How much is an acre of land worth in Utah County?
It depends mostly on how big the parcel is, because a buyer is really paying for what can be built on it. Here is what residential land listed on the MLS actually closed for in 20 Utah County towns over the last 24 months:
| Parcel size | Sales | Median price per acre | Middle half, per acre | Median sale price | Median acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 0.5 acre | 365 | $909,000 | $769,000 to $1,181,000 | $309,000 | 0.34 |
| 0.5 to 1 acre | 168 | $730,000 | $562,000 to $1,090,000 | $431,000 | 0.67 |
| 1 to 5 acres | 90 | $502,000 | $333,000 to $737,000 | $600,000 | 1.23 |
| 5 to 20 acres | 32 | $117,000 | $91,000 to $182,000 | $665,000 | 5.63 |
| 20+ acres | 7 | $44,000 | $39,000 to $78,000 | $2,400,000 | 28.39 |
| Mountain cabin lots (set aside) | 18 | $24,000 | $21,000 to $27,000 | $222,000 | 8.89 |
How to read this: "Median price per acre" is the middle sale when every sale's price is divided by its acreage. "Middle half" is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile sale, so half of all sales fell inside it. Mountain cabin lots in Soldier Summit Estates (Spanish Fork Canyon) and Upper Whittemore (Hobble Creek Canyon) carry a Spanish Fork or Springville city name in the MLS but sell as recreation property, so they are shown on their own line and left out of the bands above.
Median price per acre by parcel size, Utah County MLS residential land sales, October 2024 through September 2026.
The 20+ acre line rests on only 7 sales, from 20 to about 117 acres, so treat it as a rough marker, not a market rate. Most large acreage in Utah County sells off the MLS, directly between owners and builders.
Are lot prices still rising?
Lots under half an acre that closed between October 2025 and September 2026 sold for a median of $325,000, up about 8% from $300,000 in the 12 months before (167 and 198 sales, with the same median lot size of 0.34 acre). The mix of towns and lots changes from year to year, so read that as a direction, not a precise rate.
Why do small lots cost more per acre?
A quarter-acre lot and a 40-acre field are different products. The finished lot already has what a builder pays the most for:
- Approvals are done. The subdivision is recorded, so a builder can pull a permit now instead of waiting a year or more for zoning and plat approval.
- Utilities are in. Roads, sewer, culinary water, power, and often secondary water are already stubbed to the lot. On raw land, the buyer pays for all of that, and it comes out of the land price.
- Less risk and less carrying cost. Every year spent on approvals is a year of interest, taxes, and the chance the city says no.
- Some ground is lost to roads. When raw acreage is subdivided, part of it becomes streets, park strips, and detention ponds, so not every acre turns into a lot.
That is why the median lot under half an acre sold for about 21 times more per acre than the few 20+ acre parcels that sold on the MLS. A big parcel's price per acre is low because the buyer still has to do the expensive work. Our guide to how much your land is worth walks through the math a builder uses.
What makes land worth more to a builder?
Two parcels of the same size can sell for very different prices. Inside the 1 to 5 acre band, the middle half of sales ran from $333,000 to $737,000 an acre. What usually explains the gap:
- Zoning and density. How many lots the city will allow is the biggest driver. More lots means more value per acre.
- Water. Many Utah County cities require water rights or shares before they approve development. Land that brings usable water saves the buyer that cost. See water rights when selling land.
- Sewer, water, and road access. The farther the lines are, the more the builder spends to reach them.
- Greenbelt. If the land is in farmland assessment, a rollback tax of up to five years comes due when the use changes, and someone has to pay it. See the greenbelt rollback tax.
- Slope, soils, and views. Steep or wet ground costs more to build on, while view lots on the benches sell at a premium.
If a builder may be your buyer, our guide to selling land to a developer covers deal structures and timing.
Where is land most and least expensive?
Building lots under half an acre sold for the most per acre in Alpine ($1,582,000), American Fork ($1,391,000), and Provo ($1,267,000). They sold for the least in Santaquin ($591,000) and Payson ($689,000). For half-acre to one-acre lots, Alpine ($1,239,000) and Highland ($1,086,000) led the county.
Median price per acre by town, where a town had at least 5 sales in a size band:
| Town | Sales used | Under 0.5 acre | 0.5 to 1 acre | 1 to 5 acres | 5 to 20 acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North county | |||||
| Alpine | 58 | $1,582,000 11 sales | $1,239,000 29 sales | $984,000 15 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales |
| American Fork | 43 | $1,391,000 36 sales | Too few sales to report 3 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales |
| Lehi | 39 | $1,048,000 28 sales | $863,000 9 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales | Too few sales to report |
| Eagle Mountain | 38 | $782,000 7 sales | $427,000 7 sales | $326,000 22 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales |
| Highland | 32 | Too few sales to report 4 sales | $1,086,000 24 sales | Too few sales to report 4 sales | Too few sales to report |
| Orem | 29 | $1,103,000 23 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales | Too few sales to report 4 sales | Too few sales to report |
| Pleasant Grove | 24 | $1,083,000 21 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales | Too few sales to report 1 sale | Too few sales to report |
| Saratoga Springs | 24 | $956,000 24 sales | Too few sales to report | Too few sales to report | Too few sales to report |
| Lindon | 11 | $1,040,000 7 sales | Too few sales to report 3 sales | Too few sales to report 1 sale | Too few sales to report |
| Cedar Hills | 2 | Too few sales to report | Too few sales to report 2 sales | Too few sales to report | Too few sales to report |
| Vineyard | 2 | Too few sales to report 1 sale | Too few sales to report 1 sale | Too few sales to report | Too few sales to report |
| South county (Provo and south) | |||||
| Mapleton | 75 | $822,000 37 sales | $644,000 21 sales | $537,000 15 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales |
| Elk Ridge | 54 | $792,000 35 sales | $674,000 17 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales | Too few sales to report |
| Salem | 43 | $779,000 31 sales | $500,000 9 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales | Too few sales to report 1 sale |
| Provo | 40 | $1,267,000 28 sales | $891,000 6 sales | $598,000 5 sales | Too few sales to report |
| Woodland Hills | 34 | Too few sales to report 4 sales | $507,000 20 sales | $340,000 9 sales | Too few sales to report 1 sale |
| Spanish Fork | 33 | $800,000 17 sales | Too few sales to report 3 sales | Too few sales to report 3 sales | $91,000 10 sales |
| Springville | 30 | $973,000 19 sales | $321,000 9 sales | Too few sales to report 2 sales | Too few sales to report |
| Payson | 28 | $689,000 14 sales | Too few sales to report | Too few sales to report | $117,000 12 sales |
| Santaquin | 23 | $591,000 18 sales | Too few sales to report 1 sale | Too few sales to report 1 sale | Too few sales to report |
Cedar Hills and Vineyard had only 2 and 2 usable land sales in two years. Both towns are close to built out, so lots rarely come up. No single town had 5 sales over 20 acres.
North county vs. south county
North county here means Lehi, American Fork, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Alpine, Highland, Cedar Hills, Pleasant Grove, Lindon, Vineyard, and Orem. South county means Provo and every town south of it in this report. For parcels under 5 acres, the counts are large enough to compare:
| Parcel size | North county | South county | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 0.5 acre | $1,107,000 (162 sales) | $808,000 (203 sales) | North 37% higher |
| 0.5 to 1 acre | $1,086,000 (82 sales) | $597,000 (86 sales) | North 82% higher |
| 1 to 5 acres | $487,000 (51 sales) | $509,000 (39 sales) | About the same |
| 5 acres and up | Too few north county sales to compare (7 sales) | ||
The gap closes at 1 to 5 acres because the largest share of north county sales in that band (22 of 51) were in Eagle Mountain, where acreage lots sold for a median of $326,000 an acre, compared with $984,000 in Alpine.
How we built these numbers
What the data is. Every closed sale in the UtahRealEstate.com MLS (Wasatch Front Regional MLS) land search with property type "Residential," county Utah, run once for each of 20 towns, sold on or after October 1, 2024. The sold price and sold date come from each listing's full agent report. Searches were pulled October 8 (Mapleton), October 15 (Provo, Orem, Springville, Spanish Fork, Salem), and October 20, 2026 (the other 14 towns).
What it is not. This is residential land and lots that were listed on the MLS. Land listed only as agricultural or commercial is not included, and many large land deals in Utah County are sold privately and never reach the MLS. Utah does not require sale prices to be disclosed, so no complete public record of land prices exists.
Window. Sales that closed October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2026, exactly 24 months.
Cleaning. The searches returned 712 sales. Every row had a sold price and an acreage. We dropped 32: 20 whose price clearly included a house (the listing remarks describe an existing or newly built home on the land), 3 where the price covered more than the acreage shown or the listing agent noted it was not a fair comparable, and 9 that closed after September 30, 2026. We set aside 18 mountain cabin lots and report them on their own line. That leaves 662 sales in the bands.
Outliers. A handful of very small townhome-style lots (under a tenth of an acre) and a few landlocked or unbuildable parcels sit far from the rest. They are real sales, so we kept them and used medians, which they barely move.
Math. Price per acre is each sale's price divided by its MLS acreage. Bands are under 0.5 acre, 0.5 to under 1, 1 to under 5, 5 to under 20, and 20 or more. We report medians and the 25th to 75th percentile range. A town gets a number in a band only with 5 or more sales.
Common questions
What is the average price of an acre of land in Utah County?
It depends on parcel size. From October 2024 through September 2026, MLS residential land sold for a median of $909,000 per acre for lots under half an acre, $502,000 for 1 to 5 acres, and $117,000 for 5 to 20 acres. We use medians instead of averages so a few unusual sales do not skew the number.
How much does a building lot cost in Utah County?
The median lot under half an acre sold for $309,000, and half of those sales fell between $241,000 and $378,000. Lots in Alpine and Highland cost much more. Lots in Santaquin, Payson, and Eagle Mountain cost the least.
Why is price per acre so much lower for big parcels?
A large parcel still needs zoning, roads, sewer, water, and plat approval before anyone can build on it. The buyer pays for that work and carries the risk and time, so the price per acre is lower. Finished lots have that work done.
Is land more expensive in north or south Utah County?
North county. Lots under half an acre sold for a median of $1,107,000 per acre in north county and $808,000 in Provo and south, about 37% more. For half-acre to one-acre lots the gap was about 82%.
Does this include farmland and large land deals?
Only partly. This covers land listed on the MLS as residential, which includes some acreage with agricultural use. Land listed only as agricultural or commercial is not included, and many large land sales in Utah County are done privately and never reach the MLS.
Where does this data come from?
Closed sales on the UtahRealEstate.com MLS, the listing service used by most Utah agents, pulled October 8 to 20, 2026, for 20 Utah County towns. Sumsion Real Estate cleaned and analyzed the data. The method is described on this page.
How often is this report updated?
We plan to update it as new sales close. The date at the top of the page shows the latest update.
Can I use these numbers to price my own land?
They are a starting point. Your land's value depends on its zoning, water, utility access, and what a builder could do with it. A parcel-specific review, using recent comparable sales and the residual math builders use, gives a real number.
Owners ask me all the time what an acre is going for, and the honest answer is that it depends on what has already been done to it. The $909,000 an acre people see for finished lots is not what raw ground sells for, because someone still has to pay for the approvals, the roads, and the water. The money in land is in closing that gap: knowing the zoning, the density, and the water before you go to market, and selling to the buyer who can use it best.
Want a value for your land?
Share the address or parcel number. Matt will look at the zoning, water, utilities, and recent land sales, and reach out personally with a range. No pressure and no obligation.
Thank you.
Matt has your details and will reach out personally. If it is easier, you can text him anytime at (385) 477-8138.
Sources
- UtahRealEstate.com (Wasatch Front Regional MLS), closed land sales, property type Residential, Utah County, 20 towns, sold October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2026. Pulled October 8, 15, and 20, 2026. Analysis by Sumsion Real Estate.
- Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General, Report 2018-07, on the lack of required sales price disclosure in Utah
- Utah Code § 59-2-506, greenbelt rollback tax
Last updated October 2026. These figures summarize MLS residential land sales and are not an appraisal of any property. MLS data is believed reliable but not guaranteed.
For reporters: the underlying data and method are available on request from Matt Sumsion, (385) 477-8138.
