Utah Foundation report: Utahns’ focus now on low-income, first-time homebuyers

The Utah Foundation has released the first of “numerous” briefs in its Utah Priorities Project and housing affordability is a “most important” issue to Utah voters in 2024, the new brief says,

The Utah Foundation’s first brief shows that Utah voters who responded to the 2024 Utah Priorities Project survey are somewhat divided regarding how to address housing affordability. Over one-third of voters (35 percent) are most concerned about “low-income Utahns” and “first-time homebuyers” (38 percent). About one-quarter (27 percent) are most concerned about their own housing affordability.

The Utah Foundation said that when analyzing this set of data by demographic subgroups, Republicans and unaffiliated voters are more likely to be concerned about housing for first-time homebuyers, while Democrats are more likely to be concerned about housing for low-income Utahns. The breakdown is similar when comparing higher-income earners to lower-income earners. Finally, renters are, by a significant margin, the most likely to be concerned about their own housing affordability (58 percent).

The first brief of the 2024 Utah Priorities Project shows how homeownership is becoming more important to Utahns — 38 percent of respondents in 2024 [up] from 30 percent in 2020,” said John Salevurakis, the author of the brief. “It is perhaps not unexpected given the continued increase in Utah’s home prices.”

“The Utah Foundation has been writing about homeownership for the past year,” said Shawn Teigen, Utah Foundation president. “We anticipated that Utahns were starting to get concerned about the ownership opportunities for their children and people with hopes for future ownership around the state.”

The Utah Priorities Project examines what matters most to Utah voters. The project also clarifies more detailed facts and demographic characteristics pertaining to what matters most, thus helping voters understand the complexities of important issues. Utahns are then empowered to undertake informed discussions and vote in a way that more accurately reflects this deeper understanding, Teigen said.

The full brief can be seen on the Utah Foundation website at utahfoundation.org.