When is the Best Time of Year to Buy a Park City Home?
Key Points: This article discusses when the best time of year to buy a home in Park City and the Deer Valley Resort Area. Below we show historical graphs and data to help illustrate the prime times to buy condos in Park City. Updated April 2022.
When showing clients Park City homes listed for sale, I'm often asked, "When is the best time of year to buy a home in Park City, Utah?" in other words - Hey, when can I get the best deal on the house?
I usually respond with the line, "When we find the perfect home for you!"
For a while, I've wanted to dive into the data of when might be the best time of year to find a bargain - everything's relative, right? Park City real estate is complex, and many of the homes are custom built with specific tastes, and unique architecture/finishes can make it challenging to find the actual value of a home.
Here, homeowners tend to own their properties longer here than in most other areas of the United States, leading to a lack of comparable properties. So my advice, if you see a home come on the market that you love - let's get you a good deal and snatch it up!
Several months ago, I wrote an article on condo sales When is the best time of year to buy a condo in Park City, Utah? and it's done well enough that I thought it would be helpful for you to know when the best time to buy a single-family home as well.
In this article, I've researched Park City real estate by going back five years and breaking sales down by year and even deeper by month.
While the information provided is data-driven and factual, it isn't broken down into areas smaller than Park City. The data isn't broken down to a smaller area like Deer Valley because the data becomes too thin and not meaningful. If I break it down to a place like Deer Valley, or Promontory, then the data should be broken down into neighborhoods, and again, we don't have enough meaningful data because one or two sales would throw the entire graph out of whack.
If you're interested in buying a home in Park City, this will be an excellent broad overview. However, if you need information on a specific area or price band, we can get you additional data, graphs, and charts.
The Park City real estate market functions differently within different price ranges. While the sub $1,000,000 price point has been on fire for the past few years, the $5,000,000 and above price range hasn't necessarily taken back off to pre-2008 prices. About luxury homes in Park City, we recently had a $25,000,000 home in Deer Crest go under contract in weeks.
While the days on the market may seem long on some properties, they will sell if priced correctly. I've recently had great success making offers on overpriced properties, and the sellers just needed an offer to sell.
Starting to Dig Into The Numbers: The homes for sale in Park City can be challenging to navigate and differentiate with unique views, custom builds, expensive remodels, and ski-in-ski-out access. However, over the past five years, the recorded price range of homes sold in Park City has been from the lowest price of $295,000 to the highest price of nearly $24,000,000 (updated 2021).
Fun Tidbit - The three highest recorded sales prices of homes in Park City have been in The Colony at White Pine Canyon, sales in The Canyons have been strong, and the Deer Valley neighborhoods of Bald Eagle, Stein Eriksen Residences, Deer Crest, and Empire Pass aren't far behind.
When I started digging into the data, I found that the most sales took place in August 2017 with 62 sales, but in May 2016, July 2017, and August 2019, there were 61 sales each month. The lowest month for homes sold in Park City was in January 2016, with 24 sales, and the lowest recent month was March 2019, with 31 sales.
If you like this article, you may like our post about The Best Places to Live in Park City, Utah.
Over the past five years, August has had the most sales per month with 54.8 homes sold, and December is the slowest month with an average of 35.2 homes sold. Remember, on new construction, the time to close can be from eight months to several years - depending on the product.
Average Number of Sales Per Month in Park City Over the Past Five Years
- January 152
- February 166
- March 170
- April 230
- May 259
- June 260
- July 253
- August 329
- September 250
- October 258
- November 206
- December 176
Sales of Park City Homes Per Month from 2014 to 2019:
The numbers above speak about what month is best to buy a home in Park City, Utah. I also think it's essential to understand and see the previous five years of sales as a linear timeline.
Our market is very consistent from 2014 to 2019 - our peaks range from 55 to 62 sales while the lows fall below 30 a few years but have 31 sales as a floor. To see larger graphs, you can view them here.
Park City is a small market, and we've been able to satisfy the demand of home buyers with new construction since 2014. Still, as many of the prize parcels are developed, we have to become creative to find acceptable properties for buyers (Update 2021 - we are currently not able to keep up with demand).
I believe that plays a part in the dip to 2018 and that we started running out of underwater properties in 2010. So from 2010 until 2018, we had a percentage of the market that wanted to sell, but they were still owed more on their home than it was worth.
Most of the market in Park City is above pre-recession prices, but there are still a few places that have the opportunity to pay up to 25% less than the owner paid in 2007. That information is reserved for clients - so feel free to call me to discuss what may be the best opportunities for you.
Number of Homes Sold from January to August 2015 through 2019.
Since we don't have a full year of homes sold in Park City for 2019, I wanted to see if we were on track compared to the previous years.
At 352 homes sold for 2019, we are on track for the second-best year for the number sold since 2015. We had so much snow this spring that I had as many buyers say they would be back later in the year because they were going skiing instead of looking at real estate.
I had a theory that we would catch up later in the year because most buyers did return and buy a home. As for 2017 being the high mark, it was the year after the Presidential election, and buyers tend to pull back on big-ticket items in election years but ended up buying in 2017.
- Year: #Sold
- 2015: 342
- 2016: 344
- 2017: 383
- 2018: 348
- 2019: 352
Update 2022:
I've considered updating this article with new data several times, waiting for the market to normalize, but since 2020 the market has been wildly strong. Read the Park City Real Estate Trends that are kept up to date for additional information on the market.
Buying real estate in Park City hasn't been about getting a deal for the past two years. Instead, it has been about getting a home as quickly as possible. Throughout the nation, well-priced homes that are in good condition sell quickly.
I love real estate statistics. Let me know if you ever want additional data or information on specific areas or properties in Park City.
In closing, my advice for "The Best Time of Year to Buy a Park City Home?"
My advice is if you find a property you love, sleep on it & buy it if you can't stop thinking about your perfect future home - Life is short, so take advantage of the fun times!
If you are searching for a Park City Home for sale, use my website, where I have every Park City MLS listing from every local broker. The website is updated every 15 minutes with new listings of Park City homes, condos, and land for sale.
Webpages have been built out where you can use the links below to quickly view new construction, luxury, or properties that allow for nightly rentals. I will try to add as much information as is reasonably possible to show my knowledge of real estate in Park City, and I hope you will contact me when you are ready to begin your search.
Once you are ready to start your search, it usually begins with a 10 to 45-minute phone call to discuss the different areas of Park City and what you're looking for in a home. I love helping buyers and sellers in Park City, so please feel free to reach out to me directly on my cell phone at (435)200-5478.
Related Park City Home Searches:
- Park City Homes for Sale
- Luxury Homes in Park City, Utah
- Park City Ski Homes
- Golf Homes in the Park City Area
- Deer Valley Homes
- The Canyons Village Homes
- Park City Multiple Listing Service Map Search
Current Park City Home Listing Statistics
| Park City Average Home Price | $6.6M |
|---|---|
| Lowest Price | $980K |
| Highest Price | $52M |
| # of Home Listings | 178 |
| Avg. Days On Market | 141 |
| Avg. Price/SQFT | $1.1K |
Property Types (active listings)
Editor's Note: This post was originally published on September 20, 2019, and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness. The most recent update was April 14, 2022. Posted by Derrik Carlson on
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