The lack of supply and gradual rise in home costs in the state made affordable housing the top issue for Utah voters in 2024, according to a Sutherland Institute/Y2 Analytics survey.
On Wednesday morning, during an event hosted by the Sutherland Institute and the American Enterprise Institute, state and national housing experts came together to discuss Utah’s housing dilemma and the unaffordable reality future generations will face if nothing is done to solve it.
Major issues facing Utah were highlighted in a presentation by the co-director of AEI’s housing center, Edward Pinto:
- Since 2018, the average price of a home in Utah has increased by more than 75%, from $305,000 to $535,000.
- In 2023, Utah was ranked as the most unaffordable state for blue-collar workers to buy an entry-level home.
- Utah’s housing supply has been unable to keep up with in-migration rates, and around 28,000 homes need to be built annually to meet demand.
Light-touch-density to tackle housing
Nestled between mountain ranges, cities along the Wasatch Front face limited space for expansion as population growth surges. To meet the rising demand for housing, new construction must embrace innovative solutions without compromising a city’s integrity.
One solution is the building of light-touch-density homes, a term coined by Pinto. These types of builds involve increasing the density of single-family lots by allowing 2-8-plexes, townhouses or accessory dwelling units.
“Light-touch-density is a good way to describe what we’ve been doing in South Jordan for quite some time,” South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey said during a panel at the housing event. Daybreak, a 4,000-acre master-planned community in South Jordan, has been one of the solutions to the city being ranked in the top 10 fastest-growing cities in America, according to Ramsey.
“It was a stretch for city leaders to say, ‘We are going to be part of creating something very different, with much smaller lots, incredibly higher density, and with the allowance of clustering,’ so six units to the acre.”
“There’s a narrative that not every city is as open to some of this change,” she added. “But there are a lot of cities that are, and they’re looking for opportunities to create center development, walkable development (and) light-touch-density development in their city.”
Whether discussing a multiplex, a livable urban village or greenfield subdivisions, the aim is to create more naturally affordable housing — without government intervention — by maximizing land use and lowering housing costs.
In addition to the design, potential homebuyers’ other problem when entering the market is a lack of housing stock, which lawmakers are trying to combat.
The goal is to get enough supply so “that who wants to rent has a place that they can rent, and who wants to buy has a place that they can buy,” said Rep. Raymond Ward, R-Bountiful. “Ultimately, it comes down to market and efficiencies and the lack of supply across the board, both for rent and for sale.”
“My biggest fear is that if we make it so that people are not able to buy homes,” then it will “change the nature of our communities in ways that won’t be good,” Ward said.
Gov. Cox: Act now to preserve housing affordability
Ranked with the top economy in the country, with the largest growth in manufacturing jobs since 2019, and the home to more than 90% of the world’s industrial bank assets, Gov. Spencer Cox said in his keynote speech Wednesday that it’s no surprise people are moving to Utah.
“I’ve jokingly said many times, let’s, let’s build a wall around Utah and make California pay for it. But that’s not how any of this works,” he said. “I mean this sincerely: The only way to stop growing is to be really bad at what we do, to be terrible as a state.”
Cox has repeatedly said that his top priorities as governor of the state of Utah are reducing the cost of housing and increasing supply “specifically around starter homes and giving people an opportunity, once again, to achieve the American dream.”
If Utah’s housing trajectory remains unchanged, younger generations may be forced to leave the state as affordability slips further out of reach. Cox warned that prolonging housing decisions only adds to the problem and costs.
“I believe it’s a moral imperative that we provide the American dream to our kids and grandkids, that they can actually be better off than we are,” he added. “That’s what the American dream is all about. (It) always has been making life better for the next generation, and if they are the first generation in Utah’s history to be worse off than their parents or grandparents, we will have failed to be.”
