Lap of luxury: high-end home communities are on the rise in Utah.

• Author: Francom, Sarah Ryther

Joel Shine spent years commuting from his Santa Monica, California, home to Park City before deciding to move his family to the Beehive State. "As much as I loved where we lived, I would land in L.A., battle through traffic and smog and congestion just to get home. When I commuted to Park City, I would drive up the canyon and look at the beauty. I finally said to my wife, 'This is crazy,' and we moved to Park City and fell in love with it."

Shine is one of many who have travelled to Utah for business or pleasure and ultimately decided to find a new home in the state. But he is not only a Park City resident--Shine also serves as president and CEO of Woodside Homes, one of Utah's top homebuilders and developer of Park City's East Creek Ranch, a high-end home community.

As more and more executives and entrepreneurs discover Utah's thriving business and tech scene coupled with the state's diverse outdoor rec and lifestyle opportunities, they are choosing to move to Utah or build a vacation home here. This in-migration from nearly every corner of the United States has spurred development among Utah's high-end home communities. From Logan to St. George, high-end homes, which are typically defined as those appraised for around $1 million, are on the rise throughout the state.

Home Stretch

Like the rest of the country, Utah's homeowners were hit hard during the Great Recession, losing more than $25 billion in equity. In the years that followed, the homebuilding and resale industry sat stagnant as the economy slowly improved. While the middle and low-end housing segments were greatly impacted, Utah's high-end segment also felt the economic punch. Buying a luxury home during the downturn became next to impossible--unless the buyer had cash.

"Financing was a big part of the problem," says Nancy Tallman, president of the Park City Board of Realtors. "People couldn't get financing for residential land and construction loans. Even today, it's more difficult to get loans, even if you want to buy a resale home."

The story was particularly dim in the St. George area, which experienced phenomenal growth in pre-recession years. Before the recession, Southern Utah reached a record number of more than 3,500 annual single-family building permits, according to Mari Smith, president of the Southern Utah Home Builders Association. And the area's high-end housing segment was rapidly expanding, as indicated by Parade of Home data.

During the height of the housing boom, "many large homes were built with an average of 5,700 square feet and $2.2 million average home price," Smith says. "Compare...