Congressman Ben McAdams, a co-chair of the New Democrats’ Housing Task Force, welcomed stakeholders to a forum seeking innovative ideas for making housing more available and affordable. McAdams co-chairs the task force with Congressman Heck of Washington and Congresswoman Hill from California.
“Utah housing prices continue to climb dramatically. Our metro area is facing a shortage of thousands of homes. Just for reference, the median sales price of a new home in Salt Lake County in 2018 was up 61 percent from the median price in 2010. Three other Wasatch Front counties have had similar rates of increase. We need ideas from Utah and elsewhere to find an approach that works for more Utah families and individuals,” said McAdams.
McAdams invited Chris Gamvroulas, Ivory Development, to be a panelist during the forum. In Utah, Ivory Home’s CEO has created a $200,000 million “Ivory Prize” to spur innovative ideas on affordable housing development.
The forum is a follow up to the Task Force’s 2018 report “Missing Millions of Homes”. The event focused on actionable solutions to the four Ls of housing construction: land, lumber, labor and loans. Two panels of experts addressed members of the New Democrat Coalition and fielded questions.
McAdams said today’s forum is a preliminary step in the search for solutions to housing affordability. He said he will be reaching out to other Utah housing experts and stakeholders to get their feedback and listen to their ideas.
