Tooele County is the fastest growing county in the state. What’s the housing market like?

TOOELE COUNTY, Utah — The U.S. Census Bureau says Utah is the fastest-growing state per capita in the nation. But where is the majority of this growth happening? It may not be your first guess, but Tooele County is the fastest-growing county in all of The Beehive State, according to the Bureau.

Chris Sloan, a Tooele County realtor, joins Dave and Dujanovic to shed some light on the topic.

According to Redfin, the median sale price for a home in Tooele County is around $438,000. Sloan says this is correct, give or take $10,000 to $12,000.

“That number is down about 7 (or) 8% over the same time over last year,” he tells Dave and Dujanovic. “Understanding, of course, that we’ve gone up 38% the previous year … That drop is not insignificant, but it’s not a huge number either.”

Sloan continues, saying it’s “kind of difficult” to buy a house in Tooele County with the current housing market.

“We’re seeing a goofy variation on that now, having more to do with interest rates. But, we’re not seeing the bidding wars that we saw, certainly, two years (ago), 30 months ago,” Sloan says. “We’re also seeing some slowing down in construction, mostly because, again, of the interest rates.”

However, Sloan says despite this, there is great value to living in Tooele County.

“I use the Wasatch Front as a comparison to the selling point because, you know, we’re still [$50,000] to $70,000 cheaper out here for home property than any place along the Wasatch Front,” he says.

Is the market in Tooele County slowing down?

Tooele County handing out fewer building permits and the high-interest rates have slowed the market a bit, according to Sloan.

“I think we all got fat, dumb and happy when … anything that you built, you were going to get an offer for $20,000 over a list the day you put a shovel in the ground,” he says. “We’re back to more realistic time frames now, both on the purchase and on the construction … There’s an adjustment period and I’m going to call it a new normal, that’s more like the old normal.”

He says, although the county isn’t seeing many bidding wars, developers are still being careful and keeping an eye on the economy.

“We see the same folks that are concerned about growth out here in Tooele County that you see, you know, in Washington County and Wasatch County and Weber County, no matter where you go, you see that,” he says. “And so, that combination with the slowing economy and the uncertainty over what these rates are going to do is making developers maybe a little bit less likely to just go through a ton of money with a if you build it, they will come mentality.”

Dave & Dujanovic can be heard on weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

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