Prices up in Utah's 'bipolar' housing market

SALT LAKE CITY — The president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors has a pretty unique way of describing a housing market that's seen the average home price reach a record high this year even as the nation's economic uncertainties continue.

"I think what our market is right now, honestly, is bipolar," said Scott Colemere, who's marking his 30th year as a real estate broker and leads the board that represents nearly 97% of the state's realtors.

The reason? Buyers and sellers see the market extremely differently right now.

"There's a lot of sellers who believe we're in that COVID, post-COVID market where they can ask high prices and their property doesn't have to look as sharp," Colemere said, referring to the pandemic housing frenzy that saw skyrocketing prices but still low mortgage rates.

But with mortgage rates more than doubled, many buyers "want to say, 'Well, the sky is falling and it's going to all come crumbling down so we better go in and low ball,' or, even worse than that, 'We've got to wait for the market to come crashing down,'" he said.

Neither scenario represents what's really happening, according to Colemere.

"The reality is that despite the people who are grumbling or upset about the higher interest rate, is that it has done its job to carefully and slowly slow down a market that was booming too quickly, that had out of control price appreciation," he said.

That's helped return equilibrium to the market, Colemere said, citing an average discount from a home's listing price of around 2% or 3%. "That's neither a buyer's market or a seller's market. It's very equal."

New data shows higher prices, more sales in Salt Lake County

The board's latest data shows the median price of a single-family home in Salt Lake County rose to $645,000 in the second quarter of 2026, a 4.88% increase over the previous year. That's the highest quarterly median home price on record.

During April, May and June, 2,334 single-family homes were sold in Salt Lake County, 4.62% more than the second quarter of 2025, with what the board described as strong year-over-year increases in sales in some areas of Salt Lake City, South Jordan, West Jordan and Taylorsville.

Prices were much, much higher in some ZIP codes among the five counties analyzed, coming in at $1.55 million for Alpine in Utah County. When it comes to more affordable condominiums, sales were up but prices were down in Salt Lake and Weber counties.

"It tells me that there's still demand," Colemere said. "And after 2½ years of basically flat real estate prices, that there are those feeling confident enough to say, 'Hey, let's make a move.'"

Climbing prices and sales are good news for sellers, but he cautioned the numbers are no "silver bullet. Absolutely not. But to me, it speaks to hopefully a trend that we're going to see generally a stronger seller's market."

At the same time, though, affordability takes a hit when homes become more expensive, Colemere said.

"It makes it more challenging," but that could change if borrowing gets cheaper, he said. Even if the price tag for a home is up, "if it's combined with lower interest rates, it's hard to argue that's not a good thing all the way around."

That may not be coming soon, given the impact of the ongoing war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran six months ago. The conflict has fueled inflation, with gas again selling for more than $4 a gallon following the collapse of a ceasefire.

Mortgage rates, which in February dipped below 6% for the first time since 2022, are also up.

Last Thursday, the weekly average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the U.S. was at 6.58%, a 0.03 percentage increase from the previous week, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac.

Will Utah's 'healthy' home price appreciation continue?

Still, Colemere is optimistic.

Despite higher mortgage rates and "possibly some negative consumer sentiment and things to be scared about in the broader economy," he sees signs of "a gradual and careful improvement" in the outlook for Utah's housing market.

The amount and pace of price increases is steady enough to keep from stalling the welcome upswing, Colemere said, calling "5% appreciation in a year ... a very normal, healthy real estate market."

Consumer confidence is the big variable, however. Past polls found that many Americans were hesitant to commit to making big purchases like buying a house due to the economic uncertainty created by President Donald Trump's constantly changing tariffs.

"If they see high gas prices and high grocery prices, in my opinion that has an overall negative effect on consumer confidence," Colemere said, which could flatten real estate values and slow year over year appreciation to just 1% or 2%. "This could be just a blip."

But only if that's all consumers are focused on, he said, adding that Trump is expected to keep pushing the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, something that hasn't happened since December 2025.

"The single largest factor that affects a buyer's ability to buy is the interest rate," Colemere said, adding, "there's a lot of signs that point to recovery, but there's also fears on the horizon that are real."

Check out the full list of home prices along the Wasatch Front by zip code.

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