SALT LAKE CITY — With the exception of a few cities in Salt Lake County, homes in one of Utah's most populous counties dropped again to start the new year.
According to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, the median single-family home price in Salt Lake County for January 2023 was $533,5000 — 9 percent lower when compared to January 2022.
That caused the median price of a single-family home to jump nearly 60% here in the county.
Matthew Clewett bought his first home in Kaysville back in 2021.
"It was an offer that I actually had to pay above asking price for. It was at pretty much at the top end of my budget," said Clewett. "I think I had to go $20,000 over asking."
Since May, the board says those prices have dropped 22 percent.
"We've had more prices, been able to get, I'd say stabilizes a little better. I mean people hear the word fall, like their prices are crashing. [I] wouldn't say prices have been crashing, but they've come down a lot," said Rob Ockey, president of the board.
Despite the lower home prices, experts say higher mortgage rates are slowing sales, with a 30-year-fixed mortgage rate increasing to 6.5% as of February 23 — up from 3.9% a year ago.
“I think the interest rates as a whole are the major factor that has created the most instability, along with the timing of the increase," said Ockey.
In January 2022, 590 homes were sold in the county, which is down 36% compared to 927 sales in January 2022. That's the fewest number of homes sold in a single month since January 2011, when 571 sales were made, the board reported.
Some areas in Salt Lake County actually saw a median price increase for homes including Holladay, West Valley City and the Canyon Rim area.
In West Valley City, median prices increased to $435,000, up 0.3% from $433,900 a year ago. Holladay saw a 4% jump, with home prices currently at $860,000 when compared to $824,000 a year earlier.
In Salt Lake County's Canyon Rim area, the single-family median home price increased to $1.1 million, which is up 36% from $810,000 in January 2022.
Overall, Ockey says the current market can be good for both buyers and sellers.
"Of course, the seller always wants to be able to make the most money possible, but the way that that trend was occurring, buyers weren't able to buy homes. I mean, we were pricing people out of properties," said Ockey. "We have to have some type of balance."
Additionally, in January, the median time a home was on the market was 51 days, compared to 11 days in January 2022.
Despite the continuing crunch in Utah's housing market, Ockey explained there's still a strong demand to buy a home in Utah.
"A majority of homeowners are sitting on plenty of equity,” Ockey said. “There is still strong demand by people to buy a home. The limiting factor is higher interest rates.”
