More signs of the growing pressure to do “something” about housing affordability, this time from right in our own backyard – Utah Foundation’s just released 2022 Community Quality of Life Index https://www.utahfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/rr802.pdf
The big message from the survey is that overall satisfaction among Utahns of quality of life is down, and it appears that growth related issues are the drivers of this downturn. The number one concern?
Housing and other living costs have the largest decrease in assessed performance. Utah’s rapidly rising housing costs have made many Utahns feel like rents and ownership are no longer affordable.
In addition to inflation, the other top factor to decreased life satisfaction is traffic and road conditions, which likely means there’s more traffic, congestion and delays.
Here’s the list of all the factors that showed decline in satisfaction:
• The availability of good housing that is affordable.
• The affordability of living costs other than housing, such as food, utilities and
services.
• Traffic conditions on the roads and highways.
• The availability of recreational, social or cultural events and programs.
• The quality of the public schools.
• The availability of quality education beyond high school such as good trade schools, colleges and universities.
• The availability of good stores or other places to get the food and other things people want and need.
• How much people support and help each other.
• The availability of quality public transportation such as buses or trains.
• The availability of spiritual or religious activities or groups.
• How much people share similar values or views of the world.
• The availability of quality healthcare services.
• Opportunities for good jobs.
The report makes this assessment:
One possible explanation for the decline in the majority of factors from 2018 to 2022 may be after-effects from the pandemic. The decline may also be due in part to ripple effects from Utahns’ increasing costs of living. Rapid growth may also be revealing its downsides. A recent survey from Envision Utah suggests for the first time that more Utahns would prefer to slow rather than foster the state’s population growth (with 45% agreeing to some extent that “growth is bad and should be limited” compared to 38% agreeing to some extent that “growth is good and should be fostered”).
I don’t think this is something that our political leaders can ignore for much longer.