How have Utahns living on middle and lower incomes managed to buy homes amid skyrocketing prices?
Last month, the Tribune posed that question to our readers in a poll. We wanted to know how you made it work, if there were tricks you could share with others looking to make the same leap.
More than a dozen recent homebuyers shared their stories of securing a place of their own. It was clear from many of their answers that owning a home in Utah, even for those lucky enough to have some help, took sacrifice.
They work multiple jobs. They sought out nonprofit agencies for downpayment assistance. They moved back in with mom and dad. With mortgage rates climbing past 7% and facing housing inventory hardships, Utahns have employed a mixture of ingenuity, hard work and luck to secure a home of their own.
Here are four of their stories.
Family ties and a quirky house
Scott Stucki, 55, thought his next home would be on wheels.
He and his wife hoped to live on the road once he retired from his job as a high school teacher, and were happy renting until then.
But things changed when his daughter wanted to move back to the Salt Lake Valley and they realized pooling the two families’ incomes might be the only way to buy. What started as a joke about buying a house together turned into a serious proposition.
So in the summer of 2021, Stucki’s family started looking at homes that would fit two generations — there were only a few that met their needs.
One house had 38 offers half-way through the showing. Eventually, the Stuckis managed to snag an older, “quirky,” house in Murray that didn’t garner quite as much interest for $600,000. It has a basement where Scott and his wife reside and there is a yard for the dogs. The families cook dinner and share meals for the most part, Stucki said.
“I’m not unhappy about it, but it’s just kind of changed life a little bit,” Stucki said. When he eventually does retire, he and his wife still plan to travel.
“Instead of just living on the road,” he said, “we’ll just go out for weeks at a time since we actually will have a home base now.”
Is there nonprofit support?
A psychology professor at Salt Lake Community College, Justice Morath made roughly $44,000 a year when he purchased his Rose Park home in 2015 for $205,000.
Struggling to save enough for a downpayment with a limited salary, Morath heard about a downpayment assistance program through NeighborWorks aimed at helping first time homebuyers. “I was paid so little,” Morath said, “There was no way I was going to get approved for a house.”
In exchange for $15,000 in assistance, the program required Morath to take a financial training course, go through an approved lender and live in the house for at least five years. That foothold into homeownership allowed Morath to slip into the middle class. “That’s made me comfortable here in Salt Lake, even with my income now,” he said.
Plus, Morath says, “it’s nice to have some freedom in little things.” Little things like not having to worry about finding a rental that accepts his two dogs, Otis and Diogenes.
Justice Morath purchased his home in Rose Park in 2015 (Photo courtesy of Justice Morath)
Saving, then saving some more
Collin Hooten, 29, wanted to buy a home on the Wasatch Front, where both he and his wife grew up.
They started looking in late 2020, just as home prices across Utah started to creep up. With a combined income of $110,000, it took the pair three years to save up enough for a down payment.
After wrapping up his eight-hour-work day at Hill Air Force Base, Hooten would jump in his 2000 Honda Accord and either spend the next four hours delivering takeout for DoorDash or working as a referee for kids’ soccer and football games.
He and his wife shared a one bedroom apartment and did everything they could to “live below their means,” and fill their savings account.
But as their savings grew, so too did home prices.
“It kind of felt like we were kind of taking one step forward, and two steps back at times,” Hooten said.
Eventually, they saved enough for a down payment. Three months and roughly 15 rejected offers later, in May 2021 they finally closed on a $415,000 home in Layton.
“We love our home right now,” he said. “We love the location and our neighbors and everything. So we know everything works out for a reason.”
Collin Hooten, 29, purchased a home in Layton in May 2021. (Courtesy Collin Hooten)
A timely gift
When Laura Bradbury, 39, made the decision to move back to Utah and pursue a social work doctorate, she resigned herself to renting for the next four to five years.
Going back to school meant taking a substantial pay cut. Making roughly $19,000 a year, Bradbury thought saving enough for a down payment was off the table. Still, she would peruse online townhome listings out of curiosity.
One day while visiting her parents in Bountiful in spring of 2020, she mentioned how prices in the area were rising. The next week they called and said, “Now is probably the best time you’re ever going to have to buy a home and we want to help in whatever way we can,” Bradbury explained. They offered Bradbury (and her two siblings) a portion of their inheritance in order to purchase a home before it became completely unattainable.
With a $10,000 gift, Bradbury put in an offer on a modest townhome.
“I would not have been able to do that without that tremendously generous gift,” Bradbury said. “It would have been completely impossible.”
To pay her $1,100 monthly mortgage she got a roommate, took a job as a nanny and took on extra social work clients.
“I haven’t really been able to pay for housing without at least having a couple of side hustles,” Bradbury said.
And although home ownership has been difficult, even with some help, when Bradbury looks at rising rental prices she is grateful.
Recently, she looked at the two bedroom apartment she rented when she first moved back to Utah. It had gone from roughly $1,200 a month to $1,800.
Laura Bradbury purchased a town home in 2020. (Photo courtesy of Laura Bradbury)
