HERE, MIDDLE MIDDLE MIDDLE…
November 17, 2021
November 17, 2021
A few months ago, Salt Lake County along with several partner organizations brought Dan Parolek, author and instigator of the term “Missing Middle Housing,” to Utah for a seminar on what middle missing housing is and how it works. It was a great event, well attended, and certainly helped to point out the differences in what the public perceives to be higher density (big, multi-story, poorly designed buildings with no space and lots of traffic and, you know, “those” people) and what neighborhood-scale density can be (and has been in the past). https://slco.org/planning-transportation/regional-solutions/missing-middle-housing/
One of the sponsors was the Utah Foundation, which has taken on research into this issue because of the high concern among citizens, business people, and public officials about the rocketing rise in housing costs over the last few years. As promised at the seminar, the first part of that Utah Foundation report is now available with excellent background and information. As to the relationship to the high cost of housing, one of the conclusions from the study says:
- Middle housing is a possible answer in terms of prices. For instance, in Salt Lake County, the August 2021 median (or middle) sale price of townhomes was $390,000, while for single-family homes, the median sale price was $546,450.
Lots of great source material here for the development of policy about housing in our pretty, great state (that fewer can afford to live in now!). Take a look at the first part of the study – three more to come! https://www.utahfoundation.org/reports/middle-housing-study-part-i/
