This Fall was reported to have the biggest enrollment class in the University of Utah’s history. Thousands of new students had been admitted to the University of Utah this fall and it created a lot of excitement. In actuality the number of students enrolling in fall classes has been a lot lower than expected. Why are so many people who initially wanted to come to the University of Utah starting to drop their enrollment and commit to other schools? Housing is the number one culprit. Not only is the price of housing in Salt Lake City at record highs, but there is not even close to enough supply to fit the demand of incoming students.

Part of the problem is specifically the rise of median home prices in Salt Lake County. Over the last few years Salt Lake has experienced one of the fastest growing housing markets in the country, and that has priced a lot of people out of the market to buy a new home. According to data from the Salt Lake Board or Realtors, in 2020 the median home price in Salt Lake County was $350,000 and now the median price in 2022 is $516,000. People who would normally be in the market to purchase a home can no longer afford one and move into the rental market. This increases the number of potential renters, shooting up the price of rents in Salt Lake County. Which in effect, causes rental rates to be at such a premium, that students who want to live in Salt Lake and go to school at the UofU will no longer be able to afford it. Sadly, we are seeing the effects of this for our upcoming fall semester. 

Just how expensive is it to rent an apartment in Salt Lake City? According to zumper.com the median price of a one bedroom apartment in Salt Lake is a staggering $1,250 a month. Not only are rents in Salt Lake very expensive, but they are also very difficult to acquire. The process of getting approved for an apartment can take months of your time. 

    What are some solutions to this housing problem and what can the University do to help incoming students afford the cost of housing? Personally, when I first moved into the Salt Lake valley to attend the University of Utah, I was very perplexed as to why there weren't more off campus student housing options. I went to Utah State University for one year and within a few blocks of campus there are 3 very large student living developments. Non-university student living options for students that did not want to live in the dorms. The building I lived at had over 600, 6 bedroom apartments. And to add to that, Utah State University is much smaller than the UofU. In my opinion having a few of these developments close to campus would actually make housing options at the UofU a lot better. Maybe the UofU could help subsidize some of these developments or help invest in some? Based on the drop off in students attending this fall we know that housing problems are definitely correlated with student enrollment, so it would be in the universities best interest to get this figured out ASAP. 

    If you are a student looking for ways to find cheap housing, I have a few tips below. 

   

1. There is currently so much demand for housing in Salt Lake that some landlords won’t even advertise their units on the internet. It may sound strange but if you drive around the Avenues, Sugarhouse, etc, you will see lots of “For Rent” signs in front of houses. A lot of people have a lot of luck calling those numbers and getting apartments or houses that way.
2. Don’t just look on Rentler or Apartments.com. So many people use these websites looking for rentals and it is so difficult to get approved for anything due to the number of applicants each unit gets. I spent months trying to find a place on these conventional websites and ended up just losing lots of money in application fees. I recommend using homes.KSL.com. This website has a lot less traffic and is a bit more local. I know a lot of people that have had way more luck finding housing on KSL rather than Rentler or Apartments.com.
3. Go directly to property managers. Like I said above there is somuch demand for housing in Salt Lake. Because of this, some property managers don’t post their open units on any websites but their own. Look up some property management companies in Salt Lake and more often than not they will have a tab on their website with a list of all of their units coming available.

 

 

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