Planners in Summit County have released results from a long-anticipated housing assessment that was conducted in the Snyderville Basin.

With the annual area median income approaching $102,000, those earning less than half that figure are struggling to find affordable homes to rent on the West Side of Summit County, according to the report.

“For sure they are showing a present need and a future need for lower income rental units,” said Scott Loomis, executive director of Mountainlands Community Housing Trust.

“[Renters are] paying a disproportionate amount of their income toward rent.”

In the past decade, builders in the Snyderville Basin have not developed enough rental units for low-income people, he said.

“There has actually been a decrease with the Canyon Creek apartments being condominiumized to the point where they are ‘for sale’ units,” Loomis explained.

There were about 833 total rental units in the Snyderville Basin in 2000. The number of rental units in the Basin in 2010 had dropped to about 732.

The median cost for a two-bedroom rental in the Snyderville Basin is about $1,150 per month.

Meanwhile, housing in the Snyderville Basin is some of the most expensive in the state and the high prices are also impacting families earning moderate incomes that would like to buy a home.

Median incomes for households in Summit County range from $55,980 to about $76,640.

In 2006, a housing study identified a need for nearly 805 affordably priced units in the Snyderville Basin, according to Loomis.

“There are maybe 25 units that have been built in the past five years,” Loomis said. “To suggest that there isn’t a need just isn’t factual.”

The 2010 Snyderville Basin Housing Assessment shows that about 25 percent of the units built in the next five years should be reserved for buyers earning less than 80 percent of the area median income. The report states that about 225 rental units will be needed in the next five years for those earning low and moderate incomes.

There will be demand from those earning moderate incomes to purchase about 125 work force units in the next five years, the report states.

‘Pent-up’ demand

The needs assessment in 2006 also identified a “pent-up” demand for affordable housing in the Snyderville Basin. But members of the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission were disappointed to learn that the 2010 report did not state whether there is an existing need for more work force units in the area.

“I think it was frustrating because they were waiting for this study for so long,” Loomis said. “They wanted to prove or disprove all of these allegations that there is no need for affordable housing.”

The report was prepared for the Summit County Community Development Department by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah. The study cost about $1,750, according to Loomis.

According to the report, the population in the Snyderville Basin is about 17,200, an increase of 3,300 since 2000. There are about 9,045 housing units in the Basin.

Median home prices in the Snyderville Basin dropped about 26 percent since 2007. A single-family house in the area sells for about $625,000.

Only about one out of eight people who work in the Snyderville Basin live on the West Side of Summit County, according to Loomis.

“People don’t work in the neighborhood where they live,” he said.