Priced out: Growing numbers of Utahns struggle to find affordable housing

Many Utahns are trying to cope with rising apartment rents and stricter credit standards that have made buying a home much harder, according to local housing advocates.

For the most part, the slumping economy is the main culprit for why so many individuals and families are finding themselves in a delicate balancing act as they try to figure out how to get into a home or find a rental unit that doesn't bust their budget.

A glut of high-end, luxury houses is also contributing to the lack of affordable housing, because owners of the expensive homes are having difficulty selling them, slowing Utah's entire housing market, said Jason Eldredge, executive vice president of sales for NewReach, a Salt Lake-based real estate research firm.

Because fewer people are able to obtain the loans necessary to buy high-end homes, people who own less-expensive homes can't move up to the costlier ones and are staying in their current homes, he said. That means there are fewer less-expensive, affordable homes available for first-time homebuyers.

Robert Mork is a 24-year old single father who is hoping to become the first person in his immediate family to purchase a house. He said he began looking for a house in August, but then the economy started to falter and took the real estate market with it.

Utah's need for affordable housing continues to outpace availability, said Shelli Goble, deputy program director for the Olene Walker Housing Loan Trust Fund. The entity is part of the state's Housing and Community Development division.

According to the agency's 2008 annual report to the Utah Legislature, home prices have stabilized, but average prices still remain above reach for many families.

On Thursday, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. announced a plan in the state budget that would include $400 million in bond funding through the Utah Housing Corp. to buy mortgage-backed securities from Utah lenders.

According to agency president Bill Erickson, the proposal is an effort to help more qualified homebuyers get into affordable houses. However, the details of the proposed plan have yet to be ironed out and would take several months to implement, he said.

In October, the Salt Lake County Board of Realtors reported that the median price of homes sold in Salt Lake County was $228,450 — the highest among four Wasatch Front counties. Weber County, at $169,900, had the lowest median home-sales price among the group that also included Davis and Utah counties.

Housing gap