Salt Lake City, UT

The construction market in Salt Lake City has consistently outperformed forecasts since the year began. As 2022 wears on, the pandemic housing boom here is looking less like a blip and more like the start of a sustained trend.

The residential sector grew by more than 20% in 2020 and 2021 and is set to stay at similar levels through at least 2024. Other sectors have not changed much in that time. The residential boom has not been enough to offset the city’s population growth, and rent has gone up by as much as 10% per year in some neighborhoods. As residential volume catches up, however, we expect this trend to reverse.  

Thanks to its status as Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City enjoys relative insulation from economic shocks. Approximately one in five workers are employed by state, municipal, or federal governments. Another one in five works in transportation in some capacity. These industries are uniquely positioned to benefit from a shift away from brick-and-mortar stores and towards online commerce. Government employees are not at the whims of booms and recessions in the same way that the private sector is, and the logistics sector has enjoyed constant, sustained demand for the past decade. These factors keep a significant chunk of workers employed, and these workers can stimulate demand for the remainder of the economy.  

* Other structures include religious buildings, amusement, government communications, and public recreation projects.