Median Home Price Surge Locks Out Nine in Ten Utah Renters
Utah’s median home sale price reached $520,000 in the first quarter of 2026, up from $500,000 a year earlier and surpassing the previous 2022 peak of $502,000, according to a report from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Single-family homes sold for a median of $559,900, placing Utah as the tenth most expensive state for detached housing. Buyers need an annual income of $146,800 to afford a median-priced home with a 10% down payment, well above the state’s median household income of $96,658. Renters, with a median income of just $64,000, face even steeper barriers: only 4.9% of homes sold in 2025 were within their price range.
Monthly mortgage payments now run between $4,000 and $4,500, excluding maintenance, while average asking rents sit between $2,500 and $2,700. That gap has kept 91% of Utah renters priced out of ownership in early 2026. The affordability inversion started in 2017, when monthly homeownership costs overtook rental payments. Single-family rental prices rose 8.5% and townhome rents climbed 8.3% from March 2024 to March 2026, even as apartment asking prices fell 2.3% over the same span.
Apartment supply has loosened, with 108 affordable units available per 100 households earning 80% or less of area median income in 2025, up from 100 units in 2023. Utah Housing Corporation offers up to $20,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance for first-time buyers who have lived in the state for at least a year and purchase homes under $450,000. The state’s single-family median price has more than doubled since 2016, when it stood at $249,900, compressing the pipeline of renter households able to transition to ownership.
The post Median Home Price Surge Locks Out Nine in Ten Utah Renters appeared first on Propmodo.
