Millennial Latino Utahns have housing, education boosts over Gen Xers

Maria Garciaz’s family bounced around Salt Lake City when she was a kid.

They often rented houses in poor condition, but after growing tired of evictions, the family – even Garciaz and her siblings – worked and saved money to afford a down payment on a home.

That home provided stability, Garciaz, the former long-time CEO of west-side nonprofit Neighbor Works, said. After going to “every elementary school in Salt Lake City” from kindergarten to sixth grade, she was able to stay at one school for a long time.

“It made a huge difference to live in one place, because that’s one less thing you have to worry about, one less stress,” Garciaz said.

Millennials identifying as Hispanic or Latino made more at 27 than their Generation X counterparts, according to data from the Opportunity Atlas, an analysis by Harvard-based Opportunity Insights and the U.S. Census Bureau.

They saw that jump even as earnings dropped for all races and ethnicities combined between the two generations.

Garciaz thinks an increase in homeownership is a key reason some millennial Latinos have been more upwardly mobile than those in any other ethnic and racial groups in Utah.

Others pointed to greater educational access, more targeted skills-training programs and, they say, Latinos’ entrepreneurial spirit as drivers of success.

And Neighbor Works has initiatives tied to helping people work on all of those.

Upward mobility declined – but not for Latinos

Utah has been – and still is – a good place for economic mobility, or the ability for a person to make more than their parents, said economist Raj Chetty.

Chetty, an economics professor at Harvard University and the director of Opportunity Insights, which uses data to study the science of upward mobility and ways to give children from all backgrounds better chances of succeeding.

During a March seminar at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, he talked broadly about trends in mobility between Generation X and the Millennial generation.

Opportunity generally receded across America and in Utah, according to the Opportunity Atlas, which uses anonymized data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service to follow millions of Americans from childhood to adulthood.

It compared average household income, pulled from tax return data, at age 27 for Americans born to low-income families in both 1978 and 1992 to get a localized picture of changing opportunities over time.

After normalizing incomes based on 2023 dollars, the research found that upward mobility largely declined for millennials compared to Generation X.

Though kids born in 1992 saw an 8.4% drop overall from the average income of Utahns born in 1978 to low-income parents, there were some exceptions.

In counties where data was available, some minorities either saw gains between generations or a smaller drop than white Utahns.

Utahns identifying as Hispanic or Latino born in 1992 saw the largest gains over people of the same demographic born in 1978, though their earnings at 27 were still less than those of white people born in Utah.

Chetty emphasized there are still “substantial” divides by race.

For example, while income increased by 20.5% for Latino children born in Salt Lake County in 1992 compared to those born in 1978, it still lagged behind the income of white people by about $2,000 a year.

But there are expanding opportunities, Chetty said, and “encouraging signs of progress.”

Homeownership on the rise

In Utah, progress includes the Latino community – and Garciaz thinks homeownership is integral to that economic mobility because it allows families, both parents and kids, to start dreaming bigger in their careers instead of merely trying to survive.

In her almost 40 years of running Neighbor Works, which hosts continuing education classes and helps families secure stable housing, she’s seen homeownership among Latinos rise in the Salt Lake Valley.

From 2013 to 2019, about half of Latino households in Salt Lake County were owned, according to American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That jumped to 53% in 2020 and was up to 55% in 2023, the most recent year for which there’s data.

Neighbor Works aids prospective homebuyers in a number of ways, including via mortgages, down payment assistance and home improvement grants.

Since 1977, the organization has invested $250.5 million through various efforts, according to the most recent annual report.

That includes funding for:

Last year, Neighbor Works funded 16 down payment assistance grants, 15 grants or forgivable loans for home improvements and two loans for home improvements or down payment.

The organization champions investment in neighborhoods, something Chetty noted helps improve economic mobility in areas that traditionally have offered fewer opportunities.

As the Utah housing market has tightened and grown more expensive, the nonprofit has also rolled out a community land trust initiative to keep some homes within reach so that future homeowners can reap similar economic benefits.

Garciaz and Neighbor Works board president Charlie Knadler note in the report that “escalating housing prices and persistent high interest rates” would be a challenge this year.

As of May, the median listing price of homes in Utah was $599,900.00, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That’s up nearly $190,000 from May 2019.

More Latinos getting bachelor’s degrees

Garciaz said attaining education of various shapes and sizes has been a big deal for Utah Latinos.

Neighbor Works teaches homebuyer classes and financial literacy offerings. It’s also a partner in the Westside Leadership Institute, a course for people looking to build sustainable community initiatives west of the train tracks splitting Salt Lake City.

Nelson Altamirano, board chair of the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, agrees that more educational attainment among Latinos helps many achieve greater success. He’s noticed that more recent waves of Latino immigrants to Utah come with more education already completed

“They have had kids who are more willing to be educated,” Altamirano said. “It’s just kind of an obvious choice to them, where those groups before, maybe in the ’60s, ’70s, they didn’t have that example. They didn’t think it could be done.”

He and Garciaz also agreed that Utah colleges, both public and private, have done a better job lately of reaching out to Latinos and building pathways for them to get their degrees.

People with bachelor’s degrees are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to work full-time jobs with paid vacation, health insurance, retirement and flexibility, leading to greater stability, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Stability in parents’ employment is key to upward mobility, researchers with Opportunity Insights found.

Three public higher education schools have announced they want to become “Hispanic-serving institutions:” Salt Lake Community College, Weber State University and the University of Utah.

The designation based on the percentage of students enrolled who are Latino has historically opened the door to more federal education money for schools. Each has seen Latino enrollment growth in recent years.

Between 2018 and 2023, the proportion of Latino residents in Salt Lake County with at least a bachelor’s degree increased from 13.3% to 19%, according to American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Though that’s a 43% increase, the rate among the Latino community is still lower – often much lower – than for white people and residents identifying as Asian and multiracial.

Flourishing ‘entrepreneurial spirit’

Isaac Atencio, the co-owner of Salt Lake Barber Company and Culture Coffee, is a millennial. He echoed Altamirano’s point that parents’ career choices can also affect their kids’ decisions.

“In that earlier cohort, … I’m sure that a lot of parents at that time were working labor jobs, construction,” Atencio said. “I know for a fact that a lot of people a decade older than me were pulled into those businesses, those lines of work with their family.”

Even industry organizations have acknowledged there’s less stability in construction and similar jobs than in many professions requiring a degree.

Millennials also may have had more access to more informal educational opportunities important for improving economic mobility, even if they didn’t go to college, Garciaz said.

The Hispanic Chamber, for example, runs a host of career- and business-focused classes, ranging from improving students’ skills with popular spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel to teaching entrepreneurs how to get a small business loan from the federal government.

Garciaz also highlighted the Suazo Business Center, which teaches skills courses for entrepreneurs and gives business advice, as an invaluable resource for Latinos trying to start their own companies in Utah.

Altamirano said Latinos have “entrepreneurial spirit” and generally are more willing to start their own firms. He added that consistent economic growth in Utah has made many more confident that their business idea can take off here.

Atencio and Altamirano said that in many Latino families, resilience and a strong work ethic are prioritized, key ingredients in getting a company up and running.

Concerns about the future

Despite recent gains in upward mobility, there are fears that legislation aiming to outlaw diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives could reduce opportunities for Utah Latinos looking to improve their economic outlook, especially via higher education.

“Will those [opportunities] still be available,” Garciaz questioned, “with all this anti-DEI sentiment?”

Last year, Utah outlawed DEI practices in government organizations, including public schools, joining many other Republican states in a push against policies and measures that organizations use to prevent discrimination, comply with civil rights laws and create environments more welcoming to people from marginalized backgrounds

Supporters of diversity programs say they help companies hire and retain top talent and boost innovation and profits.

But critics say they focus on race and gender at the expense of individual merit, and they have challenged these initiatives in courtrooms and on social media as “reverse discrimination” against white people.

President Donald Trump’s second term has brought more criticism, including directives to eliminate DEI from government institutions.

The Trump administration has issued executive orders pulling back on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and many corporations and businesses have reacted accordingly. Those and other actions by the administration, including tariffs, have had some visible effects even locally, including not renewing sponsorship money for SLCPride and the Utah Pride Festival.

That’s despite research showing that more progress for diverse demographics doesn’t mean less progress for white children, Chetty said.

“It’s not a zero-sum game,” he said.