Salt Lake County

Salt Lake County's numbers tell a clear story: this is an appreciation market wearing a thin rental yield. The gross rent-to-price ratio sits at 0.0348%, the median home price is $567,330, and median rent clocks in at $1,644 per month. That spread produces a cap rate of just 2.26%, which is well below what most buy-and-hold investors require to service debt. Run the standard underwrite at 6.85% on an 80% LTV loan and the math gets ugly fast: a monthly mortgage of $2,974, estimated expenses of $575, and a cash-on-cash return of -17.52%, translating to negative cash flow of roughly $1,905 per month. Year-over-year home price growth of 1.2% hasn't kept pace with what investors need to justify that carry. The appreciation score of 62 is the only number doing real work here; the cash-flow score of 22 says everything else.

Given those figures, Salt Lake is not a market for the cash-flow buyer, at least not under current financing conditions. The math works only for two types: a long-horizon appreciation investor willing and able to fund a meaningful monthly deficit out of pocket, and a value-add operator who can force equity or above-market rents through renovation or repositioning. Even the appreciation investor needs to stress-test the assumption, because 1.2% price growth over the trailing year is modest for a market that has historically commanded a premium on the expectation of faster gains. The affordability index of 19 out of 100 is a structural ceiling on rent growth, because renters who can't afford to buy are also renters who can't absorb steep rent increases. An all-cash buyer who eliminates mortgage carry could extract a workable, if thin, yield, but that investor is optimizing capital preservation, not return.

The monthly tax-and-insurance carry of $388 is actually a relative tailwind here. Utah's state-average effective property tax rate is 0.63%, flagged as low, and that translates to $3,574 annually in property taxes on the median purchase price, with insurance adding another $1,078. For a market this expensive, below-average tax drag softens the blow somewhat. That said, the honest caveat applies: 0.63% is a state-average estimate based on Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual Salt Lake County or township-level rates may differ, so confirm the specific parcel's mill levy before closing. Even with the tax tailwind acknowledged, it does not come close to bridging the $1,905 monthly cash-flow gap.

The surrounding county comparison sharpens the case for selectivity. Washington County, at a median price of $522,143 and median rent of $1,890, produces a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0434 and an overall score of 41, both meaningfully better than Salt Lake's 0.0348 and score of 39. Cache County goes further: median price of $454,811, rent of $1,496, ratio of 0.0395, and an overall score of 48, the highest of any county listed here. Summit and Wasatch counties are more expensive than Salt Lake and have worse rent-to-price ratios of 0.0333 and 0.0323 respectively, so they don't offer a path to better cash flow either. An investor choosing between Salt Lake and Cache or Washington is essentially deciding between access to a larger, more liquid market and meaningfully better yield math. For a cash-flow-oriented buyer, Cache County and Washington County both screen better on the numbers provided.

The case for Salt Lake over its neighbors comes down to scale and liquidity. At 1.18 million residents, this is the anchor metro of the Intermountain West. Tenant pools are deeper, property management infrastructure is more developed, and resale markets are more liquid when you eventually exit. If you are underwriting a value-add deal, running a small portfolio, or investing alongside a primary business presence in the market, Salt Lake's depth has operational advantages that a raw rent-to-price ratio doesn't capture. But if you are a yield-first operator evaluating these counties in isolation, Salt Lake ranks near the bottom of the state, sitting at 23rd out of 28 Utah counties and at the 3rd percentile nationally. Enter here only if you have a specific edge, a specific property, or a specific thesis around appreciation that can survive a prolonged period of negative monthly carry.