Salt Lake County had 719 homes under contract as of Oct. 22, a 16% drop from 855 on the same date in 2025. Dave Anderton, spokesman for the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, provided the figures to the Deseret News.

The county decline is part of a national slide. Pending sales across the U.S. fell to their lowest level since Redfin began tracking in 2021, according to Redfin data reported by the Deseret News on Oct. 23. Statewide, 3,191 Utah homes were under contract, down 18% from 3,903 a year earlier, Anderton said.

For Millcreek, the slowdown hits a market already out of reach for most households. The Salt Lake Board of Realtors labeled single-family homes "severely unaffordable" in 16 Salt Lake County municipalities in its mid-year 2026 tracking report, according to Deseret News coverage in August. Millcreek's median sale price reached $833,000 in the second quarter of 2026, requiring an estimated household income of $234,937 to buy.

That's nearly two and a half times the county's median household income of $97,494.

The gap helps explain why fewer buyers are signing contracts. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 7.32% as of Oct. 22, according to Freddie Mac, after briefly dipping below 6% early in 2026 for the first time since 2022.

September closed sales in Salt Lake County totaled 949 homes with 1,416 new listings added, leaving 3.9 months of inventory, according to MLS data compiled by agent Joel Carson. The county's September median sale price was $557,000, down 0.5% from September 2025.

A separate report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah found that Utah remains among the nation's 10 most expensive states for single-family homes, Utah Business reported in September. The estimated monthly payment on a median-priced Utah home reached a preliminary $3,669 in 2026, and roughly 91% of the state's renters cannot afford that payment, according to the Gardner report.

Scott Colemere, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said in the board's affordability report that housing affordability is a challenge in every community. The report warned that affordability challenges are expected to persist and that the third quarter of 2026 "could set another record" if mortgage rates keep rising.

The Utah Association of Realtors reported 2,744 pending home sales statewide in September, down 26.8% from 3,748 in September 2025.