Where's the most favorable market for Utah homebuyers?

SALT LAKE CITY — The best place for homebuyers to get a deal in Utah? It's Hurricane, Washington County, according to a new analysis.

The rapidly growing southern Utah community with a population of nearly 27,000, situated between St. George and Zion National Park, is ranked as the state's strongest market for homebuyers by a ConsumerAffairs analysis of data collected by ZIP code nationwide.

"Buyers do have significantly more leverage in Hurricane," said Emily Merkley, CEO of the Washington County Board of Realtors. "There are more homes to choose from, homes are taking longer to sell, and sellers are competing for buyers."

Merkley said although some local data differs, the overall conclusion of the analysis is accurate. But with a median sales price of nearly $514,000 in the second quarter of 2026, she cautioned "that doesn't necessarily mean Hurricane has suddenly become affordable."

Why Hurricane came out on top in Utah

ConsumerAffairs said from April to June, only 9% of homes sold for above asking price in Hurricane, with 40% going for less, compared to an average of 23.5% nationally. Also, less than 18% of homes for sale in Hurricane were off the market within two weeks.

Nationwide, Hurricane's 84737 ZIP code ranked as the 39th best for homebuyers in the analysis based on ZIP codes where at least 50 homes sold from April through June in metropolitan areas with 150,000 or more residents, like those in and around St. George.

The next highest-ranking ZIP code in Utah was St. George's 84770, at 161st among the nation's top homebuyers' markets, followed by 84790 in St. George at 258th; 84337 in Tremonton at 664th; and 84780 in St. George at 664th.

All of the other 75 ZIP codes in Utah that were analyzed ranked about 1,100th, with 84105 in Salt Lake City coming in as the least favorable market for homebuyers in the state, ranking 4,770th out of 6,000 ZIP codes nationwide.

"Hurricane and St. George dominate our rankings of the top buyer's markets in Utah," Ella Gomes, media relations specialist for the company that bills itself as providing consumers with information and connections to businesses, told the Deseret News.

"Part of why Hurricane took home that top spot in Utah is because of housing inventory. Hurricane has 12.9 months of supply, which is the 19th-most months of supply in the country," she said, while a ZIP code in St. George has the state's lowest sale-to-list-price ratio.

"When we look at southern Utah, buyers here have the advantage of lots of supply to choose from and lots of negotiating power to get lower than asking price," Gomes said, noting "these areas also saw high amounts of new listings entering the market during our study period."

Where are the nation's top markets for homebuyers and sellers?

Still, Hurricane was the only place in Utah among the top 100 U.S. buyers' markets identified in the analysis. The majority are in Florida and Texas, she said, where homes spend a median of more than 100 days on the market, compared to around 62 in Hurricane.

"That difference in time suggests that homebuyers in this area have more of an advantage in pricing as opposed to timing. Homes are still moving, but sellers are often getting less of a return than they hoped for," Gomes said.

Utah's best market for sellers, a Salt Lake City ZIP code that includes Sugar House and Yalecrest neighborhoods, "lands among a mix of urban areas across the country, from Washington, D.C., to Chicago," she said, noting the top sellers' markets were mainly in the Northeast and California.

The findings about Utah weren't surprising to Utah Association of Realtors President-elect Aaron Drussel. And with slow sales over the spring and summer coming to a close, Drussel said homebuyers are in a better position throughout the state.

'More opportunities for buyers' to negotiate

"You're seeing some sellers moving their prices down a little bit and that gives more encouraging news to buyers," Drussel said. With increased inventory, including from builders offering more incentives, "sellers are feeling the need to be more competitive."

While the fall is typically a time when home sellers skipped over during real estate's busiest part of the year consider reducing prices, the economic uncertainty surrounding the impacts of the ongoing war in Iran has kept more buyers than usual on the sidelines.

The buyers' market that the analysis found from April to June in Hurricane is now spreading to other parts of the state, including along the Wasatch Front, Drussel said. "You're getting more opportunities for buyers to come in and negotiate on price."

Washington County, where Hurricane and St. George are located, was the state's best market for homebuyers among the six of 29 counties with at least 150 sales in August, data provided by the Utah Association of Realtors shows.

The August data found that Davis and Salt Lake counties had the strongest markets for sellers in Utah, with 3.9 and four months of supply respectively, according to the Utah association, compared to 5.5 months for Washington County.

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