Family struggling to find home in Utah

Ogden, Utah — Last November Brendan and Clare Vesce decided they wanted to move to Utah. “We made the decision to leave Colorado and to be closer to family and just start our lives together as newborn parents and newlyweds.”

They sold their house in Colorado but they found themselves virtually homeless in Ogden, where Brendan was already starting his new job.

“I would leave work and go up to my hotel room at work and it was just kind of like, not leaving work,” said Brendan. “So I started to stay in my camper, at a campsite, just to get a break from being away from work and not being there.”

Thinking her husband would find a house soon, Clare moved herself and her newborn son up to her parent’s home in Montana. “He missed his son crawling for the first time and his first words because we were apart,” she said.

Putting in offers, along with 40 other buyers, Brendan was spending two hours looking at four to five houses every single day. According to the couple, it was too frustrating and exhausting. “You have to provide people with places to live,” said Clare. “Otherwise, you have people coming in buying second and third homes for investment properties. There are no employees to work at businesses. Who’s supposed to work in Utah if no one can afford to live there?”

If you really want to buy in Utah, you have to think smaller, Terry Bailey said. “You’re not buying the same thing that you should be renting for,” he said. “So you have a budget of $2,000, and you know that might get you a nicer townhome. But that can only buy you like, a condo. I would recommend buying the condo, and that way, you’re actually in the game.”

According to Bailey, besides rising home prices and interest rates are taking people out of the market, he doesn’t see any sort of housing bubble bursting soon. “Typically, real estate has actually outpaced inflation just a little bit,” said Bailey. “So I think that’s what will continue to happen. Real Estate’s just a very, very strong market. And I think people need a place to live.”