When it comes to average housing, you have to have style.
So says the latest report from the Utah Foundation, an independent research group that shows in new surveys that 72% of respondents say “style is the most important factor in their housing preferences.”
And the method is?
You guessed it, separate units for one family, bonus points if the garage isn’t visible.
While Yutan’s preference for single-family homes seems like a statement of the obvious, the report also illustrates a number of nuances, even ironies, that may give land-use authorities and housing advocates a better idea of how to proceed with filling the void. “The 45,000-doors housing gap,” the number of home seekers in Utah who, according to an analysis from the foundation, have been pushed out of one of the nation’s hottest housing markets by runaway costs from record low interest rates, back-supply records, and a growing population.
The report, Utah Development Preferences, released this month, is the third installment in a larger study examining “missing median housing,” a class of multifamily housing options that lie between single-family homes and large apartment complexes. Common examples include side-by-side duplexes, cottage courts, and townhomes, which along with other mid-dwellings are essential to relieving pressure on the state’s housing crisis.
However, medium housing projects have encountered resistance as many neighborhoods lament increases in density of any kind. The study sought to extract the finer points of NIMBY’s objections by having survey participants view pictures of different homes and developments before asking them to decide which would “make a good addition” to their neighborhood, defined as the area within a five-minute walk of the respondent’s home.
The visual focus of the survey helped the researchers isolate important preference factors, which yielded a compelling result: the researchers believe that multi-family developments would have more support if they followed the right designs.
“If a project looks like something that reflects the kind of style they have traditionally been accustomed to, people don’t really care” when it comes to adding additional housing in their neighborhoods, said Sean Teigen, author of the report.
The study concluded, “Utah’s preference for the appearance of single-family homes suggests that average housing would meet with greater acceptance if developed in a way that mimics the style and size of single-family housing.”
The survey findings identify places people might be willing to meet in the middle — somewhere between what they want and what they can afford — and provide guidance for policymakers keen to create a housing stock without rocking the NIMBY boat by providing encouragement to explore options outside the single family, Teigen explained. Detached home developments alone cannot save Utah from mounting housing problems.
However, the report’s findings fall short of authorization, and leave a good sample of disagreement and contradiction. For example, although 60% of respondents support affordable housing options in their neighborhoods, less than half are willing to accept average housing, and 18% are strongly opposed.
“People have a lot of conflicting interests. They want to live close to work, live next to a grocery store, have lanes and bike paths — but they also want to have big homes with big yards, but there are trade-offs,” Teigen said. “People don’t want more apartments in their city. But when you frame it as an aspect of housing affordability, they can start to see how important it is.”
The foundation’s work may help build a bridge between supply-side housing advocates and established communities who fear increasing density is undermining a neighborhood’s character. The work suggests that NIMBY positions would mitigate, at least in theory, if potential developments “look like single family homes,” suggesting that the bungalow’s aesthetics might offer a valid compromise between homebuilders and longtime residents.
The problem with the survey where Utahns appeared more evenly split in terms of type and price range; Half of them prefer living in their neighborhoods in the same style and price range, while about 40% said they prefer a variety of prices and types.
Although advocates contend that average housing is a phenomenon closely related to more than size and price range. Instead, it is hoped that it will be a category of development oriented towards lifestyle and community, able to accommodate demographic changes and facilitate neighborhood mobility.
“A large part of the average housing is that it has an element of walkability in it,” said Teigen, who praised the Daybreak community in southern Jordan as an example, if you have a school nearby, a grocery store, a park, and you can ride your bike.
However, the price range is high on the minds of most Utah renters and homeowners. The report notes that more than half of current homeowners say they can’t buy the home they live in today, a belief that yards with new numbers released this week from the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, which say state home prices have risen in the United States. Last year by 27%, beating the 43-year-old’s record and raising the median price of single-family homes sold in Salt Lake County in 2021 to $533,000.
The foundation says filling in the “missing middle” will help.
Middle housing, of course, is nothing new. In fact, the Corporation’s analysis of residential housing permits indicates a growing shift from single-family housing projects to mid-housing projects in major markets across the state, including Salt Lake County, where 32% of new housing units fall into the mid-housing category. Compare 24% for one separate family. This trend has not been taken up everywhere—for example in Washington County, Utah’s fastest growing county, solidified by St. George, single-family detached condominiums are still the dominant pattern of expansion.
One example of a mid-level housing project is the proposed Capitol Park Cottages on F Street and Capitol Park Avenue in the Salt Lake City Avenues neighborhood, where Ivory Homes is seeking approval for a subdivision that would see 19 separate single-family units, each with the units Its own projected interior annexe residential, all on a 3.2-acre plot.
Such projects are reasonable not only for sticking to the aesthetics of a single-family home, but also because they are less cost-per-square-foot than the mid-rise and high-rise alternatives, the foundation claims, due to the fact that they are “fixed” – structural units made of wood, with lower material costs and standards Simpler building,” making it a smart move at a time when the cost of building materials is rising in part from the backlog of building materials supply chains from China, where the United States sources 30% of building materials.
According to the survey, 46% of respondents would accept average housing in their neighborhood. 33% oppose average housing. The rest is neutral. These and other findings from a study of Utah’s development preferences provide insights for leaders grappling with the ongoing housing dilemma.
However, while the medium is key, it is not everything.
“Average housing by itself is not the answer to the housing crisis. Ancillary condominiums are not the answer. Apartments alone are not the solution. Single-family homes are not the solution. It’s all of these things — we need all of these things,” Teigen said.