Saw an interesting poll today on public perceptions of the housing affordability crisis, but first some updates on legislative bills.

Rep. Ray Ward’s bill that would have established state-designated “preferred” uses, namely starter homes and 5,400 sf lots, HB184 – Small Lots and Starter Homes Amendments, failed in committee Wednesday evening by a 3-6 vote.  The League went on a full-bore stop this bill effort, primarily because it was not a collaborative product, and it would have established a bureaucratic mess of a process each such effort would have had to go through.  I personally do not have a lot of objection to what the bill was attempting to accomplish (use by right for “starter” homes and small lots), but the process that this bill would have required – yikes!  Not a good way to go about it.  There were a lot of issues with this bill, and I was glad to see it not move forward.  The basic ideas of the bill, however, I think are worth still considering.

Also, a new bill out this morning – HB592 – Municipal Incorporation Amendments.  It has to do with preliminary municipalities, as discussed in the previous posting on this blog.  I mentioned in that post about a representative who had “buyer’s remorse” for having voted for the original PM bill and had filed a bill in last year’s legislative session to do away with the ability to create any new PMs.  Well, this is that bill, here again.  The legislator is Rep. Mike Kohler from Heber Valley, and he’s apparently still wanting to do away with them.  We’ll see how his bill fares in relation to Rep. Auxire’s bill.

Now, about that public opinion poll.  There was a story in this morning’s Trib about a poll taken recently by a pretty reputable polling organization of Utahns attitudes about a number of issues.  One was about housing affordability, and asked what people thought was the primary reason for the housing affordability crisis.  The outcome was most interesting:

The most common leading causes, respondents said, were:

–  “Private companies or individuals buying up housing stock and renting them out” (30%).

–  Inflation in material and building costs (27%).

–  “Developers artificially raising prices for greater profit” (21%).

Less than 10% of respondents attributed the leading cause to rising land prices or government red tape.

In fact, the response “government laws, regulations and red tape” accounted for only 6%.  What’s notable about this to me is that the number one reason given, private companies buying and renting housing, is according to analysis by a number of researchers, a very minor factor in affecting the cost of housing, except for perhaps in a few isolated market areas.  Also, I think the general public doesn’t perceive local regulation as being a big part of the problem because in large measure, that’s what protects their homes from invasion by those unwanted small homes and apartments.  Rather different from the way policy level people seem to see it.

Hmmm.  Most interesting.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it.