[paulddraper]

It's enormously healthy when you compare cost of living.

In 2015, I bought my unexceptional starter house for under $200k. (Fifteen minutes from Salt Lake city center, built 1970s, average condition, 2k sq ft, two car garage, 0.2 acre.)

Utah has always been big in tech (relatively to its size). Novell and WordPerfect were the homegrown giants of yesteryear. Now it's Pluralsight, Qualtrics, Instructure, Domo, and bunch of up and comers.

Lots of Utah companies have to reach outside the state for engineering muscle because the demand is so high.