Nine out of 10 Utah renters cannot afford to buy a home in the state, according to a new housing study released Wednesday, Sept. 9.

The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah published its "State of the State's Housing Market" report, finding that the median sale price for all housing types climbed to $520,000, up from $500,000 a year earlier. The median single-family home now costs $559,900, placing Utah among the 10 most expensive states in the nation.

The numbers hit even harder in Davis County. The median single-family home in the county sold for $568,450 in the second quarter of 2026, according to Salt Lake Board of Realtors data analyzed by licensed broker Kris Bowen. A household would need roughly $166,900 in annual income to afford that purchase.

In Farmington, the median single-family price reached $780,000. Bountiful's median stood at $615,750, North Salt Lake at $661,500 and Woods Cross at $579,500.

Statewide, the estimated monthly payment on a median-priced home eased slightly to $3,669 from $3,725 in 2025. That payment still requires an annual income of about $147,000 with a 10% down payment, according to ABC4. Only 4.9% of homes sold in 2025 were affordable to households earning the median renter income of $64,000.

Natalie Gochnour, the institute's director, said at a panel discussion that the market has stabilized slightly but warned, "stability should not be mistaken for affordability or even satisfaction with where we're at," as reported by the Deseret News.

Steve Waldrip, senior housing adviser to Gov. Spencer Cox, said at the same panel that the ownership gap across age groups is troubling. Homeownership has dropped to near historical lows among Utahns under 35, and the statewide rate of 68.3% has narrowed toward the national average over the past decade.

A decade ago, a median single-family home in Utah cost about $249,000. Average monthly mortgage payments were $1,458 in 2016 and more than doubled by 2022. Senior research fellow Dejan Eskic said the COVID-19 pandemic "pushed us into new levels of unaffordability," as reported by the Deseret News.

One bright spot for renters: apartment asking rents across Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, Washington and Weber counties fell 2.3% and sit almost 9% below their June 2022 peak, according to KSL. Single-family rents rose 8.5% and townhome rents rose 8.3% from March 2024 to March 2026.

The report projects Utah's population will top 4 million by 2035, requiring about 280,000 additional housing units. The authors wrote that increasing the supply of homes below the state's $450,000 first-time-buyer benchmark "remains central to sustaining homeownership opportunities."