[JavaBrewer]

As long as you KNOW you'll never want to move back to Cali then it sounds like an excellent plan. The Utah housing market will never keep pace with Cali and eventually you'll be priced out. Starting back in the 60's to current I've known many families who moved out of state and found that 5-10 years later they could not afford to move back. Over the past few years I've seen many many homes on the market in Utah and nothing selling. My brother-in-law who lives in Draper experienced the same and actually saw values decrease as folks who lost jobs couldn't sell and got forclosed. I hear now that things might be improving but regardless I would consider a move to Utah (SLC in particular) a permanant one. Best of luck to you.