Salt Lake City, once an economy primarily based on agriculture and defense, has blossomed into a mecca for tech jobs with prime real estate to match.
The city’s transition into a modern economy has been in the works since the 1990s, but many argue the main catalyst for rapid development was when it was selected as the site for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
In the years leading up to the international event, Utah went to work revitalizing its infrastructure, which to this day ranks among the best in the nation as evaluated by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
And locals who spoke with DailyMail.com agree, saying that major freeways redone in the late 90s that cut through Salt Lake City, including I-15 and I-80, are still a dream to drive on.
The 2002 Olympics also made the state capital – the center of the Mormon religion – one of the best places in the United States for winter sports.
Millions of dollars were poured into nearby ski areas that were used for events, such as Snowbasin and Park City Mountain Resort. They were fitted with beautiful new lodges, ultra-high speed lifts and gondolas, and huge trail expansions that are still around today.
Good roads and the privilege of shredding snow at world class resorts aren’t enough to make a great city though. People still need jobs and places to live, and as it happens, both of those things are thriving in Salt Lake City.
There are now plenty of high-paying job opportunities in tech and engineering, thanks in part to a huge investment in STEM education over the last 20 years. The city’s tech hub, nicknamed Silicon Slopes, is home to firms like Adobe, Qualtrics, Microsoft, Oracle and many more.
Downtown Salt Lake City has grown over the last twenty years into a modernized area with skyscrapers and public transportation options
Much of the wide-scale development of the city was spurred on by it being chosen to host the 2002 Olympics
Its many ski resorts were upgraded with new lodges, ultra-high speed lifts and gondolas, and huge trail expansions (Pictured: Park City Mountain Resort, which is about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City
Finance is also a huge sector in Salt Lake County, which has 15 of the nation’s 23 industrial banks.
Phil Meyer, a recruiter in the Salt Lake City area, said that aside from some recent layoffs in the tech sector that were mostly ‘AI-driven’, he believes the city’s job market is ‘pretty solid’.
‘A lot of young people come out here that are familiar with the ski resorts in the summer and they stay,’ Meyer told DailyMail.com. ‘I think Salt Lake City has been kind of a hot market, technology wise, for at least the last two or three years.’
And since 2009, when Adobe became the first major tech company to establish a presence in Salt Lake City, homes in the metro area have more than doubled in value, outpacing more well-established cities like Los Angeles and New York.
To account for its growing, more affluent population, the city has become much more built-up over the last 20 or so years.
Sarah Young, a member of the Salt Lake City Council since July 2023, moved to the city when she was in high school in the late 1990s, so she remembers a time when the city had a fraction of the footprint it has today.
‘When I was in high school I probably could count on my two hands how many tall buildings we had in downtown Salt Lake,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘Now you go downtown and not only do you see multiple high rises, but you also see more on the horizon that are being built out. And I think that speaks to the fact that there’s people who want to live in Salt Lake City,’ she added.
Pictured: A recent overhead view of Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, which has the flagship temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as its centerpiece
In 1980, Temple Square had hardly any tall buildings except the Mormon Temple itself
The downtown professional sports scene is only growing, with the newly introduced Utah Hockey Club now sharing the Delta Center alongside the Utah Jazz.
Eccles Theater is also a relatively new feature in the city’s downtown, having opened in 2016. The venue has allowed locals to get a chance to see popular Broadway shows such as Phantom of the Opera and Hamilton.
And despite the constant development of the city, locals told DailyMail.com that traffic is still negligible. Most everywhere you’d want to go is within a 15 to 20 minute car ride or less.
This confluence of factors – a booming real estate market, a humming jobs ecosystem, unrivaled outdoor activities and a growing downtown – has made Salt Lake City an attractive option for many.
And now that it was once again chosen last year to host the Winter Olympics, this time in 2034, locals said they’re excited to see the city grow even…
Read More: Mountain metropolis’ transformation into the new ‘Silicon Valley’ has fueled