Census data confirms findings of local task force on housing costs

A significant percentage of young would-be home owners are simply "priced out of the housing market" by rising costs, according to the report of the Cache Valley Housing Crisis Task Force in June of 2022 (Image courtesy of Facebook).

WASHINGTON D.C. – Despite recent increases in median income, most Americans are reporting hardships due to rising housing costs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We’ve heard for a while now that incomes were not keeping up with the increased cost of housing,” said Molly Cromwell, a demographer in the Housing Statistic Branch of the Census Bureau.

“With the most recent data, we can now see just how many households were burdened by the cost of their housing.”

The most recent results of the American Community Survey (ACS) found that more than 40 percent of Americans who rent their homes spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing expenses.

That includes rent payments, utility expenses and other fees for more than 19 million renters nationwide.

On a county level, the Census estimates 239 of the nation’s 3,143 counties had median housing cost ratios for renters above 30 percent. Nearly a third of all U.S. renters lived in those counties.

The situation isn’t much better for homeowners with a mortgage. In 18 counties, mortgage holders had a median housing cost ratio above that of their peers who rent.

This comes as no news to Cache County residents, where a report from a recent Housing Crisis Task Force organized by County Executive David Zook provided a grim wake-up call about housing availability and affordability through 2030.

Cromwell said that, since 2010, nearly half of all counties experienced an increase in median household income.

The median household income in Cache County as of April 2022 was $66,995, up from $47,013 a decade ago. That compares to a national median household income of $69,021 in 2022.

That shortfall in income is largely offset by lower costs of living in Utah in all areas except housing costs.

According to a recent demographic analysis by Point2PointHomes.com, there are about 42,000 housing units in Cache Valley, of which nearly 40,000 are now occupied.

Of those, nearly 63 percent (25,200 homes) are owner occupied, while the other 37 percent (nearly 15,000 units) are occupied by renters.

Since 2010, according to the local task force report, housing prices here have grown by 8 to 10 percent per year, except for 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. But the cost of housing rebounded in 2021, rising quickly to 18 percent.

As a result of that growth — with average home prices now hovering at around $500,000 – the task force report flatly states that “…most people could not afford to purchase the house they live in, given today’s market prices and household income.”

In general, analysts at Point2PointHomes.com said the average housing costs for both renters and mortgage holders in Cache County are about $1,054 per month.

That puts a mortgage payment well within the budget of Cache County residents ages 45 to 64 years old, who have a median wage of more than $90,000.

But it’s much harder for residents younger and older than that to make ends meet.

The median income for county residents younger than 45 is only $39,028, while that of resident older than 65 is $54,167.

That means that more than 75 percent of residents ages 25 to 45 are simply priced out of the housing market, according to the task force report.

In 2022, the Utah Legislature allocated nearly $55 million for affordable housing developments to combat the twin crises of homelessness and soaring real estate prices.

But none of those funds are earmarked for Cache County.

While Census statistics are subject to sampling errors, Cromwell said all comparisons made have been tested and found statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level.

Analysts at Point2PointHomes.com say their data is also derived from the 2020 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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1 Comment

  • Reavers December 27, 2022 at 9:52 pm Reply

    There is the data concerning Cache Valley and then there is the data concerning Logan itself. Does this data include Logan?

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