Sales of million-dollar homes on the rise along the Wasatch Front

The Wasatch Front’s appealing economy and quality of life are boosting the sales of million-dollar homes, according to new numbers from the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.

In the first eight months of 2019 there were 268 sales of million-dollar homes along the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake, Davis, Tooele, Utah and Weber counties), a 23 percent increase compared to 218 sales in the same January through August period last year. In comparison, sales of homes priced under $500,000 in the same period were flat (down 0.2 percent).

“Wealthy transplants from California and New York are fueling million-dollar home sales,” said Scott Robbins, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. “Nearly three of every four homes sold above $1 million were priced from $1 million to $1.5 million. It remains somewhat of a challenge to sell a home above $1.5 million, even in today’s strong economy.”

A recent Wall Street Journal article said that, “millions of people, thousands of businesses and tens of billions of dollars of net income will flee high-tax blue states for low-tax red states. … The losers will be most of the Northeast, along with California. The winners are likely to be states like Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.”

While homes selling over the million-dollar mark make a big splash, their overall market share is small. Approximately 87 percent of all homes sold on the Wasatch Front from January through August were for homes priced under $500,000. Homes that sold from $500,000 to $999,999 made up 12 percent of the mix. Million-dollar home sales represented just 1 percent of the total market share.

In 2018, there were 309 homes sold above the million-dollar mark along the Wasatch Front, a 20 percent increase from 258 million-dollar homes sold in 2017 and a 91 percent increase compared to 162 units sold in 2016.