KSL INVESTIGATES
Why Salt Lake’s Real Estate Market Stays Red Hot In Spite Of Pandemic
May 24, 2021, 6:13 PM | Updated: 9:48 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — If you have been in the market for a new place to call home in Utah, then you likely know how tough it is to be a buyer right now — faced with sky-high prices and homes selling like hotcakes.
When COVID-19 struck, the economy sank into recession, leaving thousands of Utahns without jobs and making it a lot harder for others to make ends meet. Why then, is the real estate market booming?
The KSL Investigators asked online real estate marketplace Zillow to share their data and break down exactly what they are seeing.
Homes selling for above list price means bidding wars. @zillow shares its data with @KSLInvestigates. I'll break it down for you on KSL News at 6PM.
Then tonight on @KSL5TV News at 10PM, @laddegan digs into what buyers are doing to stand out and, no, it's not just offer more. pic.twitter.com/f7SJQdpwPf
— Matt Gephardt KSL (@KslMatt) May 24, 2021
“There’s just been this huge, unrelenting demand for houses,” said Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert, who confirms what many of us have felt: the Salt Lake market is red hot.
“In the Salt Lake City market, we’re seeing homes flying off the market in six days, which is 14 days faster than a year ago,” said Pendleton. “We’ve also seen home values climb really rapidly, more than 16% in the past year, and more than 43% of all homes in the Salt Lake City metro area are selling above list price.”
Zillow’s numbers also confirmed what KSL-TV has heard from buyers and sellers: there are a lot of bidding wars happening out there.
As for why? Zillow said it is largely a COVID-19 side effect.
“The pandemic has prompted what we call the great reshuffling,” said Pendleton. “We’ve all been sitting in our homes for so long, we started to look around our homes and ask ourselves if they’re really meeting all of our needs in this new normal.”
