Affordability

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Utah’s housing supply is still facing several challenges with not too much hope in sight. Housing supply drives affordability, so like any commodity, when the supply is low, prices are high. Housing production in Utah has been declining for years, from 37,000 housing starts in 2021 to 19,000 in 2023. Estimates for 2024 are that we won’t beat 2023’s numbers.

Why why why is this happening?  Labor shortages: Builders say that labor shortages are a major factor in the lack of new homes. Damn, and after the hottest summer on record who is seeking out roofing jobs, exterior painting, window installs and the like? Land prices: High land prices like we’ve never seen before. Zoning laws: Municipal zoning, fees, and regulations. Home prices: Home prices in Utah are high and wages are not keeping up with housing costs. Housing affordability: Utah is trending as one of the least affordable states to buy a home.

In an attempt to increase the supply of “attainable” homes, the Utah legislature created new tools to encourage new home prices around $350,000 to $450,000. HB527 allows for the Transportation Investment Fund to create a three-year program to offer low-interest loans to developers building affordable housing developments in the state by allowing the State Treasurer to tap into $300 million from the state’s already existing funds. Sadly, that price range is rare along the Wasatch Front, and according to the Wasatch Front MLS there are only 1,290 homes listed for sale statewide under an offering price of $450,000, 139 in Salt Lake Co., 62 in Davis Co., and 75 in Utah Co.  Summit Co. has 8 homes offered under that price point, 6 in Wasatch Co., and there are 96 in Washington Co. in the St. George area.

This summer the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen unveiled several housing proposals this summer, including a $100 million fund to Community Development Financial Institutions to assist in helping finance new housing projects around the country, and a plan to reduce the costs of state and local housing finance agencies that would allow them to borrow federal money as the same rate as the federal government that will help more FHA loans. She called on the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks to devote 20% of their net income to housing programs around the country, to help with down payment assistance for buyers as well as getting loans to developers.

We’ve got about two months until the Presidential election. The two major candidates have vast ideas to help solve the U.S. housing crisis. Both believe state and local regulations are what causes prices to rise and each are touting fixes like offering federal tax credits of $25,000 for new homebuyers and getting millions of federal dollars out into communities that are struggling most with affordability. If you think affordable housing is an important issue, please VOTE this November. Register to vote at: www.secure.utah.gov/voterreg

 

 

High Rises

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September 11th, 2001 seems like a lifetime ago. That date, burned into many of our brains was when the twin towers fell in NYC and killed almost 3,000 people. At the time of the terrorist attack, the World Trade Center’s twin towers were the tallest buildings in NYC-1,369 and 1,362 feet tall, respectively.  They were later replaced by One World Trade Center at 1,776 feet tall which is the tallest building in the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere. Why mention this? Salt Lake City is undergoing a massive push by some to create even taller buildings in the capitol city, mostly touted as a necessary improvement to our zoning rules by the Smith Entertainment Group who are attempting to redesign and build in an integral part of downtown.

Currently the residential/business project known now as Astra Tower on the corner of State Street and 200 South is hovering over pedestrians at 450 feet and 40-stories tall,  but the Salt Lake City Council unanimously approved a zoning change last week that increases the maximum building height in the Smith Entertainment Group sports and entertainment district in and around the Delta Center from a current 125 feet to 600 feet. There was one caveat tho, “Any structure that is 200 feet or taller will need to go through a design review by the Planning and Zoning Commission”. It’s my opinion that our P and Z Commission is made up of pretty tough volunteer planners who have proven in the past to have foresight as to how our city should grow and I’m glad they will be involved in design review. As a planner myself for eight years with the city we worked for over a year, every month, with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to get the entire City Creek project off the ground, including not just the teardown of Crossroads Mall but the build of the retail mall on two sides of Main Street and the condo/apartment buildings surrounding it in their new project. There were a ton of variances required and rules changed to get certain aspects of the project to fruition.

You may have strong opinions about high rises filling up Salt Lake’s downtown. Depending on if you’re pro-development or anti-growth you probably had strong feelings about the Hines Group tearing down the historic Utah Theater at 150 South Main Street to build an apartment tower. Now the developer is putting a pause on the project and wants to fill in the gap on the street with a parking lot until they actually launch their project and bring in the construction crews. They got a sweet deal from the RDA-‘buying’ the property from Salt Lake City for zero bucks in exchange for building new housing with plans for public amenities in and around the building but have postponed plans now for two years with what they allege are the high costs of construction.

California Forever

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A lot of folks love California, with almost 40 million living in the state these days. Sure, I love the natural beauty of the beaches, the redwood forest, even the desert but I would not live there. One of my brothers lives in SOCAL and just to get around you have to reenact the old SNL sketch ‘The Californians’ where many convos’ begin with ‘Well, you’ve got to take the 105 to the 405 just to avoid the traffic to the …”. Traffic is hell in and around the big cities like San Diego, LA and San Francisco to name a few.  And let’s not even talk about property values and rental prices!

California Forever is not a tee shirt slogan of locals there. Instead it’s a private real estate development company that has purchased on the QT over 50,000 acres of agricultural land in Solano County for almost a trillion dollars. The company’s backers include venture capitalists and many Silicon Valley investors like the founder of LinkedIN, and founders or co-founders of companies like Sequoia Capital, Stripe, GitHub and Y Cominator. The site is about an hour on a good day drive northeast of San Francisco and is planned for a new development that would have a potential residential population of 400,000 residents over an area about two thirds the size of San Francisco. It would have a solar farm to feed electricity needs to the project, public parks, homes and commercial pads. Critics have claimed the initial designs (Mediterranean architecture, streetcars) were unrealistic and some compared the whole idea to the futuristic city of The Jetsons.  The land is right by Travis Air Force Base which has lit a fire from nearby residents and politicos who wonder about security issues with the project being so close to the base, water supplies to support the new city (much drought has been seen in the area) and lack of mass transit to get there.

Basically, the billionaires are buying out the farmers to build a utopian city, much like what folks thought Daybreak here was going to be once completed. The developers say it will offer walkable neighborhoods in a 78-square-mile site but much will have to go to the voters in the long run to make the area a reality as a new city with new housing opportunities. California has the same kind of housing shortage we face here in Utah. In 2023 housing affordability in California reached a 16-year low, with only about 16% of homebuyers able to purchase a median-priced single-family home, as per data from the California Association of Realtors. As of 2022, the population of Daybreak, Utah was estimated to be just under 44,000 people. When that project was announced there were plenty of naysayers, but it’s proven to be what homeowners wanted and Daybreak is a raving success, with more of it planned in future expansion.

J-Town

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Unless you’re a Native American, we’re all immigrants to this state. We were discovered by trappers and explorers, some of whom stuck around, followed by the great Mormon trek of folks who sought a place to live and practice their religion. Once the white colonizers from Britian and Scandinavia took over the land industry began popping up, including gold, silver and copper mines followed by the railroads in the late 1800’s. The blue collar labor jobs of digging ore, working in mills or laying tracks fell to immigrants from China, Japan, Greece, Korea, Crete, Croatia and Serbia. Labor agents in foreign countries worked with local business leaders to bring in thousands of workers to Utah.

By 1910 there were over 2,000 Japanese living in and around 100 South, between 200 West and 300 West. The Issei (first generation) of immigrants who moved here were both skilled and non-skilled laborers, mostly men who later brought wives to the capitol city once they decided to make Utah their permanent homes. Soon after their arrival they built a Japanese school, the Japanese Church of Christ and the Salt Lake City Buddhist Temple, a studio for Obon dance and kendo lessons, markets and noodle shops in what became known as Japantown or Japantown Street.

By the time WWII began and after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, 11,000 Japanese-American citizens were relocated form San Francisco and the West to the infamous internment camp at Topaz, outside of Delta, Utah. This ended up tripling the number of Japanese citizens in our state of which many stayed here, since their homes and businesses had been confiscated and sold off by the U.S. government during the war. Japantown was a wonderful gathering place for social and religious events as well as a source for Asian-centric foods.  Over the years people moved away from downtown and spread out into the community, and when plans were announced to build the Salt Palace in 1969 Japantown was mostly gone except for the two churches on the block.

In 2007 the SLC City Council approved an honorary name change for the street, declaring it officially “Japantown Street”. I was a volunteer member of the Planning and Zoning Commission and fought to keep at least some of the area preserved despite the Salt Palace expansion. We got a small victory with a lovely Japanese garden on the north side of 100 South, and the two churches are still intact.

Now big money is hovering over Japantown, Abravanel Hall, the Delta Center and the Salt Palace to re-imagine and create a sports and entertainment district in the area. The last remnants of this vibrant community and history could be in jeopardy of disappearing, to go by the wayside like ‘Greektown’, which only has a TRAX station named after it left for the world to know another ethic group lived side by side Japantown, downtown.

Traveltime

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Summertime and traveltime go hand in hand. The weather warms up and folks want to get out and explore, and since the Pandemic stopped so many travel plans, Americans have been on the web booking travel plans to near and far off places. Many of those destinations require passports, and lucky Utah is going to get one of six new passport agencies opening in the country. It appears that more of us are traveling abroad today than at any time in our history. In 1990, only 5% of us had a passport but in 2023 the Department of State issued over 24 million passport books and passport cards-more than ever before.

The world’s first standardized passport was issued in 1920 following an agreement among the Leaue of Nations to begin standardizing passports. Governments met in France and agreed to the design, layout and size of the document for 42 nations. Back then the booklet showed not just the face and home address of the traveler, but also their occupation and had a place for a photo of the spouse and photos of the children because back then the protocol for a passport was based on the idea that the passport owner was a married man traveling at times with their family.  The booklet was dubbed ‘Old Blue’ due to its color, but then in 1988 it changed to a burgundy color.

Nowadays you can walk into a FedEx office and use ‘RushMyPassport’ for expedited travel passports, rushed renewals and expedited travel visa services. You can go online at fedex.com to start your application, and it’s about $15 to get the two required passport photos taken there. You can then print all your documents and with the photos send them via FedEx to RushMyPassport. What’s different about this news is that we’re going to actually get a walk-in center for folks seeking last minute passports /travel documents which is direct connection to the government’s Department of State. It will certainly save a lot of time and heartache for future travelers. You might remember back during the Pandemic that folks were waiting up to six months to get their passports and visas because offices were closed around the country. I had to renew mine this year and it took about 30 days to get the booklet and card back.

It’s $160 if you want a new passport and passport card. The card, which looks a bit like your driver’s license can be used when crossing borders to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and Caribbean countries but is not valid for international travel by air. The Card along is only $30, and the passport without the card is $130. It’s $100 for a child’s passport book and $15 for the card. If you want to rush the application add $60 for expedited service and another $20 to get it back in 1-2 days once the passport is completed.

Buying New Construction

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The National Assn. of Home Builders have chimed in about what home buyers really seem to want these days. In their most recent national survey of builders involved in erecting homes, not condos, the data showed that smaller home construction is the norm (less square feet) became obvious in 2023 and is continuing this year in an effort to make the buying process more palatable. We all know that as mortgage rates creep up, more buyers fall out of dreaming of purchasing a home!

I’ve recently sold new construction at Daybreak and at a townhome project for Garbett Homes and know first hand how much buyers want to be able to choose how their homes look inside, including things from doorknob finishes to larger steam showers in the primary bedroom suite. Builders will usually have a base price with standard features, and anything different that varies from these designs will cost for each and every upgrade requested. The design centers for our major builders in Utah are astounding and offer displays of flooring, counters, lighting, carpeting, LV flooring types, appliances, paint colors and fixtures. Once a buyer gets a new construction contract signed with a builder, they will then go to the design center to pick out all their options. Many are free (paint colors for example), and many more can be upgrades.

What have builders learned about buyers’ needs these days and what they want in their new homes? Here’s just a few that I wrote down on my last visit to one of these design centers:  added storage shelving in garages, Energy Star appliances/HVAC, solar panels and battery storage, electric vehicle charging stations in the garages, programmable thermostats, video doorbells and energy management systems for the home that can all be controlled on the owners cell phones, outdoor fireplaces and outdoor kitchens, built-in security cameras, two head steam showers and a laundry room near the primary bedroom.  Most new construction new homes don’t offer in the initial asking price a finished basement, but there are great options offered at a price (of course) for a permanent movie theater with stadium seating and built-in screen and surround sound and/or a smaller electronic gaming room.

Buyers want to personalize their new home from the get go which isn’t always possible on used inventory, unless you run into an investor/owner who will work with you on updating an older home for sale. Know that when you do purchase brand new construction and want upgrades over the standard features, you will have to have cash up front to pay for at least 25% of the cost of those new features. That’s in addition to the required earnest money (each builder is different). Now is a great time to look at building a new home, as developers are offering many financial incentives such as paying for buyers mortgage closing costs or throwing in extra features like partially finishing a basement.

Creative Wards

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I went to a friend’s new office at 95 South State Street-you know, the all-glass 25 story building that sits on the corner of 100 South and State, just west of Harmons. It’s a beautiful building inside but what really impressed me is the fact there is a four story meeting house for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the base of the tower. Frankly, upon learning this, I did a palm-to-forehead slap and said to myself, ‘Brilliant!’.  You can tell when walking or driving by that building that the first four floors look much different than the glass tower sprouting up from the new Wards inside.  Look closer and you’ll see a church steeple not on top of the glass tower but coming up from the street in between the building (heading north on State Street) and the canopy covering the tunnel entrance under State Street on historic Social Hall Avenue. The original Social Hall for gatherings was there and used until 1922.

Many forward-thinking developers like to see a variety of uses in a project and many cities require joint-use spaces in their zoning rules and regulations. For example, it’s common to have retail on the main street level of high rises to cater to pedestrian traffic such as restaurants, bars, convenience stores, boutiques, etc. This building currently hosts six congregations (Wards) for their weekly worship meetings, one of them for Young Single Adults and another one for Spanish-speaking members. There are two chapels which can host two congregations at the same time as well. This meeting house was built to accommodate all the saints who are renting downtown in the new apartment buildings that have gone up recently and to promote a walkable community.  If you’re familiar with downtown Salt Lake City think for a minute…where are the Wards and Stakes? There are very few of these buildings for worshippers in the heart of the city, so it only makes sense to have a mixed use for business and worshippers in the same space. During nice weather there’s a roof terrace for office tenants during the day and for Church groups at night and on the weekends, a Sunday School room and a place for the Relief Society to meet.

This isn’t unique for the Church itself to capitalize on mixed-use.  Due to high rents, they have created joint-use spaces in Viginia, Alexandria, Brussels, London, and New York. The office towers provide revenue for the meeting houses. The Church has stated that tithes were not used to construct the office tower and was developed via City Creek Reserve, the real estate arm of the Church. FYI, the Manhattan location at 125 Columbus Avenue is under renovation and members will be sharing space in the beautiful and historic West End Collegiate Church on the corner of West End Avenue and 77th Street for the next few years.

 

The Creepies

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I recently had a new client to the area wonder about sex offenders that were located in a neighborhood where she wanted to purchase a new home. Her concerns were especially strong as she has two very young children and wants a safe neighborhood to live in upon closing escrow. She Googled a particular address and found there were over 30 offenders living within a few miles of the home. No surprise to me as I get this question a lot, and frankly I was surprised there weren’t more noted on the site she was using. There are a tons of websites that may lead you to the information but the best one of all in Utah is the Utah Department of Corrections which uses OffenderWatch®, the nation’s leading registered sex offender management and community notification tool. It’s updated instantaneously throughout the day with offender addresses and other information. All you do is enter an address in the State of Utah and you will see real-time info on the publishable offenders within a specific radium of the address you enter.

For example, I entered a random address of 125 So. State Street, which is where the Federal building is located downtown. The site found 12 offenders in 10 locations. I clicked on the numbered dots on the map and instantly find a photo, name, age, height and weight, eye and hair color and address of the offender. As examples, one lives on 2nd Avenue and was found guilty of ‘lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor under 16’, convicted in 1998. Another, living in Farmington but showing up on the downtown map was found guilty of sexual abuse of a child in 2008 and was released in 2013. When I changed the address to Westminster University on 1300 East and 1700 South, 10 offenders came up. Seven offenders were listed within a mile surrounding BYU’s Provo campus, 4 within a mile of Utah State University in Logan, and 3 within a mile of Utah Tech University in St. George.

A convicted sex offender can remain on the list for a long, long time. If a person is convicted of a sex crime and was required to registered as a sex offender, then granted a pardon by the Board of Pardons, they qualify for removal from the state registry.  They can be on the registry for 10 years or for life depending on the seriousness of the crime. Hell, getting caught pissing in public can land you on the site as a sex offender!  Offenders also cannot live near daycares, preschools, public pools, public or private schools, parks, or playgrounds.

Want to know where the creepies live in your hood? Start with the Utah Department of Corrections website for the most up to date information and you can even register for email alerts if one moves nearby.

 

Fences and Potholes

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In the past six weeks I’ve had three flat tires from driving around downtown. Each time my hero ‘Joey’ at Burt Brothers tires has pulled out a long sheet rock screw out of my tire. This maddening fact is due to the massive amount of construction downtown, and between the awful potholes and the detritus on the streets from all the construction going on in Salt Lake City I might want to tell you all to AVOID the area!

Yes, the Temple is under construction and the east and west sides of the block are ingress and egress for supply trucks, cranes and a myriad of workers. The previous visitors’ centers been torn down and the area where the North Visitors Center was located is going to be turned into a reflective garden and the South Visitors Center on Temple Square is becoming an all new above-and below-ground facility for new guest experiences. Go east a block and you’ll see that the Lion House is fenced off as it is now having some upgrades to address structural deficiencies, preserve aging finishes, and replacement of outdated mechanical systems. It’s been closed since 2020 and the Beehive House will close April 8. The Joseph Smith Memorial Building is also undergoing similar work and all three buildings will re-open in 2025. The Church Office Building Plaza and neighboring Main Street Plaza are also being fluffed up. The Beehive House (yup, there’s a beehive sculpture on the top of the building) was built in 1854 as Brigham Young’s primary residence until his death in 1877. The same year the Beehive House was finished, Young began construction on another home next door where he installed a 1,200-pound stone sculpture of a lion (thus the name).

As for driving, here’s the streets going under the bulldozer this summer: 300 North (300 West to 1000 West), 2100 South Reconstruction (700 East to 1300 East), Virginia Street Reconstruction (South Temple to 11th Avenue), West Temple Reconstruction (North Temple to 400 South), 1300 East (2100 South to 3300 South). Most of the streets need ADA ramps, better bike lanes, new curbs, gutters and sidewalks. I’m not sure how the City will update Virginia Street as it’s pretty narrow, but the plan is to have a continuous sidewalk on the west side, uphill bike lanes to, traffic calming elements and improved bus stops.

Finally, remember it’s Spring in Utah!  That means you can golf or bike to the Great Salt Lake one day in sunny weather or the next day it will snow and you’ll be heading to the slopes. Spring brings out the WORST potholes throughout our town and we will all be cursing what they do to our cars and bikes until they are filled. The City likes to spend about three weeks each spring having a ‘Potlhole Palooza’ to put extra focus toward repairing these street holes.

Wanna Run Away?

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I have a lot of friends who say, “If Trump gets elected again, I’m moving to Canada and buying a home there!”  Um, sorry kids, but unless you’re a Canadian citizen, you cannot purchase residential property as of January 2023.

Well, so how does one become a Canadian?  Marriage to a Canadian citizen does not give you citizenship.  You must first apply for and get permanent resident status.  Then you must apply for Canadian citizenship and meet the same requirements as any other person seeking Canadian citizenship. To become a citizen, you must: be a permanent resident, have lived in Canada for 3 out of the last 5 years, have filed taxes in Canada, prove your language skills, pass a citizenship text and then take the oath of citizenship. If you committed a crime in our outside of Canada, been in prison or on parole or probation you may not be eligible to become a citizen for a period of time, either!  How is that different than becoming a U.S. citizen? Generally, people born here are considered U.S. citizens but there are similar steps for a foreigner to become a citizen here in this country.

Utah has a major housing problem with low inventory and very little affordable inventory. Canada has the same problems, so much so that the initial ban on foreigners buying property in Canada was extended for two years until January 2027. Their Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance stated this past February, “For years, foreign money has been coming into Canada to buy up residential real estate, increasing housing affordability concerns in cities across the county, and particularly in major urban areas. By extending the foreign buyer ban, we will ensure houses are used as homes for Canadian families to live in and do not become a speculative financial asset class. The government is intent on using all possible tools to make housing more affordable for Canadians across the country.”

Canadian legislators have poured over $14 billion through an Affordable Housing Fund to build 60,000 new affordable homes and repair 240,000 homes. They’ve allocated $4 billion though a Rapid Housing Initiative that’s expected to help build more than 15,500 affordable homes for people experiencing homelessness or in severe housing needs, and another $200 million to build 4,500 new homes by repurposing surplus federal lands and buildings. The Canuck’s have also come up with a brilliant Tax-Free First Home Savings account that allows residents to contribute up to $8,000 per year (up to $40,000) for their first down payment.

Utah legislators have, in my opinion, NOT offered many solutions for our state-wide housing crisis. Giving $20,000 to first time buyers to use as a down payment and or closing costs ONLY benefits developers of new construction housing. For anyone wanting to live in our major cities, there is little new construction other than high rise apartments for rent.