Melissa Ballman:
So, I get asked about Draper a lot, so if you’re considering making a move to Draper, today I’m going to talk about what it is like to live in Draper, Utah, from a Draper resident, so stay tuned.
Draper is a very popular place for people to look at moving to, and today I’m talking all about Draper and giving you a perspective of what to expect, and why so many people want to live in Draper. Now, this video I said is going to be from a Draper resident, well, that is me. I have lived in Draper for 20 years, so I know this area like the back of my hand because I live, work, and play here, so let’s jump into it.
So, Draper is very convenient, that is one of the biggest draws to living in Draper. You’re kind of halfway between Provo and downtown Salt Lake, and you’re only right around the corner from Lehi, which is kind of the heart of Silicon Slopes, so it’s very conveniently located for people to commute to and from work, whether it’s in Lehi or downtown, or they’re heading down to Utah County, so it makes it a very desirable location just for convenience factors.
Draper is known to be a safe community. We don’t have a lot of big crime in Draper. Now, everywhere you go, there is going to be crime, I’m not saying that there’s not crime in Draper, but it is known to be a safe area. Like I said, I’ve lived here for 20 years, and knock on wood, I’ve always had a great, safe experience living in Draper. But I would also encourage you, if safety and crime rates and things like that are important to you, definitely look Draper up.
Now, for as long as I can remember, Draper has been on the top 10 most expensive ZIP Codes, and so you can expect home prices to be expensive, but this was crazy. When I did my pros and cons of living in Draper, I mentioned in there that in July of 2020, the average sales price in Draper was $603,000. Now, that’s single family homes, townhouses, condos, everything. Well, fast forward, I don’t have the numbers for July of ’22, two years later, but for June of 2022, the average sales price in Draper has gone up to almost $911,000. Huge, huge increase of over $300,000 in just under two years.
So you might be asking, “Why is Draper so expensive?” Well, everywhere saw a big increase in home prices, but we have seen, the last couple of years, as those prices have increased, a lot of the old farmland that used to be around Draper is being sold off and divided up, and so big homes, new homes are being built all around flat Draper especially. So we do still have a lot of new construction, we do still have horse property here in Draper, which means more acreage and more price. So you will find a very big variety of homes in Draper, from multimillion dollar homes down to condos that are barely $300,000.
Draper is also known for good schools. We are located in the Canyons School District with the majority of students that go to public school that live in Draper are in the Corner Canyon High School boundaries, and people love Corner Canyon. They have fantastic sports programs, and honestly, I have a ninth grader now going into 10th grade, and he transferred to Corner Canyon midyear from private school, and academically, I’ve been very happy with the education he received the second half of this year, this school year, from Corner Canyon. But not only do we have good public schools in Draper, we have a variety of charter schools to choose from, starting from kindergarten, and we have the probably largest private school campus in the whole Wasatch Front located right here in Draper. So it’s not unusual for people that are either sending their kids to private school to live in Draper, or just want to be in the Canyons School District boundary of Corner Canyon to move to Draper.
We’re also getting a lot more mom and pop style boutique shopping. So we do have the big stores, like I’ve mentioned in my pros and cons of living in Draper video. We have Kohl’s, we have the big stores, IKEA, things like that. However, I am seeing more and more boutique-style shops opening up around the city, so if you are more into the boutique style, you don’t have to necessarily go downtown or travel far for those types of shopping experiences. We have more restaurants coming in that aren’t big chains. Now, I do feel like Utah in general, they could really use a boost on that, and not such chain restaurants, but we are seeing more in Draper that are not chain.
Let’s talk traffic. 123rd, or 12300 South if you’re not from the area, 123rd is kind of the main area, the main road that feeds all of Draper. That’s where you’re going to see a lot of your shops, your restaurants, dry cleaning, you name it, all down 123rd. If you’re traveling on 123rd midday on Saturdays, lunchtime during the week, evening and morning commutes, the traffic does get old, it does get not fun, so be prepared for that. Now, there’s times of the day that I drive down 123rd and it’s not nearly as bad as people make it sound, but just be prepared in those peak times for bad traffic.
With traffic, let’s talk about infrastructure. I do think that Draper in general, the closer you get to Interstate 15, is lacking the infrastructure that is needed for the apartment buildings that have been going in, lots of apartment buildings, large apartment buildings going into the area, and we’re seeing more and more office buildings being built that are multiple stories, five, six stories, and so there’s only a matter of time that while you’re by Bangerter in the 15, the traffic is going to get worse because the infrastructure is not there.
So don’t get me wrong, the infrastructure problems are not through the whole city, you’re mainly going to see those along the freeway areas of Draper where they’re building the commercial buildings, and a lot of the apartment complexes are going near either Bangerter Parkway or Interstate 15. The further east you move into Draper, you’re really not seeing many big apartment buildings or commercial buildings.
Okay, so I want to show you a clip I took the other morning in Draper about the prison. Okay, so behind me on the other side of the freeway is the prison in Draper. The new prison is open, and so they’re not saying when prisoners are going to be moved, but I’ve read it’s by the end of summer, and then they are going to start tearing down the prison, the old prison, to make it new downtown Draper. However, one thing people don’t realize, there’s going to be a pedestrian bridge that crosses over the freeway so you have easy access. We’re not sure exactly where along this stretch it’s supposed to be, but it is going to be somewhere between Edge Motorsports’ general RV area, and the Draper DMV is right there on that hill. Now, this street right here owned by the state where they keep all of their equipment for snow removal, so my guess… And I’m standing in the state liquor store parking lot, so my guess, it’s going to be right around here.
I hope you enjoyed my video today about living in Draper. If you have any real estate related questions, you’re considering moving to Draper, or any of the surrounding areas, I’d love to connect with you. I help people all the time relocate to Utah. You can shoot me a text, send me an email, whatever you want to do, just get in touch with me, but as always, make it a great day.
