Utahns are ‘fed up and priced out,’ new Utah survey finds

SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns are fed up and priced out. That’s the sentiment in a new study of the top issues impacting Utah voters.

The study, done by the longtime policy research group Utah Foundation, showed that “housing affordability” and “politicians ignoring voters” are the top two survey responses for the 656 Utahns surveyed.

The survey also found that a majority of Utahns – or 3 in 5 – say their quality of life is getting worse than it was five years ago. A similar majority also believe the state is “on the wrong track.”

“There is this feeling of disenfranchisement, you know, politically and with the economy,” said Robert Spendlove, a Utah lawmaker and local economist. “In a lot of ways, it goes back to that top issue of housing affordability. And those are the big issues of overall affordability. People just don’t feel like they have the opportunities that they’ve had in the past.”

The Utah Foundation has been tracking this data for 20 years and does a survey every presidential election year.

It’s the first time the report found that the majority of people said Utah was not on the right track. Researchers were also surprised that the sentiment about Utahn’s quality of life worsened. They say this year’s discouragement was “higher than during the great recession or early in the pandemic.”

Other issues topping the list included earning enough pay, government overreach, partisan politics, having enough water (other than the Great Salt Lake), K-12 education, and air quality.

Researchers summarized those issues into four main topics impacting Utahns: cost of living, political dysfunction, the environment and education.

“About 72% of homeowners in Utah have a mortgage rate that’s 4% or below. So they’re never going to move,” Spendlove said. “And so the solution is to build more homes. But in the last couple of years, we’ve seen building permit activity drop by about 15,000 units. So, you know, it’s really tough to find solutions to this housing affordability issue.”

As for the “political dysfunction,” Spendlove cited the recent Republican state convention as an example. Gov. Spencer Cox was beaten handily by a candidate to the right, Phil Lyman, and three of Utah’s four Republican members of Congress are now facing primaries from convention challengers who historically have not faired well in primaries.

“We see some of these breakdowns and it really is one of the struggles with politicians is knowing who to listen to. You know, do you listen to that, that vocal minority or the silent majority?” Spendlove said.

There were some differences in the issues impacting Utahns based on political affiliation.

The survey found that Republicans were most concerned about crime and roads, whereas Democrats were most worried about women’s rights, homelessness and the Great Salt Lake.