Home sales slip 11.6% in Salt Lake County

Sales of existing homes (single-family and condominiums) in Salt Lake County in September were down 11.6 percent compared with 1,061 sales in September 2008, the Salt Lake Board of Realtors said Friday.

The county had a total of 938 transactions last month, with a median price on sales of all housing types being $205,000. That is down 6.8 percent compared to a median price of $220,000 a year earlier. Nationally, the median existing home price for all housing types was $174,900 in September.

In Salt Lake County, housing prices peaked in June 2007 at $243,000. Since then, home prices have fallen 15.6 percent.

The board also this week said that luxury home sales — those of $1 million or more — fell 34 percent during the first nine months of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier.

The county this year had 40 such sales, compared with 61 in the year-earlier period.

A total of 71 home sales topped $1 million for all of 2008. That compares with 134 in 2007 and 133 in 2006.

The county currently has 235 homes listed for sale at $1 million or higher. Based on sales trends over the past six months, those listings represent a three-year supply of inventory.