Homes Utah Families Can Afford

Why this matters

Ten years ago, a typical single-family home in Utah cost about $249,000. Today it costs about $559,000. To buy one with 10% down, a household now needs to earn about $147,000 a year. The typical Utah household earns about $97,000.

That gap shows up at every kitchen table. Young couples who grew up here can’t afford the neighborhoods they were raised in. Teachers, nurses, and police officers commute an hour to the towns they serve. And for the first time, many Utah grandparents are watching their grandchildren grow up in another state because that’s where their kids could afford a house.

Nine out of ten Utah renters can’t afford a typical home today. In this year’s statewide quality-of-life survey, Utahns ranked housing affordability dead last out of 20 factors.

Owning a home is how most families build savings, put down roots, and become more self-reliant. Keeping that within reach for the next generation isn’t a side issue. It’s one of the most important things government can get right.

Source: Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, State of the State's Housing Market (2026); median household income from the U.S. Census Bureau (2023).

The problem is simple: we haven’t built enough

Utah grew faster than almost any state over the last decade, and building never kept up. Researchers at the University of Utah estimate the state is short roughly 44,000 homes, and needs about 28,000 new ones every year just to keep pace.

When there aren’t enough homes, families bid against each other for the ones that exist, and prices climb. Every serious solution starts with building more homes, and especially more of the smaller, simpler “starter” homes that young families buy first.

Three things stand in the way, and government is involved in all three:

Not enough workers. There aren’t enough people to frame, roof, and finish the homes we need.
Too much red tape. Rules at every level of government add time and cost before a single wall goes up.
The first step is too steep. Even when a starter home is available, saving for a down payment while paying today’s rents can take a decade.

1. The workers to build it

Home building runs on skilled hands, and there aren’t enough of them. Immigrants make up more than a quarter of America’s construction workforce, a record high, and more than half of the drywall installers, roofers, and painters. Many of these jobs have gone unfilled for years.

Here’s the problem: the law has no good way for a builder to hire a legal worker from abroad for a year-round job. The only guest worker visa open to construction, the H-2B, covers seasonal work. It’s capped at 66,000 a year nationwide for every industry that uses it, and it runs out every year. Home building isn’t seasonal. A framing crew is needed in February as much as in July.

I’d fix that:

A year-round guest worker visa for construction trades. The number of visas would rise when builders can’t find workers and fall when unemployment rises, so American workers always come first. Employers would pay prevailing wages and the full payroll taxes on every worker’s wages, the same as for any American worker. That’s the same principle as the guest worker initiative in my Social Security plan: every job pays in.
Let proven seasonal workers come back. Workers who followed the rules in past years shouldn’t count against the yearly cap. Congress allowed that common-sense exemption to lapse in 2016.
Train more Utahns for the trades. A good electrician or plumber deserves the same respect as a college graduate. I’d expand construction training in high schools and Utah’s technical colleges, and let federal student aid cover short, job-ready training programs.

A legal, orderly system is better for everyone: for builders who want to follow the law, for workers who deserve fair treatment, and for the communities that need the homes. The harder question of workers who are already here is one I’ll take up in my immigration paper.

2. Less red tape, faster homes

The National Association of Home Builders estimates that government rules now add about $132,000 to the price of a typical new home, more than a quarter of its cost. That figure has grown more than 40% in five years. Some of those rules protect safety and quality. Many just add delay and paperwork.

Source: National Association of Home Builders, Government Regulation in the Price of a New Home (2026), a survey of builders and developers.

Washington and Utah both have work to do.

What Washington should do

Stop taxing the materials we build with. Tariffs on lumber, steel, and other materials add an estimated $10,900 to the cost of a new home, according to builders. I’d exempt home-building materials from tariffs and negotiate a lasting lumber agreement with Canada, our largest supplier.
Build on the ROAD to Housing Act. This summer Congress passed the most significant housing law in a generation, with huge bipartisan majorities. It was a good start. The next step is to speed up federal reviews for homes built in existing neighborhoods and finish them on firm deadlines.
Help pay for the pipes. In Utah, thousands of lots are already zoned for homes but can’t be built on because the water, sewer, and road connections aren’t there. I’d direct federal infrastructure money toward the water and sewer lines that open up land for starter homes.
Put a small amount of federal land to work. In parts of Utah, growing towns are boxed in by federal land. With local approval, I’d allow small, carefully chosen parcels right next to existing towns to be sold for homes, with the proceeds going to local infrastructure. National monuments, wilderness, and the places Utahns hunt, hike, and camp would be off-limits.

What Utah should do

Reward cities that make room for starter homes. In many cities, local rules require large lots and big homes, which rules out the smaller homes young families can afford. Zoning decisions belong to cities and the people who live there, not the state. But the state can make saying yes worth it. Cities that allow smaller-lot homes, townhomes, and backyard units should get first claim on state road, water, and sewer money, and on low-interest loans from the state’s infrastructure fund.
Put the clock on approvals. Cities should have to act on a complete building application within a set number of days. If they miss the deadline, a licensed third-party reviewer can approve it. Time is money, and delays get passed to the buyer.
Keep fees honest. Impact fees should cover the real cost of new infrastructure, published and explained, and should be lower for smaller homes that use less.
Count the cost before adding new code requirements. Every proposed building code change should come with an estimate of what it adds to the price of a home, and a clear safety or savings benefit to justify it.

3. A real first step for first-time buyers

Why not just lower the down payment? It turns out the minimum is already low on paper. An FHA loan needs just 3.5% down, and some conventional loans need 3%. On a typical Utah home that’s still about $20,000, plus closing costs, saved while paying rent that has climbed just as fast.

The bigger catch is what a small down payment costs you afterward. FHA borrowers pay a fee of 1.75% of the loan up front, plus mortgage insurance every month. If you put down less than 10%, that insurance never goes away, even after you’ve built plenty of equity. A conventional loan’s insurance drops off once you reach 22% equity. First-time buyers, who make up more than 80% of FHA buyers, are the ones paying for it.

So I’d make the first step both smaller and cheaper:

Let FHA mortgage insurance end once a family reaches 22% equity, the same rule conventional loans already follow, and cut the upfront fee in half for first-time buyers.
Create a tax-free first-home savings account, so young families can save for a down payment the way they save for college, with the money growing tax-free when it’s used for a first home.
Raise the first-home limit on retirement savings. Today a first-time buyer can withdraw only $10,000 from an IRA without a penalty, a limit set in 1997 that has never risen. I’d raise it to $25,000, index it to home prices, and extend it to 401(k) plans.
Expand Utah’s $20,000 first-home program. Utah offers first-time buyers up to $20,000 as a 0% loan, but only on brand-new homes under $450,000. More than 3,500 families have used it. I’d raise the price cap with home prices and open it to existing starter homes, especially older homes that need repair. The legislature considered that this year and didn’t pass it.

One honest warning: helping buyers without building more homes just helps them bid up prices. That’s why buyer help is only one part of this plan, and why it’s paired with building more.

What I won’t do

Rent control. It sounds like help, but it discourages building and leads to fewer homes over time.
Take zoning away from cities. Neighborhood decisions belong close to home. The state’s job is to make it easier and more rewarding for cities to say yes to starter homes, not to overrule them.
Pretend there’s one magic fix. Prices won’t drop overnight. The goal is to bring them back in line with what Utah families earn, year by year.

The bottom line

Utah was built by people who showed up with little and built homes, towns, and futures for their children. That spirit is still here. What’s missing is room to build. If we train the workers, clear the red tape, and help young families take the first step, Utah can be a place where the next generation can afford to stay.