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The Crazy, Unprecedented, Downright Insane Housing Market

BRIANA JACKSON
/
ISTOCK

Real estate across the country has never been a hotter commodity. A couple years ago, there were already more potential homebuyers than there were available homes. But then the COVID pandemic hit, causing a greater housing demand coupled with a shortage of lumber and construction labor.

If you’re looking for a home right now, you know what it’s like out there: interest rates have rarely been better; people are lined up around the corner to get into open houses; bids are far beyond asking price. At 11 a.m. this Friday, we’re asking what’s going on with the housing market around the country and here in Utah. Some of it has to do with the pandemic and big money investors snapping up homes, but there are the plain old market forces of supply and demand. Of course, homeownership has long been a cornerstone of the American dream, so we’re also asking what it means when more and more people can’t afford a home of their own. 

GUESTS

  • Candace Taylor, reporter covering real estate across the country for the Wall Street Journal
  • Dejan Eskic, senior fellow at the Kem C Gardener Policy Institute at the University Utah, studying housing, real estate and construction in the state.
  • Katie McKellar, reporter covering state politics for the Deseret News.
  • Conor Dougherty, economics reporter at the New York Times
Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.