Salt Lake housing prices jump 31% over the last year

SALT LAKE CITY — Home prices around Utah’s capital jumped a staggering 31% over the last year in the latest sign of Utah’s housing crisis.

Wasatch Front real estate agents Thursday decried the dire lack of homes on the market as prices climb and sales bog down, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Salt Lake County’s median price on a single-family home inched past the eye-catching $500,000 mark sometime in March and then reached $535,000 last month, new data shows.

Average new home listings now draw 30 to 40 offers and sell in five days, the Salt Lake Board of Realtors said. They say more construction is desperately needed to fill the gap.

Nationwide, there’s a housing deficit of roughly 5.5 million units, according to an industry study that calls for ramping up the rate of U.S. homebuilding to add 2 million homes yearly over the next decade, compared with last year’s 1.3 million units built.

In Utah, the shortfall is between 45,000 and 50,000 single-family homes, apartments and other housing types, with an especially serious need for more affordable homes accessible to residents making average wages.