St. George, Utah Real Estate
St. George was the third fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, adding 30.5% in a decade, and almost everything peculiar about buying here follows from that — an 1861 pioneer townsite with 20 master-planned communities built around it, a large share of the housing owned by people who live somewhere else, and a water supply that now shapes what you are allowed to plant. This is the way in.
How the valley is laid out
The original 1861 townsite is the grid downtown, around the temple and Main Street, and the city grew outward from it in rings that are still legible in the housing stock. The oldest suburban rings sit west and south: Green Valley and Bloomington were laid out in the late 1960s and 1970s with large lots and mature trees, and Bloomington Hills filled in around the city golf course. These areas turn over rather than expand — there is no land left in them.
New building has moved to the southeast and east, onto what was farm ground and state trust land. Washington Fields and Little Valley are the main new-construction corridors inside St. George itself, and Washington city immediately east is growing on the same axis. Expect newer schools, wider roads and homes under twenty years old across all three. West of town, Santa Clara and Ivins sit against Snow Canyon State Park and trade convenience for red rock at the door. Hurricane, twenty minutes east, is the Sand Hollow and Zion side of the county and generally the cheaper end of it.
Every area has its own page with schools, character and what is being built: browse all 11 areas.
Master-planned communities
An unusual share of the housing here sits inside a named, developer-built community rather than an ordinary subdivision, and the distinction matters more than it would elsewhere. A community comes with its own covenants, its own amenity package and its own dues, and those rules — not the city's zoning alone — decide whether you can rent the house out, what you may park on the driveway and what you may plant. Several are built around a golf course and a few are guard-gated. Age-restricted housing for buyers over 55 sits inside 3 of thems, which is a larger share of this market than of most.
Compare all 20 master-planned communities — each page lists the developer, the amenities and the homes for sale we have on file.
Where nightly rentals are actually allowed
This is the costliest wrong assumption an out-of-state buyer makes in St. George. Short-term rental is not permitted by right in the city's single-family residential zones, so a house being a good vacation rental on paper has no bearing on whether you may operate one in it. Nightly rental lives inside specific resort and planned developments that were zoned and built for it, and those developments carry a visible premium for exactly that reason.
The communities on this site that were developed with nightly-rental or resort zoning:
That list is a starting point rather than a legal answer. There are two separate gates and a property has to clear both: the zoning, which is parcel by parcel and set by whichever city governs the address, and the association's covenants, which can forbid what the zoning permits. Confirm both before you write an offer. Buying a Vacation Rental in St. George? Check the Zoning First walks through how to verify each one for a specific address.
Buying as a second home
A large part of this market is not people moving here. It is winter residents from Salt Lake City, Idaho and Alberta, golf-trip buyers, and families buying ahead of a retirement still some years off. That shows up in the housing itself — lock-and-leave townhomes, casitas, communities whose amenity programs assume half the owners are away in July — and it shows up in the tax bill, because Utah taxes a second home at roughly 1.8 times what the same house pays as a primary residence. If you are moving here rather than visiting, the relocation packet is the better starting point, and Real Estate Tips covers buying, selling, closing and inspection in depth.
Renting
Renting splits into three markets that barely overlap: purpose-built apartment communities, single-family houses and condos let by their owners, and the nightly and seasonal rentals that follow the parks and the golf courses. We list 44 apartment communities with floor plans and amenities, and rentals covers all three.
People, listings and market data
People
- Agents — every licensed agent in the county, by brokerage (browse A–Z)
- Brokers — the brokerages themselves, with offices and rosters (browse A–Z)
Listings
Places
Market data
- Housing Market Report — asking prices, inventory and days on market for Washington County, which in a non-disclosure state is the closest thing to a published price series
Frequently asked questions
What is the housing market like in St. George, Utah?
11 distinct areas and 20 named master-planned communities make up the market, from the 1860s townsite grid downtown to developments still being built out on the valley edges. Two structural facts shape it more than any monthly number. Utah publishes no sale prices, so the automated estimates on national portals are working from thinner data here than they would elsewhere. And a large share of the housing is bought as a second home rather than a primary residence, which changes both the tax bill and how full a street feels in July. The one published series worth watching is asking prices and days on market, which is what the housing market report tracks.
Can you buy a house in St. George and rent it out nightly?
Only in the places zoned for it, and that is the single most expensive assumption an out-of-state buyer makes here. St. George does not permit short-term rental by right in its single-family residential zones; nightly rental is a function of the zoning and the development's own covenants, not of the house. Both have to permit it, and an association can forbid what the zoning allows. There is also a narrow exception for a single-family lot of two acres or more that fronts a collector or arterial street and sits at least 500 feet from another short-term rental. A city business license is required either way. Confirm the zoning and the covenants with St. George City and the HOA before you write an offer, not after.
How much are property taxes on a second home in St. George?
Roughly 1.8 times what an identical primary residence pays. Utah's constitution exempts 45% of the fair market value of a primary residence from taxation, so an owner-occupied home is taxed on 55% of its value while a second home, a rental or a nightly rental is taxed on 100%. The exemption covers the house and up to one acre of land, and it generally has to be claimed with the Washington County Assessor rather than granted automatically. It is the line most often missed in a winter-home budget.
Which areas of St. George are growing fastest?
The southeast and east edges of the valley, for a simple reason: that is where the land was. Almost all of it was farm ground, equestrian property or state trust land, which is why it came available in parcels large enough to master-plan rather than in single lots. Desert Color is filling in south of town toward the Arizona line, Sienna Hills is doing the same in Washington City, and the old farm ground along the Virgin River is going the same way. The established west and south sides ran out of developable land decades ago, so they change hands rather than grow.
Are there 55+ communities in St. George?
Yes, and they are a large part of the market. all contain age-restricted housing: SunRiver is a roughly 2,500-home 55+ community in its entirety, while Desert Color and Southgate each contain a 55+ village inside a wider all-ages development. Buying into one means the amenity package and the dues come with the house, so read what the fee covers before comparing the price against an unrestricted home.
Are there restrictions on lawns and landscaping?
For new construction, yes. St. George caps lawn at 8% of the lot, up to a maximum of 1,500 square feet on lots of 20,000 square feet or less, and prohibits it outright in park strips, in any planting bed narrower than eight feet, and on slopes steeper than 15%. Each new single-family home also has to plant at least two water-conserving trees. The rules apply to new building, not to existing homes, so an older house may have a lawn that could not be installed today. Desert landscaping here is a code requirement rather than a style choice.