Author speaks in Utah on solutions to affordable housing crisis

SALT LAKE CITY — A national expert on housing came to Utah to highlight what he said are solutions to the affordable housing crisis.

Charles Marohn, one of the authors of a new book, “Escaping the Housing Trap,” spoke Friday evening at the Jordan Commons Megaplex in Sandy at an event sponsored by the Congress for the New Urbanism Utah chapter.

“The big message is that housing can’t be both a good investment and broadly affordable shelter for people,” Marohn told KSL TV.

Marohn, a civil engineer and land use planner who founded the nonprofit Strong Towns, believes the solution to making housing more affordable lies primarily at the local level. He suggests loosening restrictions and allowing homeowners to use their properties more creatively to create more housing units.

“There’s this sense that something urgent needs to happen, and the idea of having these conversations is so that people leave with that hope,” Marohn said.

In Utah, in the last few years, some lawmakers have taken aim at local zoning rules to try to increase the housing supply. Farmington recently passed a new rule allowing homeowners with accessory dwelling units on their properties to subdivide and sell them.

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Utahns have grappled with increasingly unaffordable housing over the past few years. Earlier this year, the statewide median home price climbed to $500,000 despite higher mortgage rates. According to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, it currently sits at over half a million dollars.

Marohn also spoke on Thursday to the board of the Ivory-Boyer Real Estate Center at the Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah.