No — a new construction home in Utah doesn’t lose value the moment you close on it the way a new car loses value the moment you drive it off the lot. Over a 10-to-15-year horizon, new construction and comparable resale homes in the same area tend to appreciate at similar rates, once you account…
It can be, and real examples show up regularly. One Saratoga Springs development recently had just four homes left — beautiful homes on large lots up on a hill, priced in the $800,000s, when comparable homes in the surrounding area were running into the $900,000s. Builders closing out a phase or a community often want…
Yes, you can appeal a property tax assessment on a new construction home in Utah — but it’s worth setting expectations correctly first. A successful appeal generally requires an actual factual error in how the county has your home recorded: the wrong square footage, the wrong age, the wrong number of bedrooms or bathrooms, that…
Fast, reliable internet is genuinely something Utah does well, and it isn’t really a new-construction-versus-resale distinction — fiber is available in most new construction areas today, and in many cities it’s been run out to existing resale neighborhoods too. If remote work is part of why you’re relocating to Utah, that’s a reasonable thing to…
You can add an accessory dwelling unit to any home in Utah, and some builders will build a legally certified ADU with city zoning approval to rent it out from day one. More commonly, though, builders finish a basement into an apartment-style space without formally pursuing city ADU approval — and in practice, a lot…
Standard solar isn’t something mainstream Utah production builders offer as a built-in feature today — it’s just not something that comes up as a normal part of buying new construction in Utah County or Salt Lake County. A small number of builders have explored solar-included or net-zero-focused homes over the years, and some builders may…
Design center appointments themselves have actually become less common in Utah than they used to be, mostly because most builders now lean heavily on spec and quick move-in homes that already have finishes selected — matching what buyers typically want without a separate design phase. When you do go through one, plan on it taking…
Secondary water — also called pressurized irrigation — is one of the best-kept perks of buying new construction in the right Utah city, and it’s worth actively looking for. It’s untreated water delivered through a separate irrigation system, used strictly for outdoor watering, and it shows up as its own line item apart from your…
In a new Utah community, the builder — technically called the “declarant” — typically keeps control of the HOA until the community reaches a certain build-out threshold, commonly somewhere around a majority of homes being sold, though the exact trigger is spelled out in that specific community’s governing documents and can vary. Once that threshold…
Yes, and it works smoothly. Most Utah builders’ preferred lenders are experienced handling VA loans, and it’s genuinely uncommon for a veteran using a VA loan to run into problems buying new construction here. The main technical requirement to know: a VA construction contract has to be fixed-price, not cost-plus, and the VA no longer…
Some do, though don’t expect a huge number. Several Utah builders privately offer their own small grants for teachers and first responders — typically in the $2,000 to $2,500 range — on top of whatever standard incentive they’re already running. Separately, there are state and local down-payment assistance programs aimed at teachers and first responders,…
Utah’s expansive soils along the Wasatch Front are the underlying cause — they absorb water and swell, then shrink as they dry, and that repeated cycle puts real stress on a foundation over time. Most of what shows up in a typical Utah new construction home is minor hairline cracking in the basement slab, which…