Home prices in Salt Lake County are on the rise. Third quarter home prices are up 11 percent from 2011 according to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. President Donna Pozzuoli says this is the first time in five years that Salt Lake County home prices have made a comeback.
“When you look across the board at all the states, Salt Lake has been doing a lot better than a lot of other areas. We are bringing in more businesses so hopefully our employment is going up and unemployment is going down. And I think that increases the consumer confidence to be able to get back and buy a home,”she says.
From July to September the median single-family home price increased to $218,000 compared to $197,000 the same time last year. Kearns, Holladay, Canyon Rim, Sandy and West Jordan recorded the biggest gains. Pozzuoli says the increase was a result of fewer homes being available on the market.
“We don’t have as many short sales right now, we don’t have as many bank foreclosed properties. We had such an influx of those over the last three to four years that had our inventory levels quite high. And now those are dissipating for a while. I’m not sure if they will come back or not, but for now they are dissipating, and that’s causing our inventory levels to be lower than they have been in five-years,” she says.
Pozzuoli says while many cities saw home price gains, Alpine, Provo, and Riverton saw declines between 2 and 7 percent.
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