SANTA CLARA, Calif.,
Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Salt Lake City and Denver
have more in common than the fact they are big cities, near big
mountains. According to new realtor.com data, Salt Lake City's housing market is seeing the
same rapid growth patterns that occurred in Denver in early 2015 and 2016 and that drove
the city to the top of the nation's hot housing markets.
The Salt Lake City metropolitan
area is projected to have one of the strongest housing markets in
the country in 2018, with home prices and sales expected to reach
4.5 percent and 4.6 percent growth, respectively, over last year.
Just like Denver, the factors
driving its strength are a growing economy, relative affordability
and an increasing millennial population. In fact, with home prices
growing three times faster and supply moving a full week faster in
the span of a year, Salt Lake City
resembles Denver at the beginning
of its boom.
"In just a handful of years, an influx of jobs and millennials
drove Denver's housing market from
strong and stable to rising like the Rockies," said Javier Vivas, director of economic research for
realtor.com®. "If Salt Lake City is able to
continue generating jobs and attracting well-educated young people,
the market has the potential to continue to climb to 'Mile High City'-type heights."
A primary cause of Salt Lake
City's momentum is its robust economic picture and growing
population. The local Salt Lake
City economy is growing at 9 percent year-over-year, more
than two times faster than the national average. The city is also
adding jobs at nearly three times the overall U.S. pace, with
employment growing at 3.6 percent year-over-year. Household incomes
in the area are growing at 5.4 percent year-over-year, nearly twice
the rate for the country as a whole. Last year, population topped 3
million for the first time, which has contributed to an uptick in
demand in the market.
Despite its strong economy, Salt Lake
City remains relatively affordable, particularly in
comparison to other hot mid-to-large cities. The median sales price
in Salt Lake City at the end of
2017 was $273,000, which is
$20,000, $70,000 and $90,000
lower than other growing markets of Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore., and Denver, respectively. A median income
household in Salt Lake City can
buy a median-priced home with 32 percent of its annual income,
roughly in-line with the generally accepted maximum.
Market dynamics in Salt Lake
City are being driven by its larger-than-average, and
growing, proportion of millennials. In fact, its millennial
population is 1.3 times higher than the U.S. average and made up 46
percent of its mortgages in 2017, beating the U.S. average by 9
percent. Looking at realtor.com® search activity,
Salt Lake City has been drawing
interest from Los Angeles,
Denver, Las Vegas and San
Francisco, showing that it is likely absorbing unquenched
millennial demand from these hot markets.
Although realtor.com® predicts that demand
will be strong and constant in Salt Lake
City over the next few years, the longer-term outlook for
the city's housing market depends on its ability to continue to
create jobs for young professionals and drive housing market
demand. If it's successful at doing so – as Denver so far has been – then the Denver
market's current conditions provide a reasonable snapshot of what
is in store for Salt Lake
City.
About realtor.com®
Realtor.com®
is the trusted resource for home buyers, sellers and dreamers,
offering the most comprehensive source of for-sale properties,
among competing national sites, and the information, tools and
professional expertise to help people move confidently through
every step of their home journey. It pioneered the world of digital
real estate 20 years ago, and today helps make all things home
simple, efficient and enjoyable.
Realtor.com® is operated by News Corp
[NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc. under a
perpetual license from the National Association of
REALTORS®. For more information, visit
realtor.com®.
Contact:
Lexie Puckett Holbert –
lexie.puckett@move.com
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SOURCE realtor.com