Even with a slight dip in the number of homes and condominiums changing hands, 2017 was the fourth-best year ever for residential real estate sales in Salt Lake County.
Figures from the Salt Lake Board of Realtors showed that 18,175 single-family homes and condos were sold last year in the county, down about 1 percent (or roughly 175 units) from 2016, which was the third best on record.
Only the pre-recession boom years of 2005 and 2006 had greater sales totals, said Board of Realtors President Adam Kirkham.
2017 by the numbers
• $325,000 — Median price of a single family home, up 10 percent from $295,000 in 2016
• 13,313 — Number of single family sales, down 3 percent from 13,659 a year earlier
• 4,4516 — Record number of condominium and multifamily sales, up 4 percent from 4,338 in 2016
The year ended on a solid note, Kirkham noted. Fourth-quarter sales were basically even with 2016, but sellers got 12.1 percent more than they had the previous year.
In 16 of 36 zip codes in Salt Lake County, most transactions topped the county’s $325,000 median sales price.
Leading the way was zip code 84108, which includes Emigration Canyon and much of Salt Lake City’s Yalecrest neighborhood. The 59 homes that sold there between October and December went for a median price of $530,000, an 11.3 percent increase over a year earlier ($476,000).
No other zip code in Salt Lake County exceeded the half-a-million mark, but nine had median sales prices of more than $400,000. These zip codes extended along the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley, from Draper and Sandy through Holladay and Millcreek into Salt Lake City.
The lone exception to this east-side domination was zip code 84095 in South Jordan, where the median sales price jumped 17 percent to $467,000.
While prices were high, not all were as high as a year ago. Fourth-quarter prices were down about 5 percent in two Holladay zip codes (84117 and 84124) and Salt Lake City’s 84103, which includes the Avenues and Federal Heights.
Highest sales prices by community
• Alpine — $630,000
• Eden — $533,400
• Emigration Canyon — $530,000
• Draper — $489,000
• Avenues — $484,355
The place to be a seller last quarter was in Alpine. The 17 homes that sold in that Utah County mountainside community went for a median price of $630,000, a lofty sum but only 3.7 percent higher than what 22 sellers got the year before.
A better return came from the sales of 19 homes in the Ogden Valley town of Eden. The sales prices for those homes were 13 percent higher than the going rate at the end of 2016, rising to $533,400.
Even more noteworthy was the increase in Eden’s neighboring community of Huntsville. Fourteen homes there sold in the fourth quarter for a median price of $413,500, a whopping 42 percent increase over the $292,000 that a dozen sellers took in the previous year.
Cities with the most home sales
• Clearfield — 274
• Tooele — 274
• Farr West — 239
• Lehi — 214
• Eagle Mountain — 209
For the five Wasatch Front counties, fourth-quarter homes sales ended up 1.2 percent higher than a year earlier, with only Davis County experiencing a decline (-7.3 percent). But rising prices made up for limited volume.
Weber County surpassed Salt Lake with a 12.5 percent bump in its quarterly median sales price, while prices in Utah and Tooele counties were up almost 11 percent. Davis lagged behind with a 4.5 percent rise in the cost of homes.
Follow @sltribmikeg