Salt Lake City is projected by Zillow to be the nation's 10th-hottest real estate market in 2025, topping the western region.

The big picture: Zillow's annual ranking forecasts the most competitive housing markets for buyers.

• Markets at the top of the list are largely "starved for housing inventory," the real estate platform shares with Axios.

The intrigue: Salt Lake's low inventory has famously driven up prices for years — and yet people still want to buy homes here, Zillow's senior economist Orphe Divounguy told Axios.

• That makes SLC stand out from other western cities like San Francisco, where homes are sitting on the market longer and home values are expected to depreciate.
• Utah's capital city also stands out from the nation's other hottest markets, where rising demand is driven in part by their affordability.

The other side: The high ranking suggests Salt Lake's housing crisis will probably persist, pricing lots of residents out of homeownership for yet another year.

Zoom in: Salt Lake's ranking rose from No. 18 to No. 10 because it's still more affordable than some other western cities and has "great amenities" that keep driving up demand, Divounguy said.

Between the lines: Sellers here tend to stay in town and become buyers again, while employment growth keeps the transplants coming, he said.

• That means a lot of new construction is needed — but new construction of single-family homes was about 32% below pre-pandemic levels in the first half of last year, he said.

What they're saying: "While [Salt Lake's] market will continue to loosen slowly in the coming year, it may do so at a slower pace than other large markets across the country," he said.

Zoom out

Office vacancies in Salt Lake City are decreasing and below the national average, according to data analytic firm Moody's.

The big picture: Vacancies hit a new high last year, with 20.4% of office space in the country's top 50 metro areas empty, per Moody's.

Driving the news: Salt Lake City's vacancy rate hit 18.3% in 2024, according to the latest data.

• The number of downtown Salt Lake City workers increased from 23,673 in 2023 to 24,001, according to a Downtown Alliance census count of workers released last year.

By the numbers: The Salt Lake City metro's vacancy rate reached 19.5% during the second quarter of 2024, a 3% increase since late-2019.

The latest: Gov. Spencer Cox told reporters last week that he was evaluating the state's telework approach as state agencies advise workers to return to the office more frequently.

State of play: Though the return to office push picked up momentum last year, plenty of workers are in hybrid or remote setups, and employers don't quite need as much office space as before 2020.

The firm suggests two adjustments could reduce vacancies:

1. Converting offices into residential properties. That's something we are starting to see more often, though often quite tricky to pull off.
2. Knocking down office buildings. The idea is to get rid of older, cubicle-era offices firms aren't interested in. That's happening more, too.

What they're saying

🏛️ A bill by state Rep. Jordan Teuscher (R-South Jordan) would end collective bargaining for public employees, including teachers. (Utah State Legislature)

⛪️ Two Latter-day Saint apostles — Gerrit W. Gong and Gary E. Stevenson — attended President Trump's second inauguration yesterday. (Deseret News)

Read more: Trump's inauguration word choices give insight into Trump 2.0

🧂Restaurants projected to open this year in Salt Lake include one featuring a James Beard Award-winning chef, a Michelin-rated sushi chain and a Central 9th brewpub. (Gastronomic SLC)

There are practical ways to stay warm without hiking up your heating costs this season, per the U.S. Department of Energy.

Why it matters: Households that use electricity for heat could see bills climb almost 14% compared to last year, per the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.

👀 Check the age of your heating/cooling system.

If your unit is more than 15 years old, it might be time to replace it with a new, more energy-efficient option.

🪟 Check your windows.

About 30% of a home's heating energy is lost through windows, according to the DOE. You can install weatherstrips yourself to seal gaps.

• You can also take advantage of natural heat by opening your curtains or blinds during the day to let heat in. Just remember to close them at night to keep the heat trapped inside, per NAR. You can also buy thermal-insulated curtains.

💡 Schedule or do your own home energy audit.

You can hire a pro or run through this checklist yourself, which includes tasks like locating air leaks, checking insulation levels, and switching to energy-efficient lighting.

Tell your neighbor