Affordable Housing in Utah: A Study of Rent and Income

This study examines the affordable housing situation in Utah, focusing on the relationship between rent and income. It analyzes the minimum wage, median family income, and affordable rent for low, very low, and extremely low-income families. The study also explores the realtor website as a resource for finding rental units and the pricing strategy of the realtor company.

The following figures were obtained for communities living in Utah state USA.
State minimum wage $7.25. This implied that the lowest paid employee in Utah had a minimum
wage of $7.25. The corresponding affordable rent for $7.25 was $377. This indicated that rate of
affordable rent at minimum wage was very low.
The median family income for a family of 4 in Utah was $23833. This implied that even for new
employees staying in Utah with a family of 4 had the likelihood of having and income of
$23833. However, the median income may not fully consider all the families since its only
involves computation of a single value.
The rent that is affordable for a family of 4 that is (1) low income, (2) very low income, and (3)
extremely low income was $377. Considering the three groups of families the affordable rent
was $37 on average. This was extremely low compared to those who had high income. The
income was determined by the job the employee was doing.
Fair market rent for housing that is appropriate for a family of 4 with 3 bedrooms was $952.
Since this price was just fair price, this indicated that there was also very high price for the same
rent for a family of 4 (Hanson and Hawley 2011). The number of bedrooms was a major
consideration in determining the rent of the house.
Many companies provide online services for their current and potential clients to get them easily.
A person can determine where to get a rental house using the company’s website. To determine
what rental house was appropriate for a person working fulltime in Utah and receiving a
minimum wage, realtor website was used. From the website, it was for a person to rent a 3-
bedroom house which was appropriate depending on the minimum wage of the person. The link

to the realtor company is https://www.realtor.com/apartments/Utah-Mountain-
Estates_Asheville_NC/price-na-1577
The appropriate rental unit for a family of 4 with low income was a 2-bedroom house. This was
based on the low-income status of the family for which the was possible depending with the
minimum possible rent. The link for the rental option was
https://www.realtor.com/apartments/Utah-Mountain-Estates_Asheville_NC/price-377-500
The realtor company has very efficient website. The indexing of the potential was possible based
on the conditions that were required. There was more options of the houses ranging from the
price by the person searching for the rental unit. Another consideration that was a consequent of
the price was the number of bedrooms based on their specific location in Utah (Kirkpatrick and
Tarasuk 2011). For instance, a 2-bedroom house located in west Jordan was more expensive than
a similar house located in Orem.
The major sacrifices that were involved included investigating why the same rental unit had
varying prices. There were various factors that lead to price variation such as availability of
social amenities such as hospitals and the security of the area. Finally, some areas were
associated with people from a certain class which lead to price variation (Lee 2016). For people
belonging to high social status the rent was high compared to areas which had residents with low
social status.
The realtor company should improve the pricing strategy of their houses. This could be done by
including the income categories of the potential residents (Kaplan et al 2014). This can help the
person looking for a rental unit to search less content and also to identify directly the appropriate
rental unit.

References
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Evidence from an internet field experiment in US cities. Journal of Urban Economics, 70(2-3),
pp.99-114.
Kaplan, R.S., Witkowski, M., Abbott, M., Guzman, A.B., Higgins, L.D., Meara, J.G., Padden,
E., Shah, A.S., Waters, P., Weidemeier, M. and Wertheimer, S., 2014. Using time-driven
activity-based costing to identify value improvement opportunities in healthcare. Journal of
Healthcare Management, 59(6), pp.399-412.
Kirkpatrick, S.I. and Tarasuk, V., 2011. Housing circumstances are associated with household
food access among low-income urban families. Journal of urban health, 88(2), pp.284-296.
Lee, D., 2016. How Airbnb short-term rentals exacerbate Los Angeles's affordable housing
crisis: Analysis and policy recommendations. Harv. L. & Pol'y Rev., 10, p.229.