Booms in Idaho, Utah buck the curve of slowing US growth

SALT LAKE CITY — Two Western states known for their rugged landscapes and wide-open spaces are bucking the trend of sluggish U.S. population growth, which dipped to the lowest level since the Great Depression, though different forces are powering the population booms in Utah and Idaho. “I don’t ever remember seeing anything like this,” said Bill Rauer, executive officer of the Idaho Building Contractors Association in southwest Idaho, the state’s most populous area. “ are running at a breakneck pace right now.” For both states, which have long been lightly populated, the expansion comes with rapid economic growth, sparking concerns about strains on infrastructure, rising housing prices and a sharp increase in the cost of living that could threaten the area’s quality of life in the long term. “We’re still a lot younger and we still have more kids than most states,” said Mallory Bateman, a senior research analyst at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. “If you’re not able to get into a home, how do you build your household wealth and set your family up?” Utah Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, a Democrat, has watched many of her middle-class neighbors leave downtown Salt Lake City over the past two decades as the cost of living increases.