It’s easier to find an apartment in Salt Lake City than in these other Western cities, report says.

 March 15, 2024 (Salt Lake Tribune)

Salt Lake City’s rental market is less competitive and finding an apartment is now easier than in other Western cities.

A new study from RentCafe examined Yardi Matrix data for 137 markets to create a “market competitive score” based on five metrics: apartment occupancy rates, average days a unit is vacant, the number of prospective renters per vacant unit, how many renters choose to renew their lease, and the number of new apartments built.

Salt Lake City’s competitive score was down to 64 out of 100 in 2024 compared to 74.5 in 2023.

Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Boise and Albuquerque all now have more competitive rental markets than Salt Lake City, according to the report.

There are also slightly more vacant apartments — a little more than 92% of apartments in Salt Lake City are occupied compared to 94.5% in 2023.

New apartments now make up 2.4% of Salt Lake City’s housing supply. Boise was the only Western city that had a higher percentage of new apartments but its occupancy rate is still higher than Salt Lake City’s. The completion of thousands more apartment units helps create a more renter-friendly market, Doug Ressler, a senior analyst at Yardi Matrix, told The Tribune this past summer.

Still, while the market is improving for renters, it still is difficult to land a place to call home. There are 6 prospective renters per vacant unit compared to 9 the previous year. And the number of renters who chose to renew their leases remained high at 56.3%. And a recent report from the Utah Foundation found that Salt Lake City is now the 14th least affordable metro area in the U.S. The same report found that while the apartment building boom “helped to fill the gap created by declining single-family housing permits” it did not boost the stock of homes available for sale.
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