In the News
One of Utah’s newest sports reporters recently published his experience looking for housing in Utah. In a world of housing cost pessimism, the article provides hope for young families and others looking for a place to call home.
But can a story about apartment hunting in Salt Lake City provide hope for those looking for other types of housing outside of downtown Salt Lake City?
Here’s My Take
Yes. Because while the story is about one reporter finding success in his apartment hunt, it is really about what can happen to housing costs when the government gets out of the way.
The new Utah Jazz reporter toured several apartment buildings in Salt Lake City. Some offered three months of free rent. Two offered a $2,000 gift card. Most offered some kind of financial concession. Were landlords simply being nice because he was the new Jazz reporter? Had landlords suddenly lost the greed they are so often accused of? Was there a new price control program finally paying off?
Nope.
Unbeknownst to him, the previous several years featured a building boom in precisely the kind of housing he was looking for. Supply did not merely increase. It increased enough to create real competition.
Now imagine you are a young married couple wanting to start a family in a modest three-bedroom, two-bathroom home. Or perhaps you want a home with enough land to keep dogs or horses, or pursue another recreational activity you enjoy.
In one city, the government imposes land-use regulations that make those types of housing difficult or impossible to build. In another, property owners have much more freedom to subdivide their land and build the housing they want.
Only one of those places is likely to produce the kind of building boom Salt Lake City experienced with apartments.
In Conclusion
If Utah wants more home buyers to feel as wanted as Salt Lake apartment renters do today, the answer is not $2,000 gift cards or new government programs. It is plain old free-market competition. And competition only shows up when owners are allowed to build, and enough of them do.
There is hope for young people struggling to afford housing, and thankfully it does not require more government intervention. It requires elected officials to act, not by creating another program, but by adjusting the land-use restrictions that keep housing from being built.
