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Market Pulse

The meteoric rise in home sales and prices that began just after the COVID shutdown in 2020 continued unimpeded through all of 2021. According to the most recent data from the Park City Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (PCMLS), sale prices for single-family homes in Summit and Wasatch Counties experienced significant gains in both average price (up 28%) and median price (up 24%).

The active inventory as we begin 2022 is
~15% of our pre-Covid record low.

2021 was a record-setting year, an especially impressive feat considering the continuing ups and downs of day-to-day life in the midst of the COVID pandemic. During the past year, the real estate market soared to new heights, setting all sorts of sales records. Inventory plummeted, driving up sales prices.

Price appreciation continues to be driven by a dearth of available inventory. Pending contracts continue to far outnumber the new listings coming to market. PCMLS active listings peaked in May 2020 at just over 2,000. They’ve been on a downhill slide ever since, ending 2020 with only 541 total residential properties for sale. By the end of 2021, that number was 265, and many of those were still under construction.
 

Some Interesting Market Trends in the Past Year

Single-Family Homes
All but one (Kamas Valley) of our major market areas showed drops in single-family units sold in 2021 versus 2020. However, because of the historic rises in median prices, only Park City limits and Jordanelle showed declines in total sales volume.

Condominiums
Within Park City limits, sales volume was up 52% as median sale prices jumped 36%. In the Snyderville Basin, sales climbed 23% with average and median prices spiking 18% and 21%, respectively. The Heber and Kamas valleys showed declines in total sales volume, primarily due to a lack of inventory. 

Inventory
New listings and listing inventory both dropped to historic lows. Comparing the 12-months ending December 31, 2021 to the same period in 2020, homes were selling quickly, and not many were being offered for sale. New listings in 2020 totaled 3,641. That dropped 15% in 2021 to 3,077.

All data, information, and interpretation ©2021 Park City Multiple Listing Service, Inc

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12 Month Rolling: Jan 2021 – Dec 2021 | Jan 2020 – Dec 2020

Not all sold data in the Heber Valley is included in the Park City Multiple Listing Service data; please call for more specific details. All data, information, and interpretation ©2021 Park City Multiple Listing Service, Inc

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The statistics below were drawn on a rolling year-over-year basis for the period ending December 31, 2021, unless otherwise noted.
 

On Single-Family Homes: Even with the drop in total transactions, total sales volume has stayed the same or increased due to large increases in median prices, a trend we are seeing across the country. Park City has enjoyed a strong, sustained market because of its unique positioning as both a resort/recreation and primary market.

According the the Park City Board of REALTORS®, Utah is 50,000 housing units short of meeting demand, and we cannot build our way out of this dilemma soon enough. This supply problem will not be solved anytime soon. Utah can build only 15-17,000 new units per year. 

Homes are selling so fast that buyers need to be able to make an offer the minute that a property comes on the market. Within the Park City Limits, the volume of sales fell 2% year over year, yet prices climbed. It now costs more than $3.3 million (median sale price) to buy a house in town in Park City. Despite fluctuations in the regional markets, single-family activity in the primary market area was markedly up, with sales volume up 6% and median prices up 24% over the previous year.
 

Park City Limits

Within Park City Limits, total transactions were down 26% over 2020 to 225. However, sales volume declined just 2% from $868 million last year to $847 million this year. The median price of a single-family home across the city rose 32% to $3.3 million. In the popular Old Town area, transactions were down 24% (101 to 77), while sales volume dipped only 7% (to $204 million) as the median price set a new record at $2.5 million. The Prospector and Thaynes Canyon neighborhoods bumped Aerie for the greatest increase in median price, with Thaynes up 71% to $2.3 million and Prospector up 87% to $2.4 million.

Snyderville Basin

Basin residents saw a slight rise in sales volume (up 9%) on a strong increase in the overall median price up 21% to $1.9 million. Almost all the Snyderville neighborhoods saw declines in total transactions sold, with Glenwild dropping the most (53%) to 19 closings. Silver Springs had the biggest gain with 46 homes sold, up 28%. Promontory led the Snyderville neighborhoods in sales volume ($412 million, up 9%), while Canyons Village saw the biggest price increase with the median in that neighborhood passing $11.8M, up 73% year over year.

Jordanelle
Prices were particularly robust in the South Jordanelle area, where the median rose 22% to $3.4 million.

Heber Valley

The hotspots south and east of the metro area around the Heber and Kamas valleys showed substantial median price increases of 26% and 42%, respectively. Heber Valley saw a slight dip in transactions but 19% higher sales volume propelled by a median price that jumped 26% to $899,000.

More detailed information for other major neighborhoods can be found here:

Single-Family Stats by Neighborhood

On Condominiums: The lowest median price for a condominium in Park City continues to be in Prospector, where the median price is up 37% but still hovers at just under $300,000. The overall median price across all neighborhoods within Park City is up to $1.3 million, a 36% increase in the past year (up from $956,000).

People that used to spend three to five weeks each year in Park City are now spending three to five months, and this is pushing the pricing of larger properties. 

In the Canyons, Yotelpad dominated sales at the lower end of the market with nearly 25% of transactions occurring there. The price there was $365,000, while in the remainder of the Canyons, the median price was nearly three times that at $945,000.
 

Park City Limits

The Condominium market in Old Town Park City continued to be solid with transactions up (23%), with a 63% increase in volume which drove the median price up 18% to $805,000. Lower Deer Valley was the standout neighborhood performer with sales nearly doubling, driving the median price to $1.48 million, up 49%. Empire Pass sales were very strong as well; transactions were up 49% and sales volume up 83%, as the median price jumped 24% to $3.3 million.
 

Snyderville Basin
In the Basin area, outside of perennial volume leader Canyons Village, Pinebrook led in sales volume (up 70%), while most of the other Snyderville neighborhoods saw transaction numbers decline due to lack of inventory.

Wasatch County

In Wasatch County, (areas with 10 or more sales are reported) Jordanelle Park, Tuhaye, and Hideout all saw gains of 70% to 100% or more in sales volume, with Jordanelle Park leading the gains with a 111% increase to $28.4 million.

More detailed information for most neighborhoods can be found here:

Condo + Townhome Stats by Neighborhood

On Vacant Land: Land continues to appreciate at higher rates than existing housing simply because they’re not making any more of it. Across Summit and Wasatch counties combined, median sale prices were up over 80% from 2020 to $586,000. Total land sales for 2021 surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time. Last year, total sales were just under $600 million.

Land sales exploded in the fourth quarter as buyers who could not find an existing home to their liking elected to build their own instead. Jordanelle showed the most activity, selling 431 lots this year compared to 314 in 2020. Those lots sold for nearly twice the price of lots in 2020. The median sale price was $640,000, up 97% from $324,500 the year before.

Overall land sales in Summit and Wasatch counties were up just 14%. However, the price increases pushed the median sales price region wide up 80% to $586,000. All the major areas of the market saw a substantial increase in sales volume. Jordanelle led the way with $337.9 million in sales, 143% of the previous year’s total for the second year in a row. Only 40 lots sold within the Park City Limits, but that lack of available lots pushed the median sale price for the few that were purchased to $1.89 million, up 57% from the prior year.

More detailed information for most neighborhoods can be found here:

Vacant Land Stats by Area

All data, information, and interpretation ©2021 Park City Multiple Listing Service, Inc

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If you are contemplating selling your property, there is likely no better time than right now. Inventories are critically low, and with expected increases in mortgage rates and concerns over rising inflation on the horizon, this strong seller’s market could shift. The data below weighs the time on market against the median price (2020 vs 2021). Take note of the drastic reductions in time on market, demonstrating how quickly properties are being absorbed. Frankly, we’ve never seen such low absorption rates in our market. 
 

Absorption Rate: the number of months it would take to sell the currently listed properties on the market factoring in median list price.

PARK CITY LIMITS
(Areas 1-9) Includes
Old Town, Thaynes Canyon, Lower Deer Valley Resort, Deer Crest,
Upper Deer Valley Resort, Empire Pass, Aerie, Prospector, and Park Meadows.

                                           2020  |  2021

MEDIAN HOME PRICE
$2,500,000   |   $3,305,000
 
ABSORPTION RATE
if home was listed at median list price
3.4 months   |   1.1 months

MEDIAN HOME PRICE
$955,000   |   $1,300,000
 
ABSORPTION RATE
if home was listed at median list price
3.9 months   |   0.42 months

SNYDERVILLE BASIN & JORDANELLE
(Areas 10-28) Includes

The Canyons, Sun Peak/Bear Hollow, Silver Springs, Old Ranch Road, Kimball, Pinebrook, 
Summit Park, Jeremy Ranch, Glenwild/Silver Creek, Trailside Park, Promontory,
Quinn’s Junction, Deer Mountain, Tuhaye/Hideout,  Jordanelle, and South Jordanelle.

                                          2020  |  2021

MEDIAN HOME PRICE
 $1,391,000   |   $1,992,500
 
ABSORPTION RATE
if home was listed at median list price
5.9 months   |   0.5 months

MEDIAN HOME PRICE
$643,890   |   $765,000
 
ABSORPTION RATE
if home was listed at median list price
6.4 months   |   1.1 months

HEBER VALLEY

                                           2020  |  2021

MEDIAN HOME PRICE
$715,000   |   $899,000
 
ABSORPTION RATE
if home was listed at median list price
4.6 months   |   1.8 months

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Data for All States

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What’s the New Normal? High demand and low inventory lead to explosive price gains. Over the past two years, single family residences in the Basin are up 50%. In-town, they’re up 67% and in Heber Valley, up 71%. There probably is no “new normal” on the way anytime soon. External market disruptors are common and will continue to be unpredictable. Most likely, we are a year or two from a more stable and balanced market, given current demand and declining inventory.

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If you’re going to be in town over the next couple of weeks, we encourage you to join in on all the celebrations around town celebrating the 20th Anniversary of our 2002 Winter Olympic Games. We are excited that so many Parkites are competing in Beijing, too!

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