The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says the median income for a family of four in Summit County is now $167,700. That’s a $900 drop from last year.
By contrast, incomes went up by more than $10,000 between 2024 and 2025.
Area median income is a significant statistic in policy discussions. That’s partly because it’s tied to deed-restricted home prices and rents — when AMI goes up, so do rents for those in affordable housing.
AMI is also an indicator of how wealthy a community is: Summit County’s median income is the highest in Utah and has steadily risen more than $100,000 since 1999.
County Economic Development and Housing Director Jeff Jones said, in other places, a drop in AMI can indicate a community is losing high-paying jobs. But in Summit County, Jones thinks it’s more likely an influx of retirees.
“The income that they would normally earn is reduced because, in retirement, they're not earning at the same levels that they were,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” May 14.
As Jones has previously explained to the Summit County Council, many residents in the Park City area make money from interest, dividends and rent. That’s as opposed to regular wages.
Park City Councilmember Tana Toly acknowledged that shift at the 2026 Zions Bank Wasatch Back Economic Summit on May 11.
“Only about 12 to 15% of our population actually makes their money in our community,” Toly said. “Which means you have a community of people who are either: leaving Park City to go to work, or they work online, or they've already made their money somewhere else and they're coming in and making this their home. And that creates a very different dynamic than what it was like when I was growing up.”
She echoed concerns about Park City becoming more and more a “retirement community” and not being self-sufficient when it comes to labor.
In other words, Park City’s tourism-driven economy wouldn’t function without workers who live outside city and county borders. According to the Utah Department of Workforce Services, about 21,000 people commute into Summit County, thousands more than the number who commute out.
Data that Jones published in 2024 shows those workers earn, on average, little more than $70,000 annually. That’s far below what a median full-time resident makes.
It’s a local example of what Utah economist Phil Dean said is commonly called a “K-shaped economy.”
“Even though the economy might be doing better, or at least OK, overall,” Dean said at the recent economic summit. “That doesn't necessarily mean everybody in that economy is doing well.”
In a K-shaped economy, the rich get richer while those underneath struggle with stagnant wages and rising gas and grocery prices.
