Affordable Homeownership for Working Families

"I currently rent a room in a shared house as a single young adult. I’m working toward buying my first home, but based on today’s prices and what I can realistically save, it will likely take me another 3–5 years to put together a down payment for a basic starter home. What makes this feel discouraging is watching home prices rise year after year. Even when I’m making steady progress, it feels like the finish line keeps moving and homeownership becomes less attainable. I’m not looking for a ..."

"My wife and I got married in August of 2024. We’ve been married a little over a year now, and one of the hardest parts of starting our life together has honestly been finding a place to live. Before we even got married, we spent months searching for housing in Provo. At the time, we were both full-time students trying to balance school, work, and preparing for marriage while also hunting for a place we could actually afford. We were trying to stay close to campus and our jobs and still stay ..."

"We have been in and out of the Utah housing market over the last 20 years. We have left for job opportunities and come back for family and lifestyle. Each time we have come back we have been amazed at how much more difficult it has been to find housing. Now as my children are looking for places to live in the 20s and 30s it is nearly impossible for them. One has been a school teacher and gave up on owning g a home. Another works for a tech company and struggles to see how he will ever get ..."

"My children invested in education, but their incomes don't give them any hope of homeownership. My son, a schoolteacher, would love to live in the same community as the families he serves. Another son, in fintech, would like his wife to be able to stay home with their children. Our daughter would love to be able to afford a second bedroom so she can get the crib out of the living room. We would love to have them live in the same state so we can help with childcare. We hope our children will r..."

"My fiance and I live together in a small basement apartment in santaquin Utah. There are very very few options within a budget for us as I am self employed running a cosmetology business and he is in the process of getting hired on with a fire station. We save and save more and more money and it’s never enough. We budget beyond belief just to afford a place to live and be able to eat. Our budgeting and saving is something we do in hopes that we will be able to afford a home that will fit ..."

"When I turned 19, I moved into a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in Orem. The rent was $1,050 a month, which was manageable at the time. However, with today's prices, living there would mean barely scraping by, certainly not saving enough to ever move beyond renting. That realization led my wife and me to a difficult decision: we moved back in with my parents. It’s far from ideal. Sharing appliances and navigating a multi-generational household comes with its own set of challenges. We're..."

"My fiancée and I are getting married in January 2026. We’re determined to build our own life together, not move into either of our parents’ basements, but we also want to stay close to our family. Springville is where I grew up, where I went to high school, and Mapleton is home for her. The problem is, everything close by is financially out of reach. Buying a home together for us and our future family is a major goal we have. But is nearly impossible with how much houses are, especially when ..."

"A Practitioner’s Perspective from Utah County I work closely with a large aviation employer in Provo that recruits aircraft mechanics from across the country, particularly from the Midwest. These are skilled, stable workers—people with steady employment, families, and a desire to put down roots. Yet many of them encounter immediate housing barriers when relocating to Utah. In many cases, these families are moving for the husband’s job. The wife may not yet be employed when they arrive, whic..."

"Affordability has become one of the biggest challenges facing today’s homebuyers, especially first-time buyers who are entering the market without existing home equity. While purchase prices are a major factor, rising interest rates have created an even greater barrier to homeownership. Just a few years ago, mortgage rates were typically 2–4% lower than they are today, which has caused the interest portion of a monthly mortgage payment to increase dramatically. Since 2020, the average home p..."

"Me and my wife got married in 2022. We moved into an very small 600 ish sqft apartment for $850. After a year at the apartment they wanted to renovate and charge $1200. The renovations included white walls, white walls, white countertops, white cupboards. We decided we needed to move so we went to a much nicer and slightly larger 1 bed 1 bath apartment. This was $1200 but significantly nicer. However with an apartment management company there was a mandatory $100 media package, a $50 dog fee,..."