Affordable Housing In Utah? This Is Not The Place

Recently, Homebuyer.com released a list of the “cheapest states to buy a house.” They listed the 15 states with the lowest cost of buying a house. Utah was not on that list. But, what is really distressing is that Utah came close to being on the list of the 5 most expensive states to buy a house.

According to the report, only seven states have higher home costs than Utah. Here in the Beehive state, you can expect to pay 15 to 29% of your monthly income to housing costs. And those costs could continue to rise.

We still have a ways to go to catch Hawaii and California, the two most expensive states for buying houses. In those states, you'll spend at least 30% of your monthly income on housing costs.

In data released by Zillow, the average Utah home value now sits at over a half million dollars at $509,433. That's a .9% increase over the past year.

The Utah Foundation released a report in February. In that report, they stated, “the American Dream is deeply embedded in the identity and ethos of the United States. Homeownership is both a symbol of achieving the American Dream and a way it is achieved.” The desire to own ones home is still high. In fact more so in Utah than the country as a whole.

In the same Utah Foundation report it was told that home ownership in Utah peaked in 2008, but in the period from 2012 to 2022 ownership rates remained near the long term average at roughly 67%. That is higher than the U.S. average.

But while Utah is pacing higher than the country in housing ownership, obstacles are becoming more difficult. According to a report from Lending Tree, over half of those who do not currently own a home fear that they will never have that opportunity.

According to the Utah Foundation report, the situation here in Utah has been “decades” in the making. There will be no quick solutions. Utah is still facing a housing shortage to compound the situation. Governor Cox proposed the Utah First Homes program that would have the goal of providing 35,000 new “starter homes” as part of his budget proposal.

In Utah, the dream of home ownership still seem to be very much alive. However, obtaining that dream is becoming more of a challenge.