Wasatch Front home prices have never been higher, hitting a median sales value of $300,000 in the second quarter of 2017.
According to figures released Thursday by the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, that’s up $25,000, or 8.1 percent, over the same period a year ago. Since then, sales prices rose in all but two of the 85 ZIP codes within Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Tooele and Weber counties.
A shortage of homes on the market is helping to fuel these escalating prices. Many would-be sellers are sitting tight because it’s so hard to find a new, affordable home after they part with the one they’re in.
“Competition is fierce for homes priced under a half-million dollars,” said Salt Lake Realtors President Troy Peterson, echoing his first-quarter observation that he’s never seen such a tight market in 22 years of real estate work.
Sales numbers reflect that outlook. Second-quarter home sales this year fell 7 percent, to 8,201, from 8,810 in 2016.
The decline was widespread. Salt Lake County had the smallest dip, just under 5 percent, trailed closely by Utah County at 6.4 percent. But Davis (10.9 percent), Weber (11.2 percent) and Tooele (15.4 percent) counties had double-digit drops in home sales.
Sellers liked the prices they got, however, with median home costs rising in all:
Salt Lake — $296,250 to $327,000, up 10.4 percent on 3,745 sales.
Utah — $279,900 to $304,106, up 8.7 percent on 1,804 sales.
Weber — $199,250 to $220,000, up 10.4 percent on 1,074 sales.
Davis — $264,950 to $288,000, up 8.7 percent on 1,219 sales.
Tooele — $201,750 to $221,000, up 9.5 percent on 357 sales.
Market conditions have been good for the top end of the market.
In the first quarter of 2017, only one ZIP code in the Realtors’ compilation had a median sales price exceeding $500,000 — Salt Lake City’s 84108, which stretches south from Fort Douglas to 2100 South, east of 1300 East, including Emigration and Pinecrest canyons.
It topped that threshold again in the second quarter, with prices rising 19.4 percent to a median value of $561,000. But it was joined in the half-million-dollar club this quarter by ZIP codes 84103 (the Federal Heights, Avenues and Capitol Hill districts of Salt Lake City) and 84310, the Ogden Valley area around Eden. Sales prices there rose 24.7 percent to $501,000 in the quarter.
Also reaching that exclusive category was 84626 in Elberta. The sale of one home did it — going for $740,000. That sale also provided evidence of the residential explosion occurring in southern Utah County, where ZIP codes for Mapleton, Goshen and Mona (also in Juab County) were among the biggest year-over-year gainers.
The price declines also took place in Utah County, but they were minimal. Sales prices in Orem’s 84058 slipped 3.1 percent from $309,000 to $300,000, while 84003 in American Fork dipped 1.6 percent to $332,000.
Otherwise, higher prices extended through all ranges. In one less-expensive ZIP code, 84006 in Copperton, the median sales price of $227,000 represented a 23 percent increase over the previous year.
ZIP code 84015 in Clearfield had the most home sales (318) during the three-month period, with the median price going up 10.5 percent. The 199 homes that sold in Eagle Mountain’s 84005 area went up 15.5 percent in price, while the 236 homes that changed ownership in Farr West (84044) cost 13.8 percent more than a year earlier.
Board of Realtors figures show that the condominium market was more balanced.
On the Wasatch Front, the number of sales rose from 5 percent year over year to 2,250. Only Salt Lake County registered a decrease, 6.6 percent, but the median sales price of those units jumped 10.6 percent to $224,000.
Condo values rose almost 32 percent in Tooele County, 16 percent in Davis, 14 in Utah and 11 in Weber, board figures showed.
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