I felt very strongly that the only place to level up was to come to Sotheby's, and I haven't been disappointed. I love the energy that's here; you walk in and you're always gonna see 5–10 other agents, you're always gonna see a broker, you're greeted by Carly, our Agent Concierge. If I have any questions about anything, I just walk down the hall. If you're looking for the top marketing, the top education, and the top agents,
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It’s really felt like We've truly appreciated the support because it really does start to feel like a family. Since we've made our transition over to Summit Sotheby's International Realty, Lacy and I have both gotten lots of calls from our peers within the industry. Our answer is that Sotheby's is just so aspirational, and it's something where we've really admired the work that they've done. L ACY HARRISO N & G RE TCHEN H U D G ENS G L O B A L R E A L E S TAT E A D V I S O R S
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Turning houses into homes.
Table of Contents Features 8 Half of Utah’s Young Households Own Homes Despite Soaring Prices
Bordinthorn©/Adobe Stock
Dave Anderton
10
Utah Lands Among the 5 States with the Lowest Property Tax Rates
10 Utah Lands Among the 5 States with the Lowest Property Tax Rates Kiri Blakeley
14 Up to $4,500 a Year: What Trump’s Housing Order Could Save Buyers, and the Catch Dina Sartore-Bodo
16 Waiting for 5%? Don’t Hold Your Breath The Salt Lake Board of Realtors®
20 Josh Romney: Utah Can Be First to Save a Dying Saline Lake Dave Anderton
Marco Regalia©/Adobe Stock
26 The Scary Side of Being a Realtor®
20 Josh Romney: Utah Can Be First to Save a Dying Saline Lake
Columns 5 Opportunity Doesn't Disappear. It Changes J. Scott Colemere – President’s Message
Departments 6
Happenings
6
In the News
28 Housing Watch
On the Cover:
Cover Illustration: David Angelini©/Adobe Stock
Dave Anderton
This Magazine is Self-Supporting
26 The Scary Side of Being a Realtor®
Salt Lake Realtor® Magazine is self-supporting. The advertisers in this magazine pay for all production and distribution costs. Help support this magazine by advertising. For advertising rates, please contact Mills Publishing at 801.467.9419. The paper used in Salt Lake Realtor® Magazine comes from trees in managed timberlands. These trees are planted and grown specifically to make paper and do not come from parks or wilderness areas. In addition, a portion of this magazine is printed from recycled paper.
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slrealtors.com 4 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
The Salt Lake REALTOR® (ISSN 2153 2141) is published monthly by Mills Publishing, located at 772 E. 3300 South, Suite 200 Salt Lake City, Utah 84106. Periodicals Postage Paid at Salt Lake City, UT. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Salt Lake REALTOR,® 772 E. 3300 South, Suite 200 Salt Lake City, Utah 84106-4618.
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PRESIDENT J. SCOTT COLEMERE Colemere Realty Assoc. 1ST VICE PRESIDENT JANICE SMITH CB Realty (Union Heights) 2ND VICE PRESIDENT KIM FARBER Eleven11 Real Estate LLC
KRISTEL GOUGH Summit Sotheby's (Draper) LORI KHODADAD CB Realty (Union Heights) DONNA POZZUOLI BHHS UP (N. Salt Lake) CARLYE WEBB Summit Sotheby's INT (Draper) BRYAN HURD Real Broker, LLC
TREASURER RUSS ORCHARD Century 21 Everest PAST PRESIDENT CLAIRE LARSON Woodside Homes of Utah LLC MEMBERS MORELZA BORATZUK RealtyPath (South Valley) ERIC SANTISTEVAN Engel & Volkers (Holladay)
Opportunity Doesn’t Disappear. It Changes
TRISH NICHOLS CB Realty (SL-Sugarhouse) APPOINTED BOD TONY KETTERLING Equity RE (Advantage) LINDA MASCHER Realtypath LLC (Advisors) PAST PAST PRESIDENT DAWN STEVENS Real Broker, LLC
Years ago, during a particularly difficult real estate market, I had a listing in Taylorsville that wasn’t getting much attention. Showings were scarce, buyers were hesitant, and with Thanksgiving approaching, I wasn’t expecting much to change. Then, the week before Thanksgiving, my phone rang. An out-of-town buyer wanted to see the property. After the showing, she said she wanted to make an offer. Then came the surprise: She wanted to close in one week! Anyone in real estate knows how challenging that can be, especially with Thanksgiving in the middle. She was a cash buyer, but we still had inspections, title work and negotiations over price and fees. Getting everyone to the closing table took patience, flexibility and cooperation.
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But we pulled it off. One week later, the transaction closed. The seller was relieved, the buyer was excited, and I was grateful to have played a part. It was a Thanksgiving gift for all of us, and a reminder of why I enjoy this profession.
Managing Editor Dave Anderton
I’ve thought about that experience recently as we navigate another challenging market. Mortgage rates have climbed above 7%, consumer confidence is struggling, and sales have slowed. It’s tempting to assume meaningful opportunities will have to wait until spring.
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But opportunity doesn’t disappear. It changes.
President Dan Miller Office Administrator Cynthia Bell Snow Art Director Jackie Medina Graphic Design Ken Magleby Patrick Witmer
Sales Staff Paula Bell Dan Miller
I was recently interviewed by the Deseret News about a study showing that 50.1% of Utah households headed by 25- to 34-year-olds own their homes, compared with 40.4% nationally. Despite affordability challenges, young Utahns are still finding ways to become homeowners. One young woman featured in the article bought a condominium in Herriman after negotiating a price below asking. It wasn’t the singlefamily home with a yard she hopes to own someday, but it was an important first step.
Salt Lake Board: (801) 542-8840 e-mail: dave@saltlakeboard.com Web Site: www.slrealtors.com
People don’t stop needing homes because interest rates rise or the calendar turns to November. Families grow, circumstances change, and opportunities emerge, sometimes when we least expect them.
The Salt Lake Board of REALTORS® is pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the nation. We encourage and support the affirmative advertising and marketing program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.
Our job as Realtors® isn’t simply to wait for better market conditions. It’s to recognize opportunities, help clients navigate obstacles and find solutions that make a difference in their lives.
The Salt Lake REALTOR® is the monthly magazine of the Salt Lake Board of REALTORS®. Opinions expressed by writers and persons quoted in articles are their own and do not necessarily reflect positions of the Salt Lake Board of REALTORS®.
As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m reminded that the most rewarding moments in this business aren’t measured by commissions or sales volume, but by the people we’ve helped along the way.
Permission will be granted in most cases, upon written request, to reprint or reproduce articles and photographs in this issue, provided proper credit is given to The Salt Lake REALTOR®, as well as to any writers and photographers whose names appear with the articles and photographs. While unsolicited original manuscripts and photographs related to the real estate profession are welcome, no payment is made for their use in the publication. Views and opinions expressed in the editorial and advertising content of the The Salt Lake REALTOR® are not necessarily endorsed by the Salt Lake Board of REALTORS®. However, advertisers do make publication of this magazine possible, so consideration of products and services listed is greatly appreciated.
The market may be slower, but that doesn’t mean we have to be.
J. Scott Colemere President
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE SALT LAKE BOARD OF REALTORS ® REALTOR® is a registered mark which identifies a professional in real estate who subscribes to a strict Code of Ethics as a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. October 2005
November 2026 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | 5
Happenings Reporters Turn to Salt Lake Realtors® for Housing Insight The Salt Lake Board of Realtors® has become a go-to source for reporters covering the housing market. From July through September, the Board appeared in the news 91 times across 40 outlets, ranging from The Salt Lake Tribune, the Deseret News and KSL to Yahoo Finance, Axios and the Daily Mail. Those appearances grew out of 40 original stories, many of which were picked up and republished by other news organizations. Coverage has focused on home prices, rising mortgage rates, seller concessions, homeownership rates, local zoning changes and the Board’s American Dream Grant. Board President Scott Colemere was named in 44 of the placements, making him the voice reporters turned to most often on home prices and interest rates. August was the busiest month, with 36 placements.
Pictured, from left: Scott Colemere, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors®; Nigel Swaby, a Realtor®; and Scott McKane, a reporter for FOX 13 News Utah.
Lights, Camera, Listings Interest rates climbed, listings topped 15,000, and one Realtor® is determined to finish the year in style. The Salt Lake Board of Realtors® will premiere its annual parody video at the Holiday Social on Dec. 4 at the Little America Hotel. This year’s video is set to a classic that viewers will recognize from the first note. The Board thanks the members who volunteered their time, talent and dance moves to bring the video to life.
In the News Do Impact Fees Affect Utah Home Prices? A state legislative audit found that impact fees charged on new construction have no statistically significant effect on what Utah homes ultimately sell for, though it also found some local governments are mishandling the fees, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Impact fees are one-time charges that cities, counties and special districts levy on developers to cover the added strain growth places on roads, water systems and other infrastructure. Working with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, auditors analyzed 10,000 home sales in 16 cities over three years and found no meaningful connection between the fees and sale prices. The finding “feels really counterintuitive,” said Leah Blevins, an audit manager with the Office of the Legislative Auditor General, adding that other factors weigh more heavily on prices. Fees vary widely. On a 2,000-squarefoot home, they total about $11,000 in Kaysville and $35,000 in Grantsville, according to the audit. Chris Gamvroulas, president of Ivory Development, told the Tribune high fees can still shape building decisions, making builders less eager to buy land or prompting them to cut features rather than raise prices. In a closer review of nine jurisdictions, auditors found more than half had spent fee revenue incorrectly or otherwise failed to follow state law. The report offers five recommendations for lawmakers and state agencies, including options for changing the impact fee law, a regular update schedule for fee studies, stronger oversight from the state auditor’s office and requirements that local governments post fee plans and analyses online.
6 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
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Half of Utah’s Young Households Own Homes Despite Soaring Prices The median income for Utah householders ages 25 to 44 is $102,400, compared with $93,200 nationally. By Dave Anderton More than half of Utah households headed by 25- to 34-year-olds own their homes, even after a decade in which the state’s single-family home prices more than doubled, according to a new report. The report, written by economist James Wood and commissioned by the Salt Lake Board of Realtors®, found that homeownership in that age group, the prime years for first-time buyers, has declined only modestly. The rate fell from 54.3% in 2010 to 51.5% in 2019 and 50.1% in 2024. Meanwhile, Utah’s single-family home prices rose 128.5% from 2015 to 2025, according to the Federal
8 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
Housing Finance Agency. Only Idaho and Maine saw faster increases. “This report should give young families real hope that owning a home in Utah is still achievable, even in today’s market,” said Scott Colemere, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors®. “Many would-be buyers who assume they’re priced out are closer to qualifying than they think, and talking with a lender and a Realtor early can make all the difference.”
Still above the national average Across all age groups, Utah’s homeownership rate was 68.3% in 2025, down slightly from 69.9% in 2015 and 3
A high-cost outlier What sets Utah apart is that it sustains high young-adult homeownership in an expensive market. Most states at the top of the rankings are lower-cost markets, the report found. West Virginia, which leads the nation in young-adult homeownership at 58.1%, has a median home sales price of about $259,000. Iowa ranks second in both categories, with a 53.4% rate and a median price of about $264,000. Utah’s median price, about $531,000, is the highest among the top 10 states. The report points to several factors behind Utah’s performance:
Alfi©/Adobe Stock
percentage points above the national rate of 65.3%. Even so, Utah’s ranking among states slipped from 11th to 25th over that decade as lower-cost states gained ground. Homeownership has deep roots in the state. Since 1900, Utah is the only state whose homeownership rate has never fallen below 60%, a mark it held even during the Great Depression, the report said. Among the state’s major counties, Davis County has the highest rate at 75.9%. Salt Lake County has the lowest at 64.6%, reflecting the concentration of renters in Salt Lake City. The gap with the nation is widest among younger households. Utah’s 50.1% rate for 25- to 34-year-olds is nearly 10 percentage points above the national rate of 40.4%, and its 71.5% rate for 35- to 44-year-olds tops the national 61.1%. Utah exceeds the national average in every age group except householders 15 to 24. Utah ranked third in the nation for homeownership among 25- to 34-year-olds in both 2010 and 2019. In 2024 it tied for 10th with Idaho and Maine.
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Higher incomes. The median income for Utah householders ages 25 to 44 is $102,400, compared with $93,200 nationally.
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Strong employment. Eighty-four percent of Utahns ages 25 to 34 are working.
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More attached housing. Condominiums, townhomes and twin homes account for 23% of new homes built and 27% of existing home sales. Their 2025 median price of $410,000 was well below the $575,000 median for a single-family home.
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Low rates and state help. Historically low interest rates from 2019 to 2022 and recent state first-time homebuyer assistance programs helped many young households buy.
Equity gains, tougher road ahead Homeownership has been a powerful source of wealth for those who bought. A Salt Lake County buyer who purchased the 2015 median-priced home of $249,000 with a 5% down payment of $12,450 and a 4% mortgage would have gained about $357,000 in equity by 2025, roughly 29 times the original investment. Returns were even higher elsewhere. Using the same assumptions, equity gains reached about 35 times the down payment in Washington County and 37 times in Weber County. The report cautions that conditions are tougher today. Turbulent economic conditions could make it harder for young households to qualify for a mortgage, and the homeownership rate for 25- to 34-year-olds may dip below 50% in 2026 and 2027. Over the long term, however, the report expects Utah’s economic strengths to keep homeownership among young households well above the national average. “To keep that door open for the next generation, Utah needs to keep building the kinds of starter homes young households can afford,” Colemere said. Dave Anderton is the communications director of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors®. November 2026 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | 9
Bordinthorn©/Adobe Stock
Utah Lands Among the 5 States with the Lowest Property Tax Rates Climbing home values, not rates, are what’s driving tax bills higher. By Kiri Blakeley Realtor.com® As the costs associated with owning a home keep rising, property taxes have become so unpopular that there is a long list of states trying to reduce or reform them. Property tax relief bills will hit ballots in November in Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Then there are the five states where the effective property tax rate on owner-occupied property falls below half a percentage point, or less than 0.50%. Those states are: South Carolina (0.49%), Arizona (0.48%), Utah (0.48%), Alabama (0.37%), and Hawaii (0.29%). According to a Tax Foundation report, these five states 10 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
have the lowest effective tax rates of the 50 states for 2024 (the most recent data available) and all, except Alabama, were even slightly lower than they were the year before. This doesn’t necessarily mean that these states will always have the lowest property tax bills, which are tied to the value of a property. Higher assessments can mean higher tax bills, even with a lower tax rate. “Since home values vary significantly across counties, it is also important to compare effective tax burdens (the median property tax paid divided by the median value of owner-occupied housing units),” writes Janelle Fritz
in the report. “Because property taxes are assessed as a percentage of home values, it follows that higher property taxes are paid in places with higher housing prices.”
Low tax rates and low tax bills Property taxes, which fund infrastructure and services such as schools, police, and fire departments, are set not only by cities and counties, but also by school boards, fire departments, and utility commissions, the report said. Just because valuations rise, that doesn’t mean that tax bills do as well. “If homes in a community doubled in value but nothing else in the economy changed, local government wouldn’t necessarily need to capture twice as much revenue,” according to the report.
Due to Hawaii’s generally high property valuations, tax bills don’t tend to be a bargain. Still, an expensive home in Honolulu is typically going to have a lower tax bill than a comparable one in New Jersey, which is tied with Illinois for the highest effective tax rate in the country at 1.88%. They are followed by Connecticut (1.54%), Vermont (1.54%), and New Hampshire (1.50%). Even Texas— considered a low-tax state due to having no personal income or corporate income tax—ranks high at No. 7 with an effective property tax rate of 1.40%. As home prices throughout the country have soared in the past five or so years, so have property tax bills, even in places with low effective tax rates.
Additionally, tax bills across counties can differ dramatically. For example, the median property tax bill in Buchanan County, VA, is about $404 compared to more than $10,000 in Falls Church City, VA, which is considered part of the Washington metropolitan area. Urban cores tend to have higher property taxes.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the median sales price for a home reached $410,700 in the second quarter of 2026—a nearly 30% increase since the second quarter of 2020.
The state that ranks lowest for property tax rates is Hawaii. Yet, Honolulu County’s median annual property tax bill is $2,553, much higher than Buchanan County’s $404, despite Virginia having a higher effective tax rate of 0.78%.
Low tax rates help lure buyers to an area—especially from states with higher taxes, according to experts.
How low taxes are affecting real estate
South Carolina, ranked No. 46 in the country, with one of the lowest effective tax rates, brings in buyers from New York, Connecticut, and California, said Charleston
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County real estate agent Leslie Turner, co-founder of Maison Real Estate. “Many buyers who are moving to South Carolina from other states mention that the property taxes are much lower here versus their home state,” she told Realtor. com®. However, Turner said she has to “educate” most buyers on the Southern state’s “two-tiered property tax system,” where primary residences are taxed lower than non-owner occupied homes such as vacation homes or rental properties. “A property in downtown Charleston with an assessed value of $1,000,000 would have annual property taxes of approximately $4,584, if classified as a primary residence,” she said. “If the same $1 million property was classified as a second home or investment property, the annual property taxes would be about $16,246.”
And he noted a correlation between the lower property tax rate and who is moving to the state, especially from Illinois, which is tied with New Jersey for the highest rate. “The state that sends us the greatest number of transplants is Illinois,” he said. “We often hear from those relocating from Illinois that taxes are one of the top reasons for their defection.” Meanwhile, in Arizona, where the 0.48% effective tax rate is just a hair below South Carolina’s, local agent Shawna Warner, founding partner at RETSY Forbes Global Properties, said it isn’t just mild winters and plentiful golf communities that have attracted migrants to Arizona, but the low tax burden. (The state also has a flat individual income tax rate of 2.5%.)
She also said values in some areas have climbed sharply. “Our property values have been increasing steadily for many years, with many areas seeing an 80%-90% increase in the past six years,” she noted.
“Buyers are increasingly focused on the overall cost of homeownership, and Arizona’s relatively low property taxes are a meaningful advantage,” she told Realtor.com. “For many buyers, it’s not just about finding the right home—it’s about the long-term value of living here.”
However, Turner stressed that since values are so much lower than in states like New York, “buyers feel they are getting a good value for their investment.”
Warner, who is based in Scottsdale, also reported seeing an influx of buyers fleeing higher-taxed pastures, mostly California, Washington, Oregon, and Illinois.
She noted that since property taxes are lower, the money to fund local services needs to come from somewhere else—and in Charleston County’s case, that is sales tax, which is around 9%.
She noted some millionaires have fled from Washington due to its new 9.9% tax on income over $1 million in a single year. The law goes into effect January 2028.
“The beauty of a higher sales tax here is that tourists contribute a fair amount to the state, and the tax burden is not just on residents,” she said. Another South Carolina broker, Justin Winter of Forbes Global Properties, said that the lower tax rate is helping push home values up. “Low property tax rates drive interest which results in sales,” he told Realtor.com. “Sales result in higher prices.” 12 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
“Tax considerations are increasingly part of the conversation for some high-net-worth buyers,” she said. “Arizona’s relatively low property taxes are another appealing factor.” Kiri Blakeley writes about trending news at Realtor. com. She has also worked at Forbes Magazine, Forbes. com, CafeMom, and DailyMail.com, covering everything from billionaires to celebrities to crime. Reprinted with permission from Realtor.com®.
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Up to $4,500 a Year: What Trump’s Housing Order Could Save Buyers, and the Catch Automatic mortgage insurance cancellation could lower monthly payments, but only for new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. By Dina Sartore-Bodo Realtor.com® Last month, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at housing affordability. The multipart order runs the gamut, touching on everything from manufactured housing to permitting to direct the Departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to reduce interest rates on their direct singlefamily loan programs to adjusting closing cost fees paid by certain homeowners.
Breaking down the math Trump’s order includes several different regulations: one targeting mortgage insurance and another lender’s title insurance for low-risk refinancing loans.
The latter has lenders and buyers buzzing, as a cut to closing costs could mean the difference of thousands of dollars when it comes to down payments.
The latest down payment report from Realtor.com® shows that the national median down payment in the second quarter of 2026 climbed to $27,100, or 13.7% of the typical purchase price, up from 12.9% at the start of the year. On an annual basis, however, the typical down payment fell from 14.3% year over year, recording the lowest second-quarter level since 2021
But while the math works out for some, it’s important to recognize some of the serious caveats as well.
Homebuyers who pay less than a 20% down payment are required to buy mortgage insurance for their home loans.
14 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
The executive order also aims to reduce mortgage refinancing costs by making permanent the FHFA’s pilot program that waives the lender’s title insurance policy and allows “cost-friendly alternatives,” according to the White House. “This is a massive win for American homeowners. We’re talking about reforms that could cut refinancing costs by nearly $2,400 on an illustrative $500,000 loan, as well as a new pilot that would proactively cancel mortgage insurance once appropriate equity thresholds have been met. That’s real money,” said Brendan McKay, Broker Action Coalition’s chief advocacy officer.
The trade-off The biggest drawback of this initiative is that the pilot program applies only to new mortgages originated after the program launches. This means current homeowners paying mortgage insurance won’t benefit from this change under the current draft. On the flip side, the title insurance waiver pilot applies only to low-risk refinances, not new purchases. First-time homebuyers cannot use this waiver to lower their closing costs or free up down payment cash. Additionally, the program is currently limited to certain refinance loans with loan-to-value ratios of less than 80% in specific geographic areas.
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There are two types of mortgage insurance: private and government. If you have a government-backed loan, such as an FHA loan, which allows buyers to put down as little as 3.5%, you pay mortgage insurance to the government. If your loan is not government-backed, you pay private mortgage insurance to your lender. Trump’s order establishes a pilot program under which the Federal Housing Finance Agency would identify and automatically cancel mortgage insurance for loans that meet cancellation criteria, like necessary equity requirements.
The order also expands a pilot program from 2024 that allows homeowners to skip lender’s title insurance on certain low-risk refinances, potentially saving $500 to $1,500 in closing costs. The move echoes previous efforts to rein in closing fees—which hit a median of $6,000 in 2022—though the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has gone silent after the Trump administration scaled back its operations. This element of the executive order has industry leaders urging caution. Seller impersonation fraud attempts doubled from 2024 to 2025, hitting 59% of surveyed title firms, according to the American Land Title Association. Fraud and forgery now account for over 40% of title insurance losses on refinances. When you remove title insurance, you shift this growing fraud risk directly onto the homeowner and the lender.
However, the program applies only to new home loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—aka the government-sponsored loans.
ALTA’s CEO Chris Morton said that efforts to improve housing affordability are “critical,” but warned that any effort to bring title insurance costs down “must also preserve the essential consumer safeguards” that protect Americans’ most valuable assets.
The reason for this insurance is to protect the lender if you fall behind on payments, typically costing between 0.46% and 1.5% of the loan each year based on your credit score. That easily tacks on hundreds of dollars to your monthly bill.
“Fraud is unaffordable, and the threats facing homeowners are growing,” said Morton. “Now more than ever, we need to ensure that efforts to lower housing costs do not shift significant financial risks onto American families or the broader housing finance system.”
For example, a 1% rate on a $450,000 loan adds $375 straight to your monthly payment. That’s a savings of $4,500 a year, if eliminated.
Dina Sartore-Bodo is the senior editor at Realtor.com covering real estate news, personal finance trends, and interior design. Reprinted with permission from Realtor.com®. November 2026 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | 15
Waiting for 5%? Don’t Hold Your Breath NAR’s deputy chief economist says high rates are here to stay, but baby boomers, first-time sellers and even pets are reshaping who buys and sells homes. By The Salt Lake Board of Realtors® Realtors® waiting for mortgage rates to dip below 5% may want to get comfortable. “We’re going to be waiting a long time,” Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist for the National Association of Realtors®, told Realtors® at the Realtor® Campus in Sandy in October.
oil prices, and that they react to economic news well before the Federal Reserve acts. “Mortgage interest rates move faster than the Fed is going to,” she said.
Mortgage rates are the elephant in the room, said Lautz, who is also NAR’s vice president of research. “I’m not going to sugarcoat anything.”
NAR does not have a hard forecast for rates, Lautz said. But she noted that Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, told reporters a day earlier that he expects rates to stay near current levels and that this is “the new norm.”
Lautz has been with NAR since 2007 and has testified before Congress on behalf of the association. She said mortgage rates are closely tied to inflation and
She said she has heard consumers and Realtors® ask when rates will fall below 5%, and some hope for 3% or 4%. That isn’t what NAR expects, she said.
16 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
residents and jobs and has a young population. Some markets around the country are seeing price declines. Inventory is rising as more owners give up their lowrate mortgages and move, but the new listings aren’t affordable for everyone. In Salt Lake City and St. George, Lautz said, households earning less than $100,000 will have a hard time finding a home at current prices and rates. She described a K-shaped housing market. Baby boomers, luxury buyers and others with equity are making moves, while renters and people living with family struggle to save for a down payment. The country has also underbuilt for years. According to home builders, about a quarter of the cost of a new home comes from local regulations, Lautz said. NAR estimates about 25,000 Salt Lake City consumers are priced out of the market when rates are at 7%. Lower rates would bring about 2,500 new buyers into the market, Lautz said. When rates dipped below 6% earlier this year, activity picked up, but mortgage applications have pulled back over the past month. The lock-in effect, where owners stay put to keep a low rate, is also loosening, she said. As many homeowners
Jack©/Adobe Stock
Lautz also stressed that today’s market is driven by local conditions. “I’m not the local expert. You are the local expert,” she told the audience. “Things are incredibly down to the ZIP code, down to the subdivision level, in a way that they have not been in a few years.”
A ‘real estate recession’ Nationally, existing-home sales have averaged about 4 million units a year for the past three years, Lautz said. Before the pandemic, about 5 million homes sold in a typical year, and low rates pushed sales to 6 million during the pandemic. “For the last three years, frankly, we’ve been in a real estate recession,” she said. Sales are on track for another year at a pace not seen since 1995. Utah has advantages many states lack, Lautz said. NAR named Salt Lake City one of the faster-moving markets at the start of the year, and the state continues to gain
November 2026 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | 17
Photo: Image licensed by Ingram Image
now have mortgage rates below 4% as above 6%. And 40% of homeowners nationwide have no mortgage at all.
Equity gains, rising costs Annual price gains of 3% to 5% are normal, Lautz said, which makes the past six years highly unusual. From 2020 to 2026, prices rose 75% in Montana and 84% in Maine. In Salt Lake City, the typical homeowner gained $265,000 in housing equity over that span. Price growth has slowed but continues. About 80% of markets nationwide are still posting year-over-year gains, including Utah. Those gains come with a cost for buyers. The income needed to qualify for a mortgage keeps climbing, and it is higher in Utah than nationally. Insurance and property taxes add to the total cost of ownership, Lautz said. Home insurance costs in Salt Lake City rose 69% from 2019 to 2024. For buyers on the fence, she pointed to new Federal Reserve data showing a wide net worth gap between owners and renters, with about 65% of homeowners’ wealth tied to their homes. All that equity has fueled an all-cash buying boom. More than a quarter of buyers now pay cash, compared with 15% before the pandemic. About half of buyers in vacation-home markets pay cash, as do 40% of small investors. Nearly 1 in 10 first-time buyers now pays cash, Lautz said, often with an inheritance. Those buyers tend to be in their 50s, which helps push up the median age of first-time buyers.
Who’s buying The share of first-time buyers has dropped to an alltime low, Lautz said, held back by affordability, limited inventory, child care costs, student debt and high rents. The median first-time buyer is now 40, compared with about 30 in the 1980s. Repeat buyers, meanwhile, have a median age of 62, up 18 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
from 36 historically. Many are baby boomers who have settled into what may be their last home. “I have said baby boomers like 50 times,” Lautz joked. “If that’s your takeaway, that’s your takeaway.” Pent-up demand is building behind them. Millennials are the nation’s largest generation, and the population peaks between ages 32 and 34. Utah has a young population with a large share of millennials. “They believe that homeownership is their American dream, but they absolutely feel priced out,” Lautz said. Gen X is caught in the middle, caring for aging parents while adult children live at home. About 16% of young adults ages 25 to 35 live with family, a much higher share than in the past. Lautz said Realtors® should watch Gen Z. Though still a small share of buyers, they carry less student debt and are more likely to use government programs such as FHA loans. “They are very savvy, and they learned from millennials,” she said. Household makeup is shifting, too. About 70% of Americans were married in the 1960s, compared with less than half today, though Utah’s marriage rate is higher than the national rate. The share of single women buying homes is rising, as is the share of unmarried couples and roommates. The share of single men buying homes hasn’t changed since the 1980s. In the 1980s, 58% of buyers had children under 18 at home. Today it is less than a quarter, which makes school districts less of a priority for many buyers. Pets, on the other hand, matter. Lautz said 16% of buyers last year chose their home with their pets in mind, from hardwood floors to nearby walking trails and dog parks.
Where the opportunities are Lautz pointed to several groups of likely movers. Before the Great Recession, homeowners typically moved every six to seven years. That stretch has grown to 11 years. “Who did you work with a decade ago?” she
asked. “Those are the people who are more likely to move than anyone else.” She urged Realtors® to think about first-time sellers, not just first-time buyers. Among younger baby boomers who sold last year, 17% had never sold a home before. They have equity and are ready to move, but may not know where to start. Lautz described an aunt who downsized this year after buying her condo 20 years earlier. “She diligently paid her mortgage, and she didn’t know the first step,” Lautz said. Her aunt asked whether she should start by buying beige paint. Another group is HENRYs, or high earners, not rich yet. Recent buyers in this group say they plan to move for a new job, a promotion, a better area or a home with nicer features. Lautz said demand for agents remains strong. Buyers want help finding the right home and negotiating. On the seller side, for-sale-by-owner transactions are at an all-time low, and more than half of those are sales to friends, neighbors or relatives. Sellers most want help pricing their home, finding a qualified buyer and preparing the home for sale. “They’ve also binge-watched a ton of HGTV before they call you,” Lautz said. Knowing what is worth fixing, and what isn’t, is where an agent’s expertise comes in.
From the audience Asked whether shrinking younger generations mean the country is overbuilding, Lautz said no, at least not in most communities. People are living longer and staying in their homes, and homeownership among young adults is lower than for any past generation. “If there were properties available for them to purchase, they would come,” she said. Many older homes that do reach the market also need significant work because of deferred maintenance. Another Realtor® asked about raising the capital gains exclusion on home sales. Lautz said NAR’s advocacy team, led by Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn, is pushing to raise the threshold, which hasn’t been adjusted since the 1990s. On starter homes, Lautz agreed that builders have focused on large single-family homes, even though more than 30% of buyers are single and most have no children at home. She said building smaller homes “makes a lot of sense.” Utah data on housing types is available in NAR’s Metro Market Stats dashboard, which is updated monthly and can be downloaded and shared on social media. Lautz also invited Realtors® to submit research questions. She or Yun will answer them in videos on NAR’s social media channels, crediting the Realtor’s® name and brokerage. If NAR doesn’t have the data, she said, “we will produce it.”
November 2026 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | 19
Josh Romney: Utah Can Be First to Save a Dying Saline Lake Great Salt Lake Rising founder tells Realtors® a $5 billion fix is within reach — and why toxic lakebed dust could shake homebuyer confidence. By Dave Anderton
‘Who’s in charge of filling it up?’ Josh Romney believes Utah can do something no community in the world has ever done: stop a dying saline lake in its tracks and bring it back. “I am convinced if any community in the world is going to save a lake like this, it will be Utah,” Romney told about 200 Realtors at the Realtor Campus in Sandy on Nov. 4. Romney is the founder, president and CEO of Great Salt Lake Rising, a group of Utah business and philanthropic leaders dedicated to rescuing the Great Salt Lake. The group has committed $100 million through a coalition as part of its Great Salt Lake 2034 Charter. His involvement started at home. Romney’s daughter, an environmental science major, came back from class alarmed by what she was learning about the lake. 20 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
Romney went to meet her professor and asked a simple question: Who is in charge of filling it up? The answer surprised him. Plenty of nonprofits were doing advocacy and awareness work, but none was focused on actually getting water back into the lake. “I kind of panicked a little bit,” Romney said. “No one’s really in charge.” So he invited about 100 of the wealthiest and most influential people in Utah to a meeting. Nearly all of them showed up, and several pledged significant funding if he would start a nonprofit. Great Salt Lake Rising was the result.
From ‘wasted water’ to economic engine For 150 years, Romney said, Utahns treated every drop of water reaching the Great Salt Lake as wasted. Only
Cities play a big role, too. Many Utah lawns are planted with Kentucky bluegrass, one of the thirstiest grass varieties, and homeowners overwater by about 50%, Romney said. Landscape conservation alone could return roughly 250,000 acre-feet of water to the lake. An acre-foot is about the volume of a football field covered one foot deep. Romney admitted he has “probably the world’s biggest lawn.” This year he delayed turning on his sprinklers until June. The grass browned, then recovered and stayed green all summer on about half the water. He doesn’t think tearing out every lawn is the answer. Converting turf to desert landscaping costs about $30,000 per acre-foot of water saved, compared with roughly $3,000 per acre-foot to buy water rights from a farmer. Watering smarter and overseeding with drought-tolerant grass can make a big difference at far lower cost. For the real estate industry, Romney delivered some welcome news: Development itself isn’t the villain. More than 95% of indoor water use returns to the lake through sewer systems, which at certain times of year are the lake’s largest tributary. Converting farmland to housing with water-wise landscaping actually reduces water use, he said. “We kind of like to say, flush twice for the Great Salt Lake,” Romney said. Heidi Besen©/Adobe Stock
The dust problem — and what it means for housing
in the last couple of decades has the state recognized what the lake does.
Every saline lake in the world is in decline, Romney said, and none has been rescued. Utah doesn’t have to guess what happens next.
Between 10 million and 12 million migratory birds depend on it. Because the lake is too salty for fish, trillions of brine flies hatch each year with no predators except the birds, which feed on them before continuing their migrations.
He pointed to the Aral Sea in the former Soviet Union, which shrank dramatically after its water was diverted to grow cotton. Toxic dust storms from the dry lakebed now hang in the air for weeks, and nearby communities have seen spikes in cancer and other illnesses.
The lake also generates 5% to 10% of the state’s snowpack through lake-effect storms, Romney said, and its huge body of water moderates temperatures, keeping winters a little warmer and summers a little cooler. Brine shrimp harvesting, mineral extraction and recreation on the lake generate about $2.5 billion in revenue a year, nearly as much as Utah’s entire agriculture industry.
Closer to home is California’s Owens Lake, which dried up after Los Angeles diverted its water. Though only about one-seventeenth the size of the Great Salt Lake, it became the largest source of dust pollution in the United States, and Los Angeles still spends heavily every year trying to keep the dust down.
Yet 73% of the lake’s water and 60% of its surface area are gone, Romney said. Because the lake has no outlet, evaporation is the only way water leaves, and warmer temperatures speed that up. But the bulk of the loss comes from upstream diversions. Agriculture accounts for 67% of the water diverted from the lake, mostly for alfalfa, a crop Romney called one of the worst choices for a desert. Farmers hold their water rights legally and don’t want to be scapegoated, he said, so they need to be part of the solution.
The danger lies in what’s left behind. With no outlet, the Great Salt Lake has collected trace amounts of arsenic, mercury, lead and other metals for thousands of years. Those concentrations build up in the lakebed, alongside pollution from industry along the shoreline. When a lakebed first dries, a salt crust protects it for about 10 to 15 years, Romney said. Much of the Great Salt Lake’s exposed bed dried up 10 to 15 years ago, and “we’re starting to see these real massive dust storms.” The dust blows mostly north and east, making Farmington, Layton and Ogden hot spots, but it can reach Salt Lake and Utah counties and travel as far as November 2026 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | 21
about 800,000 acre-feet a year to start refilling the lake. One of the group’s biggest wins came quickly. About a month after Romney formed the nonprofit, and before it had raised any money, he got a call from Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. Ferry told him US Magnesium, which operated on the lake’s western shore, was in bankruptcy and had failed to secure its water rights. The state wanted to bid on them but needed a partner. Romney agreed on the spot.
Dave Anderton
As the bidding climbed, Romney told Ferry to keep going. Buying that much water on the open market would have cost an estimated $250 million and taken a decade to assemble from farmers. The state and Great Salt Lake Rising secured the rights for $30 million, with the Utah Legislature fronting the money. The water rights turned out to be larger than expected, and Romney said the deal should ultimately return about 100,000 acrefeet a year to the lake.
Wyoming. It stays airborne until rain or calm weather settles it. Romney said the state does not monitor these larger dust particles. This year, groups his organization works with will install hundreds of monitors along the Wasatch Front, which will allow alerts telling residents to wear masks, stay indoors and keep children inside during dust storms. Dust also darkens snow, causing it to absorb more heat. Researchers estimate Utah loses about two weeks of snowpack each year as a result, Romney said. No other shrinking saline lake has 2.8 million people living near its shores or $1.5 trillion in infrastructure, he added. For Realtors®, the consequences could hit close to home. “Probably a lot of you already had this experience where you were showing someone a home, and they started to be nervous about the Great Salt Lake and the dust, especially people from out of town,” Romney said. “What’s going to happen to people looking to buy homes? What’s going to happen to people who are currently living here, raising young families, that don’t want their kids exposed to that?” The economic impact, he said, “is hard to even measure.”
A late-night call and a $30 million water deal The lake’s level sits at about 4,190 feet, roughly 2 feet above the record low of 4,188 feet set in 2022. The goal is 4,198 feet by the time Utah hosts the 2034 Winter Olympics. Romney said it takes about 400,000 acre-feet of additional water a year just to stop the decline and
22 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
The purchase also shut down US Magnesium’s plant, which Romney said was responsible for about half of the pollution trapped during Wasatch Front winter inversions. Other projects are in the works: •
Newfoundland Evaporation Basin berm: A berm built in the 1980s alongside the West Desert pumping project blocks about 100,000 acre-feet of water in a wet year and about 50,000 acre-feet in a normal year. Romney said removing it is not terribly expensive.
•
Stansbury ponds: A roughly $4 million pipeline could connect evaporation ponds near Interstate 80 to the lake.
•
Phragmites removal: The invasive reed, which can grow 12 to 15 feet tall, consumes an estimated 100,000 acre-feet of water a year and clogs canals and ditches. Killing it takes two or three years of cutting, spraying and flooding. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated $3 million toward removal efforts, and crews have even trained cattle to graze on it.
Recent rains also helped, raising the lake’s south arm about two inches when it would normally drop several inches this time of year. Soil moisture is at record highs, Romney said, which means spring runoff should flow to the lake faster.
Marco Regalia©/Adobe Stock
A $5 billion fix Romney’s most hopeful slide carried a price tag. Saving the lake would cost an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion, and he believes it can be done for less than $5 billion. That works out to about $350 million a year for 10 to 12 years. By comparison, Utah’s annual budget is about $30 billion, and controlling dust from a dry lakebed could cost $3 billion to $30 billion. A survey found Utahns would be willing to pay about $100 a year to save the lake, which Romney said would be enough on its own.
“The problem is government is usually really good at solving the problem once it’s gotten really bad,” he said. “They’re not usually very good at solving it before it gets really bad.”
Questions from the audience During a question-and-answer session, Romney addressed: •
Pipelines: Piping ocean water to the lake would take 20 to 30 years to secure easements, cost $40 billion to $50 billion and require about $300 million a year in electricity. “Conservation is absolutely the key,” he said.
•
Lithium and data centers: A new lithium company plans to return 90% to 95% of the water it uses and has asked how to offset the rest. Romney said his group is also urging data centers coming to Utah to become water neutral.
He also wants higher water rates for heavy outdoor users, without raising costs for apartment dwellers or households on small lots. “We want some people to start to pay their fair share,” he said.
•
US Magnesium cleanup: Cleaning up the company’s ponds is estimated to cost $200 million to $400 million, and the state is working to stop toxic sludge from migrating toward the lake.
Romney said the group has secured close to 100,000 of the 400,000 acre-feet needed to stabilize the lake. The Newfoundland basin and Stansbury projects could add another 100,000, and he thinks the 400,000 mark is reachable in two to three years.
•
Cloud seeding and aquifers: Romney said he is skeptical either will play a major role.
•
Neighboring states: About 40% of agricultural water use on the Bear River, which supplies about two-thirds of the lake’s inflow, occurs in Wyoming and Idaho. Romney said the group is working carefully with both states and has no interest in diverting water from the Snake River.
Most of the money would go toward leasing or buying water rights. One approach pays alfalfa farmers to skip their third and fourth cuttings, which use the most water and produce the lowest yields. Crop switching is another: Wheat uses about half the water of alfalfa, and hemp uses 60% to 70% less. Romney stressed that leasing would be voluntary and largely temporary.
Political support has grown on both sides of the aisle. A social media post from President Donald Trump pledging $1 billion for the lake gave conservatives cover to treat it as a nonpartisan issue, Romney said, though securing the money will be a challenge. Great Salt Lake was the top issue for Utahns before affordability overtook it, and nearly every legislator he meets cares about it. 24 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
His parting advice was simple: Turn sprinklers on later in the spring and off earlier in the fall. “We are going to save the lake,” Romney said. Dave Anderton is communications director of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors®.
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The Scary Side of Being a Realtor® The Salt Lake Board of Realtors® held its Fall Education Summit in October. The day began with a three-hour continuing education course on the new Real Estate Purchase Contract taught by Kreg Wagner, legal counsel for the Utah Association of Realtors®. Lunch featured a costume contest, won by Fred Law, who dressed as Gandalf from “The Lord of the Rings.” In the afternoon, Dale Anderson of Frontline Training & Consulting taught a Realtor® safety workshop on surviving violent encounters as a real estate agent.
26 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
Photos: Dave Anderton
November 2026 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | 27
September 2026 Housing Watch Fewer Sales, More Listings: Salt Lake County’s September Housing Market Salt Lake County’s supply of homes for sale kept growing in September, while sales continued to slide. Home sales in the county fell 9.5% in September, dropping to 989 from 1,093 in September 2025, according to data from UtahRealEstate.com. At the same time, active listings at the end of the month climbed 18.6% to 3,878, up from 3,270 a year earlier. Prices held steady. The countywide median sales price for all housing types dipped 0.9% to $550,000, compared with $555,000 a year ago. Sales Stay Below Last Year’s Pace September marked another month of year-over-year declines. Sales were nearly unchanged from August, when 987 homes sold. Single-family homes again drove the decline. Sales fell 11.3% to 678, down from 764 in September 2025. Multifamily sales, which include condominiums, twinhomes and townhomes, held up better, slipping 4.9% to 292 from 307. The pipeline points to more of the same. Homes under contract at the end of September totaled 815, down 15.1% from 960 a year earlier and down 9.9% from 905 at the end of August. Because pending sales typically close within 30 to 60 days, that drop suggests October sales could also come in below last year’s pace.
“Further increases in mortgage rates in recent weeks mean fewer buyers can qualify to purchase a home.”
Lawrence Yun Chief Economist National Association of Realtors®
Prices Rise by Type, Slip Overall For the second month in a row, the countywide median fell slightly even as prices rose within each housing type. The single-family median climbed 1.5% to $650,000 from $640,573. The multifamily median posted a bigger gain, rising 4.6% to $435,000 from $416,000. The explanation is the mix of homes sold. Single-family homes, which sell for far more than condos and townhomes, made up a slightly smaller share of September sales than a year ago. With fewer high-priced homes in the count, the overall median edged down even though both categories gained. More Homes on the Market Sellers continued to list homes even as buyers pulled back. New listings rose 1.7% to 1,493 in September, up from 1,468 a year earlier. With sales falling, that keeps adding to inventory. Homes that are priced right are still moving. The median cumulative days on market for all housing types fell to 41 from 42 a year ago, though it rose from 39 in August. Single-family homes sold in a median of 35 days, down from 40, while multifamily properties took 53 days, up from 52. The National Picture Salt Lake County’s year-over-year decline was steeper than the nation’s. Existing-home sales nationwide rose 1.5% from August but fell 2.2% from a year earlier, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.99 million, according to the National Association of Realtors®. In the West, sales rose 2.8% from August but were down 5.2% from a year earlier. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said that despite the small monthly gain, “August and September marked the two slowest months for home sales this year.” He added that the latest rise in mortgage rates means fewer buyers can qualify for a home loan. The average 30-year fixed rate was 6.86% in September, up from 6.67% in August and 6.35% a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac. National inventory is growing, too. Total housing inventory reached 1.60 million units, up 1.9% from August and 4.6% from September 2025, equal to a 4.8-month supply. National prices kept climbing. The median existing-home price rose 1.3% to $417,500 from $412,300, marking the 39th consecutive month of year-over-year gains. Salt Lake County’s $550,000 median runs about 32% above the national figure. Yun said rising inventory and longer days on market are giving buyers more negotiating power, and that sellers need to be realistic about local conditions, which could mean price cuts or other incentives to attract buyers. 28 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | November 2026
Salt Lake County
Source: UtahRealEstate.com
Local Market Update for September 2026 KEY METRICS
NUMBER OF SALES
MEDIAN SOLD PRICE
MEDIAN DAYS ON MARKET
NEW LISTINGS
UNDER CONTRACT
ACTIVE LISTINGS
2025
All Housing Types Single Family Multi Family
1,093 764 307
$555,000 $640,573 $416,000
42 40 52
1,468
960
3,270
2026
All Housing Types Single Family Multi Family
989 678 292
$550,000 $650,000 $435,000
41 35 53
1,493
815
3,878
-2.38% -12.50% -1.92%
1.70%
-15.10%
18.59%
COMPARISON TO LAST YEAR -% DIFFERENCE
All Housing Types Single Family Multi Family
-9.52% -11.26% -4.89%
NO. OF SALES 1,093
989
-0.90% 1.47% 4.57%
MEDIAN SOLD PRICE $555,000 -0.90%
-9.52%
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2025
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2026
NEW LISTINGS
1,493
1,468
$550,000
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2025
-2.38%
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2026
UNDER CONTRACT LISTINGS
1.70%
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2026
960
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2026
3,878
3,270
-15.10%
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2025
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2025
ACTIVE LISTINGS AS OF JULY. 31
815
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2025
MEDIAN DAYS ON MARKET 42 41
18.59%
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2026
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2025
November 2026 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | 29
ALL HOUSING TYPES SEPT 2026
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