Millennials are outpacing Baby Boomers in home owenership. (Photo: Canva)
SALT LAKE CITY — The months of May through August are considered to be traditional peak months for real estate sales in the United States. And in 2021, Salt Lake City houses are selling fast making it among the leaders of the pack.
A new report from RE-MAX shows Salt Lake City houses are selling at one of the fastest rates in the nation. Utah’s capital city is in a three-way tie for the lowest average number of days on the market. Last year the average was 28. This year, the average home in Salt Lake City is on the market for just 14 days.
The cities beating Salt Lake City for the average number of days on the market are Wichita, Kansas and Omaha, Nebraska.
This milestone comes on the heels of another: in February, 2021, U.S. home prices rose at the fastest pace in nearly seven years. The February S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 11.9% from a year earlier. It was the biggest gain since March 2014.
Home prices in Utah are also setting records. In March, 2021, the state’s median home price reached a record high of $405,000, nearly a 20% increase from the year before reported the Utah Association of Realtors.
In KSL Newsradio’s recent series, Priced Out, Finding an Affordable Home in Utah, one thing became more clear. While it’s often said that those from other states, namely California, are moving to Utah and bringing their willingness to pay higher home prices with them, the Utah Foundation said the crunch is more about a unique trait belonging to Utahns: they don’t leave the state.
“So people stopped leaving Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake City metro area at the same rates they had over previous years, y’know, back to 2015,” Senior Research Analyst Christopher Collard told KSL-TV, “and that put some additional pressure on the housing markets.”
And one of the reasons that so many Utahns stay and others want to come in also contributes to what’s happening in the Utah housing market: Utah’s consistently strong economy.
You can read all of our special coverage on the Utah housing boom here.