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Ian Hughes and Jai-Yu Fu moved from California to Utah in 2020 looking for new experiences and affordability.
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They settled in Salt Lake Metropolis due to Hughes’ job and have since began their very own enterprise.
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Town is not as inexpensive as they thought and the couple is shifting again to California subsequent month.
This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with couple Ian Hughes, 32, and Jai-yu Fu, 30, about their experiences shifting from Santa Rosa, California, to Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah in July 2020. The couple is getting ready to maneuver again to the West Coast subsequent month. The next has been edited for size and readability.
Ian: I am born and raised in California and we met going to design college in San Francisco over 10 years in the past. We simply had our six-year wedding ceremony anniversary.
Jai-Yu: I used to be born and raised in Taipei Metropolis in Taiwan. I just about spent half my lifetime in Taiwan after which right here within the States. So, I’ve this type of expat narrative.
Earlier than we moved to Utah, we had been dwelling in Santa Rosa, California. The hire at the moment —
Ian: It was $2,300 plus utilities.
My background is within the outside business; Jai-Yu’s background is in architectural design. After I was proper out of faculty, there have been much more outside firms within the Bay Space, however all of them began leaving to go to Denver or Salt Lake Metropolis. There’s extra of an out of doors vibe there, I assume. So I knew that was occurring and anticipated wanting to depart to stick with that crowd.
Jai-Yu: We had been simply on the level in our life the place we did not really feel like being tied down.
Ian: We had been able to attempt one thing new, too.
I obtained a suggestion with this job in Salt Lake Metropolis in March or April of 2020. We had been excited.
Jai-Yu: On the identical time, we had this dream that we actually wished to start out our personal enterprise.
We had been pondering: Can we go chase this dream? To chase that dream, it entails our personal investments. We needed to spend our personal cash to start out our personal firm.
Ian: A part of the explanation I wished to work with this startup is I assumed I might study loads after which apply it to our personal enterprise afterward.
We additionally knew that it was rather less costly to stay in Salt Lake Metropolis, so we had been sort of excited to be ready to avoid wasting a bit extra.
Jai-Yu: Nicely, that is what we thought.
A part of the explanation we left Santa Rosa was as a result of we obtained the impression that Salt Lake Metropolis was imagined to be extra inexpensive.
However as a result of there’s a lot home migration, it is positively affecting Salt Lake Metropolis’s density and the housing costs. So, the previous three years that we have been right here, the pricing we’re seeing is comparatively just like what it was like in Santa Rosa.
The couple made the transfer in July 2020 — proper within the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic
Ian: It was positively a wierd time to maneuver.
Jai-Yu: I did not actually prefer it as a result of after we first arrived it was a ghost city. COVID was nonetheless occurring and we could not actually discover as a lot as we wished to, or meet folks. There wasn’t a lot social life. We had been mainly simply working on a regular basis.
Ian: Most people we have met have been by way of our jobs right here. And for probably the most half, all people’s been very nice and pleasant. We’re not that nice at making pals exterior of labor, however each time we have interacted with strangers, everybody’s normally fairly good and respectful.
I believe folks right here positively assume that as a result of we’re from California, we’re routinely more comfortable.
However we have rented the entire time. After we obtained right here, we lived in a small one-bedroom. Then previously two years, we have been in an even bigger house, a one-plus bed room.
Each had been round $1,600. It has been a bit bit extra inexpensive, I assume.
Jai-Yu: Not all of the choices in Salt Lake Metropolis are cheaper, it is simply that they do have a greater variety of rental costs, in comparison with the Bay Space.
It relies on the place you need to stay. The neighborhood we’re dwelling in is much less dense, simply because that is the place we discovered probably the most inexpensive place. The neighborhood we in all probability wished to stay in is near downtown and near the walkable neighborhoods, as an alternative of the extra suburban space we’re at present in.
I personally want a walkable, city neighborhood, simply because I grew up in Taipei Metropolis, which has a 2.6 million inhabitants. And Salt Lake Metropolis is 200,000.
One of many first impressions I had is that the shops listed here are very unfold out. If I need to go go to a boutique, I’ve to drive 20 minutes after which hop round completely different elements of city.
However one thing I actually like about Salt Lake Metropolis is there are much less automobiles on the street and fewer offended, loopy drivers than within the Bay Space. Despite the fact that I’ve to drive 20 minutes to go to the Chinatown retailer, as a result of I would like my Asian groceries.
Ian: There’s positively variety, but it surely’s extra diluted or constrained to the downtown Salt Lake Metropolis space, I might say.
Jai-Yu: I hardly ever see folks aside from Caucasians strolling round. I do get annoyed simply because when you’ve got much less variety, which means there’s much less variety in restaurant decisions and in grocery decisions.
Going out to eat at a restaurant, it is just about the identical as after we had been dwelling in Santa Rosa. You may exit and simply spend $60 on a meal. So we attempt to prepare dinner from residence.
The couple stop their jobs final summer season to focus full-time on beginning their very own enterprise
Jai-Yu: We weren’t going to remain in Salt Lake Metropolis. It was non permanent.
Ian: We wished to get a number of the business expertise after which determine a strategy to apply it to the enterprise we wished to start out.
Jai-yu: Final yr we had been beginning to consider shifting again. In order that’s after we took a flip and stop our jobs. We began working full-time on Parapack.
Ian: We’re at present making light-weight headwear. Now we have one product mainly out, however we’ve others deliberate.
We have positively discovered loads, which is what we wished to dive into after we began.
We needed to come right here to have the ability to afford to start out our personal enterprise. I do not assume we might have made it this far this rapidly in California.
Jai-Yu: It was an ideal alternative to push ourselves out of our acquainted bubble. Popping out right here on our personal was a superb studying lesson of simply chasing our dream and taking a look at our environment from a special perspective.
We might be shifting again to Pacifica, California in a couple of month or so.
Ian: We ended up getting in contact with household and we will hire a brief in-law unit from them.
Jai-Yu: They’re giving us an excellent deal, and we each will seemingly get part-time jobs. The mixture of that is what is going on to assist us make it — to maneuver again and have a life and have this dream of making our personal firm.
Ian: We’re excited to return and be nearer to household. We’ll positively miss the mountaineering and the outdoorsy sorts of issues you are able to do right here so simply.
Jai-Yu: One of many coolest issues about Salt Lake Metropolis is its majestic Wasatch mountain vary. It simply makes you speechless. That is one thing San Francisco cannot beat.
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