Miranda and Cole Potokar know firsthand how hard it can be for young couples to buy a first home. They came of age while housing prices across the U.S. were surging, leaving them struggling to find a foothold.
Two years ago, at ages 23 and 24, they married and moved into her grandparents’ basement to save money. They told NPR they often joked they “should have bought a house back in third grade” because every listing they found sold before they could even make an offer. Eventually, they stopped trying.
The couple lives in Utah, where the average home price has hovered above half a million dollars since 2022. For many, that has put homeownership out of reach.
But earlier this year, the Potokars caught a break. They qualified for a new development north of Salt Lake City tied to Gov. Spencer Cox’s initiative to build 35,000 lower-cost “starter homes” within five years. The plan, passed with bipartisan support in 2023, created low-interest construction loans for developers willing to build homes priced under $400,000.
This spring, the Potokars moved into their own two-story, 1,400-square-foot house — something they once thought impossible. Cole called it “a base not only for like our family, but also … to set us up for the future.”
Still, stories like theirs remain rare. Nilson Homes, the builder behind the project, has a waitlist stretching far beyond available supply. As of May, only about 5,100 starter homes have been built or started statewide since the governor’s program began — far short of the 35,000-unit goal.
That gap underscores the scale of Utah’s housing crisis. “I haven't seen concrete steps that would really move the needle right now,” said Andra Ghent, a finance professor at the University of Utah, in her NPR interview.
Utah’s struggles mirror national trends. The average U.S. home price is around $363,000, according to Zillow, but Utah’s average sits much higher at $529,260. At the same time, the median age of a first-time homebuyer has risen from 35 to 38 in just one year, according to the National Association of Realtors. For many, owning a home has shifted from an early adulthood milestone to something achieved closer to middle age.
Experts say the reasons are structural. The U.S. is short nearly 5 million homes due to years of underbuilding after the 2008 financial crisis. In Utah, the crunch is worse because of rapid in-migration, larger-than-average family sizes, and zoning laws that prioritize quarter-acre lots. Those restrictions make it difficult to build smaller, denser housing that young buyers can actually afford.
High inflation and interest rates add yet another barrier. Even couples with two steady incomes often find mortgages out of reach, despite initiatives designed to make housing more attainable.
Utah’s starter home program has been hailed as an innovative step, but experts caution it is unlikely to fully solve the problem on its own. Builders must contend with high land and labor costs, long approval timelines, and regulatory hurdles that slow production.
Housing advocates argue that expanding zoning reform, accelerating permitting, and investing in workforce development for construction trades will be critical to meeting demand.
For families like the Potokars, the program offers a path to stability. But for thousands of others still waiting, the question remains: can Utah build affordable homes fast enough to keep pace with need?
Originally reported by Chris Clark in Yahoo Finance News.
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