Ghosts and goblins have a better chance of finding affordable housing than young couples in Utah. Today, when developers in Utah claim to build “affordable housing”, they are now talking about two-bedroom townhomes that can sell for around $400,000. So homeless advocates had to come up with a new term: “deeply-affordable housing”, which is housing for around $200,000- … [Read more...]
City of Centerfield Responds to NIMBYISM Claim Against Affordable Housing
Gunnison, Utah is home to a bustling sprawling Utah State correctional facility. In 2017 the prison expanded to add more jobs and more inmates. The area is also home to a log-cabin builder, and thousands of acres of farmland. The city is expected to dramatically grow in the next decade. But there is just one problem: A shortage of affordable housing. In our previous story, … [Read more...]
Despite Utah’s Affordable Housing Crisis, the City of Centerfield Places Moratorium on an Affordable Housing Project
Utah has an “affordable-housing crisis” – There is virtually no affordable housing supply along the Wasatch Front. So why would a moratorium be placed on one project that could have provided it? Utah Stories investigates. Centerfield, Utah—In this part of Utah, green farms of wheat and alfalfa fields grow over rolling hills and planes as far as the eye can see. … [Read more...]
Why “Deeply Affordable” Housing Is Not Being Built in Utah and it Won’t be Built Anytime Soon
Utah’s last state legislative session allocated just $70 million toward deeply affordable housing, despite the state coffers containing a $2 billion state surplus. The affordable housing crisis is likely the most important problem younger and low-income Utahns are facing because today a growing percentage of low-income residents are priced out of the housing and rental market … [Read more...]
Moab Workers Build Their Own Homes to Overcome Housing Shortage
In the under-construction Arroyo Crossing subdivision just south of Moab, dozens of people bustle in and out of 17 houses in various phases of construction. Some are just framed skeletons, others have sheathing and metal roofing, some have straw bale walls. Some of the people are residents-to-be working on their own and their neighbors’ homes through sweat-equity programs … [Read more...]
Blood, Sweat and Equity — Affordable Housing in Moab
Visitors come from all corners of the Earth to marvel at the majesty of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, along with the other scenic parks and public lands that surround it. As a result of that popularity, property and housing costs are on a constant rise in Moab. A lack of affordable housing isn’t just an issue in Moab, but seems to be a trend across the country, … [Read more...]
Moab’s Affordable Housing—Is There Hope?
Moab & Housing One might deduce that there is an affordable housing crisis when stories are circulated of working adults living with their parents, camped out on public lands and in the yards of friends and co-workers; house-sharing; and business owners housing workers in Airstreams and single-wide trailers. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development states … [Read more...]
Moab—500 Tourists for Every Resident
Moab's Tourists Moab, UT—Back in February, Moab’s City Council imposed a moratorium on new construction of overnight rentals. Despite room rates fetching upwards of $300 per night, the town that is home to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks wants to attempt to put the brakes on the growth they have experienced hosting nearly 3 million tourists in the town of around 5,500 … [Read more...]
The Good, The Bad, and The Pricey
The real estate market in the Beehive State is buzzing. Apartments are sprouting up across the valley; housing sales are steady despite rising prices; so-called mother-in-law apartments are now legal and being built on developed lots; the population of the region continues to grow thanks to a steady birth rate and an influx of young professionals following the burgeoning job … [Read more...]
Utah’s Unaffordable Housing
Welcome to Utah Housing Utah’s real estate market has softened. Average house prices aren’t increasing in urban areas. Bidding wars are decreasing; the amount of time homes are on the market is increasing; and by all measures, our real estate market is still booming. Vineyard, in Utah County, is the city with the most growth. In the past four years, the population has seen … [Read more...]