Utahns agree housing is a problem. What they don't agree on is why, new survey finds
More than two-thirds of Utahns believe the state is dealing with serious or even crisis-level housing issues, according to a new survey from Envision Utah.
But they're not so sure why.
'They're kind of all over the map,' said Ari Bruening, Envision Utah's president and CEO. 'No. 1, there's just a lot of confusion. Why is (housing) so expensive? People just don't really know and they point to a wide variety of causes.'
The nonprofit, focused on growth-related issues, surveyed 601 Utah adults along the Wasatch Front, the Wasatch Back and in southwest Utah last September, asking them to rate the significance of more than a dozen potential causes of the state's housing problem.
More than half of respondents assigned high levels of blame to rising interest rates (67%), construction costs (58%), developer or landlord greed (57%), or too many people moving to Utah (53%).
But only 35% did the same for what's seen as a root cause for Utah's housing crisis, simply not having enough housing available.
The survey found only a slight majority agree that Utah needs 'to build more homes and increase the overall number and availability of homes and apartments in the state,' while 21% disagreed and 26% had no opinion either way.
Yet Utah's housing shortfall is expected to reach 153,000 homes and apartments by 2030. Gov. Spencer Cox, in his recent State of the State address, once again called for building 35,000 single-family starter homes priced under $400,000 over the next few years.
And a statewide initiative urging Utahns to 'Demand more supply,' that includes TV commercials featuring children was recently launched by another nonprofit, Utah Workforce Housing Advocacy.
'To ensure that the American Dream stays alive and well in Utah, we must add housing supply to the market,' said Steve Waldrip, the governor's senior advisor for housing strategy and a member of the advocacy's executive committee.
'That's why our campaign is focused on raising awareness of the core problem of high home prices — not enough supply,' Waldrip said.
For Bruening, it's pretty simple.
The housing shortage means builders can choose 'to build whatever they want, so they're going to build something that has the greatest return,' he said. 'If the market were functioning better, they'd have to build something more in line with what people can afford.'
'I would love to see more people just understand that basic lack of supply issue,' Bruening said. 'If we can get our supply to match our demand better, prices should come down across the board.'
The survey showed 34% of Utahns living in non-rural areas believe the state is 'in a major housing crisis,' while 35% say Utah is 'facing serious housing challenges, but it's not a crisis."
Another third are less concerned, with 15% acknowledging there are housing challenges in Utah but with limited impacts, and 11% saying the state's housing situation is fine and 4%, great.
However, the need to address supply and demand became more obvious to the 36 Utahns who participated in a week-long online focus group held in October by Envision Utah to better understand how Utahns perceive housing.
Among the focus group participants, the number who said they were 'extremely concerned' about housing doubled, as did the number who saw it as 'extremely important' to address housing challenges.
Bruening said the extra attention helped clarify the problem.
'The more they thought about it, the kind of simple supply and demand dynamics became clearer to them. We just need more homes,' he said. 'I think it just took the time of thinking about it.'
The biggest surprise in the survey for Bruening was the ranking ensuring low-income Utahns can afford to live in neighborhoods with good schools and economic opportunity as the most important housing goal for Utah.
That was chosen as one of the top three housing goals by 49% of survey respondents, followed by providing affordable homes to the very poor and homeless, then to seniors, those with disabilities and veterans.
Having affordable starter homes for young families was a top three pick by just 32%, and having enough to ensure that future generation of Utahns don't move out of state was ranked that high by 27%.
'I thought that people would say starter options for young people. Instead, they said low income families,' Bruening said, calling that encouraging. 'I think here's a little narrative out there that people want to keep low income people out of their neighborhoods.'
While public officials often emphasize the need for young people starting out to have the opportunity to buy a home, he said the survey results suggests the public is more behind affordable housing, including rental units, for low income Utahns.
'I don't know that people are saying, 'I don't care about young families.' But it does suggest that they care even more about low income people,' Bruening said. 'Maybe that's a messaging piece policymakers and others ought to pick up on.'
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