Salt Lake City, UT Economic Overview
Salt Lake City was ranked 10th-best place to live by U.S. News, which analyzed 100 metro areas in the U.S., based on quality of life, value of living there and people’s desire to live there. Certainly, the strong economic conditions of this city contributed to its score of 7.1 out of 10 in this ranking.
In 2016, Utah added jobs at more than double the pace of the national average. Although 2017 growth is expected to be more moderate, Utah is likely to remain a top performer. Spending power is a key contributor to business sales and growth, and Salt Lake City residents average an annual salary of $44,752. The greatest average spending for citizens was on housing (33.8% of expenditure), transportation (15.7% of expenditure), and food (12.7% of expenditure).
Salt Lake City, UT Commercial Real Estate Market
The overall Utah State’s economy experienced expansion in 2016, across all major industrial sectors. Salt Lake City’s current service-oriented economy is radically different from its historical beginnings as the “Crossroads of the West”, economically reliant on its railroad and nearby steel, mining and oil refineries. The current major sectors are trade, utilities, government, transportation, and professional and business services.
In 2016, the Salt Lake City commercial real estate market experienced record rents for office spaces. The average rent for a Salt Lake City office space was $23 per square foot, which is 4.6% higher than the rate in the first quarter of 2015. Trophy office towers like the brand new Class A 111 Main, commanded roughly $28 per square foot. However, the commercial space lease rates are showing signs of moderation, especially in the high-growth markets.
Poplar Grove, a neighborhood directly south of Salt Lake International Airport, has many great schools and is mainly home to working class families; Downtown Salt Lake City is a bustling scene full of shops, restaurants and nightlife hotspots; Central City is a college town with a range of restaurants, mountain, hiking and biking spots, shops and museums.
Salt Lake City is also a great jumping-off point for national park visits and skiing. Thousands of international and domestic travelers come through the metro area's international airport. This makes tourism and hospitality part of the city’s growing industries.
Being a strong economic hub, the city hosts Huntsman Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, as well as two Fortune 1000 companies: Questar Corporation and Zions Bancorporation. Numerous other high profile firms have made the city the economic powerhouse it is, including: AlphaGraphics, Smith's Food and Drug, Sinclair Oil Corporation, MonaVie, Vehix.com, and Myriad Genetics.
And with companies like Adobe Systems, Microsoft and 3M Health Information Systems moving in, job opportunities are still on the rise. This follows a commendable growth in employment that has lasted over the past few years.
Salt Lake City, UT Office Sales Volume
Data provided by Yardi Matrix, for properties larger than 50K SF, which sold at over $5M.
Salt Lake City, UT Office Transactions
Data provided by Yardi Matrix, for properties larger than 50K SF, which sold at over $5M.
Salt Lake City, UT Commercial Inventory Breakdown
Office Spaces
Total: 30,180,718 SF
By square footage range:
- 50k to 100k SF: 8,238,947 SF / 27.3% of total office
- 100k to 500k SF: 21,349,113 SF / 70.74% of total office
- 500k to 1M SF: 592,658 SF / 1.96% of total office
By class:
- Class A: 13,719,891 SF / 45.46% of total office
- Class B: 14,368,024 SF / 47.61% of total office
- Class C: 537,613 SF / 1.78% of total office
Industrial
Total: 2,012,041 SF
By square footage range:
- 50k to 100k SF: 348,544 SF / 17.32% of total industrial
- 100k to 500k SF: 1,663,497 SF / 82.68% of total industrial
Employment in Salt Lake City, UT
Salt Lake City has a 3.3% unemployment rate, which is 1.6% lower than the national average. This makes it an attractive location for qualified workers.
The key employment industries within the city feature technology, utilities, trade, transportation, health care, education, manufacturing, and finance.
Specific industries offer the most common employment opportunities:
- Health care and social assistance – this sector employs roughly 62,004 regional residents, through University Health Care, having 10,000 employees, and University of Utah Health Care employing 7,866 workers. Here, such occupations as nursing aides offer a salary range between $21k and $30k.
- Specialty trade contractors – 48,104 total employees in this sector, including such employers as Sun Products Corp with 3,000 workers.
- Finance and insurance – Approximately 38,384 employees are found within the financial sector.
The largest employers in the region include the state and county government, the University of Utah, Intermountain Healthcare, Delta Air Lines and Novus Credit Services. Other industries that are currently expanding are construction and manufacturing.
Education in Salt Lake City, UT
Salt Lake City is home to several high-profile learning institutions, with seventeen high schools being recognized on U.S. News & World Report's Best High Schools rankings. Also, two of the city’s six colleges and universities earned places on U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges rankings.
Commuting Time in Salt Lake City, UT
Salt Lake City’s 22.3 minutes average commute time is slightly below the U.S. average of 24.8 minutes.
Traffic is eased by complementing light rail trains and buses, which are operated seven days a week by the Utah Transit Authority. The Frontrunner train runs through Salt Lake City (between Ogden and Provo), a total of 88 miles. Its stations also have free parking, apart from being within walking distance of popular shopping districts.
There’s also a TRAX train, covering a sizable area of Salt Lake Valley, with stops in downtown Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake City International Airport.
The metro area has protected bike lanes, although many residents living outside the city center drive to and from downtown (the driving population is 88%).
Salt Lake City Demographics
Population
- Total Population195,701
- Male Population(51.4 %) 100,612
- Female Population(48.6 %) 95,089
- Median Age32.00
Income/Financial
- Average Household Income$83,449
- Median Household Income$56,370
- Median Income Under 25$29,614
- Median Income 25-44$63,476
- Median Income 45-64$65,210
- Median Income Over 65$43,993
News
The handwringing over the latest exploits, likes and dislikes of millennials has become somewhat of a national sport. Some of the observations are the result of generational rivalry rather than insights into wide-ranging trends. Still, it’s essential to recognize that—given their sheer numbers—a...
Key takeaways: 682 million square feet of office space have been added across the country in the last 10 years. Campus-style tech companies greatly influenced the suburban expansion throughout the U.S. New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco grew the most on the fringes of the urban cores. The...
2019 US Office Pipeline – NYC, the Bay Area and San Francisco Set to Deliver 33 MSF of Office Space
April 10, 2019
Since 2009, the U.S. economy has had more than 110 consecutive months of growth, making this the second longest economic expansion since the Great Depression. After a rather tepid 2017 performance, the U.S. office market gathered some steam in 2018, adding 76 million square feet of new office sp...