A new Sutherland Institute/Y2 Analytics survey shows the No. 1 issue for likely voters in Utah this election cycle is housing affordability.

Why are voters so worried about housing affordability? Sutherland’s Defending Ideas podcast recently featured local and national experts to help answer the question. Kem C. Gardner Institute’s senior research fellow, Dejan Eskic, gave eye-opening data on the state of the housing market in Utah.

“Affordable [housing] is considered about a 3x, meaning your house price is three times higher than your household income,” Eskic said. “Today, we’re north of six [times].”

Housing affordability is measured in many ways, but according to Eskic, one way is through the median multiple method, which divides median house price by household income. Eskic stressed that without a correction, this number is only expected to rise.

Why is housing so expensive in Utah?

Steve Waldrip, senior advisor to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, explained that there’s simply a lack of supply.

“Demand is there,” Waldrip said. “When you’re talking about a starter home being $300,000, it still hurts my head to think about that.”

The data shows that there is much more demand than there is supply.

According to a recent report by the Kem C. Gardner Institute, Utah has gained nearly half a million residents since 2015, making it the fastest growing state in that timeframe.

Since 2018, the median home sales price in the state has increased from $305,000 to $535,000.

How does Utah fix the supply problem? Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, said on Defending Ideas that he believes we need to remove what he calls the “vetocracy.”

He argues that city residents and neighbors hold a veto of sorts on permitting and zoning for new homes. Lincicome explained that this power is limiting the construction of new homes, thus preventing young families from being able to break into the housing market and get a more stable footing in Utah.

What is Utah doing to fix the problem?

Waldrip touted the Legislature’s work in the 2024 session, after they passed a bill to allow for new funding to go specifically toward the construction of starter homes on smaller property lots within Utah’s cities.

“Land costs are the biggest driver of our price increases, so we have to have smaller lots,” Waldrip said. “And the cities get what they want, which is [home] ownership.”

Waldrip also stressed the state’s efforts to better utilize public lands for home expansion and better tax revenue:

“We have parcels of land that are frankly providing no value right now. They’re sitting vacant. Can we use those parcels of land and create value by creating housing opportunities … for our working Utahns?”

To learn more about this issue, watch or listen to the Defending Ideas episode on housing with Beth Akers’ Defending Enterprise feature.