Opinion: Are we in a housing crisis? Just look at the carpenter index

These days, just about anywhere along the Wasatch Front you can find workers building houses, pounding nails into wood-framed structures, installing sheet rock or putting finishing touches on homes designed to serve families for years.

But do these skilled carpenters earn enough money to afford the homes they are building?

Unfortunately, the answer is no in most metropolitan areas. It’s an emphatic no in Utah, especially along the Wasatch Front, where average home prices have outstripped the average wage of a carpenter by a long shot (See full article here).