First Timers

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With home mortgage rates hovering at or close to 8%, more and more buyers are finding it harder and harder to either qualify for a mortgage payment or find a livable property in their price range. I recently began working with a couple, first time buyers who could qualify for a home @$500,000. They didn’t have too big of a wish list: good sized yard for their two big dogs, three bedrooms, two baths, and a mother-in-law apartment downstairs with a separate entrance. And, most important, they want to live close to the University of Utah. A home, not a condo was the request, as buying a condo in that price range would most likely have an additional HOA fee of $300 or so per month for that Association’s water/sewer, exterior maintenance, insurance and any amenities like a pool, tennis courts, gym, etc.   Guess what?

Nada. BIG FAT NADA.

One of our immediate issues was that one of the two was quite tall. Older homes often do not have very large bedrooms and so a bed that might fit the two of them would take up most of a main bedroom and leave little or no space for side tables or chest(s) of drawers.  Plus, often living space in the basement would generally be very cramped for a tall person as ceiling height is often low and thus I had to educate them about this important factoid and then take them to homes built in the 1950’s and later to show them the difference. We found that anything close to the U, say within 20 blocks or so was in pretty crappy condition. My clients admitted they have no skills in rehabilitating a property and after learning that I took them to Rose Park where we saw a number of ‘flips’ /homes that have been remodeled in their price range. We saw some cute ones but there were no homes with separate entrances to have a downstairs apartment. They want this so they can have an income stream/renters to help with the mortgage payment.

The reality is that homes with a secondary apartment are about as hot as the hinges on the gates of hell because so many people now NEED rental income to help make the primary mortgage payment AND families are also looking to live together by having seniors or students of the family share spaces with parents or siblings. Housing is expensive! Back when rates were 2.5% for a 30 year mortgage, a payment with 5% down on a $500K home would have been $2,466 and at 8% would be $4,075 per month. We don’t expect interest rates to be coming down anytime soon, or housing prices to head downward. We’ll keep looking for that needle in a haystack but sadly we’ll most likely be battling other first time buyers in multiple offer battles.

GROWING, GROWING, GROWING

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We are the most popular state these days with many of our cities experiencing amazing growth.  Southern Utah is especially exploding with big and small businesses alike moving there.  If you haven’t heard there’s a mega-resort called Black Desert Resort, pay attention. This luxury golf, dining and hotel /condo project sits on 630 acres in Ivins, about 8 miles northwest of St. George and will be the biggest resort in the state upon completion. The focal point, the Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course is already open amidst the lava and red rocks. The hotel is going to open this fall followed by ongoing construction of a total of 3,330 living spaces, 75-single family homes and hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial and restaurant spaces. Check out the 7,200 course and book tee times now at www.blackdesertresort.com.

And although it’s been an unusually active summer of road repair hell, the repaving and work on 300 West between 900 and 2100 South is finally done with new tar, bike path, crosswalks and sidewalks. The road hadn’t been updated for 70 years except for filling winter potholes and was SLC’s largest construction project in history.  There are about 25 projects of UDOT just in the Salt Lake Valley currently under construction, from work at State Street from 3000-6400 South to Big Cottonwood Canyon, along Redwood Road, and I-80 in Sugar House. Hundreds of tons of asphalt and concrete have been poured and laid and there’s still plenty of work to be done. Downtown Salt Lake City is working on a voter-approved Funding Our Future street reconstruction bond on 200 South, has just finished lower 9th and 9th and is now full swing on upper 9th and 9th. The annual street fair there last weekend had to move to Liberty Park for the Saturday event due to massive construction.  Highland Drive in Sugar House is also under the bulldozers and all of this construction fits in with the City’s plan to resurface 150 lane miles of Salt Lake City roadway.

Also in the capitol city you’ll see more than two dozen mid and high rises currently under construction with folks now enjoying the recently opened Hyatt Regency on the south end of the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center. You’ll see if when you go to FANX this week. The last guard tower at Utah’s old prison was demolished three weeks ago at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley which means after the past nine months the demolition of the old prison is almost complete. A mixed-use development of 600 acres (state-owned land) called ‘The Point’ will start construction in 2025 after final scrape and prep work is done to the land. The longtime chapel that served the inmates over the years is going to stay as part of the history of the site.

Urban Accolades

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Utah continues to get accolades from around the country. U.S. News and World Report found our state the best state in the nation overall for 2023, for things like fiscal stability, tourism, education and health care, our natural environment, infrastructure, and low crime. Washington State took second place, whereas Hawaii got #1 for health care and natural environment, New Hampshire #1 for opportunity and crime and corrections, Minnesota #1 for infrastructure and Florida (believe it or not) #1 for education. Utah has also been ranked number one for business several times during the past decade according to Forbes and recently BusinessWire reported that Amazon found Utah to be the most entrepreneurial in the country.

In July, checkr (a background check company) found that Provo is the biggest boomtown, the fastest growing city in the U.S. Their metrics describe a city that experiences rapid economic growth and development in a short period of time. Factors include not just population growth, but unemployment rate (Utah’s rate is that @ 97% of our population is currently employed), housing growth, high-earning residents making more than $100,000 and the poverty rate. Of the 10 fastest growing cities, Utah had 4 of the 10-Provo, St. George, Logan, Ogden. Our neighbors in Boise City and Couer d’Alene Idaho took #2 and #3, Bend, Oregon was #4 and Reno, Nevada took the 10th spot.

No matter how you feel about living in Utah, we’re doing really well for a majority of our citizens. We actually have a surplus in our state coffers which very few states can claim. On the flip side of the good news, no town in Utah made the ‘Slowest Growing Cities’ list. The closest slow growth town near Utah is Casper, Wyoming, which made #22 on the bad list.

With growth comes issues that are challenges for our population and our politicians. Poor air quality, high energy consumption, traffic, congestion, increased levels of inequality and homelessness are results of uncontrolled growth. As we speed up growth and urbanization we need to ensure that we have adequate planning for our futures in the state. Having served as a volunteer Planning and Zoning Commissioner for 8 years in Salt Lake City and now as a member of the Historic Landmarks Commission I can highly recommend serving to help your city. It’s not only fascinating to learn about what folks want to build, develop, tear down or improve, but really fulfilling to be part of the process of urban planning. Each city has a way to be involved, by submitting a resume to serve on various commissions and committees. Often, they look for people who live in and represent certain areas of a city, and you don’t have to be a politician, have a college degree, be an architect or contractor to listen and eventually help make good decisions for all of us to build better cities and town.