Governor says efforts to reduce Utah's housing prices aren't working

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's governor says the steps taken to reduce housing prices in the state are not working.

As KSL reported, Salt Lake County recently hit a record-high median sales price of $645,000 for a single-family home, despite high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty.

It's also notwithstanding the state passing numerous bills over the last few years – and announcing multiple new initiatives – aimed at trying to move the needle on prices.

Asked on Thursday during his monthly news conference whether persistently high prices mean Utah's efforts have been fruitful, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said they have not.

"Yeah, it totally indicates that, yeah, that we have not been as successful as we need to be," Cox said. "It means that demand is still outpacing supply. It means we need more supply and we're actively working on it."

Starter home goal

The governor set a goal in 2023 of building 35,000 starter homes by the end of his second term in 2028. But progress on that is slow. According to the latest numbers, just over 7,400 of those homes have hit the market.

The governor acknowledged this, saying that politicians usually set a goal they know they'll meet anyway. But that's not what he did here.

"I had advisors say, 'don't put that number out there because it's going to be really, really hard to hit,'" Cox said. "We put it out there anyway because…that's what a goal should be. I mean, that's what I'm trying to do. I might fail."

Cox said he doesn't get to "control all of the levers " in the housing market, but his goal is to get developers, local governments and others working together, which he insists is happening. He said Utah leaders are currently looking to try to use surplus state-owned lands to build more homes. He also pointed to a similar effort by Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, to build affordable housing on underutilized U.S. Postal Service land.

Overall, the governor said he's not giving up on the issue, even though the bar for success is high.

"We're going to keep pushing," he said.

Dejan Eskic, housing analyst at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, previously told KSL that the state's high housing prices are due to strong demand for housing combined with the state's strong economy and low unemployment. New numbers on Friday showed Utah's unemployment rate in July remained unchanged from the month before at 3.6%.

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