But, again (as mentioned in the other thread), you don't just build nice housing in a garbage area and then bring in a great neighborhood that people can't afford. What happens is that the neighborhood builds up first, then demand for housing at higher rate follows. If you don't build more housing, people just end up paying luxury prices for the existing stock (look at what $2M gets you in San Jose, for example). Building more keeps the prices of existing homes down.
I don't see that happening though jack is the problem.
SLC isn't a booming city but it's certainly growing. They "revitalized" (God I hate that term) SugarHouse and now you can't buy even an OLD house in the neighborhood for under 650k. My old roommate USED to own one there that he bought like 15 years ago for 300k.
SLC also has another problem as it has re-done downtown too. They've built up new apartments and stuff that they claim is income restricted and yet... if you are single you have to make less than 35k a year and the single room or studios go for 1200 a month. HOW DOES SOMEONE MAKING 35K gross afford 1200 a month?
I was helping my folks look for houses when they moved out here. Most of the new development in the valley? STARTS at 550k and given the housing market nothing goes for less than sticker... Hell, if a house is on the market for 550k you better off 600k or you won't even hear back.
Park City USED to have people that worked at the ski area working there. Now? Most of the condos start at 650k and the houses start at 1 mil. Means the folks that work at the ski area and in the commercial stuff out there have to live in the valley and commute 45 minutes to work.
That's not sustainable. Unless the government were to step in and provide incentives to companies to build lower priced housing.. these companies will just target the upper end fancy shit as they make more money back when the stuff is sold/run.
EDIT:
To add, SLC is having house builders like Toll Brothers, Edge Homes, Ivory Homes, and Hamlet Homes show up developing large LARGE chunks of property constantly. Guess what? Even the existing houses in crappy parts of the county like Magna and WVC are going up in a way that it's pricing people out. Coworker bought a condo for 140k but then she had to replace ALL the flooring, replace the hot water tank, re-tile the bathroom, replace the furnace and by the end she was out another several K in just fixing the place up to feel like she wasn't living in a dump.
Older homes now too are suffering out here from house flippers. They buy old ass houses by offering bundles of cash above asking (say a house is listed at 400k they offer 500k) and then they reno it and sell it for 700k just 6 months later.
So this idea that just building will allow prices to stay down doesn't work in practice dude. I've fucking seen it not work in practice where I live now and I saw it STARTED where I used to live. My folks had 5 acres and their house they had BUILT for them cost a total of 350k in the 80s. They sold it all for 750k. Just building to build doesn't mean prices go down.
