By Michelle Clark
Orem is quickly running out of available land.
According to Karen J. Hackett, Geographic Information Systems, only five percent of Orem is vacant residential land.
“Orem is almost built out,” Hackett said.
“Orem is becoming fully developed, with a population of 90,000. We expect the population to ultimately reach 115,000,” Jim Reams, City Manager, said.
The portions of land left are small, agricultural pieces, Reams said.
Orem is currently 70 percent residential and 30 percent commercial.
If demand continues to increase, the prices will continue to drive up, said Norman Thurston, BYU Professor of Economics.
We may begin to see a trend of people choosing other areas to live, outside Orem, Thurston said.
“There’s no question that the prices are going up. It’s a high demand area,” Kevin Call, Vice President, Association of Realtors, said.
Orem is central to shopping and entertainment, with close access to both UVSC and BYU. Call believes these advantages make Orem and Provo popular places to live.
“The Orem and Provo marketplaces are really desirable, and thus really expensive places to live.”
“For new construction it’s going to be a really expensive market,” Call said.
Real-estate hasn’t seen a enormous flux of people moving out of Orem to local cities yet, Call said. He feels this is due to Orem’s increasing marketability.
Even though Orem is running low on available land, Stanford Sainsbury, Director of Development, says there will be an increase in redevelopment to compensate.
“We’re taking out old buildings and putting in new commercial development. As raw land becomes less and less, we redevelop.”
As Orem is faced with greater demand, many are positive it won’t hurt future development.
“It won’t hurt us in any way; it just forces us to find old areas, and build over them,” said Sainsbury.
Shonnie Tornow of Re/Max Central Realty attributes the flux into Orem to the lack of space left in Provo. “We are now seeing people migrate to Orem, because Provo is quickly running out of space.”
Orem was placed on Money magazine’s Best Places ranking as one of the most sought-after places to live.
