cons of Living in Saratoga Springs Utah

Video Transcription

Is Saratoga Springs, Utah, the right place for you to live? Today, we’re going to talk about some of the pros and cons of living in Saratoga Springs, Utah.

Hi. This is Melissa Ballman, and I am a realtor here in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. What that means is if you’re looking at buying or selling real estate in the greater Salt Lake City area, give me a call, I’d love to connect with you. Shoot me a text, give me a call, send me an email, or even drop a comment below, and let’s connect and talk about real estate here in the area. But today we’re here to talk about Saratoga Springs, so let’s jump into some of the pros and cons of Saratoga Springs, Utah.

Okay, first, let’s talk about a couple of things that, depending on the person, could see it as a pro or a con. First, Saratoga Springs was always known as a really small town, not a lot going on, like one grocery store, but it has really taken off and has exploded. They just opened a new Costco down there in Saratoga Springs, they have a state liquor store being built, a primary children’s hospital that’s being built just north of Saratoga Springs. Things are really taking off in that area. The second thing that, depending on the person, could be a pro or a con is a lot of the single family homes are a part of HOA communities. If you’re not an HOA person, then you want to make sure that you’re checking any of the listings to see if they’re in an HOA. Don’t assume because it’s a single-family home that they’re not in an HOA.

Okay, let’s jump into some of the pros of living in Saratoga Springs, Utah. Number one, amazing, beautiful views of Utah Lake and the mountains east of Utah Lake. Depending on where your home is situated in Saratoga Springs, there’s a good chance that you’re going to be able to see the lake from multiple windows in your home, and always you can see the mountains behind that if you can see the lake. It’s really beautiful there. You kind of fall in love and you feel like you’re getting away from things living in Saratoga Springs.

Number two, Saratoga Springs has awesome safety records. In Saratoga Springs, Utah, they get an A+ plus rating for safety and their total crime rate is 69% below the national average for crimes. Actually for violent crimes, they’re 74% below the national average. Number three, the schools in Saratoga Springs are part of the Alpine School District, and within the Alpine School District, they are considered above average for the schools in that area. Now, they are building more schools just to help out with the student load at each school, so just keep that in mind, but as of right now, they are considered above average in the Alpine School District.

Number four Saratoga Springs is actually going to be located about 17 miles away from the Facebook data center down in Eagle Mountain. If you are looking at living in Eagle Mountain to work for Facebook, you are pretty close to the center. Finally, number five of pro, and this is a two for one here on this one, Saratoga Springs right now does qualify for USDA loans with 0% down loans. With that, the property taxes in Saratoga Springs on a home is lower than what you can find in other parts of Utah County or especially Salt Lake County and things like that. It’s just going to be a little bit less expensive to get into a home and have more loan possibilities in Saratoga Springs.

If you’re liking my video, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you’re alerted each week when I drop a new video on Fridays. Let’s talk about some of the cons about living in Saratoga Springs, Utah. First, depending on where you’re working or commuting to, the commute can be pretty long from Saratoga Springs. Just to give you an idea, the northern part of Saratoga Springs to downtown Salt Lake could take you about 40 minutes to an hour to make that commute. It’s about a 35-mile drive, so just be aware of that. If you’re trying to commute to downtown Salt Lake City or the airport or the University of Utah, it can be a bit of a hike.

Next, Saratoga Springs can get pretty windy, especially being right there on the lake. If you don’t like a lot of wind, it may not be the best place for you. Just be aware that it can get windy there. Number three, because it’s in kind of a rural area with mountains, as you can see in my drone videos, you are susceptible to fires that can break out a couple times of year in the area, whether that’s from the shooting range in the nearby area or human caused, or lightning caused. It’s not unusual to see a couple of fires in the foothills outside of Saratoga Springs and around that area. Sometimes they’re pretty big significant fires, like what we had in 2020 out there, but just be aware of that.

Number four, as of right now, there’s not a lot to do in Saratoga Springs, as far as nightlife goes. This kind of combines with my number five, which is there’s not a lot of restaurant options if you’re looking for somewhere to sit down and eat. They do have a wide variety of, I would say, more fast food style restaurants, Costa Vida, Cubby’s, of course Wendy’s and things like that. They have a Kneaders out there. But as far as a nice sit-down restaurant, if you want to just enjoy a dinner in a quiet setting, there’s no options out there. That goes hand in hand with the nightlife thing.

The biggest thing to do in Saratoga Springs right now is a place called Fat Cats, and that’s like a movie theater, arcade. They have glowing miniature golf, things like that. It’s like a family fun center. That’s about the extent of activities, aside from parks and things like that. But if you’re looking for nightlife or great restaurants close by that you can sit down and have a nice meal, if you want to have a drink with your dinner, good luck finding that in Saratoga Springs.

If you’re on Facebook, make sure you check out the group, Salt Lake Life, there. In that community Facebook page, there’s just a lot of events that are happening in the area, life in Salt Lake City, metro area, and more. I hope you enjoyed today’s video, and as always, make it a great day.