Looking to buy a house in Salt Lake County? You’ll need to earn nearly $187,000 a year to afford a typical single-family home.
That’s according to the latest report by the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, which labeled single-family homes “severely unaffordable” in 16 municipalities throughout Utah’s most populated county, based on what locals actually earn versus how much a median home costs.
The income needed to be able to buy an affordable property in Salt Lake County has jumped to the highest level in two years, $186,827, up 7.75% from the first quarter of 2026, according to the board’s Q2/Mid-Year 2026 Municipal Affordability Tracking Report.
Median household earnings in Salt Lake County, though, are $97,494. That means a home would have to be priced at $301,477 to be affordable under the federal government’s standard that Americans should have to pay no more than 30% of their gross monthly income for housing.
But single-family home prices in Salt Lake County just hit a new record, reaching a median sale price of $645,000 in the second quarter of 2026, up 4.03% from a year earlier and $35,000 higher than for the first four months of the year, the report said.
Houses were cheaper when the earnings required for a property to be seen as affordable peaked at $190,609 in the second quarter of 2024. Then, the median home price was $625,000, but mortgage rates were above 7%.
‘Affordability is a challenge in every community’
It’s the combination of record home prices, mortgage rates nearing past highs, and limited housing supply that the report said “created a ‘perfect storm’” where buyers in every municipality examined in Salt Lake County need a hefty household income.
“The numbers show that housing affordability is a challenge in every community,” Scott Colemere, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said, declaring it critical that the housing supply be expanded and “more attainable paths to homeownership” created.
Those are already goals set by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who has pledged to add thousands of new homes statewide priced for first-time buyers by 2028 by making some $300 million in public investment funds available to developers through a unique loan program.
The state’s “Utah Housing Strategic Plan Metrics” website shows that as of April, 7,412 starter homes have been built since the governor announced his goal more than two years ago, mostly in Utah County.
“This report highlights the critical work that the governor’s team is doing to create new housing supply in Utah,” State Housing Coordinator Steve Waldrip told the Deseret News. “Our kids and grandkids should not have to leave Utah to buy their first home and live the American Dream.”
Waldrip said the administration remains “committed to producing 35,000 starter homes for Utahns before 2028. In order to achieve this we call on elected officials at the state and in our counties and cities to prioritize the creation of affordable starter homes for sale in their communities.”
See how much income homebuyers need by municipality
Affordability, of course, varies. Draper topped the list of Salt Lake County’s priciest markets, with buyers requiring a yearly household income of $259,641 to cover the $925,000 median price for a single-family home.
West Valley City ranked the most affordable. Living where homes go for a median price of $497,500 means buyers there would have to make $148,470 annually, more than $100,000 less than needed to acquire a Draper address.
Here’s the single-family home median sale price for the second quarter of 2026 and the annual household income it would take to keep monthly housing costs under 30% for the other municipalities in the report:
Bluffdale: $775,000 median sale price, $230,634 income required
Cottonwood Heights: $807,500 median sale price, $229,085 income required
Herriman: $693,900 median sale price, $199,544 income required
Holladay: $915,000 median sale price, $257,041 income required
Midvale: $565,000 median sale price, $166,023 income required
Millcreek: $833,000 median sale price, $234,937 income required
Murray: $625,650 median sale price, $181,795 income required
Riverton: $740,000 median sale price, $211,532 income required
Salt Lake City: $675,000 median sale price, $194,629 income required
Sandy: $720,000 median sale price, $206,331 income required
South Jordan: $772,500 median sale price, $219,984 income required
South Salt Lake: $551,500 median sale price, $162,513 income required
Taylorsville: $530,000 median sale price, $156,921 income required
West Jordan: $579,950 median sale price, $169,911 income required
The forecast for affordability
The report noted that many prospective buyers hoping prices will fall continue to be priced out of the Salt Lake County housing market, suggesting home buying is likely to get even more expensive.
“With interest rate forecasts and housing market data showing little indication of a meaningful reversal in price trends, affordability challenges are expected to persist,” the report stated, warning the third quarter of 2026 “could set another record” if mortgage rates continue to rise.
Mortgage rates had briefly dipped below 6% for the first time since 2022 just before the U.S. and Israel launched the ongoing war against Iran in late February. Since then, rates have spiked, with Mortgage News Daily reporting a 6.74% daily index rate Wednesday.
The report’s calculations used a 6.41% mortgage rate, pointing out that if rates dropped 1%, the countywide qualifying income for a median priced home would fall almost 8%, to just under $172,000.
Not only has the increase in mortgage rates over the past months blamed in the report for having “created cascading unaffordability,” the conclusion is that they’ll “remain elevated throughout the year.”