Jenna Williams moved to Utah in late 2020 for a job and found her first apartment through a posting on Facebook.
“I was really looking for something that was going to be affordable,” the 28-year-old said. “It was a month-to-month kind of thing.”
At the time, she felt lucky that it was pretty painless and fit her budget. Three years later, she’s moving in with her partner and the process of finding a new place has been a challenge.
“It's like you have to be looking for the exact next month and then if you get lucky and you find something, it's usually too late to give notice to your landlord,” she said. “I think everyone has horror stories.”
According to the Federal Reserve, Utah’s statewide vacancy rate for rentals is 4.5%.
“We've had 10 consecutive years of vacancy rates along the Wasatch Front below 4%,” said James Wood, who is a senior fellow at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. “That's not a healthy housing market for those who are looking to rent.”
The market becomes even more difficult to navigate when you combine low stock with increasing prices. Zillow’s Rental Manager page shows the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Utah is $1,335. A 2022 report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute also shows that in several Utah counties, one-bedroom rents have increased more since 2020 than at any time during the last two decades combined.
“You're also just seeing housing that's just not worth the cost,” Williams said. “I went and saw a place downtown that I was excited about, it was not very well-kept at all. It just feels like the goalposts keep getting moved for what's affordable.”
Adding fuel to that fire is the state of the housing market. According to Wood, many potential first-time buyers have been squeezed out of ownership thanks to prices going through the roof since 2020. Interest rates have also doubled in the last year. That increase in rental demand has made for a corresponding increase in rent, and it’s not just the big population centers seeing this trend.
“If you have this suburban area or any of the markets outside the Wasatch Front, the rental market is really tight,” Wood said. “And part of that goes to housing affordability on the ownership side.”
Despite the red flags, it’s not all doom and gloom.
New apartment construction has been booming in population centers along the Wasatch Front. But that doesn’t always mean those new units, particularly in traditionally high-rent areas like downtown Salt Lake City, will be in a price bracket that renters can actually afford.
For Williams, she and her partner ultimately found a place to live they are happy with. But that wasn't before wading through some interesting lease agreements with additional fees that made options that at first looked affordable out of reach. One even included a “tenant peace of mind package” for more than $350 per year.
“It feels like not only are you paying rent, you're paying an additional fee to your landlord for basically something that should be coming with it,” she said. “Like when they require that you take care of the lawn but you don't own a lawnmower. If you're a renter, you probably don't own a lawnmower.”
