A similar house just a few doors away took nine months to sell last year; another neighboring property finally sold after one year.

Yet less than one week after putting their 2,400-square-foot home on the market this spring, the Newtons had accepted one of four near full-price offers.

"We knew our home was in great condition, but we were totally unprepared to sell that quickly," Karie Newton said after closing the deal for $192,000.

Many Wasatch Front home sellers are benefiting from what is shaping up to be one of the best spring home-selling markets in Utah in a decade.

Interest rates remain low, and for the first time in years, Utah's economy is adding jobs at a pace second only to Nevada.

In the first quarter, the average selling price in Salt Lake County rose 8.1 percent to $204,283, according to data from the Wasatch Front Regional Multiple Listing Service released Wednesday by the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.

The number of Salt Lake County homes that changed hands in the first three months of the year rose 17.9 percent compared with the first quarter of last year, according to the report.

Selling prices and unit sales also were up in other Wasatch Front counties.

"The real estate market right now is hot, hot, hot - that's the only way to describe it," said Debra Sjoblom, the Newton's Realtor and president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.

Not everyone is enjoying the real estate market's revival. Some homes are still taking a long time to sell, and some sellers are still making some significant price concessions. But in a growing number of areas, sellers of homes in good condition are finding buyers more quickly and getting better offers than they have had in years.

The market's turnaround can be seen in homes in all price ranges, but may be especially welcome in higher-priced homes, a segment of the market that suffered significantly during Utah's economic downturn.

High on Bountiful's east bench, for example, many people have struggled to sell homes above $400,000 in a reasonable amount of time near asking price. Yet in the weeks since Debbie Perry started advertising her 4,500-square-foot property this spring for $454,900, she had two offers.

"It has been nice to have that kind of response," she said.

Higher interest rates, which are expected in the coming year, certainly can hurt home sales by decreasing affordability. But most economists are not predicting significantly higher mortgage rates by the end of this year.

Rates for 30-year home loans, averaging about 6 percent right now, could rise to 6.5 percent by the end of the year, economists say. That compares with a low of just less than 5 percent in 2003.

Salt Lake City economist Jeff Thredgold, however, predicts mortgage rates will rise to only 6.25 percent by later this year.

"When you think about it, even 6.5 percent is still a good bargain," he said. "You would have to see mortgage rates above 7 percent to see any significant slowing in the housing market."

Given the fact that interest rates - and home values - are expected to rise along the Wasatch Front in the coming years, now may be a good time to invest in real estate.

Thredgold, a consultant to Salt Lake City-based Zions Bank, said the low interest rates - combined with the improving economy and strong job growth throughout the states - likely will fuel home price increases after several years of little or no appreciation.

"We'll see over the next two to three years the strongest home appreciation in Utah that we've seen in the past seven years," he said.

---

Tribune reporter Rosemary Winters contributed to this story.