Supply and demand: housing market update

SALT LAKE CITY — It’s a seller’s housing market, but not a lot of homeowners want to sell. Jed Nilson from the Utah Association of Realtors says there’s an obvious reason why.

“What we’re seeing is that people that have a low interest rate are not willing to sell their home unless there is a real life-altering situation that’s causing [them to move] and so existing home inventory continues to drop.”

The number of Utah homes for sale has dropped to a record low for this time of year. New listings are down 11% which puts standing inventory 21% lower than this time last year according to Nilson.

The housing market is a game of supply and demand, and it seems like there still isn’t enough supply. 

“The new home construction has been sluggish over the last year, and it’s making it, so inventory levels show that it’s still a seller’s market.”

“There is only 3.2 months of inventory, and a balanced market is six months.”

Since inventory is low, the prices stay the same, which causes a lot of competing offers in some areas of Utah. 

Nilson suggests to people looking for a home to work with a realtor saying, “It seems like now more than ever it’s important to work with a realtor because each geographical area along the Wasatch Front, or in the state of Utah has become very different.”

Nationwide, we have seen a slowdown, but Utah’s economy and population growth seem to have outweighed the effects of the high interest rates according to Nilson. The slowdown hasn’t affected Utah as much as other states.

Related: HELOCs on the rise amid high interest rates