I live in Utah and prices have absolutely been out of control no question. I understand the pessimism about the future but supply and demand is still happening and always will be happening. Covid practices and WFH changed a lot of things everywhere but the basics of how humans make their decisions likely wont. The bummer thing is if you want to live in Utah prices are likely staying high even after a dip coming up. I think there has been a long-term shift here. You can still buy here but in the long-term it will become increasingly more difficult. That means young families will choose opportunities to live elsewhere.

The concept is not that different from living in HI, CA or parts of the Northeast starting back in the 80s, 90s. People still did it but they eventually realized they needed to find a more economical choice for the long-term if they wanted a home and yard etc. Most of those places have just continued to increase in cost over time. I know the argument is that, well, prices have gone nuts everywhere so no where is safe but that simply is not true to the degree you think it is. My brother and his wife are buying a house in an Atlanta suburb right now for the price of my Davis County Utah 2000 sqft 4 R, 2 B. Their place would sell for $1 million+ here in Utah and is 60% larger than mine and entirely updated but costs half of what mine does. Its like an American dream house with a huge yard etc in a great school district. In interest of knowing the other day I just checked what I could get now for what I bought my house for 5 1/2 years ago. Basically my same house here except updated and on a bigger lot out there.

I'm just pointing out there are and will be other options out there. Doesn't make life easy but this kind of thing has generally been happening since forever. Living in a place like DC, NY, San Francisco, Chicago has never even been on my radar because I knew it wouldn't give me a lifestyle I wanted. That will start to become, Utah, parts of Idaho and Arizona too. No doubt others.