Utah housing market starting to 'normalize' but remains competitive
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KUTV) — Utah's housing market is showing signs of coming back to earth – at least, a little bit.
Home sales dropped in July by 26 percent compared to the previous July, according to the Utah Association of Realtors, and the buying process is calming down some. The intense bidding wars that characterized the housing market just a few months ago are not as frenzied.
The housing market is “beginning to normalize,” said Dejan Eskic, senior research fellow at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.
Eskic said Utah’s housing supply is starting to come back after falling dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some buyers became fatigued and stopped looking for homes, he added, but they may feel comfortable getting back in the market soon.
Clay Winder, a realtor with the Red Sign Team at Keller Williams Westfield Real Estate, agreed the market has shifted from its super-charged state.
“It is not like it was 90 days ago,” said Winder. “Instead of getting 12 offers on a house, you’re getting one, two, maybe three. That’s the difference.”
Yet, the housing market remains competitive, Winder said, and prices are still very high. Utah’s median sales price in July climbed to $455,000, according to data from the Utah Association of Realtors. That’s up more than 28 percent from July 2020.
Eskic said prices are not expected to fall anytime soon. He said he expects them to remain high for the next six months to a year as homes are still lasting just a few days on the market and interest rates remain low.
“We still have a lot of demand,” said Eskic.
Andrew Wiggins is hoping to benefit from that demand. He’s getting ready to put his house in Salt Lake City’s Liberty Wells neighborhood on the market.
“I hope that we get a lot of interest,” said Wiggins, while acknowledging the market isn’t as red-hot as it was earlier this year. “I’m not anticipating it being quite the same as if we were to sell it in June or July.”
Here are the median sales prices in Utah in July, broken down by county, according to the Utah Association of Realtors:
- Beaver County: $154,000
- Box Elder County: $377,500
- Cache County: $381,000
- Carbon County: $170,000
- Daggett County: No homes sold in July
- Davis County: $460,000
- Duchesne County: $208,750
- Emery County: $205,000
- Garfield County: $335,000
- Grand County: $477,450
- Iron County: $352,451
- Juab County: $419,875
- Kane County: $381,266
- Millard County: $237,000
- Morgan County: $615,000
- Piute County: $225,000
- Rich County: $516,709
- Salt Lake County: $475,000
- San Juan County: $275,000
- Sanpete County: $385,000
- Sevier County: $254,500
- Summit County: $1,100,000
- Tooele County: $413,000
- Uintah County: $204,000
- Utah County: $459,600
- Wasatch County: $843,893
- Washington County: $487,500
- Wayne County: $360,000
- Weber County: $390,000
