Utah's housing costs keep climbing

Utah home prices show no signs of slowing, despite mortgage rates hovering near 7%, per the latest data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Why it matters: That's good news if you own your home , and tough if you're a would-be buyer.

Zoom in: Home prices in the Salt Lake metro have seen a 5.4% year-over-year increase and have risen 2.2% since the last quarter, per FHFA. Statewide, homes saw a nearly 6% increase since this time last year.

• Homes in Salt Lake City in April sold for a median price of $575,000, per Redfin .

State of play: Home buying power in the area decreased by about 60% from 1970 to 2022, per Axios' Rahul Mukherjee's analysis of a new RealtyHop study .

• Homebuying power is the ratio of annual income versus the average house price in 1970 (when boomers started buying starter homes) compared to 2022.

The big picture: Low housing inventory is contributing to the high prices, said FHFA's Anju Vajja, in a statement.

• You can thank rate lock for that.

Between the lines: A legislative audit last year said Utah needed to build about 28,000 new housing units a year to keep pace with the state's growing population trends, according to Utah News Dispatch .

• The audit also recommended lawmakers develop a statewide housing plan to address the worsening housing shortage .
• Meanwhile, Gov. Spencer Cox has committed to the creation of 35,000 starter homes in Utah by 2028.
• The Utah Legislature this year passed a package of bills aiming to fuel more affordable housing production.

Zoom out: Nationwide, prices are up 6.6% from last year, per the FHFA .

• Some regions are hotter than others: Vermont saw the highest home appreciation in the country with a 12.8% increase, New Jersey (11.6%) and New York (10.9%) weren't far behind.
• Prices declined in Washington, D.C.

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