5 Wasatch Front Cities Where a Sub-3% Rate Mortgage Still Cash-Flows as a Rental
By Cory Salisbury, Realtor - KW Westfield · helping Utah families since 2014
Short answer: if you closed on a Wasatch Front home in 2019 or 2020 near 2.875%, your old payment is likely somewhere around $1,770 a month. That's once you add property tax and landlord insurance, even after you stop living there. Compare that single number against real, current rent in five cities spread across Weber, Davis, Tooele, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. It clears the bar in every one of them, with the most breathing room in Tooele County and West Valley City. That's not true if you buy the same house new today at 6.66%. The rate is what makes this work, not the house.
Sources: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending August 27, 2026 (30-year fixed averaged 6.66%). Rent: Rentometer per-city single-family rent data, pulled September 2, 2026. Home prices: Salt Lake Board of Realtors Q2 2026 (Clearfield), Zillow Home Value Index 2026 (West Valley City), and the Utah County MLS dataset used in this blog's Utah County cities post (Spanish Fork). Property tax structure: Utah State Tax Commission Primary Residential Exemption. Effective tax rate: Tax Foundation, 2026. Insurance: Insurance.com landlord-vs-homeowners cost data, 2026. Page last updated September 1, 2026.
I'm not a mortgage broker, a lender, or a CPA, and nothing here is a substitute for talking to one. What I can do is run the same honest math I'd run for a client sitting across from me. I'll use one illustrative loan and five real rent numbers, so you can see for yourself whether keeping your old house as a rental is worth a serious look.
Why does the same old payment work in some cities and not others?
Because the payment doesn't change from city to city, but the rent does. If you locked a rate in 2019 or 2020, your principal and interest is fixed for the life of the loan. That's true no matter where prices have gone since. What moves is what a tenant will actually pay you today, and that number is different in Ogden than it is in West Valley City. The five cities below aren't the only ones where this works. They're a cross-section, one from each of the five counties I cover, so you can see the pattern instead of one lucky example.
The one number every city below gets compared against
Here's the illustrative loan: a $350,000 home bought in 2019 with 10% down, a $315,000 loan at 2.875% fixed for 30 years. Principal and interest on that loan runs about $1,307 a month, and it never changes, whether you live there or rent it out. Two costs do change the day it stops being your primary residence. Property tax jumps, because Utah's 45% primary residential exemption only applies to a home you actually live in. A rental loses it and gets taxed on the full value, which works out to roughly 82% more property tax on the same house. On this example that's about $281 a month instead of roughly $155. Insurance changes too. A landlord policy runs 15-25% above a standard homeowners policy, per Insurance.com, so figure about $179 a month instead of $150. Add it up and the illustrative all-in payment on this rental is about $1,770 a month. That's the number every city below has to beat.
How I picked these 5 cities
One city from each of the five counties I work across the Wasatch Front, so the list isn't accidentally stacked toward the cheapest county. For each one I pulled the current median single-family price, so you can see what a NEW buyer would pay today at 6.66%. I also pulled the current typical rent for a 3-bedroom house, from Rentometer, the same day I wrote this. The gap between your old $1,770 payment and that real rent is the margin. I didn't cherry-pick the biggest gaps. Clearfield and Spanish Fork land in a similar, tighter band. I'd rather show you that plainly than pretend every city on this list is dramatically different from the next.
Ogden, Weber County
Ogden's median single-family price runs about $379,000-$436,000 today, well under the $499,000 Weber County median. A 3-bedroom house rents for $1,900-$2,000 a month as of September 2, 2026, per Rentometer. Against the $1,770 illustrative payment, that's a margin of roughly $130-$230 a month before maintenance, vacancy, or management. Ogden is already this lane's default cash-flow county. It's cheap enough that a 2019 buyer and a new buyer aren't that far apart, which is exactly why it works even on a tighter margin.
Clearfield, Davis County
Clearfield's median single-family price was $479,000 in the second quarter of 2026, per the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. That's close to the Davis County pattern driven by Hill Air Force Base demand. A 3-bedroom house rents in the $1,900s, per Rentometer, roughly the same $130-$230 monthly margin as Ogden. What Clearfield adds that Ogden doesn't is tenant stability. Hill AFB's roughly 27,000 jobs keep this rental pool full of VA-loan-eligible tenants who need a place fast when they get stationed here, not a market you have to chase.
Tooele City, Tooele County
Tooele City single-family homes run $445,000-$490,000 today. A 3-bedroom rents around $2,050 a month blended across property types, per Rentometer. That puts the margin over the illustrative $1,770 payment at roughly $280 a month, the widest gap of the three more-affordable counties on this list. Tooele is Utah's fastest-growing county, up 12.8% since 2020, and it's a genuine commute-versus-cost market. Tenants here are choosing the 30-45 minute drive over I-80 specifically because the rent is lower than Salt Lake Valley. That's the same math that makes it work for a landlord holding a 2019 loan.
West Valley City, Salt Lake County
West Valley City is the affordability pocket inside the state's priciest county. Median single-family price runs about $466,000 today, well under the $645,000 Salt Lake County record median. A 3-4 bedroom house rents in the $2,100s to $2,600 range, per Rentometer. Even taking the conservative low end of that range, the margin over the illustrative $1,770 payment is around $330 a month, and it can run considerably higher. This is the city on this list I'd flag as worth a second look if you're weighing keep-versus-sell on a Salt Lake County home. The county has the priciest new-purchase math and, in this specific pocket, some of the widest rental margin for someone who already owns.
Spanish Fork, Utah County
Spanish Fork's median single-family price is $535,000, per the same Utah County dataset behind this blog's Utah County cities post. A 3-bedroom house commonly rents in the $1,900s, per Rentometer. That puts the margin at roughly $130-$230 a month, the same tighter band as Ogden and Clearfield. Spanish Fork is pricier to buy today than either of those two. That's the whole point of this list: the margin doesn't come from the city being cheap right now. It comes from your loan being old.
These 5 cities compared
| City (County) | Median price, new buyer today | 3BR rent (Rentometer, Sep 2 2026) | Margin over the $1,770 illustrative payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ogden (Weber) | $379,000-$436,000 | $1,900-$2,000 | ~$130-$230/mo |
| Clearfield (Davis) | $479,000 | $1,900s | ~$130-$230/mo |
| Tooele City (Tooele) | $445,000-$490,000 | ~$2,050 | ~$280/mo |
| West Valley City (Salt Lake) | ~$466,000 | $2,100-$2,600 | ~$330-$830/mo |
| Spanish Fork (Utah) | $535,000 | $1,900s | ~$130-$230/mo |
Illustrative payment only, based on a $350,000 home bought in 2019 with 10% down at 2.875%, plus non-owner-occupied property tax and landlord insurance. Real payment depends on your actual loan balance, rate, and closing date. Rent figures are typical current asking rent, not a guarantee of what your specific property will rent for. Confirm your real numbers with a licensed lender and a local rent comp before deciding anything.
Takeaway: the illustrative payment clears current rent in all five counties, but not by the same amount. Ogden, Clearfield, and Spanish Fork land in a tighter band around $130-$230 a month. Tooele City and West Valley City show real daylight above that. None of these numbers account for maintenance, vacancy, or a property manager, which is the next question worth asking before you decide anything.
What does this NOT include?
Maintenance, vacancy, and property management. A common rule of thumb is to set aside another 10-15% of monthly rent for maintenance reserves and vacancy risk combined. Add another 8-10% if you hire a property manager instead of self-managing. On a $2,000 rent, that's another $200-$500 a month depending on how hands -on you want to be. None of these are guarantees, and none of them are numbers I'm inventing to make the math look better than it is. They're standard planning ranges, and your real numbers will depend on the property's age, condition, and how far you are from it.
Does this math change if it's a NEW purchase instead of a home you already own?
Completely. Everything above assumes you already have the 2.875% loan from 2019 or 2020. A buyer purchasing the exact same Ogden house today, at today's price and today's 6.66% rate, starts with a materially higher payment than $1,770. And that's before tax and insurance are even added. That's the whole reason this list exists: it isn't a case for buying rental property in these five cities right now. It's a case for looking hard at a house you already own with a rate nobody can get anymore before you assume selling is the only option.
What about the tax-free-sale clock?
This is a real deadline, and it's the part of the decision I see missed most often. The IRS lets you exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 married filing jointly) of gain on the sale of a primary residence under Section 121. That exclusion burns off if you've been renting the home instead of living in it. I broke down the exact clock, along with the full keep-versus-sell math, in a separate post on this decision. Read that one before you commit to renting a home out for good.
Frequently asked questions
Is a $130-$230 monthly margin actually worth becoming a landlord for?
On its own, maybe not, once you subtract maintenance and vacancy reserves. The fuller case includes principal paydown on the loan (you're building equity with someone else's rent) and whatever appreciation the property sees, on top of the monthly cash flow. Run all three together, not just the monthly number, before you decide.
Does this work if I put less than 10% down in 2019 or 2020?
The shape of the math is the same. Your real principal and interest payment will be higher than this illustrative example if you put less down, and lower if you put more down. The property tax and insurance jump on becoming a rental applies the same way regardless of your down payment.
Why does property tax go up so much just from renting the house out?
Utah taxes a primary residence on 55% of its value. A non-primary residence, including a rental, gets taxed on the full 100%, per the Utah State Tax Commission's primary residential exemption rule. That's roughly an 82% jump in the tax bill on the same house, with no change to the home itself.
Are these rent figures what MY house would actually rent for?
No. They're typical current asking rent for a 3-bedroom house in each city, pulled from Rentometer. Your specific property's condition, square footage, and exact location will move the real number up or down. A real comp pulled for your address is the only rent figure worth planning around.
Should I keep the house as a rental or sell it?
That depends on your Section 121 timeline, how hands-on you want to be as a landlord, and what the money would do for you elsewhere. I walk through that full decision, not just the rental math, in the companion post linked above.
I'll tell you the number you need to hear, not the one you want to hear. No pressure, no rush, and no games.
Talk with Cory Salisbury, Realtor with KW Westfield, helping Utah families since 2014.
General market education, not mortgage, financial, tax, or legal advice, and not a mortgage broker, lender, or CPA. Figures are illustrative estimates using a $350,000 example price, a 2019 close, and a 2.875% example rate for comparison purposes only, current as of the sources and dates cited above. Actual rates, terms, taxes, and eligibility are determined by a licensed lender and a tax professional and change over time. Cory Salisbury, Realtor, KW Westfield. Equal Housing Opportunity.
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General market education, not mortgage, financial, tax, or legal advice, and not a mortgage broker, lender, or CPA. Figures are illustrative estimates using a $350,000 example price, a 2019 close, and a 2.875% example rate for comparison purposes only, current as of the sources and dates cited above. Actual rates, terms, taxes, and eligibility are determined by a licensed lender and a tax professional and change over time. Cory Salisbury, Realtor, KW Westfield. Equal Housing Opportunity.