"PLAIN CITY, Utah Miranda and Cole Potokar, who are 23 and 24, have talked a lot with friends about their terrible timing in the housing market. "We would make jokes like, 'What was I doing in third grade? I should have been buying a house instead of learning, you know, multiplication!' " says Miranda. The young couple came of age in northern Utah as housing prices across much of the country marched upward steadily, then sharply."
"Utah is now one of the priciest markets. That's fueled by growing demand from family sizes that are bigger than those elsewhere in the U.S., plus more people moving to the state. After getting married two years ago, the Potokars decided to live in Miranda's grandparents' basement to save up for a down payment. But when they started looking around a year or so ago, they were shocked. Even older places had sky-high prices, and things sold so fast."
"People like the Potokars are exactly who Utah Gov. Spencer Cox had in mind when he set out an ambitious goal about a year and half ago: building 35,000 lower-cost starter homes in five years. "The American dream of homeownership is slowly but surely slipping away from far too many, out of reach of our children and grandchildren," the Republican governor told dozens of mayors at a housing summit in May."
Miranda and Cole Potokar, ages 23 and 24, saved in a grandparents' basement but found older houses selling extremely quickly and at sky-high prices in northern Utah. Utah has become one of the priciest markets, driven by larger family sizes and strong in-migration. Median U.S. home prices rose nearly 50% over five years; Utah medians exceed $500,000. The median age of first-time buyers has climbed to a record 38. A massive shortage of homes, combined with high inflation and elevated interest rates, has pushed mortgages out of reach for many. Governor Spencer Cox proposed building 35,000 lower-cost starter homes in five years.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]