We were in your situation in 2019, and no things didn't feel that different then.

Find something smaller or in a less-contested market. Ogden could be a great idea. When we bought our place, we couldn't envision living south of 80 or west of 15. It turns out, a lot of people had those same requirements, and those people had considerably more money than us. We had to be more practical with our wants and bought a place further south. (The market was hot, we bid over asking day one just as people are now, but we did so on an older and smaller home. For what it's worth, we felt we overpaid at the time.)

Now that we have three years of equity and appreciation in the house, we could move to SLC proper (maybe). But, we like our little neighborhood and our affordable mortgage. Our neighbors are people like us - hardworking and career-oriented. They moved here for the same reasons we did.

What you may think is "down-market" could be a lot more fun when you have some skin in the game. After all, they will have you there to make the neighborhood awesome.