Salt Lake County tallied 12% home-price jump in '05

Higher home prices, shorter listings and more sales have Utah homeowners cheering.

Deseret Morning News graphicReal estate valuesRequires Adobe Acrobat.

For the 12 months ended Dec. 31, the median price of a single-family home in Salt Lake County climbed to $185,500, up 12.4 percent from the 2004 median price of $165,000, according to the Wasatch Front Regional Multiple Listing Service, which tracks sales of existing and newly constructed homes listed through a real estate agent.

Davis County home prices rose 9.8 percent for the year, followed by Utah County at 9.4 percent and Weber County at 6.2 percent.

Just one ZIP code along the Wasatch Front showed a drop in value, 84013 in Cedar Valley, located southwest of Utah Lake in Utah County. All other locations posted strong price increases, with many areas witnessing double-digit gains.

Alpine, in Utah County, had the highest median-priced homes sold in 2005 at $499,900. Marriott-Slaterville in Weber County was the lowest at $97,750.

Sharon Spratley, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said 2005 was an exceptional year.

"I think most home sellers had a very positive experience," Spratley said. "A lot of homes that had sat there a while and kind of languished got snapped up."

Spratley said the surge in home values is partly attributed to Utah's net in-migration — the number of people moving into a place minus the number of people moving out — which in 2005 totaled 40,647 people, according to a recent state economic report.

"We've seen people coming from better markets than ours," Spratley said. "They are very pleased with what they are able to buy here in Utah."

The average listing time for a home in Salt Lake County fell to 47 days in 2005, down from 56 days in 2004. The number of single-family homes sold in Salt Lake County climbed to 15,311 units, up 17.8 percent from 12,995 units in 2004.

And as the number of sales increased, some areas, like Salt Lake's Canyon Rim district (84109), experienced a shortage of inventory. Spratley added that the Sugar House area, 84105 and 84106, remains a popular area for Salt Lake homebuyers.

Steve Larson sold his Sandy home in 2005 at its asking price of $350,000. Larson purchased the home in 1997 for $265,000.