Gina Cornia works in downtown Salt Lake City and knew when she bought her house in 2020 that she didn’t want a long commute or to drive on Interstate 15 from the suburbs every day.
And the diversity in Liberty Wells, including its proximity to grocery stores and activities, was also important in her decision to buy in the city.
But Cornia wouldn’t be able to buy in her neighborhood today.
She bought her house for $119,000. And now, the smaller house next to her is listed for $515,000.
“I would have to rent,” Cornia said. “I would not be able to afford a mortgage in today’s market.”
Utah’s housing market is pushing people into the suburbs to find affordable housing.
Economist Jim Wood, who studies housing and related topics at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, said some people would rather have money to spend elsewhere than pay a premium to live closer to work.
The Salt Lake Tribune heard from a variety of Utahns through a survey about their commute times, from those who rent closer to work to those who bought further away to afford a mortgage.
Most commutes are between 10 and 45 minutes
Out of 120 respondents, more than 70% said they commute somewhere between 10 and 45 minutes a day.
That’s relatively consistent with data from the American Community Survey, an annual study from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The largest portion of respondents said they drive 30 to 45 minutes, followed by Utahns, like Clare Messink, who, on a good day, have a 10- to 15-minute drive to work.
But she would rather have an hour-long bus ride in Salt Lake City than a commute on the freeway.
Messink has lived in big cities like Bangkok and Buenos Aires and prioritized diversity, public transport and walkability beyond just safe strolling when she moved here. That led her to the East Central neighborhood close to her brother’s house.
Messink can’t afford to buy in her neighborhood, but those priorities are more important.
“I would love to own, but I’m not going to leave my neighborhood to do it,” Messink said. “And therefore, I rent.”
Housing costs and ‘other’ factors
Messink approached her decision from a “big, holistic quality of life picture.”
And while most Utahns who responded said they considered housing costs when deciding where to live and how long to commute, “other” factors were the second-most common response.
When elaborating, they listed everything from living nearby recreation opportunities, like skiing and hiking, to avoiding inversion and other air quality problems. Walkability and bikeability of a neighborhood and refusing to move out of Salt Lake County were other reasons.
A couple of respondents used to have longer commutes, like one who moved from Logan to Weber County and one who used to commute three hours a day using FrontRunner and said they largely took a new job to get a shorter commute.
A couple hours in the car
But some don’t mind the commute — or think their job is worth it.
The smallest portion of Utahns who responded to The Tribune commute for an hour or longer. Of the 10 people who reported having a lengthy commute, most live in a different county than their workplace.
Amy Gomez can work from her home in Orem at least twice a week, but otherwise commutes at least 50 minutes through Provo Canyon to get to her job in Summit County.
She and her fiancé started looking for a house together in 2022 and couldn’t afford to live in Summit County, even in Heber.
They looked as far south as Santaquin, and almost to the northern edge of Orem, before finding their home at the entrance of Provo Canyon – and now they’re “locked into those interest rates.”
The couple commutes together now, but she had been driving up from Utah County for two years before they started driving together, and she learned the best times to leave from home and work.
And her fiancé also gets a gas allowance from his employer, she said, which helps with some of the maintenance costs.
Living in Utah County puts Gomez and her fiancé close to family, she said, and she likes her job and coworkers.
“The work that I do, I feel, does make a difference,” she said.