Counties / Utah / Salt Lake County

Salt Lake County, UT

FIPS 49035 · population 1,196,523 · part of Salt Lake City, UT

$576k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$576k
▲ 1.5% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,639
▲ 0.5% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
3.4%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,747
market rent is 0.94x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+51.2%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+1.5%FHFA HPI2025+2.6%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$526k
Surveyed gross rent$1,592
Rent burden 30%+48.8%
Median year built1986
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
5.2%vacant
449,662estimated housing units
Occupied tenure33.9% renter
owner 66.1%renter 33.9%
Structure mix68.9% single-family
Single-family 68.9%20+ units 14.1%Mobile home 1.8%Other 15.2%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs808,185▲ 1.5% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments67,942annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,543▲ 3.6% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities22.3% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+1.5%WEEKLY WAGE+3.6%Trade, transportation, and utilities22.3%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Salt Lake County is a price-led, low-yield rental screen: it merits investigation where durable income can be verified, while underwriters sensitive to carrying costs and resale friction should be cautious. Zillow's county observation for 2026-06 places median home value at $575,927, median asking rent at $1,639 per month, and gross yield at 3.42%. Asking-rent growth trailed home-value growth. Separately, FHFA's 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 2.59%; this supports the direction of appreciation but is neither a dollar value nor the same vintage or method as Zillow.

02Housing economics

The market-rent measure supports the stated gross-yield calculation, but it does not establish net income. HUD's two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate, and cannot replace market rent in yield work. The effective property-tax rate is 0.54%, and median annual property tax is $2,836; these carrying costs matter against the value/rent gap. Operating expenses, insurance, vacancy, and financing are not published, preventing NOI, net-yield, and debt-service conclusions.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com's 2026-06 MLS snapshot showed 3,088 active listings, up from the prior year, a 3.83% lower median listing price, and price reductions on 26.21% of listings. These are visible-supply, asking-price, and concession measures—not closed sales or proof of buyer demand alone. Tax-return movers produced net migration of -2,674 households, while incomer average AGI was $6,690 below outmovers'. That combination requires tenant-depth and absorption checks rather than a countywide demand inference. Nonoccupant purchase mortgages represented 5.37% of purchases, a bounded measure of buyer competition. QCEW reports annual covered workplace employment and wage growth, not resident employment or a forecast; Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy.

04Risk & next checks

Earthquake is the stated dominant hazard, while modeled climate loss equals 0.18% of building value per year. They are separate county-level risk flags, not a parcel-specific earthquake-loss estimate or insurance quote. Next checks are seismic design and retrofit status, insurer availability, deductibles and exclusions, neighborhood vacancy, lease renewals, and property-level taxes. Those missing facts prevent a conclusion on cash-flow resilience or hazard-adjusted returns.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Salt Lake County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Salt Lake City city208KWest Valley City city138.4KWest Jordan city116.7KSandy city94.3KSouth Jordan city82.7KMillcreek city63.6KHerriman city59.3KTaylorsville city58.7K
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

24 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Salt Lake City cityIncorporated place
    208,007
  2. 02
    West Valley City cityIncorporated place
    138,437
  3. 03
    West Jordan cityIncorporated place
    116,692
  4. 04
    Sandy cityIncorporated place
    94,291
  5. 05
    South Jordan cityIncorporated place
    82,686
  6. 06
    Millcreek cityIncorporated place
    63,648
  7. 07
    Herriman cityIncorporated place
    59,346
  8. 08
    Taylorsville cityIncorporated place
    58,678
  9. 09
    Draper cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    50,278
  10. 10
    Murray cityIncorporated place
    50,188
  11. 11
    Riverton cityIncorporated place
    45,457
  12. 12
    Kearns metro townshipCensus place
    37,696
Show 12 more places
  1. 13
    Midvale cityIncorporated place
    35,989
  2. 14
    Cottonwood Heights cityIncorporated place
    32,828
  3. 15
    Holladay cityIncorporated place
    31,099
  4. 16
    Magna metro townshipCensus place
    30,031
  5. 17
    South Salt Lake cityIncorporated place
    26,352
  6. 18
    Bluffdale cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    18,797
  7. 19
    White City metro townshipCensus place
    5,669
  8. 20
    Emigration Canyon metro townshipCensus place
    1,433
  9. 21
    Copperton metro townshipCensus place
    1,060
  10. 22
    Granite CDPCensus-designated place
    908
  11. 23
    Brighton townIncorporated place
    311
  12. 24
    Alta townIncorporated place
    284

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardearthquake

0.181% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.54%

$2,836 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-2,674

27,858 in · 30,532 out

Arriving vs leaving income−$6,690

$70,369 arriving · $77,059 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors5.4%

657 of 12,232 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings3,088▲ 5.0% year over year
Median days on market49▲ 5.4% year over year
Listings price-reduced26.2%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 3.8% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Same metro

The other counties in Salt Lake City, UT

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Salt Lake County1,196,523$576k$1,6393.4%earthquake
Tooele County79,347$482k$1,7354.3%wildfire
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Property-level seismic exposure, retrofit condition, and insurance terms could make county-level hazard framing unusable.
  2. Subject rents, expenses, and vacancy could differ from county medians, changing net-return results.
  3. MLS listing signals and tax-return mover data may not translate to the target neighborhood or housing type.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can HUD Fair Market Rent be used as the county's asking rent?

No. The record identifies HUD FMR as a two-bedroom payment standard, while Zillow provides the market asking-rent measure.

Can net yield or NOI be determined from this record?

No. Operating expenses, insurance, vacancy, and financing terms are not published.

What does the available labor evidence measure?

QCEW measures annual covered employment at workplaces in the county and covered-worker wages; it does not measure resident employment or forecast demand.