The Salt Lake Board of Realtors has just released its 2025 Housing Forecast. In it, James Wood, Ivory-Boyer Senior Fellow at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah gives his annual wrap of of 2024 and lets us know what is expected for this year. I will link the full report below.

In 2024, prices went up a little bit. In 2023 prices dipped, but they rallied in 2024 and were up 1% over the high in 2022. That is nowhere near the 10 & 20% + increases we were seeing, but up is better than down. I much prefer to see this balanced market over a very strong seller’s or buyer’s market. It’s much more sustainable and less prone to crashes.

The slowdown of price increases is attributed to higher interest rates and also lower affordability. Salt Lake has become one of the highest-priced metropolitan areas in the country. There are 227 areas and we are 28th on the list. Salt Lake rates high on the unaffordability scale. The median price of a home at the end of last year was $610,000 and for a condo $425,525.

What does that mean for 2025? James Wood thinks that we will see prices rise by about 2% because we are still fighting the unaffordability. Also, the lending experts expect mortgage rates to stay between 6.5 -7% this year. That’s what they’ve been for a while now. Though we all want low mortgage rates, these are more typical over the long run. Wood also expects the number of listings to rise and the number of sales to be about 8% higher than last year.

So the market is perhaps a little less “exciting” than it’s been, but I for one, welcome it. I like a balanced market where buyers and sellers get to work together and compromise to make deals work.

If you’re in the market to move, give me a call and we’ll get started!