Mountains to hike and ski in, five world-renowned national parks, a low unemployment rate and an updated international airport to boot. What’s not to like about living in Utah?
For one thing, it’s difficult to find a place to rent and the costs are high once you do.
2021 figures from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute show Salt Lake County’s housing shortage and high home prices led to the “tightest” apartment market in the county’s history.
Fast forward to 2024. There’s been a boom in the construction of smaller apartments. Some renters are having an easier time finding places, though prices remain above pre-pandemic levels.
“A lot of the new buildings are offering one, two months free rent, maybe free pet rent and maybe free parking to get people into those units, but it's still a real struggle for people who need family-sized housing,” said Andra Ghent, professor of finance at the University of Utah.
Without a doubt, there’s a low supply of large rental units.
“If you're a family that needs a four-bedroom home, you're not seeing the same number of concessions, and the rents are high. You may have to look in multiple cities for something that meets your needs.”
Ghent said there are key reasons for the imbalance in what’s being built. The first is zoning.
“The vast majority of land in Salt Lake County, as well as every other county in the state, is zoned only for single-family housing. So, it's not zoned to allow a townhome that's 1,500-1,800 square feet that might be affordable to a family earning $70,000.”
Ghent said the Legislature is to blame too.
“It has not signaled that it wants to use its land use power to significantly increase the supply of housing. They talk about it, but in terms of the actual legislation, they've done very little at this front at this stage.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Pamela McCall: What else makes the rental landscape difficult here?
Andra Ghent: We have additional challenges in the state of Utah, because of our geography. It's hard to build a lot of supply near where the jobs are. Also, word is out that Utah is a pretty nice place to live, and that is not changing anytime soon.
PM: Once people do find a place, what are the rights of Utah renters?
AG: We don't have a lot of renters’ rights and evictions are a fairly simple process for landlords. The concern is longer term, that you reduce how many units come on the market for rent. If we become a jurisdiction that has a lot of tenants’ rights, then somebody who has a property that's mostly vacant, and they would consider renting it out, but then find out it's going to take six months to evict somebody who's a really bad tenant, then they just don't do it.
PM: What do you think the rental market will look like in the next few years?
AG: We’re the eighth highest housing cost state right now. I don't think that's changing. I think we are going to remain a high housing cost state, and we could even move up in how high housing costs are. There may be a temporary dip maybe in rents, especially in the studio [or] one-bedrooms, over the next couple [of] years. But long term, we're going to be an expensive housing market unless we see serious regulatory reform or some innovation in construction techniques.
