Salt Lake City, UT
Salt Lake City merits investigation for buyers prioritizing employment and tenant affordability, but cash-flow investors and those unwilling to underwrite earthquake exposure should be cautious.
Why this market scores where it does
Written from the figures on this page and then checked against them: every number below had to appear in the source record or recompute from two that did, or the text was rewritten.
Salt Lake City merits investigation for buyers prioritizing employment and tenant affordability, but cash-flow investors and those unwilling to underwrite earthquake exposure should be cautious. The median home value is $567,346, versus median asking rent of $1,638 and a 3.46% gross yield, limiting income relative to cost.
The opportunity is a 1.27% year-over-year job gain alongside rent equal to 20.04% of median household income, a combination consistent with accessible rents and a growing employment base. The tension is that rent rose only 0.52%, so the demand signal has not translated into much pricing momentum. A 5.78-times price-to-income ratio also keeps purchase affordability tighter than renter affordability.
Inventory is 3.0 months and 32.6% of listings recorded price drops, offering negotiating signals, while permits add a supply-pipeline consideration. Tax filings show net migration of -2,144 households, and earthquake is the dominant hazard. Investigate only if the deal works at current rent and after property-level earthquake review, without relying on stronger rent growth.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
How affordable is rent relative to local income?
What evidence suggests buyers may have negotiating leverage?
Is household migration supportive?
Investor Quick Takeaways
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Salt Lake City as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 87 | 30% | 26.10 |
| Rent trend | 11 | 25% | 2.75 |
| Affordability | 81 | 15% | 12.15 |
| Supply pressure | 47 | 15% | 7.05 |
| Climate risk | 28 | 15% | 4.20 |
| Published score | 52 | ||
Job: CES employment rose 1.27% year over year -> the labor-market signal strengthens the tenant-demand case, but tax-based migration does not.
Rent: Median asking rent rose 0.52% and gross yield is 3.46% -> income momentum and headline yield are weak points.
Afford: Rent equals 20.04% of median household income while home value is 5.78 times income -> renter affordability is stronger than buyer affordability.
Supply: 5,344 permits sit alongside 3.0 months of inventory, 35 median days on market, and a 32.6% price-drop share -> buyers have negotiating signals and a supply pipeline to assess.
Climate: Earthquake is the dominant hazard and the annual loss ratio is 0.1814% -> property-level exposure belongs in underwriting.
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- Rent growth of 0.52% and a 3.46% gross yield provide limited income momentum and headline return relative to the recorded home value.
- Tax filings show net migration of -2,144 households, while average AGI was $70,613 inbound versus $77,006 outbound, making the migration signal unfavorable.
- Earthquake is the dominant hazard, and the recorded annual loss ratio is 0.1814% of building value, adding property-specific loss exposure.
Move from the metro average to local evidence
County pages carry tax, migration, listing and hazard records. City pages appear only where direct city price, rent and Census evidence pass the publication gate.
Metros that behave like Salt Lake City
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Metro | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake City, UT (Target) | 52 | $567k | $1,638 | 3.5% | ▲ 1.3% |
| Provo, UT | 52 | $548k | $1,847 | 4.0% | ▲ 1.4% |
| Sacramento, CA | 49 | $584k | $2,308 | 4.7% | ▲ 0.7% |
| Austin, TX | 51 | $427k | $1,653 | 4.7% | ▲ 1.4% |
| Boise City, ID | 67 | $497k | $1,874 | 4.5% | ▲ 1.0% |
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-07-31 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI 2025 | 2026-07-28 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-23 | 2026-07-27 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-27 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |