Pent-up demand.

• Author: Stewart, Heather Dawn
• Position: From the Editor

When it comes to demographics, Utah is unique for its youthful population, young average marriage age and above-average household sizes. Our state's millennial population is unique for another reason: Utah millennials are much more likely to own a home than their national counterparts.

That's according to the Utah Foundation, which says that 41 percent of Utah millennial households own their own home, compared to 30 percent nationally. But current housing trends are going to make it harder for these young Utahns to become home owners.

First of all, the rate of new home construction has not recovered from the hit it took during the Great Recession. A quick look at the numbers shows how dramatic this slump has been. The first half of 2006 saw 11,700 permits issued for new single-family homes to be built along the Wasatch Front, according to the Construction Monitor. But in 2008, a year into the Great Recession, only 3,000 permits were issued--about a quarter of the permits issued just two years earlier.

Fast forward to the first half of 2015, and the Wasatch Front saw about 5,000 permits for new home construction--a big improvement over the recessionary numbers, but still a far cry from the 11,700 that were built in 2006.

In addition to that, the inventory of homes on the market is flat--if not falling. Salt Lake County saw an inventory increase of only .8 percent...