Do we truly need to be building so many more homes in St. George?
There have been a lot of complaints on social media lately about the fact that developers are building so many homes in the St. George area since the influx has been causing home prices to go up. The issue is that if we don’t build new homes, our community will become like San Francisco. Let me explain.
As of 2015, San Francisco had the highest rents in the country. In the early 2000s, they enacted strict zoning regulations; when your zoning regulations are too tight, you suppress the new inventory from hitting the market. If there aren’t enough homes, prices will go up exponentially higher.
“The United States is under-built by about five million homes.”
Back in 2005 when the market reached its peak insanity, there were 3,512 building permits in Washington County. By 2009, that number had dropped to just 400. It took until 2019 before we hit 2,500 permits, and only now in 2021 will we hit 3,500 again.
The bottom line is that the United States is underbuilt by about five million homes. This massive effort by developers is ultimately safeguarding the market from rising home prices.
If you have any questions about buying or building a new home or if you’d like to speak with one of our great builder clients, give us a call or send an email. We’d love to hear from you.
