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Home sales across the Wasatch Front posted their first gains in nearly a year as late-summer buyers overcame concerns about hefty prices or sought housing deals away from the region's most populated counties.
Sales in Salt Lake County slipped, though, 3 percent lower for the third quarter, according to new ZIP code data released Wednesday by the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. That represents a decline of almost 9 percent within county boundaries for the nine months ending in September compared with the same period in 2013, a trend market watchers say is linked to higher prices and, possibly, a lack of new homes.
"We're just coming off the peak," said Angie Domichel Nelden, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, who noted that 2013 marked Utah's strongest housing market in seven years.
"This is a little bit of a correction," Nelden said. "It's still a healthy market."
Total sales for the five-county area grew for July, August and September by just under 2 percent, the board report said, with the latest gains elsewhere masking Salt Lake County's declines.
Weber, Davis and Tooele counties saw sales shoot up by 8.8 percent to 10.4 percent in the third quarter, traditionally the healthiest quarter for residential real estate markets. Utah County values spurted at a more modest 1.6 percent.
The regional uptick in sales ends a stretch of three quarters of declines year over year. An estimated 7,158 Wasatch Front houses sold for the three-month period as home prices continued a virtually uninterrupted climb since midsummer 2013 and mortgage rates tilted upward.
Key ZIP codes in Salt Lake City (84111 and 84105), Sandy (84070) and West Jordan (84081) saw the biggest third-quarter sales gains in Salt Lake County. Neighborhoods in Murray (84107), elsewhere in Salt Lake City (84101, 84106 and 84108) and West Valley City (84128 and 84119) all recorded double-digit sales declines.
In Davis County, hot areas for sales gains were Kaysville (84037), Centerville (84014) and Layton (84041) while Farmington (84025) and Bountiful (84010) marked the largest percentage drops year over year.
Portions of Orem (84097 and 84057), Provo (84601) and Salem (84653) were major third-quarter sales winners in Utah County. At the other end, Mapleton (84664), Springville (84663) and American Fork (84003) saw the county's largest sales slides.
Weber County's home sales leaders were Hooper (84315), Riverdale (84405), South Ogden (84403) and Roy (84067) and the main laggard was Marriott-Slaterville (84401). Tooele County's biggest boost came within Tooele City limits (84074) and its deepest sales dip was in Stockton (84071).
Nelden said the overall slowdown was tied to price hikes.
Median prices on single-family homes reached $256,568 for all of Salt Lake County last quarter, well above surrounding counties, where they ranged between $243,000 for Utah County and $170,000 for Weber County. Price increases, combined with the effects of higher interest rates from a year ago, appeared to be deterring some would-be buyers and leading others to look further afield for bargains.
And while rising market values may dampen short-term sales, a leading Utah banker noted Wasatch Front home prices were growing steadily and keeping in line with wages, signaling underlying economic strength.
"It's a silver lining," said Jeremy Lowry, senior vice president of residential lending at Zions Bank. "Housing is a function of what people can afford and increased real-estate prices tend to be a good thing for the economy as long as incomes can support those prices."
Lowry said price gains since 2013 also might indicate gaps in the supply of new homes, at least in some neighborhoods.
Relief on that front might not come soon.
Separate figures published this month hint at continuing softness in demand for new housing units — despite robust job growth in Utah, net in-migration to the state and shrinking inventories of foreclosures and homes left in financial distress by the Great Recession.
Homebuilding in Utah has been weak since April, according to an October report by the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Permits for single-family homes are down statewide and Utah's top 10 homebuilders saw an average production decline year over year of 26.5 percent for the first seven months of 2014, that report said.
Tellingly, the latest Board of Realtors data show the number of days that homes remained on the market rose in all five counties, an indicator of buyer caution.
Homes spent an average of 62 days on the market in Salt Lake County, the board said, compared with 102 days in Weber County.
New listings also are dragging, down 1 percent for the quarter.
And after enjoying strong sales gains for almost a year, condominium markets also eased, with sales off 2.3 percent for all five counties for July, August and September. Condo sales fell a full 13 percent during the past year in Salt Lake County.
Twitter: @Tony_Semerad —
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