Cache County vs Davis County.

Home values

The price gap runs the way you would expect, and it is real. Cache County's median home value is ~$444,400 against ~$505,500 in Davis, and the maps agree with the median: Cache is the cheaper county almost everywhere inside it. Part of that is the drive. Davis carries the higher household income, ~$110,900 against ~$81,700, and the closer a Davis city sits to the Salt Lake line, the more it costs, while Cache trades a longer haul south for a lower sticker. The one place Cache prices hold firm is Logan itself, where the university keeps a steady pool of buyers and renters under the median, and the resale market moves on the campus calendar rather than Salt Lake's.

In Cache the money runs toward the canyon and the campus. Logan is both the seat and the largest city, and it sets the middle of the range, with the established streets near Utah State and along the benches running higher and the edges stepping down. The newer, larger homes are in the growing cities around it, North Logan, Smithfield, Providence, and Hyrum, where new construction is still a live option. The price pages show what a budget actually buys: Logan under $500K, Smithfield under $600K, and Providence under $500K.

In Davis the money runs from the south bench out to the west side. The established, higher-priced streets are the south bench cities close to Salt Lake, Bountiful and Centerville, nearly built out and trading on location, with Kaysville close behind. The newer, larger homes are out west toward Syracuse and Clearfield, where the West Davis Highway opened the county's last farm ground to building. Layton is the biggest market and sits in the middle of the range. The price pages show it street by street: Layton under $600K, Bountiful under $650K, and Kaysville under $700K.

The practical version, for the same monthly budget: Cache gets you the university town and a newer or a bigger home at the edge of a growing valley, and Davis gets you a closer, more established address and a shorter commute, at a higher price. Neither is the bargain and neither is the splurge; they are two honest answers to the same money. If you are early in the search, the cost-of-living guide lays the whole state out by region, and the affordability calculator turns either county's median into a number you can actually shop with.

Taxes, county by county

Now the part people get wrong. On property taxes the two counties are close, and Cache is the slightly lower one, not Davis. Cache runs ~0.4% effective on a primary home in Logan, against ~0.6% effective on a primary home in Farmington. Utah taxes a primary residence on part of its value, and the certified rate that lands on your bill is set by the city and the school district, not the county, so a bond in one town can run higher than its neighbor while the county line means less than people think.

Sales tax tells the same story. The combined rate at the register is ~7.30% in Logan and ~7.25% in Farmington, so there is no county-line gap to find there either. Check the exact rate for any address on the county assessor's site before you commit. The honest takeaway is that you should not pick between Cache and Davis on taxes, because there is almost nothing to pick.

The trade behind the price

What the higher Davis price buys is position. Salt Lake City and its airport are ~25 min from Farmington, the household incomes are the highest in this comparison, and the county is settled, with mature yards, established streets, and a school system that is one district wide. What it does not buy is a new house at the edge of town, because Davis is nearly out of edges. New construction is mostly a west-side story now, out toward Syracuse and West Point.

What the lower Cache price buys is the university town and room. The same money that gets you a resale on the Davis bench gets you more house in Logan or a newer one in Smithfield or Hyrum, and Utah State's campus, its venues, and its events are part of the deal in a way no Davis address can match. What you trade for it is the drive south and the cold, and a valley that runs its own show rather than feeding off Salt Lake. If a newer home is the priority, look at new construction in Logan on the Cache side and new construction in Layton on the Davis side, and compare what the budget covers. What you are really trading is the hour on I-15 for the lower sticker, and only you know what that hour is worth on a weeknight.

Elevation and seasons

On weather these two counties are close enough that it should not decide anything by itself, but Cache is the colder one and the snowier one, and that is worth saying plainly. Logan sits at ~4,500 ft, valley floor and Farmington at ~4,300 ft, valley bench below the Wasatch, both get four full seasons, a July high around ~89 °F in Logan and ~91 °F in Farmington, and January lows near ~18 °F and ~20 °F. The difference shows in winter: Cache is a cold valley that holds snow, with inversions that sit on the floor for days, while Davis gets lake breezes and a milder bench.

What matters more than the county is the bench, and this is where Davis wins for a lot of buyers. The Davis bench cities sit noticeably above the valley floor, so their summer nights run cooler and their air stays cleaner on inversion days, and the east-facing streets in Bountiful and Kaysville are the clearest examples. Cache is a valley floor, high and cold, ringed by mountains, and its own inversion is one of the state's persistent ones because the cold air pools in the basin. A buyer who cares about the difference between a cold, still valley floor and a breezy bench should shop by elevation before county. In Logan the same rule runs toward the benches under the Bear River Range, where the view lots and the canyon-edge streets carry the highest prices in the valley.

Water, air, and the valley floor

Both counties get the winter inversion, the lid of cold air that traps haze on the floor for days in December and January. Cache's is the sharper one because the valley is a high basin that holds the cold, and on a bad week Logan's air is among the worst in the state. Davis's is lighter and clears faster with the lake breeze, and its bench sits above it more often than the floor does, which is part of why bench streets cost more.

The water is where they part ways. Davis fronts the Great Salt Lake, with Antelope Island across the causeway and a marsh life around Farmington Bay that fills with birds in season, though the lake itself has been near record lows for years. Cache has fresh water instead: the Logan and Bear rivers run through the valley, Hyrum State Park holds a summer beach at its reservoir, and Logan Canyon climbs from the edge of town to the mountain dams. Both are real; they are just different animals, and the county you pick decides which one is out your back door.

Public land and the map

Here is the biggest difference on the map, and it hides in the land rows of the table. Cache is 57% private and 38% federal, and its federal ground is the national forest above the valley, the Bear River Range and the Wellsville Mountains, which is why the county's canyons and ski hills are right at the edge of town. Davis is 25% private and 11% federal, and the reason so little of Davis is private is that the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island, state and sovereign land and water, fill a large share of the county's area. That is very different from a county where a national forest locks up the building ground.

What all of it means for you is simple. Cache's outdoor life is a mountain range of its own: two ski hills in the county, Logan Canyon up to Bear Lake over the summit, and the Wellsville Mountains rising straight off the valley's west edge, all within a short drive of Logan. Davis's is the lake, the flat Legacy Parkway Trail down the valley floor, and the canyon trailheads at the top of the bench, real but limited, with no ski hill in the county at all. If the mountains and the snow are why you are moving to Utah, that is Cache. If a short commute and a settled bench matter more, that is Davis, and you drive to the canyon on the weekend.

School districts

Cache runs two school districts, Logan City School District, Cache County School District, the city district around Logan and the county district covering the rest of the valley, so two homes a few blocks apart can feed different systems. Davis runs one, Davis School District, a single district covering all fifteen cities, which makes the county unusually simple on this front. I do not rate schools, on this page or anywhere on the site. I name the district, link the city guide, and leave the judgment to you and the district's own published data. The city guides for Logan and Layton and the rest tell you which district an address falls in.

Colleges and universities

Higher education is where Cache is the bigger county, and it is the whole story of the place. Utah State University's main campus is in Logan, a major research university that anchors the valley: its jobs, its venues, its sports, and its rental market, with Bridgerland Technical College beside it. Davis has Weber State's Davis Campus in Layton and Davis Technical College in Kaysville, real options but branch campuses rather than a town built around a school. If a college town is the draw, Cache is the answer and Davis does not come close. Utah State is also the county's biggest employer and its cultural center, the reason Logan has a real downtown of restaurants and venues instead of a strip of big boxes.

Hospitals and the airport

On hospitals, Davis has the bigger bench and the closer big-city care. Davis has Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, the Intermountain hospital in Layton, and Holy Cross Davis, also in Layton, so routine and emergency care is close everywhere in the county. Cache has Logan Regional Hospital and Cache Valley Hospital in Logan, full hospital care but on a valley scale, and for a rare specialty a Cache household leans on the big Salt Lake medical centers, ~1 hr 25 min from Logan, which is one more quiet point in Davis's favor for anyone who values that distance. Neither county is short on a routine visit; the difference only shows up when the appointment is a specialist, and that lives on the Salt Lake bench, not the Cache Valley floor.

The airport splits the way the map does, and it is the single biggest cost of choosing Cache. Davis has none of its own, but Salt Lake City International is ~25 min from Farmington, a Delta hub with direct flights most places. Cache has the Logan-Cache Airport for general aviation, no commercial service, and for most trips a Logan household drives to Salt Lake, ~1 hr 25 min from Logan. Frequent flyers should weigh that airport drive; it is one of the quiet reasons the south end of Davis holds its price and Cache trades it for the lower sticker.