How Much Can a Landlord Raise Rent in Utah

The renter'south dilemma

Equally prices proceed to rise, Utah renters are getting squeezed, forcing them to make tough decisions

By Jun 26, 2021, 10:00pm MDT

Sherry Munsell relaxes with her dogs later on work in her Clinton home on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Munsell earns $17 an hour as a truck commuter and occasionally struggles to pay rent.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Sherry Munsell, 49, is no stranger to hurting.

Her dad, who she chosen her best friend, died when she was a teenager. She said she was grazed past a bullet while she was serving as a sheriff'due south deputy in California in 2010, when i of her fellow officers was shot and killed. And since 2014, she'due south been battling breast cancer. That brought her to Utah in 2022 for handling at the Academy of Utah'southward Huntsman Cancer Plant. Fortunately, over the by vi calendar month's she's been in remission.

Merely now, after moving to Utah amid her medical struggles and earning simply $17 an hour equally a truck driver, Munsell is dealing with a different kind of hurting — a pain that thousands of other Utahns are facing just to keep a roof over their heads as wages stagnate and cost of living creeps up twelvemonth later year after year: How do I pay my hire?

Upheaval from the COVID-nineteen pandemic last year slowed rates downwardly slightly, but not for long. They're on track to go along to climb, housing experts say, especially as Utah's housing market remains red-hot with staggering sale prices and a highly competitive marketplace.

Almost every year over the by decade, Utah'south rental prices have shot up to the tune of 5% to seven% a year forth the Wasatch Front end, a startling reality that means the boilerplate Table salt Lake Canton apartment that cost $793 in 2008 at present costs nearly $one,145. In Utah Canton, the average apartment that toll $719 a calendar month in 2008 now costs virtually $one,200.

A stunning ane in five Utah renters are considered "severely cost-burdened," meaning they pay more than 50% of their income on rent, according to state and federal data.

When Munsell and her married woman get-go moved into a three-bedroom, two-bath house in Clinton, nigh four years agone their rent price $1,395. At present, information technology costs about $ane,560 a month, including renter's insurance, Munsell said.

"It's like every time we turn around, information technology's going up," she said.

The price of their rent eats up about half of both of their paychecks, Munsell said, pregnant they fall in the 1 in 5 statistic of "severely cost-encumbered" Utahns — a subclass that has higher take chances of eviction, perhaps just a car breakdown, a medical emergency or a job loss away.

To Munsell, moving seems just every bit expensive as staying. And she said she can't authorize for a dwelling correct now because she'southward waiting for her $fourscore,000 in student loans to be forgiven past the federal authorities, set to be finalized early on adjacent year. Possibly if she could eventually buy — mayhap something for $200,000 — she said she'd try to find an older, smaller ane- or two-sleeping accommodation, but for at present the three-chamber Clinton house works for her, her wife and their three dogs: Bailey, Bella and Promise.

Paying hire frustrates Munsell, knowing that the money they've been paying for years could have been going toward an investment.

"It'due south hard," she said. "Only you know what, I'm blessed to be alive. I've been through a lot. I've seen a lot."

Susan Munsell-Beck and Sherry Munsell prepare dinner at their Clinton habitation on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Munsell-Beck is a chef and Munsell is a truck driver. When they first moved into a three-bedroom, two-bath house in Clinton almost iii years ago, their hire cost $i,345. Now, it costs about $1,550 a month, including insurance.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Times accept been especially tough lately. Munsell's wife Susan recently broke one of her ribs from a sideslip in the bathroom, and she said she's been out of piece of work as she's healed.

"Without her making money, I'chiliad really strapped correct now," Munsell said, though she added she'due south grateful to have a brother and sister that sometimes helps her brand payments if she starts falling behind.

"If we didn't have (their help), we would really, really struggle," she said.

To assist make ends run into, Munsell said she sometimes gets nutrient from a local nutrient pantry. She also doesn't accept internet or cable.

"We don't live a lavish lifestyle," she said, adding that while at that place is a car payment, she drives a truck that'due south over 10 years old. "We can't afford anything more than. Just nosotros work hard — equally much as we can."

Kayla Smartz walks out to her patio of her apartment in Table salt Lake City on Friday, June four, 2021.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Renting in Utah: A conundrum

For nearly renters, price hikes are a frustrating reality. They squeeze struggling families, seniors on fixed incomes, single moms working two jobs, and immature professionals who are trying to live the lives they desire — but are having to make hard choices that impact their futures, like putting off saving for a home buy.

Utahns are getting priced out of desirable simply more than expensive areas like downtown Table salt Lake City, Cottonwood Heights and Sandy. Simply rents are also continuing to rise in more affordable areas, also.

Utah renters are losing choices.

Consider:

• In the Table salt Lake Metropolis metro area, the median cost of hire went from $one,384 a calendar month in March of 2020, when the pandemic first striking home hither, to $one,451 a month one year afterward, a iv.8% increment, according to a new report past Stessa.com. The site ranked Salt Lake Urban center metro area No. 64 out of 105 U.S. cities where rents inverse the most since the first of the COVID-nineteen pandemic.
• Despite a record-setting apartment "blast" that's lasted for more than than five years, rents across Wasatch Front counties have been increasing at an average of 5% to 7%, depending on the county, according to a November 2022 report from the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

• From 2000 to 2018, hire in Utah Canton rose a striking 83% — the highest increases of the Wasatch Forepart counties. Table salt Lake County's rental rates rose 78%. Davis and Weber counties increased 64% and 59%, according to a June 2022 report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
• In 2008, Salt Lake County rents averaged $793. In 2019, that figure climbed to $one,145. In Utah County, rental rates went from $719 in 2008 to $1,188 in 2019. In Davis County, they climbed from $715 to $1,102. And in Weber Canton, rates went from $651 in 2008, to $1,021 in 2019, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute's Nov 2022 report.
• Rents are outpacing wages and aggrandizement. From 2000 to 2018, average rent in Common salt Lake County was more than than twice the rate of inflation. For example: In 2000, the average rent for an flat was $647. If hire increased at the same rate as inflation, the average rent for an apartment in Common salt Lake County would be approximately $850 in 2018, almost $300 cheaper than the actual 2022 boilerplate, according the policy plant's June 2022 report.
• Meanwhile, vacancy rates stay depression. In Table salt Lake County, vacancy rates accept gone from most ix% in 2009 and are lingering around 4.v%, according to a 2022 multifamily market report past CBRE. Vacancy rates are similar in Utah and Weber counties, and even lower in Davis County, at about 3.5%.

Max McVicker, left, and his roommate, Sadie Texer, right, move a burrow at Texer'south new home in Salt Lake City on Saturday June 12, 2021.

Annie Barker, Deseret News

What's the impact?

More Utah renters are struggling to brand ends meet — or stretching themselves thin in order to make their hire payments.

Consider:

• Utah has an estimated 284,935 renters statewide. Of those, 115,875 — about 40% or 2 in 5 Utah renters — are considered "cost-burdened," or pay more 30% of their income on hire. For about 52,890 Utahns — about 20% or 1 in v Utah renters — are considered "severely" cost-burdened, pregnant they pay more than 50% of their income on rent, according to Utah'southward 2022 Affordable Housing Report.
• Statewide, about 65,815 Utah renter households are considered "extremely depression income," or earn about xxx% of the area median income. Of those, 72% are estimated to exist severely cost -burdened, according to Utah'due south 2022 Affordable Housing Report.
• Nigh of these low-income Utahns are working. Most 42% are in the labor strength, while 21% are disabled, 21% are seniors, and four% are going to school, co-ordinate to Utah's 2022 Affordable Housing Study.
• A gap of affordable and available rental units for renters earning less than 50% of the area median income in Utah has widened over the past decade — from 41,052 in 2010 to 49,545 in 2018, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute's Nov 2022 report.
• Rental assist and public housing waitlists are staggering. In Salt Lake Urban center, alone, the waitlist for the well-nigh common help, Section 8 vouchers, is estimated at upwards to v years. Currently, at that place are more 7,000 Salt Lake families on that list, according to the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City.

"Information technology's heartbreaking," Britnee Dabb, deputy director of the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, told the Deseret News about the 7,000-family, five-year Department viii voucher waitlist. "I can't imagine existence in that state of affairs, where y'all're told, 'We would love to help you lot, but it could accept up to five years' ... It's really difficult for united states to accept to say that, but it's merely the truth with how the funding is and the affordability and the availability."

Dabb said the waitlists are "definitely disheartening," but she urged Utahns struggling to pay their rents to nevertheless reach out to their local housing authorities for help, noting that the housing government work with landlords and other community partners to provide assist.

"Allow usa help you," she said. "There is community back up. If we aren't able to provide it, we are able to reach out (to other partners). Don't give up. Everybody deserves a condom place to sleep."

Dabb said the rental market — especially in Salt Lake City where loftier-rise apartment buildings are nonetheless beingness congenital, catering to top-dollar renters — is unfortunately not headed in a direction where renters might see some relief.

"It is absolutely crazy," she said.

Market forces — growth, demand and low vacancies — accept led to the "longest flat smash in our history," said James Woods, the Ivory-Boyer senior fellow at the Academy of Utah'due south Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. And despite that boom, prices continue to go up because it's the simple production of demand outpacing supply.

"The boom continues," Woods said. "And so does the need."

Wood said he "wishes information technology were true" that help for renters was plentiful. "There is assist out there, just the demand far exceeds it," he said.

He speaks from personal experience, saying he'due south been trying to get his granddaughter a housing voucher, but, again, Table salt Lake Canton's waitlist was more than than 7,000.

Rising prices will probable lead to more Utahns "doubling up," Wood said. More roommates, more families sharing living spaces, and fewer choices for renters.

"For the renter, it'southward just very much like those trying to get into abode buying," Wood said. It's a real bulwark that takes time."

Holding her breath

Paula Barlow, 50, said she wanted to be there for her girl, who during the pandemic lost her babe at birth as a stillborn.

"She's been having a really tough yr," Barlow said.

Then Barlow said her daughter wanted to movement to Utah — merely those plans changed when she struggled to fifty-fifty find an available rental, let solitary one that she could afford. It was the same story for her when she looked to buy instead of rent. Everything was besides pricey and selling way too fast.

"She had no luck here in Utah at all."

So, Barlow said she'southward supported her daughter from a distance — while having a tough twelvemonth herself.

Barlow, who lives in a two-sleeping accommodation apartment in Murray, said she'southward been taking care of both her disabled mother and her husband, who she said has gone into kidney failure. She said he'due south also been in a wheelchair since he had a stroke five years ago.

"It's tough on me because I'm taking care of both of them, they're needing a lot of intendance, and I'chiliad struggling with all of it," she said. "I'k trying to work and brand money come in, simply I'm not able to brand enough."

Barlow said she pays almost $1,000 a month for her apartment — a price she said she feels grateful for because information technology hasn't gone up in recent years. Simply she said she'south property her breath, waiting for a cost increase, because she said rent prices accept been going upward for her friends.

But fifty-fifty without a rent price hike, Barlow said she's feeling the squeeze from the cost of other essentials creeping upward.

"Wages aren't going up with the pricing of Utah, and so it makes it kind of hard," she said. "Nutrient's going up. Gas is going upwards. And information technology's difficult for me to try to juggle it all with taking care of 2 disabled people, trying to keep downward a chore. Everything going on, sometimes information technology tin exist quite emotionally difficult on me."

"I feel similar it'southward a blessing from God," she said about not seeing a rent increment — at least not yet.

"I've been very blest. ... Just every month I wonder if it's going to happen with the fashion things are going correct at present."

A billboard for RentRelief.utah.gov is pictured on 400 Due south in Salt Lake City on Thursday, June 3, 2021.

Kristin White potato, Deseret News

How to go assistance

While housing authorisation waitlists are long and daunting, there is still help out there for Utah renters.

President Joe Biden'due south administration on Thursday extended the nationwide moratorium on evictions for renters who are unable to pay their hire during the pandemic from June xxx to July 31 — though federal officials warn it's expected to be the last time.

Fearing Utah could run into a "moving ridge" of evictions once the eviction moratorium expires, now scheduled for July 31, housing advocates recently urged renters to know in that location's still a pregnant chunk of government funding available for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic — to the tune of $180 million, according to Christina Oliver, director of Housing and Community Evolution for the Utah Section of Workforce Services.

"We really exercise desire to encourage people who are on the debate about requesting assistance to simply get online (at rentrelief.utah.gov) — it'due south a very quick application, it won't take much of your time — and see if it can help you," Oliver said.

To Paul Smith, executive director of the Utah Apartment Association, which represents landlords, more renters demand to take advantage of the millions of dollars available to Utahns in rent relief due to COVID-19 — and he said more likely authorize for the assist than they call back.

"If I'grand a low-income person in the country of Utah, there's no reason I shouldn't be paying my rent correct at present," Smith said. "Anyone making less than lxxx% (area median income) ... they should be getting their hire paid by the government."

With the COVID-19 rental assistance available, "low income renters have never had life better," Smith said.

"Then what if prices are up?" Smith said. "What do y'all intendance if the government's paying your rent?"

Smith said he doesn't buy a "doom and gloom" outlook for renters.

"If they're struggling, maybe they don't know all of the programs out there for them," he said.

While at that place's tens of millions in assistance available for Utah renters impacted by COVID-19, the problem of a lack of affordable units — beyond the touch on of the pandemic — all the same persists, housing advocates say.

The five-yr, seven,000-family Section 8 waitlist is blaring testify that needs far outpace aid in a rental market that preceded and will probable persist across the pandemic, said Janice Kimball, CEO of Housing Connect, the housing authority for Common salt Lake Canton, which uses the same waitlist.

"We're seeing simply phenomenal (rent) increases when people do their almanac renewal," Kimball said, noting that it's been common to see rates rising by $100 to $150.

The reality is, Kimball said, is "we don't have enough resources for the need."

"We tell (struggling renters) most tax credit properties, nosotros tell them about public housing, Section 8 when it's open," Kimball said. "Simply there's a lot more need than we can even begin to address."

Tara Rollins, executive managing director of the Utah Housing Coalition, said the state of Utah's rental market — low vacancy rates, steadily rising prices and the country's overall growth — is pushing renters to their limits.

As the economy booms, Rollins said many renters are getting uprooted. With Utah's real estate prices soaring, apartment buildings are being purchased and renovated. Renters are facing toll increases — or being told to move out when their lease is upwards.

"They were living in a place where they were getting by, and now they're going out into the market, and the market has changed and then much," Rollins said. "So where does that person go?"

Meanwhile, landlords are facing no shortage of rental applications.

Sadie Texer removes items from her car at her new home in Salt Lake City on Saturday June 12, 2021.

Annie Barker, Deseret News

A 'dicey,' competitive marketplace

When Sadie Texer, 21, and her friends started hunting for a Salt Lake City house to hire, she said they found about forty or 50 candidates that could work within their budget. Simply when they started getting ready to submit applications, they realized information technology wasn't going to exist easy.

Firm after house, they realized there were dozens of other renters eyeing the same belongings. They quickly learned that if they weren't among the kickoff to submit an application, they didn't stand a chance.

"Information technology was merely so competitive," Texer said.

The whole process felt "dicey," she said. Even though Texer and her friends started looking in March — four months before her S Hashemite kingdom of jordan lease would be up in June — months went by without whatsoever luck. Information technology wasn't until they were down to a matter of weeks did they finally hear back that their application had been accepted for a four-bedroom house in Sugar House.

"The name of the game was final minute," Texer said. "It was actually hard to detect."

Texer said she'southward been living in a ane-bedroom apartment in Southward Jordan for near $1,200 a calendar month. She said she enjoyed living alone, fifty-fifty though information technology was expensive for a young professional person who moved to Utah from Indiana to piece of work for a Provo marketing company. She said the cost was worth it to her for that year, but she decided to move in with roommates to save money but besides try living with her friends.

The four-bedchamber Carbohydrate Business firm house rental volition cost Texer and her ii other roommates about $900 each a month, totaling about $2,700 a month. She said the toll seemed "reasonable" to her, considering the desirable expanse of Saccharide Business firm.

"Honestly, information technology was but what we could get," she said.

Kayla Smartz talks about her apartment in Common salt Lake City on Friday, June 4, 2021.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Paying the toll

Her dearest of mountain sports — mountain biking and snowboarding — was a big reason Kayla Smartz, 31, moved to Utah from Michigan two years ago.

But over the past year, she hasn't been able to relish the mountains similar she'd hoped, even though she's paying a steep premium to exist able to alive virtually the Wasatch canyons.

She suffered a torn ACL when she took a tumble while skiing a steep run at Deer Valley in Jan. The surgeries to repair her ACL didn't go smoothly. Complications — a bacterial infection from the first surgery — led to a second surgery to attempt to clear infection. When that didn't work, Smartz endured a third surgery to remove the ligament, leaving her without an ACL. Now she's hoping the fourth surgery will go better, and she'll soon be able regain her forcefulness to mountain cycle, ski and snowboard again.

Fifty-fifty though she laments her injury sucked a yr abroad from her passions, she'due south kept high spirits, eager to go back on her wheel and snowboard. But in a year of stress over her own health and medical bills, Smartz has also had to navigate a whole new stress: paying her rent.

Smartz, drawn to the Wasatch Front'due south mount range, lives in a one-bedroom apartment with a price tag of $1,250 a month in the Foothills area of Salt Lake City.

"It'due south actually expensive," Smartz said. Just she says it'due south worth information technology for the location, near the canyons.

But Smartz — who works in admissions for the University of Utah — estimates about one-half of her paycheck goes directly to housing costs, including utilities. She said she's only been able to brand that work within her budget because she doesn't take a car loan, and student loan payments have been on hold amid COVID-19.

"Honestly, those are the merely reasons I'm able to afford this," she said.

When Smartz first moved into the apartment, she was much more financially stable. That was before her ski accident. It was besides before the pandemic hit. She was working equally an operations manager for a local company and her salary was much higher, only then she got laid off. And then, when COVID-19 came to Utah, she lost her second chore working at concerts.

"And so things really changed," she said, adding that she was facing a conclusion of whether to renew her charter or not. The thought of moving was daunting, likewise, so she decided to sign over again.

"That was admittedly terrifying," she said. Since then, Smartz said she's ending up "making it work."

Then she lost her ACL. Smartz said she's across grateful that she has health insurance, as well as a savings cushion and support from her customs through a GoFundMe to aid her with medical costs. But she said she knows how precarious her state of affairs could have been — and how, for many, a medical emergency could mean the departure between paying rent or losing housing.

"I'grand extremely grateful," she said. "Extremely grateful that information technology didn't impact more than than it did."

Kayla Smartz enjoys a beverage on the patio of her flat in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 4, 2021.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Only Smartz acknowledges the downsides of paying steep rent. Dorsum abode in Michigan, she said she has friends who have already purchased homes. The $1,250 monthly rent neb has prevented her from saving up to buy a house — though she said the prices Utahns accept been paying in today's housing market place are "mind-blowing."

"So I kind of feel stuck here," she said, though she added, "I love it."

"I'thou going to deal with (buying a firm) subsequently and put it on the back burner," she said, "But I'm probably going to regret that downwardly the route."

mcguiregoomil.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.deseret.com/2021/6/26/22463779/the-renters-dilemma-prices-rising-utah-renters-losing-choice-cant-pay-afford-rent-housing-eviction

Share this post