The Salt Lake County housing market continued to face challenges in May as higher mortgage interest rates continued to impact home sales. With a total of 1,099 units changing hands, there was a notable decline of 23% compared to the 1,424 sales recorded in May 2022. Additionally, the median sold price in May dropped to $535,000, representing a 4% decrease from the previous year's value of $560,000. The decline in home prices actually commenced last summer, coinciding with the Federal Reserve's decision to raise short-term interest rates. Starting from $560,000 (all housing types) in May 2022, median prices gradually decreased to $492,600 by January 2023. However, there has been a slight rebound in home prices from February to May of this year, with an overall increase of 8%. As of June 15, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.69%, which is noticeably higher than the 5.78% rate seen a year ago, as reported by Freddie Mac. The rising interest rates have contributed to the dampening effect on home sales. In the past year, since the Federal Reserve began increasing interest rates, there has been an average monthly decrease of approximately 450 home sales in Salt Lake County.