Utah’s housing market hasn’t had a slowdown in quite some time, and no experts foresee a slowdown in the future, either. With Utah’s population boom, there won’t be enough homes to meet the demand for them.

Economic growth, population growth, and the price of land have all contributed to the heavy increases in price we’ve seen. This is also changing the landscape of homes—high-density units and smaller lots are becoming more normal, a solution to the growing affordability problem.

On the plus side, if you’re a homeowner, you’re going to gain a lot of equity in 2020. If you’re thinking of buying, the sooner the better, because home prices aren’t going to go down. Homes are projected to reach a median sales price of $400,000 this year.  Wow!

Home Price

The median sold price for homes in Salt Lake County was $348,000 during the fourth quarter, which is up quite a bit from the fourth quarter of 2018, when the median sold price was $321,500. We’re down just a bit from the third quarter median sold price this year, which was $349,000. Can you believe that the median sold price during the fourth quarter of 2017 was just $309,900?

Homeowners have built equity like crazy in the past few years. And that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. If you’re thinking about buying, I wouldn’t wait any longer if you don’t have to.

Days on Market

Homes are continuing to move fast, but they definitely aren’t moving as fast as they were over the summer months. That was 15 days during the second quarter of this year, and now we’re at 29. During the fourth quarter of last year, the days on the market was 22.

This means that you don’t have to rush quite as much to make an offer right now. Still, if you find something you like in your price range, it’s risky to wait too long before snapping it up, especially as the weather gets warmer and the market heats up even more.

Number of Homes Sold

4,296 homes were sold last quarter, which is very close to the number of homes sold during the fourth quarter of 2018. 5,159 homes sold during the third quarter of this year, so the number is down quite a bit from what we saw during the fall months.

Interest Rates

Many experts predicted much higher interest rates for the end of 2019 than we’re currently seeing. Some really nice rate drops are giving buyers the ability to purchase more expensive homes. This is especially helpful in markets like ours.

Interest rates as mid-January rates have been since 2013! The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed is 3.65%. At this time last year, that was 4.45 %. That makes a large difference in monthly payments, helping people purchase more expensive homes for less money.

Ready to Buy or Sell

Buying or selling in a market like ours comes with good and bad for both buyers and sellers. If you’re wanting to buy or sell in the near future, give me a call! I’ll be happy to help you work through either to meet all of your real estate goals.