We talk a lot about how many homes Utah needs. But the type of homes we build matters too.
Salt Lake City has added a significant amount of housing in recent years, especially apartments. Those homes are needed. What is still missing is the kind of smaller, more attainable home that gives someone a realistic chance to buy for the first time.
Marcus Jessop, SLHBA Government Affairs Consultant, recently made that case before the Salt Lake City Planning Commission. Speaking on behalf of our more than 600 members, Marcus expressed the SLHBA’s support for the city’s Expanding Housing Options proposal.
What the Numbers Tell Us
A new report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute helps put the issue into perspective.
Salt Lake City permitted 3,347 housing units in 2025. Of those, 2,958 were apartments. Another 312 were condos, townhomes, twin homes, or duplexes, while only 77 were single-family homes.
This isn’t an argument against rental housing. Rental homes are an essential part of any healthy housing market, and they serve people at many different stages of life. But people who want to become homeowners need options too.
Right now, more than nine in ten Salt Lake County renters cannot afford the county’s median-priced home. The Gardner report also found that only 21.7 percent of the homes sold in Salt Lake County in 2025 were affordable to households earning the area median income or less.
For many people, there simply isn’t a clear path from renting to owning.
“For generations who want to own a home, we need a realistic entry point—a chance to build equity and claim that part of the American dream,” Marcus told the Commission.
Why Smaller Homes Matter
A modest starter home used to provide that entry point. Someone could buy a smaller home, begin building equity, and move into something larger as their family and income grew.
That first step has become much harder to find.
The Gardner report shows a clear connection between the size of a home and its price. Among newer Utah homes sold in 2025, those in the affordability range for households earning 100 percent of area median income had a median price of $382,000 and a median size of 1,570 square feet.
Newer homes affordable only to households earning more than 120 percent of area median income had a median price of approximately $670,000 and a median size of 3,379 square feet.
Of course, size isn’t the only thing that determines the price of a home. Land, location, interest rates, materials, design, and construction costs all play a role. But a smaller home on a smaller lot generally requires less land and fewer materials. That gives builders a better chance to offer something at a more attainable price.
Salt Lake City staff also looked at the experience in Durham, North Carolina, after that city allowed small-lot housing. There, the median small-lot home sold for $348,000, compared with $605,000 for a standard single-family home. That’s a difference of about 42 percent.
And smaller doesn’t have to mean cramped or unsuitable for a family. City staff notes that a well-designed 1,200-square-foot home can still include three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Who Needs These Homes?
This isn’t only about first-time buyers.
Young adults need a place to start. Working families need stability and a chance to build equity. Older residents often want to downsize but can’t find a smaller home in the neighborhood where they’ve spent years building relationships.
When an older resident can move into a smaller home nearby, a larger home can become available for a growing family. More housing choices can help the whole market work better.
Salt Lake City’s changing demographics should concern all of us. The share of city households with children fell from 24.8 percent in 2010 to 17.8 percent in 2021.
Housing costs aren’t the only reason for that decline. But the numbers are still a warning that families are finding it increasingly difficult to put down roots and build a future in Salt Lake City.
What the Proposal Would Do
Expanding Housing Options would allow smaller detached homes, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and townhomes in several of the city’s lower-density residential zones. These homes would be subject to specific limits on their size and footprint.
The proposal would not eliminate single-family zoning, and it would not require anyone to redevelop their property. Property owners could continue using the existing zoning rules, and historic-district protections would remain in place.
This is expected to happen gradually. City staff described a 1 percent participation rate over five years, or approximately 373 properties, as a generous estimate.
No one is claiming this proposal will suddenly make every home affordable. It won’t. There are too many factors driving housing costs for any one ordinance to solve the problem.
But builders cannot provide smaller, more attainable homes if local zoning rules don’t allow those homes to be built. Expanding Housing Options removes one of those barriers and gives the market more room to respond.
The SLHBA has asked the Planning Commission to forward a positive recommendation on the proposal. It’s one practical step Salt Lake City can take to restore the starter-home market and give more people a chance to build equity through homeownership.
This is exactly the kind of policy discussion where our members’ experience matters. If zoning rules, approval processes, or other local regulations are making it harder for you to build smaller or more attainable homes, please reach out to our Government Affairs team. Those real-world examples help us make the case for better housing policies across Salt Lake and Tooele counties.