St. George: Highest Home Appreciation Rate in the Country

None by KCPW

Houses Appreciated 38.4% in 1Q 2006

(KCPW News) Thinking of retiring to St. George? Better put some extra money away. Washington County saw housing prices jump 38 percent in the first quarter of 2006, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. This comes on the heels of a 30 percent increase the year before. But with housing prices cooling elsewhere in the country, is this a bubble waiting to pop?

James Wood, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah says retirees are engine behind the price increase. He calls them "equity refugees"--people who cash out of expensive homes in southern California, Las Vegas or the Wasatch Front, and move to less expensive homes in St. George. Because the baby boomers are just starting to retire, Wood expects robust growth--and the attendant price increases--to continue in Southern Utah over the long term. Despite the rising prices, St. George is still a cheaper destination than other resort towns in California, Nevada and Arizona. Wood says over the next 50 years, St. George could become Utah's largest city, with a population forecast upwards of 300 thousand residents.

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