Utah home sales are on the rise. According to Utah Association of Realtors, the housing market has been improving for the past 7 months. Association President Cal Musselman says home sales have risen nearly 12 percent since last October.
“It’s the law of supply and demand and that’s what we are finally seeing in our market. We have purged a tremendous amount of inventory, the demand is up, and we have qualified buyers coming into the market. That makes homes affordable, and that makes a steady continued growth in affordability,” he says.
Utah’s median home prices are up more than 5 percent, at $183,000 compared to $174,000 the same time last year. Musselman says even though home prices are going up; homes are still more affordable than they were a year ago.
“When the interest rates are this low, when values have come down this far, affordability is there. And in fact, for the average family making the median income in the state of Utah, they can afford 179 percent of what they need to qualify for the median home in the state,” he says.
The number of Utah homes on the market has dropped nearly 23 percent since October 2011. Musselman says the number of foreclosed homes on the market is also down. The Counties with the highest number of sales include Davis County, Iron County, and Tooele County.
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