Based on a 2026 conversation with one Lennar Homes lender: to use the Utah Homebuyer $20,000 first-time-buyer grant, the buyer must use Utah Housing Corporation as their lender. Utah Housing sets its own rates, and the builder’s preferred lender cannot buy that rate down the way they would on a standard builder-financed loan. Per that…
Neither county is objectively better – it depends on the lifestyle you want. Salt Lake County has larger and fancier restaurants, entertainment, theater, and employment centers, quicker access to Salt Lake International Airport, and some areas with more mature surrounding development. It also carries a premium just for being in Salt Lake County – new…
The thing that surprises buyers is the timeline. In the first year, a newly built Utah home is often still assessed as land only, or only partly complete, so the first property tax bill – and the escrow account set up at closing – are artificially low. Then the county reassesses the finished home at…
The honest answer is: sometimes, kind of. Many Utah builders install the front-yard landscaping, because cities require front landscaping to be completed within a certain time of the home being finished. Other builders give a sod credit and leave the front yard to you. Backyard landscaping by the builder is very rare. On a recent…
A spec home – also called an inventory or quick-move-in home – is built by the builder without a specific buyer, with the builder choosing all the finishes. It is for sale and you can typically close and move in within weeks. A model home is the fully decorated home the builder uses as its…
Do this in an organized way, not an emotional one. First: which builder has floor plans you actually like better? That usually narrows it fast. If you like plans from more than one builder, compare price per square foot – but adjust for the standard features list. A builder with a higher price per square…
Walk the model with a notepad. Write down everything you like, then have the sales representative go down your list and tell you which features are included in the base price, which are upgrades, and which are not available at all. Utah builders who let you choose finishes typically see buyers spend about five to…
In Utah, the builder pays the buyer’s agent commission. It is built into the home’s price whether you bring an agent or not, and builders do not give better pricing or incentives to a buyer who comes in unrepresented. The commission is usually a little less than what an agent would earn on a resale,…
It varies from builder to builder and over time, but most Utah builders offer a comprehensive new-home warranty structured roughly as: one year covering workmanship and cosmetic items, two years covering the mechanical systems (plumbing, electrical, HVAC), and ten years covering major structural defects. In practice the year-one coverage handles the small settling-in items –…
If you are trying to spend upgrade money well on a Utah new construction home, put it toward structural things that are difficult or impossible to change later: a nine-foot basement ceiling instead of eight, an extra window, a dining-room pop-out, real stair railings instead of a pony wall, and the third-car garage. You almost…
Spanish Fork and Magna new townhomes are priced within about $2,000 at the median ($417,400 vs. $415,400), but Spanish Fork’s units are much bigger — about 1,810 square feet versus 1,450 — so Spanish Fork is the better value per square foot ($228 vs. $281). Both are among the most affordable new-townhome markets on their…
American Fork and West Jordan new townhomes are priced within about $2,000 of each other at the median ($492,490 vs. $490,347) for nearly identical size. The decision comes down to location: American Fork is central in north Utah County with its own FrontRunner station; West Jordan is on the Salt Lake side, closer to the…