Happenings In the News

Utah Continues to Attract New Residents

In 2022, Utah saw an influx of more than 91,000 new residents, most of whom came from California, according to a new report by the Census Bureau. However, it’s worth noting that the number of Californians moving to Utah decreased 20% compared to 2021. The report also shows that other states like Washington, Idaho, Texas, and Arizona played a big role in Utah’s population growth in 2022.

Top States Feeding Utah's Population Growth

In-Movers

High Mortgage Rates Threaten New Home Production

Dejan Eskic, chief economist for the Salt Lake Board of Realtors®, cautioned that today’s high mortgage interest rates are slowing new home production, which will worsen Utah’s housing shortage over the next two years. In 2017, Utah had a deficit of 56,000 housing units. “We managed to reduce it to about 28,000 units last year,” he said. “However, this year and the next, it is projected to increase to around 40,000 units.” New construction starts in Utah are currently 25% to 30% below the levels seen during the early pandemic years. The silver lining for the housing industry is that Utah’s growth is expected to continue surging over the next decade due to both in-migration and births. “We are currently navigating a very tough financial environment,” Eskic stated. “The primary challenge is getting buyers/renters in homes. The demand certainly exists.” As of Oct. 26, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.79%, according to Freddie Mac. “Rates have risen two full percentage points in 2023 alone, said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Purchase activity has slowed to a virtual standstill, affordability remains a significant hurdle for many and the only way to address it is lower rates and greater inventory.”

Utah ranked No. 49 of 51 states and the District of Columbia in highest houseprice appreciation in the second quarter, according to a report by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Utah home prices dipped 4.48% in the April-MayJune period compared to the same three months in 2022. Besides Utah, home prices fell in eight other states: Oregon, California, Colorado, Arizona, Washington, Idaho, District of Columbia, and Nevada. At 7.59%, Maine saw the highest price appreciation in the country. Connecticut ranked second, with home prices there increasing 7.58%. New Hampshire was third at 7.09%. U.S. home appreciation in the third quarter averaged 3.02%.

“U.S. house prices appreciated at a slightly higher rate in the second quarter amid low inventory,” said Dr. Anju Vajja, Principal Associate Director in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “While prices in a number of western states continued to decline year-over-year, house prices rose in all states quarter-over-quarter.” bmwofpg.com

House prices rose in 74 of the top 100 largest metropolitan areas over the last four quarters. The annual price increase was greatest in Camden, NJ (MSAD) at 10.6%. The metropolitan area that experienced the greatest price decline was San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA (MSAD) at -12.2%. In Salt Lake City, prices fell 5.95% over the past year, but increased 0.90% from the first quarter. Salt Lake City ranked No. 94 of the 100 largest metro areas in highest appreciation.

The FHFA HPI is a comprehensive collection of publicly available house price indexes that measure changes in single-family home values based on data that extend back to the mid-1970s from all 50 states and over 400 American cities. It incorporates tens of millions of home sales and offers insights about house price fluctuations at the national, census division, state, metro area, county, ZIP code, and census tract levels. FHFA uses a fully transparent methodology based upon a weighted, repeat-sales statistical technique to analyze house price transaction data.

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Celebrating Halloween

The Affiliates Committee of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors® organized a trunk or treat on Oct. 30. Roughly 200 members attended the event, which was held at the Realtor® Campus. Affiliate members make up approximately 400 members of the Board and represent many different professions including: lending and mortgage, warranty, title, home inspection, extermination and decontamination services, media, staging, builders, and insurance. Utah is ranked one of the best in the nation for Halloween festivities, in two surveys — No. 1 for trick-or-treating and No. 3 for Halloween spirit — according to KSL.com.