By McKenzie Romero | Editor
With Utah landing in the top 10 priciest housing markets in the country, buyers in the Beehive State are a small group.
To afford a median priced house — now at $559,900 — requires an annual income of nearly $150,000, according to University of Utah researchers. Meanwhile, many current homeowners are staying put in order to keep their low pandemic-era interest rates, while the vast majority of renters are priced out.
In today’s Dispatch we break down the challenges in Utah’s housing market, a wave of layoffs coming to the University of Utah, and a new poll on cuts to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
“While the path to homeownership appears bleak for many potential first-time buyers, opportunities exist with the right housing option.” — A Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute report on the state of and recommendations for Utah’s housing market.
New homes are under construction in Spanish Fork on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Katie McKellar
As mortgage rates remain elevated and aren’t expected to budge any time soon, University of Utah housing researchers predict Utah’s tight housing market and its affordability problems will continue to persist — and if nothing changes, get worse.
The state’s population is expected to balloon to more than 4 million in 2035, which researchers say will require an additional 280,000 housing units. Meanwhile, there’s an appetite for smaller single-family homes on smaller lots rather than homes with huge footprints, but few are being built.
The University of Utah campus, with Presidents’ Circle in the foreground, is pictured in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
The University of Utah is planning to lay off 285 to 855 staffers over the next year in a “modernization effort.” The impacted workers represent 5% to 15% of the university’s workforce and will exclude faculty and healthcare staff, the university said.
The cuts are intended to free up resources for more investment in the school’s core missions of education, research and patient care. However, university leaders also cited challenges like a nationwide decline in public trust of higher education institutions, as well as federal cuts to research funding and Utah leaders’ continuous push to reduce costs and make reinvestment plans at state universities.
The Doll House, an Ancestral Puebloan structure within Bears Ears National Monument, is pictured on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
Conservationists and tribal coalitions shared results of a new poll showing 66% of a total 500 Utah voters said greater protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments should be restored within their prior boundaries, with a majority saying the same across the political spectrum and around the state.
In July, President Donald Trump slashed the size of the two national monuments by 90% and terminated the Bears Ears Commission that included tribal members who managed the monument jointly with the federal government. In the poll, 82% of respondents said it is important it is for tribes to have a strong role in managing public lands containing sacred or culturally significant sites.
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