There aren’t many empty apartments in Salt Lake Valley these days. According to a report released earlier this month the vacancy rate is at 2.9%—which means more than 97% of apartments in Salt Lake County are occupied.
That makes for a tough housing search for people like Sterling Rodgers.
Rodgers is a student at LDS Business College and moved to Salt Lake from his hometown in Arizona over a month ago. But it wasn't until last Friday that he was able to unpack his suitcases somewhere permanent.
"I just thought I didn't know where to look or just wasn't having good luck," Rodgers says.
When he first arrived, Rodgers began doing the typical online searches—Google, Craigslist, Facebook—but nothing in his price range was showing up.
Finally, two weeks ago, he got a message. Some guys were looking for a 5th roommate to share a two bedroom apartment. Tight quarters, but Rodgers says he’s up for it.
"If I don’t like my roommates, I’ll just spend more time at school," Rodgers laughs.
Along with that vacancy rate of about 3%, overall apartment rent prices have increased nearly 5% since this time last year. And all this despite new units constantly being built throughout the county
James Wood is a senior fellow at the University of Utah’s Kem C Gardner Policy Institute and the author of the recent apartment report. He says he’s surprised by what he found.
“I expected this year because we’ve had so much new construction in the last three or four years that we’d see a larger increase in the vacancy rate but it barely budged," Wood says.
Because of this, Wood adds, people hoping to move to Salt Lake are forced to make some tough trade offs. That could mean less square footage, higher rent or an less desirable location than expected.
Because fewer vacancies means fewer choices, for everyone.
