Luxury home sales surged in Salt Lake County during the height of the real estate boom, a period when personalfortunes and rising home values appeared to have no limits. Today, sales of homes above the million-dollar mark are harder to come by, according to the Salt Lake Board of REALTORS®.

In the first nine months of 2009 in Salt Lake County, there were 40 sales of homes at $1 million or greater. That is down 34 percent compared to 61 sales above the million-dollar mark during the same January through September period a year ago (there were 71 home sales at $1 million or greater in Salt Lake County for all of 2008).
 
In 2007, the year home prices peaked in Salt Lake County, there were 134 homes that closed at $1 million or greater. In 2006, there were 133.
 
“There are still many wealthy individuals that can afford luxury homes,” said Ryan Kirkham, president of the Salt Lake Board of REALTORS®. “However, easy credit allowed more people to build high-end homes, which flooded the market with million-dollar properties faster than could be absorbed.”
 
Currently, there are 235 homes listed for sale at $1 million or greater in Salt Lake County. Based on sales trends over the past six months, those listings represent a three-year supply of inventory. In other words, if no new million-dollar listings were added, it would take three years to sell Salt Lake County’s existing million-dollar home inventory.