Home buyers along the Wasatch Front pulled back this spring for a number of reasons, leading to falling sales of existing homes as reported Friday by the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.

In Salt Lake County, 3,490 homes changed hands in the April-May-June time period, down a substantial 19 percent from the same three months last year. Utah County sales were down nearly 20 percent, followed by a 17.5 percent drop in Tooele County. Davis was down about 16 percent, followed by Weber County, down 8.2 percent.

The numbers indicate the market is starting to cool down. Although fewer homes may be changing hands, prices are still holding up.

The median selling price for the second quarter in Salt Lake County rose 15.5 percent to $254,000 - a solid figure, but not the more than 20 percent rate of last year. Nearly all ZIP code areas logged increases, but only a half-dozen of more than 30 areas have values that rose more than the 20 percent increases seen last year.

Price gains were stronger in surrounding counties, which on average are more affordable.

Tooele County's median selling price was up nearly 26 percent to nearly $195,000, according to the report. Prices in Davis County were up 20.5 percent to nearly $229,000, followed by Utah County, up nearly 20 percent to $245,000. Weber County logged the smallest gain in selling prices, 12 percent to $160,000.

Some buyers have been priced out of the market as a result of the double-whammy of rising home values and rising mortgage rates, both of which push monthly mortgage payments ever higher.

Home values in a number of areas have grown by 50 percent to 100 percent over the past five years.

This week, 30-year mortgages averaged 6.73 percent, mortgage company Freddie Mac reported, a high point for the year and more than one percentage point higher than their low in the mid-5 percent range in recent years.

The monthly principal and interest payment on a 30-year home loan of $150,000 would be about $852 at 5.5 percent a couple of years ago. That same home today, if it required a loan of $220,000 at the current rate of 6.75 percent, would sport a much higher monthly payment of more than $1,400 a month.

Add higher payments to tighter lending guidelines - put in place by many lenders in recent months that make it harder for some buyers with mediocre or bad credit to qualify - and "there are more buyers who simply cannot qualify [for a home loan] right now," said economist Jeff Thredgold, a Zions Bank consultant.

But Thredgold said an even greater factor driving down sales of existing homes is all the talk about the bursting of the nation's housing "bubble" - where selling prices are flat or falling in cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas.

"Buyers are concerned," he said.

Prices, for the most part, aren't falling here and economists are saying that because of Utah's strong job and population growth they won't, they will just grow by a much smaller margin - perhaps the 3 percent to 5 percent range.

But a number of buyers remain concerned that home sales have dropped and inventories of homes for sale are climbing.

In many areas, for-sale signs are piling up and take longer than they have in past years to come down.

One concerned Utah home buyer is Jeff Rouse, who has recently moved to Salt Lake City from the San Francisco area. Rouse said he initially was going to buy right away. But as he began to drive around the Salt Lake Valley, he said he noticed quite a lot of for-sale signs. Some of the homes he looked at a few weeks ago now have lower asking prices.

"I'm thinking of renting for a while and just seeing what happens," he said.

Realtor Tony McGuire in Salt Lake City said he isn't surprised that prices haven't taken a big hit even as home sales have dropped off.

Utah still has a strong economy. And sellers, for many different reasons, are reluctant to lower prices.

"Some are tied to big first and second mortgages. Others think if they wait long enough, they'll get the price they want," he said.

Jillinda Bowers, president-elect of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said homes priced above the mid-$300,000 range are being affected the most by the slowdown. Sellers of those homes are often the ones making the biggest concessions.

"Anything in the upper price ranges is taking longer to sell," she said.

But she underscores the fact that only two Salt Lake County ZIP Code areas had a drop in median selling prices. And one was less than 1 percent.

"This is still a really good market," she said.

lesley@sltrib.com