Voices: Utah’s housing crisis will outgrow local control in 2026

Note to readers • This is part of a series of forward-looking predictions for 2026. Read more.

In 2026, the Utah Legislature will finally take more decisive action on housing.

You already know that housing affordability is a major issue in Utah. You feel it in your rent or when you cannot afford to buy a home. You read about it in the news almost daily. Median home prices along the Wasatch Front have more than doubled since 2015, far outpacing wage growth, while rents have surged for lower- and middle-income households. Utah faces a structural housing shortage that can no longer be solved incrementally or city by city.

The people being priced out of Utah today are not hypothetical. They are young families, teachers, nurses and the children and grandchildren of longtime residents. Gov. Spencer Cox has said this repeatedly: “I don’t want my grandkids to be in Indiana. That’s a failure if the only reason they are looking to move to Indiana is because they want to have a house.”

Housing is a regional and statewide issue, but so far, Utah and many other states have let cities veto new, more affordable housing. Growth does not stop at city boundaries, yet Utah’s land use system treats housing as if each municipality exists in isolation. In this system, cities protect the status quo for current residents while exporting higher rents, longer commutes and overcrowded housing to neighboring communities. The actions taken by the Legislature so far to encourage cities to build more housing are mostly incentive-based, and they have likely resulted in limited construction of more affordable homes, with a few exceptions.

Many cities just say no to attainable housing, especially those that are most affluent and those with better schools, better air quality and access to the outdoors. These are precisely the places where demand is highest and where additional housing would do the most to stabilize prices regionally.

This ability to say no is steeped in a phrase you heard before, “local control,” describing cities having the absolute authority over which type of development occurs within their boundaries. This approach to policymaking runs counter to the need for regional and statewide solutions.

The result is a culture of no, as many people in Utah seem to have severe allergic reactions to even moderate density. NIMBYism dominates local government, and participants in city council and planning commission meetings are far more opposed to new housing than residents as a whole. Those voices are organized and persistent, but they are not representative. Some people in the very cities that keep saying no to attainable housing are starting to wonder whether the state will take away their zoning power.

My prediction for 2026: The Utah Legislature will follow the lead of other red states, such as Texas and Montana, and finally implement zoning guardrails that facilitate the construction of more for-sale starter homes. This will happen despite calls for local control by several legislators and the Utah League of Cities and Towns. Led by GOP legislators such as Ray Ward, housing bills will likely pass with support from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

I am not privy to ongoing policy conversations, but I think Utah will adopt at least three reforms that can make it easier to build more housing, which is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition to address housing affordability.

First, Utah will legalize detached accessory dwelling units (ADUs) by right in all land zoned for single-family homes. ADUs are not only a way to add housing supply; they also make homeownership more affordable because they can be rented out, helping homeowners afford their mortgage. ADUs can improve household financial stability while adding relatively low-impact housing.

Second, the state will require cities to zone part of their land for starter homes likely to be for sale, including small-lot single-family homes, townhomes and fourplexes. This means reducing the amount of land that cities require to build one home, which is fundamental in a state with such high land values as Utah. This reform might be the most controversial one, but one that could make the biggest difference in increasing the supply of more affordable for-sale homes.

Finally, Utah will remove parking minimum mandates. Parking requirements often add tens of thousands of dollars per unit and make housing unnecessarily expensive. Letting developers, not cities, decide how much parking to provide is a straightforward market-based reform, already adopted in several cities and states.

I hope 2026 is the year Utah finally acknowledges that housing affordability cannot be solved city by city. If it is not, the consequences are not abstract. They are measured in longer commutes, delayed family formation and a growing list of Utahns who leave not because they want to, but because they have no other choice.

Alessandro Rigolon is an Associate Professor in the Department of City and Metropolitan at the University of Utah. He is also a board member of Wasatch Advocates for Livable Communities. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife and two kids.

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