LOGAN – Anyway that you care to look at it, buying a home in Utah is an expensive proposition.
Look at that process in terms of average price, mortgage payments, necessary income – take your pick, it’s all bad news for would-be homebuyers.
Now a nationwide study by AgentAdvice has calculated the approximate price per square foot for homes in each state and then ranked the states to reveal which of them have the highest prices for a new home.
Amazingly, that study found that Utah isn’t in the top ten list of states with the highest home prices per square foot. In fact, the Beehive State barely made it into the top twenty.
Using data listed on the Realtor.com website, the researchers at AgentAdvice found that the median cost of a home in Utah was $625,000 and the average home selling for that amount was about 2,540 square feet. That means that the approximate price per square foot of a new home in Utah was about $245.50 per square foot.
If that sounds breathtaking, you haven’t seen anything yet.
In Hawaii, the median home price is $825,000 and that’s for a residence has measures only 1,145 square feet, which translates to $720.50 per square foot.
Here in the U.S., California and Massachusetts are nearly tied when it comes to the cost of a square foot of housing.
The median price of a house in California is $789,000 for a 1,800 square residence at an average cost of $436.88 per square foot.
An average home in the Bay State comes with a price tag of $835,000, but that’s for a slightly more spacious home with 1,900 square feet or $435.80 per square foot.
The states ranked 4 through 10 on the AgentAdvice study were New York, New Jersey, Washington, Rhode Island, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon.
Occupying positions 11 through 20 on the state ranking were Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Nevada, Maine, Arizona, Vermont, Utah (at number 19) and Alaska.
In terms of pure prices, only seven states in the top 20 exceeded the median price of a home in Utah at $625,000. They were Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, New York, Washington, Montana and Colorado.
But Utahns can console themselves with the thought that the average home here – at more than 2,500 square feet – is larger than the average home in any of the 49 other states.
Of course, Utah is renowned for big families that require additional space, including more bedrooms and more bathrooms.
To relieve the state’s current housing crisis, Gov. Spencer Cox and Utah lawmakers recently joined forces to pass legislation guaranteeing $155 million in state funds to encourage new starter home construction in Utah with a goal of 33,000 new starter homes by 2028.
The average starter home in the United States, however, is typically 750 to 1,250 square feet, with one or two bedrooms and one bathroom. They are often intended to meet the basic needs of first-time homeowners who may not be ready for a long-term commitment.
Starter homes are often smaller and less expensive than other homes, since buyers are expected to outgrow them within a few years. The idea is to gain homeownership experience and build equity that can be used to purchase a larger home later.
The question is whether starter homes – at roughly half the size of the average home here – can actually satisfy the needs of growing Utah families.
For more information about this study, visit https://www.agentadvice.com/