Living in Hurricane (St. George, Washington: short sales, HOA, condos)

[flaglerwrangler]

We are a retired couple who visited the St. George area and are enthralled with the Sky Mountain golf course and the immediate area as a place to relocate to. Currently we live in Laguna Woods, which is a retirement community of over 12,000 condos and coops. We are repulsed with the negativity and the lack of desire of too many residents to spend to maintain a livable environment. Sky Mt. seems to be the ideal location for us. Is it? Are there other locales where homes are available in the low to mid $200M range with moderately priced golf in the immediate area.
Sun River scares me as being too large a development. Thanks in advance

[Charlie77]

Sky Mountain is a beautiful golf course, it's one of my favorites! The homes in that area are nice and grocery shopping is easy since there's a Wal-Mart nearby. If you move to that area though, you'll need to learn how to properly pronounce the town's name-- it's herr-ik-kin. Locals there will be a lot friendlier if you can say it right, think of it like how locals in Louisville pronounce their city's name.

Other suggestions would be Coral Canyon and near Red Hills golf course. CC is a nice community in itself and a close drive to Sky Mountain. Red Hills is a smaller 9-hole course with a beautiful backdrop and it's close to downtown St. George and Entrada.

Have you tried looking at Zillow.com to see home prices near golfing communities? It's a nice search tool. Or get in touch with a local realtor, the poster above me seems enthusiastic and willing to help. I know some other realtors in town if you want to message me.

[tylerhaynes3]

$200M range huh??? Uhhh... And the old, longtime locals say it how Charlie77 pronounced it above, but today's newer residents and local younger generation say hurr-ik-cun and I've even heard local radio ads and people in the public call it by its correct pronounciation, so don't fret by any means.
My aunt lives in Louisville and the locals out there seem to rip newbies' heads off if pronounced wrong, it's a lot less dramatic if you say Hurr-ik-cane here than Lou-wee-ville there. Lol whatever

[flaglerwrangler]

We are really attracted to Sky Mt. Golf Estates but wonder why there seems to be a large turnover of owners?,.
Are there any problems with the soil that have affected structures?, are scorpions a big problem.
Is there a Golf Mens Club and a Women's Golf Group? Is Sky Mt. a good place to live.
Thanks for your attention.

[Charlie77]

I would live in Sky Mtn if I was retiring, it's beautiful and one of the nicest courses in the area. Haven't heard anything bad about the soil, but that area was hit hard by the economy downturn and people ended upside down which caused a lot of short sales. There are some scorpions, but its rare to see them, you'll see more spiders and roaches. But if you're spraying regularly you won't have any bug problems. Pm me if you want a rec on a good sprayer in the area who is affordable.

[flaglerwrangler]

Charlie, thanks for your kind response. We are retired and Sky Mtn. does seem perfect for retired avid golfers

[tylerhaynes3]

Sky Mountain/ west Hwy 9 area is nice with beautiful views and wide open desert vistas. But avoid down in the valley part - hick town, trailer trashy for the most part, also beware of the almost constant gusty winds in that area... not pleasant. Hurricane is generally known as the armpit of the greater St George area.

[Charlie77]

Wow, I definitely don't agree with Hurricane being labeled an 'arm pit'. There's a great sense of community in that area and wonderful people. It's a rural setting with a closeness to STG. The high school football seems to be in the state championship every year and the whole town shows up to support them. The Peach Festival in September is a wonderful tradition and draws a large crowd. Same with the Easter car show. No it doesn't have the amenities of a bigger city, but those things are just 20 minutes away.

[DoggieMatic]

Sky Mountain is really nice, but you're pretty much out of your league if your budget is around $200,000, especially if you're not also factoring HOA dues, and $$ to pay someone to maintain exterior shrubbery, grass, etc, within the HOA requirements.

You aren't going to be bearing the direct brunt of the gale-force winds (that gave Hurricane it's name) unless you're on the far N or E sides of the Sky Mountain community.

As for how they pronounce the name of the city, yes, it's good to know the local pronunciation. You get to the point where if you're watching the network news on TV & they talk about a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic, of course using the proper English pronunciation, you for a moment think they mispronounced the word. But you also get to the point where when people come out of the woodwork to 'correct' someones pronunciation, you roll your eyes at them & feel sad that they don't have anything better to do.

Yes, the older, original areas of Hurricane, a couple blocks both N & S of State Street, certainly aren't as nice looking neighborhoods as Sky Mountain, Coral Canyon, or other newer areas. That's an advantage/disadvantage of no HOA. More crime/criminals, more blight, and the lower land means more potential for flooding during heavy rainfall. But it doesn't really qualify as a true ghetto.

As someone else suggested, I'd really take a look at Coral Canyon as well. It's much, much larger than Sky Mountain, but I think it has more of a variety of house types (though I'd still be surprised if you found anything for $200,000 unless it needed a lot of work). The advantages of being in Washington City vs. Hurricane is that you're closer to major shopping, Washington City has a much larger tax base than Hurricane & seems to have more funds available for projects (best example: compare Washington City's Community/Recreation Center & pools to Hurricane's).

Beyond that, you really asked some basic questions that I think YOU need to do your own research to get answers on. We can give you opinions, but for basic facts, you need to find the time & energy to contact one or more realtors & look at some HOA web pages, online property listings, etc.

[flaglerwrangler]

Thanks for your input. I was looking for the low to mid 200's originally and realize it will more likely be the mid to upper 200's. I'm ok with that. Sky Mt. seems to be a more appealing to me than Coral Canyon. I found Coral canyon too "blah", the surroundings were not all that attractive, the golf course was overpriced and their staff were not the most friendly.
Sky Mountain just had the feel of "home". We'll be going there early in August meeting with our realtor and hopefully get closer to living there.
Not being LDS, I hope that will not be an issue. Sundays, for us, are golf and football.