The housing market is rough for many Utahns. Especially those trying to enter the homebuyers’ market for the first time.
Hardy and Liz Farnsworth have been married for a decade, have two kids, own a business and desperately wanted to cross homeownership off their American Dream checklist.
“We've been looking at houses and house prices for eight years, trying to make a plan to be able to buy a home,” Hardy said. “But it seemed very much out of reach for a long time.”
Their professional lives are in and around Salt Lake City, but they were having a hard time finding something that met their requirements for a growing family that was priced within their budget and located close by. After their second kid arrived last year, renting became less attractive. So they decided to buy into a brand-new townhome development — 30 miles north in Layton.
The family just moved in, and it’s a bit of a ghost town at the moment. The development on the west side of I-15 is so new that the soon-to-be central green space is currently a giant mound of dirt. A row of townhomes on the other side of the development is still missing windows, doors and siding.
But they now have a home of their own, and with a great view of the Wasatch Mountains. Liz pointed out that their homebuying journey to get there was anything but smooth sailing.
“We moved in with Hardy's parents almost four years ago,” she said. “Naively — me personally, naively — thinking that we could just save a bunch of money and move out quickly and buy a house, but you know, coming to realize how expensive things are.”
The housing market they started saving for eight years ago is not the one they face now. According to Zillow, the average home price in Utah is currently over $541,000. That’s close to a 50% increase from just six years ago. Interest rates have jumped too. A 3% mortgage in 2020 is now at almost 6.5%. That means you can’t get as much for your money as you used to.
Even four years ago, when the couple initially looked, it seemed like a starter home didn’t exist for less than $400,000. And then there was their life and work in Salt Lake City. It didn’t feel realistic then to consider options to the north in Davis County or to the west in Tooele County.
That was a hard pill to swallow at the time.
“That dream kind of dwindled away, and we just thought we'd be OK renting for a while,” Liz said. “It didn't seem like [owning a home] was even a possibility for us at all in the near future. But luckily, we were able to figure it out.”
After honest conversations and letting go of a few expectations, the Farnsworths realized a home near Salt Lake City wasn’t in the cards.
A quick search on Zillow shows most townhomes in Salt Lake County go for around $500,000. In Davis County, the options are closer to $400,000. Even if it meant a longer commute to work, they still saved by buying in Layton — which was about as far north as they were willing to go.
Liz said her one-way commute to work is around 35 minutes. That tracks with statewide data from the Wasatch Front Regional Council and the Utah Department of Workforce Services. According to those sources, over 65,000 other Davis County commuters join the Farnsworths motoring back and forth to Salt Lake County each day, with an average commute of 32.5 miles each way.
While the cash saved by buying further north means more money in their pockets, Hardy said life in Layton still comes with tradeoffs.
“It worked out, and we found a good place,” he said. “But we did wish it could have been a little closer to the rest of where our lives are at.”
The move was made sweeter, though, by something their real estate agent let them know about.
“She was like, ‘You guys can get the first-time homebuyer grant. It's $20,000 that the state of Utah gives you,’” Liz said.
Created in 2023, the Utah First Time Homebuyer Program allows people like the Farnsworths to access financial assistance for a down payment or closing costs. The Utah Housing Corporation says over 3,500 households have taken advantage of it so far, and $80 million has been appropriated by the Legislature to accomplish that.
If that doesn’t feel like many Utahns, it’s because there are caveats.
Chiefly, the home needs to be newly constructed and priced under $450,000. While the program has helped some families get into their first homes, it has been criticized as a narrow fit in the market because of those restrictions. Earlier this year, Democratic Rep. Verona Mauga and Forward Party Sen. Emily Buss sponsored a bill to expand the program to include older homes. That bit did not make it out of a House committee.
While a brand-new townhouse wasn’t what the Farnsworths originally envisioned as their first home, Liz said it does have its upsides, like everything being under warranty for the first year. After weighing their options, she thinks leaving Salt Lake for Davis County was the right call for their family — at least for now.
“That feels really good as a first-time homebuyer,” she said. “They insure the outside of our house, which is also really nice. It feels really comfortable and safe, which is nice. Like everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”
Editor’s Note: This summer, KUER is asking Utahns how they got the house. One way to get into a Salt Lake City home? How about buying a fixer-upper?
