housing prices

The old adage in real estate is “location, location, location.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t any different when it comes to choosing temple sites.

“I just don't buy anything that's not something that I need to breathe, live and survive,” said one St. George resident about affording her apartment. Rents in this part of southwest Utah have doubled in the past decade.

In Washington County, projects like townhome developments are less common than they were two years ago. In 2023, two out of every five new homes built in Washington County were condos and townhomes. Now, it’s just one in five.

La oferta de viviendas ha aumentado y los compradores han disminuido. En tiempos normales, esa combinación haría que los precios de las viviendas bajaran. Pero no en Utah.

Housing supply is up and buyers are down. In a normal environment, that recipe would make home prices drop. But not in Utah.

According to the National Home Builders Association, tariffs could push the price of constructing a new single family home up as much as $10,000.

The average number of monthly short-term rental listings in Utah, offered through sites like Airbnb and Vrbo, grew by 39.4% from 2021 to 2023.

For gateway and resort communities it’s a tale as old as time: High costs of living make it hard to attract the labor that keeps the wheels turning.

Utah has the eighth-highest cost of rent in the nation, said University of Utah’s Andra Ghent. For years, supply has been low and demand high. Here’s the state of the rental market in Utah today.

Back when they rented, first-time homebuyer Erin Hardy and her husband estimate that a third of their income was spent on housing. She said their mortgage is almost double what they were paying in rent.

In a hot housing market, the settlement could pave the way for Utahns to pay slightly less for a home.

The Utah Legislature has the ability to overhaul zoning laws to pave the way for more affordable starter homes.