Last night’s State of the State speech by Gov. Spencer Cox was generally upbeat, and covered a lot of topics, as usual.  He did briefly address housing affordability and local land use practices.  Here’s what he said:

I took an economics class when I was your age, and the one thing I remember is that when demand exceeds supply, prices go up. It really is that simple. If we want less expensive housing, we simply need more of it. And not just deeply affordable or low-income housing — although we certainly need that, too — but more of everything.

Sadly, we know that government decisions are one of the major drivers in the price of a home. Not just taxes and fees, but every requirement placed on a builder — including the time it takes to make those decisions — increases the cost of a home.

Tonight, I’m calling on us to change it. We can build more and do it in a way that does not diminish the quality of life. Smart density, in the right places, paired with improved infrastructure from wise investments, and a renewed emphasis on single-family starter homes — remember those? — will make certain that Utah does not become like California and that future generations will be able to call this state home.

That’s why I am excited to work with Niko Fillmore’s dad and Ruthie Whyte’s dad, the League of Cities and Towns and other stakeholders on significant legislation to ensure that we increase supply and reduce the cost of housing.

You can watch and read the entire speech here.  His reference to Niko and Ruthie’s dads are Sen. Fillmore and Rep. Whyte, the co-chairs of the Commission on Housing Affordability.  Sen. Fillmore is working on a housing bill that we’ve talked about in previous posts, and Rep. Whyte is working on the annual Land Use Task Force bill that incorporates the things that the LUTF agreed on during the previous year (though this year there was a lot of talk and not much final agreement, so we’ll see what the bill winds up saying).

Nothing much else to report at this point.