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Nationwide study ranks Utah as fourth most expensive state to buy home – Cache Valley Daily


Despite a recent 4 percent drop in home values, Utah was still ranked as the fourth most expensive state to purchase a home, according to a study by Studio City Realtors of California. That study found that Utah ranked behind California, Colorado and Hawaii terms of median home prices. (Image courtesy of Facebook).

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – A recent nationwide survey found that median home values in Utah dropped by 4 percent between June and December of 2022.

But don’t worry. Utah is still the fourth most expensive state in the U.S. to purchase a home, behind only California, Colorado and Hawaii.

“Across the country, increases in property values slowed considerably – or even fell, like they did in Utah,” said Madison McGlinchey, a communication specialist for Insurify, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In fact, 18 percent of homeowners reported that losing property value was their number one concern, according to Insurify’s most recent home insurance report.

That’s because median home values throughout the nation rose only 11 percent in 2022, McGlinchey noted, compared to 26 percent in 2021.

In the red hot real estate markets in western states, however, property values actually fell by an average of 4 percent as rising interest rates driven by inflation added to would-be home buyers’ worries.

While the sky-high home prices in the West realistically had nowhere to go but down, even a small drop in values creates real concerns for homeowners.

The Insurify survey found that 75 percent of homeowners were concerned about being upside down on their mortgages as a result of declining home values.

A homeowner who is upside down (or underwater) on a mortgage loan owes more than the current value of the property.

Underwater mortgages were common after the housing crisis in 2008, according to real estate analysts, when home values plummeted and homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages could no longer afford their payments.

Years later, they estimate that more than 9 percent of homeowners nationwide are still upside down – about 4.5 million families.

Even more concerning, the recent Insurify study found that, among homeowners who purchased a home in the past 12 months, nearly 25 percent say they are already upside down on their mortgages.

That percentage undoubtedly includes some Utah homebuyers, given the astronomical prices of real estate in the Beehive State.

The median price of a new home in Utah is now $508,375, according to a study by Studio City Realtors, a California-based firm. That makes Utah the fourth most expensive state in the union to buy a house.

But Tony Mariotti, an agent for Studio City Realtors, said their research also offers useful information on the most affordable locations to buy.

Those locations include Illinois, Ohio and Oklahoma, where the study found median house prices varying from $133,750 to $175,063 respectively.

Here in Utah, the Studio City study found that Heber City is the most expensive place in the state to buy a home, with a median price of nearly a million dollars.

By contrast, the median home price in the eastern Utah town of Vernal was a “relatively” modest $244,550.

The median home prices in the three more expensive states than Utah were $537,000 in California, $537,125 in Colorado and a whopping $805,775 in Hawaii.

Insurify is a virtual insurance agency based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Founded as an MIT-based startup in 2016, Insurify leverages proprietary artificial intelligence technology to provide customers with a real-time selection of dozens of options for home, life and auto insurance.







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