It was a two bedroom, single bath home with a double carport. It cost $52,000. Senate President Stuart Adams still clearly remembers the feeling of buying his first home in Layton, the city where he grew up.
“When you own your own home, something just happens,” Adams said. “It does something to you.”
Not too long ago, Utah served as a model for a type of stability other states strived for. In 2016, the think tank Brookings published an article declaring “The American middle-class is still thriving in Utah.”
Homeownership has long been thought of as a pillar of that thriving middle-class: the realization of the American dream.
“In America, we believe in homeownership,” Adams said. “And in Utah, we believe in homeownership.”
But for Utahns living on middle and lower incomes, homeownership is increasingly out of reach, Adams told members of the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee on Feb. 17. Adams worried Utah’s middle class might be disappearing.
And the numbers seem to back up Adams’ concerns — the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute found more than 70% of Utah renters couldn’t afford the median price of a home in 2020. At the same time, Utah’s middle class is struggling just to afford rising rents in the state.
Adams wants to help people get out of their apartments and into homes to build wealth but also to “enjoy the pride of homeownership.”
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