St. George and Southern Utah Short Sale Homes for Sale
The listings at the bottom of this page are 20 short sale records from our Washington and Iron county MLS feeds, verified September 4, 2026. Those 20 records are 17 distinct properties, because three homes are listed on two MLS boards at once and show up twice. One more short sale is missing from the feed entirely, which makes 18 known short sale properties in the two counties. Median asking price is $540,000 across the 17 shown here, or $499,750 across all 18 known, in a range from $229,900 to $1,529,000. Jump straight to the listings, or read on for how these actually work.
Records and properties are not the same number here, and I would rather explain that than quietly round it off. Three homes are listed on two different MLS boards at once, so they appear twice in the feed below. One more short sale, a condo at 544 S 100 West St in St. George, does not appear at all because its MLS record carries the wrong county. Details are in the coverage note further down.
I built this page because short sales are buried in the site's menus (the filter exists on the advanced search if you know to look for it, but nothing points you there), and because the difference between a short sale and a foreclosure is the single most misunderstood thing in this corner of the market. A short sale is not a foreclosure. It is not an auction. It is a normal sale with one extra party who has to say yes, and that party takes its time and is under no obligation to agree to anything.
What This List Covers, and What It Misses
The listings at the bottom of this page are properties flagged as short sales in the MLS feeds this site pulls from. That flag means the seller has told the MLS the sale will need lender approval. It does not tell you where any individual file sits in that approval process, and it is not a certified countywide inventory.
Two known limits, both verified September 4, 2026. First, three homes appear twice because they are listed on both the Washington County board and a second Utah board, so 20 records represent 17 distinct properties: the condo at 1167 E Telegraph St in Washington, the house at 865 N Redwood St in Hildale, and the house at 480 W Tonapah Way in Ivins. The two Telegraph records even carry different prices, $229,900 and $234,000. Second, at least one qualifying short sale is missing: 544 S 100 West St Unit 3 in St. George, listed at $240,257, is flagged as a short sale but its MLS record lists its county as Utah rather than Washington, so a Washington and Iron county search does not return it. I have flagged that to be corrected at the source. Counting it gives 18 distinct properties.
Southern Utah Short Sales: September 2026 Snapshot (verified market facts)
- 20 short sale records displayed, which are 17 distinct properties across Washington and Iron counties, verified September 4, 2026. Three homes are double-listed across two MLS boards. A further short sale is missing from the feed, making 18 known properties in total.
- Roughly 13 in Washington County and 5 in Iron County once duplicates are reconciled. Iron County here means Cedar City, Enoch and Parowan, which sit on a separate MLS board from St. George.
- Median asking price $540,000 across the 17 properties shown, or $499,750 across all 18 known. Low $229,900, high $1,529,000.
- Short sales are a small slice of the market. The National Association of Realtors reported that distressed sales, meaning foreclosures and short sales combined, were 2% of all existing-home transactions in July 2026.
- Actual foreclosure listings in the same two counties: 1. See the note below on why that number is so low.
Counts include active and pending listings and were verified September 4, 2026. Inventory moves; the listings at the bottom of this page are live.
What a Short Sale Actually Is
A short sale is a sale where the home is worth less than what the owner still owes, so the lender has to agree to accept less than the full payoff and release its lien anyway. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines it as "a sale of your home for less than what you owe on your mortgage." The owner still owns the house, still signs the deed, and still hands you the keys. What is different is that the person whose signature matters most is not at the closing table.
This is the part that catches buyers out. When the seller accepts your offer, you do not have a deal. Fannie Mae's servicing guide requires that every short sale contract carry a clause making the sale "contingent on the mortgage holder's and the mortgage insurer's, if applicable, agreement to the sale." Until that written approval arrives, you have an accepted offer and a waiting period, and the seller can still be told no.
Fannie Mae also requires servicers to tell the seller and the agent, in writing, that "an offer at or above Fannie Mae's suggested list price may not automatically result in an approval of the short sale." Offering full price does not buy you certainty here the way it does on a normal listing.
Short Sale or Foreclosure? They Are Not the Same Thing
People use these two words as if they mean the same thing. They describe opposite situations. In a short sale the homeowner is still the owner and is trying to sell before the bank takes the house. Foreclosure is the process that takes it, the trustee's sale is the auction that ends that process, and a bank-owned or REO listing is what shows up afterward if nobody bought it at the auction. Those are three separate stages, and the comparison below is between a short sale and that final REO stage, because that is the one you can actually go and buy.
| | Short sale | Foreclosure and bank-owned (REO) |
|---|
| Who owns it | The homeowner, right up to closing | The lender, investor or government agency, after the trustee's sale |
| Who signs | The homeowner signs, but the lender must approve the price and terms in writing first | The institution signs. On HUD homes the seller line literally reads Secretary of Housing and Urban Development |
| Condition | Usually still lived in and maintained. Fannie Mae requires the seller to keep maintaining it until closing | Often vacant, sometimes for months. Sold as-is with no repairs, by regulation on HUD properties |
| How fast | Slow at the front. Weeks to months waiting on lender approval, then a normal closing | Faster once listed, because the institution already owns it and can sign |
| Repairs | Realistically no. Repairs are not on Fannie Mae's list of costs deductible from proceeds | No. Fannie Mae's REO contract requires buyers to accept the property in as-is condition |
| Deed you receive | A normal deed from the homeowner through a normal insured escrow | Usually a special warranty or limited deed. Fannie Mae states it will never deliver a general warranty deed |
| Owner-occupant advantage | None built in | Real. The Federal Housing Finance Agency extended the First Look window to 30 days in 2021, and HUD gives owner-occupants priority for up to 30 days |
There is a third category people confuse with both of these, which is the trustee's sale itself, the auction on the courthouse steps. That is not a listing you can tour. Under Utah Code 57-1-25 the property is sold at public auction "payable in lawful money of the United States at the time of sale." In practice that means funds on the day, and the auction offers none of the ordinary protections you get with a listed home: no financing contingency, no inspection contingency, and usually no access to walk through it first. That is a practical reality of how these sales run, not a statutory ban on arranging your own financing. I have written more about how that process works on the Southern Utah foreclosures page.
Why There Are Almost No Foreclosures Here Right Now
There is currently 1 foreclosure listing in Washington County and none in Iron County, verified September 4, 2026. That surprises people who assume a distressed-property page means a pile of cheap houses. It does not. Foreclosure happens when an owner cannot pay and also cannot sell for enough to cover the loan, so in a market that has run up, owners in trouble usually sell rather than lose the house. Washington County's August 2026 median sale price was $520,000, which is consistent with that explanation but does not by itself prove it. I have not seen county-level equity or loan-to-value data that would settle it, so treat the reasoning as the likely explanation rather than a measured finding.
Statewide the trend is real but the base is small. ATTOM's Mid-Year 2026 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, released July 16, 2026, put Utah at 2,292 properties with foreclosure filings in the first half of 2026, a rate of one in every 534 housing units, up 29.49% from the first half of 2025. Worth knowing: in ATTOM's July 2026 state report, the four Utah counties with the worst foreclosure rates were Piute, Carbon, Tooele and Sevier. Washington County was not among them.
How Long a Short Sale Really Takes
Plan on roughly 90 days from a complete package to closing, and understand that the clock does not start when the seller accepts your offer. The published timeframes below come from the two entities that own or guarantee most American mortgages. They are the deadlines those servicers work to, not a promise about your file: a decision inside 30 days can be a counteroffer or a denial rather than an approval, extensions exist, and loans outside those two programs follow their own rules.
Fannie Mae's servicing guide requires the servicer to acknowledge an offer within five business days, deliver an approve, counter or decline decision within 30 calendar days of receiving a complete borrower response package and the offer, respond to a revised offer within ten business days, and then close "within 60 calendar days of the servicer's approval." Freddie Mac's guide sets the same five-day acknowledgment, the same 30-day decision, and the same 60-day close.
The trap is in the words "complete package." Under 12 CFR 1024.41(c)(1) the 30-day evaluation clock runs from receipt of the complete loss mitigation application, not from your offer. If the seller is missing a pay stub or a hardship letter, the clock has not started and nobody will tell you that. For comparison, the National Association of Realtors put the median time on market for a normal existing home at 29 days in July 2026.
Two more things stretch it. Fannie Mae requires the property valuation to be dated or refreshed within 90 days of approval, so a file that stalls forces a new valuation and resets the negotiation. And Fannie Mae requires the home to sit on the MLS in active status for at least five consecutive days including a Saturday and a Sunday before the servicer may even submit its recommendation.
Why the Bank Says No
Short sale rejections are arithmetic, not mood. The lender orders its own valuation and calculates a minimum net proceeds figure, and your offer either clears it or it does not.
You are bidding against a number you are not allowed to see. Freddie Mac's guide requires that the minimum net proceeds figure never be disclosed to the borrower, the listing broker or the buyer. Freddie Mac's own worked example shows how the math goes: a $100,000 gross price, less $9,000 in allowable closing costs, less a $6,000 subordinate lien payment, less $7,500 in relocation assistance, leaves $77,500 to test against the minimum.
The other common killers:
- A second mortgage or HELOC. On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, both cap total payments to all subordinate lienholders at $6,000 in aggregate, and the cap covers recorded mortgages and trust deeds rather than judgments, mechanic's liens or HOA liens. Other investors set their own rules. If a second lienholder is owed $40,000 and will not release for $6,000, the deal does not close. Fannie Mae also requires that junior to waive its deficiency rights, and if it will release the lien but not the borrower, Fannie Mae states it cannot receive a payment at all.
- A mortgage insurer. Where the insurer has not delegated authority, Fannie Mae requires written agreement from the mortgage insurer before any short sale. That is a fourth party with a veto.
- Anything that is not arm's length. Both agencies require a signed affidavit certifying the transaction is between parties unrelated and unaffiliated by family, marriage or commercial enterprise. Buying your cousin's short sale is not a plan.
- An incomplete hardship file. Where a full borrower response package is required, the seller has to document hardship on the required form, and if they will not or cannot, no offer fixes it. Note that both agencies have reduced-documentation paths where a full package is not required, generally when the loan is far enough delinquent, so a thin file is not always fatal.
What You Are Agreeing To as the Buyer
You are buying as-is. Freddie Mac's guide requires the sales contract to state that the property is purchased in as-is condition, with one exception: if you are using FHA, RHS or VA financing and the agency requires that condition removed. General repairs are not on Fannie Mae's list of costs that may come out of proceeds, so asking the lender to fix the roof is asking for something the program does not fund. A few specific items are allowed, such as wood-destroying pest treatment where local law or custom requires it, so "as-is" is a strong default rather than an absolute bar.
You still get to inspect. Short sale status does not remove your rights under Utah's state-approved Real Estate Purchase Contract, which has a Due Diligence Deadline and a defined process for objecting or cancelling. What it removes is the realistic ability to get the other side to pay for what you find. Read the contract carefully. Passing the Due Diligence Deadline waives that condition, but it does not make your earnest money unconditionally non-refundable: Section 8.1(c) of the state-approved REPC, effective December 4, 2024, says the deposit becomes non-refundable "except as provided in Sections 8.2(a) and 8.3(b)(i)." If the appraisal condition is checked, a timely low-appraisal cancellation under 8.2(a) still returns your full deposit right up to the Financing and Appraisal Deadline, which falls after the Due Diligence Deadline. If the financing condition is checked, cancelling under 8.3(b)(i) releases only the dollar amount written into that blank to the seller and returns the rest to you. On a short sale, pay attention to how those deadlines interact with the third party approval deadline.
There is a resale restriction on the deed. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require the deed to prohibit you from reselling for 30 days after closing, and from reselling above 120% of the short sale price for days 31 through 90. So a quick resale is restricted rather than forbidden: the flat block runs 30 days, and days 31 through 90 cap the price rather than banning the sale. Separately, and this one limits your buyer rather than you, 24 CFR 203.37a makes a property ineligible for FHA-insured financing if it is resold 90 days or less after the seller acquired it, which limits your buyer pool if you do try.
Your rate lock is exposed. The CFPB notes rate locks typically run 30, 45 or 60 days and that extending "may be expensive." On a file waiting 30 days for a decision and 60 to close, that is a real cost to plan for, not a footnote.
On earnest money, Utah has a Short Sale Addendum to the Real Estate Purchase Contract published by the Utah Association of Realtors that creates a defined third party approval deadline. Ask your agent to use it and to confirm you are on the current version of the form, because the copy circulating publicly carries an older revision date and the association's own page is behind a member login.
If You Are the Seller: The Tax Rule Changed on January 1, 2026
This is the most important thing on this page and most short sale articles still have it wrong.
When a lender forgives part of your mortgage, the forgiven amount is generally income to you. For years there was an exclusion that made forgiven debt on a main home tax-free. That exclusion's deadline has passed. Under 26 U.S.C. 108(a)(1)(E), as the statute reads in the official U.S. Code text current through September 3, 2026, qualified principal residence indebtedness is excludable only if it is discharged "before January 1, 2026," or is "subject to an arrangement that is entered into and evidenced in writing before January 1, 2026."
Read that second clause carefully, because it matters. A discharge happening in 2026 can still qualify, but only if the written arrangement behind it was entered into before January 1, 2026. A short sale started fresh today does not meet that test. The 2025 tax act amended a different paragraph of the same statute, the student loan provision, and left this one alone.
Two things still help. The insolvency exclusion at 26 U.S.C. 108(a)(1)(B) has no expiration date at all. If your total debts exceed the fair market value of your total assets at the moment of discharge, forgiven debt is excludable up to the amount by which you are insolvent, claimed on IRS Form 982. Bankruptcy discharge is excluded too. And because Utah's income tax starts from federal adjusted gross income, anything excluded federally never reaches your Utah return. Anything included federally flows into the starting point for your Utah return, where the 4.45% rate applies to Utah taxable income after Utah's own adjustments and credits, so the actual Utah cost depends on your whole return rather than the headline rate.
I am not a CPA and this is not tax advice. If you are considering a short sale, the conversation with a tax professional should happen before you sign anything, not after you get the 1099-C. This one change can be the difference between a short sale making sense and not.
Utah Has a Short Sale Deficiency Statute, and It Is Short
Utah Code 78B-2-313, titled "Action to recover deficiency after short sale," gives a lender three months to sue for the shortfall, measured from the date the release of mortgage or reconveyance of trust deed is recorded. Miss that window and the action is barred. It applies to single-family residential property in Utah securing a loan taken for personal, family or household purposes, which covers an ordinary home.
Two exceptions matter, and the second is the one that catches people. The three-month bar does not apply if the owner engaged in fraud in connection with the short sale. And it does not apply to an agreement signed in connection with the short sale that obligates you to pay some or all of the deficiency. In other words, if the approval letter you sign says you still owe the money, the statute does not save you. That is precisely why the written terms matter more than the general rule.
One more thing for sellers. The CFPB advises that if you live in a state where you remain responsible for the shortfall, "ask your lender to waive the deficiency before you go through with a short sale," and "if the lender waives the deficiency, get the waiver in writing." That sentence is worth more than everything else on this page.
What Nobody Can Honestly Tell You
Two things get stated as fact all over the internet that I could not verify from any authoritative source, so I am not going to publish them as numbers.
The share of short sales that fall apart. There is no current figure from the National Association of Realtors, ATTOM, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the CFPB or HUD. The ranges you see quoted trace back to lender marketing pages and agent blogs, or to crisis-era research using 2004 to 2013 data. What I can tell you from working here is that short sales fail more often than normal sales and that the failures usually trace to a second lien or an incomplete seller file.
Correction, September 4, 2026. An earlier version of this page said no Utah statute squarely addressed deficiency after a negotiated short sale. That was wrong, and an outside audit caught it. Utah Code 78B-2-313 is titled "Action to recover deficiency after short sale" and addresses exactly that. The correct explanation is now in the seller section above.
Working a Short Sale in St. George
If you are buying one, the most useful thing I do is find out early which lender and which investor is behind the loan, whether there is a second lien, and whether the seller's hardship package is actually complete. Those three answers predict whether the file closes better than the price does. If they are not good answers, I will tell you to keep looking rather than tie up your earnest money for three months.
If you are the one who owes more than the house is worth, call me before you miss more payments. In this market there is a real chance you have more equity than you think and can sell normally, which is a better outcome than a short sale in every respect. If a short sale genuinely is the answer, the tax change above means the order of operations matters more this year than it did last year.
Call or text me at 435-200-5508, or . You can also run the numbers on a purchase yourself with the St. George closing cost calculator, check what the carrying costs look like with the Southern Utah property tax calculator, and see where the wider market sits on the St. George market report.
Current Short Sale Listings
Every short sale record in our Washington and Iron county feeds is below, lowest price first. Remember the coverage note above: three of these are the same three homes listed twice, and one known short sale is missing because of a county coding error at the source.
Short Sale FAQ for St. George and Southern Utah
How many short sales are there in St. George and Southern Utah right now?
Our MLS feeds show 20 short sale records across Washington and Iron counties as of September 4, 2026. Those 20 records are 17 distinct properties, because three homes are listed on two MLS boards at once and appear twice. One further short sale is missing from the feed because its MLS record carries the wrong county, making 18 known short sale properties in total. The median asking price is $540,000 across the 17 shown, or $499,750 across all 18 known, in a range from $229,900 to $1,529,000.
Is a short sale the same as a foreclosure?
No. In a short sale the homeowner still owns the property and is selling it with the lender's permission for less than the loan balance. In a foreclosure the lender has taken the property back through a trustee's sale and is selling it as bank-owned. The homeowner signs a short sale; an institution signs a foreclosure sale.
How long does a short sale take to close?
Plan on about 90 days after the seller's file is complete. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both require the servicer to decide within 30 calendar days of receiving a complete package and offer, and to close within 60 calendar days of approval. The 30-day clock starts when the lender has a complete application, not when the seller accepts your offer, which is why some files take far longer.
Can the bank reject a short sale after the seller accepts my offer?
Yes. Lender approval is a separate step and it is not guaranteed. Fannie Mae requires short sale contracts to include a clause making the sale contingent on the mortgage holder's agreement, and warns sellers in writing that an offer at or above the suggested list price may not automatically be approved. A second lienholder or a mortgage insurer can also refuse.
Can I get repairs done on a short sale?
Realistically no. Freddie Mac requires short sale contracts to state the property is sold as-is, except where FHA, RHS or VA financing requires that condition removed. Repairs are not among the costs Fannie Mae allows to be deducted from sale proceeds. You still have full inspection rights under Utah's Real Estate Purchase Contract, but expect to pay for anything you find.
Can I use FHA or VA financing to buy a short sale?
Yes. Freddie Mac's guide specifically contemplates FHA, RHS and VA buyers by carving them out of the mandatory as-is contract language. Be aware the property still has to meet that program's condition standards, and that a long approval wait can outrun your rate lock.
Is forgiven mortgage debt taxable after a short sale in 2026?
Generally yes, unless another exclusion applies. The exclusion for forgiven debt on a main home under 26 U.S.C. 108(a)(1)(E) reaches discharges before January 1, 2026, or discharges under a written arrangement entered into before that date. The insolvency exclusion under 108(a)(1)(B) has no expiration and may still apply if your debts exceed your assets. Utah starts from federal adjusted gross income, so anything excluded federally is not taxed by Utah. Talk to a CPA before you sign.
Can a lender come after me for the difference after a Utah short sale?
Utah Code 78B-2-313 bars a deficiency action brought more than three months after the release of mortgage or reconveyance of trust deed is recorded following a short sale, for single-family residential property securing a personal, family or household loan. Two exceptions matter: fraud, and any agreement you sign in connection with the short sale that obligates you to pay some or all of the shortfall. That second exception is why the approval letter terms matter more than the general rule, and why the CFPB advises getting any deficiency waiver in writing. Ask a Utah real estate attorney about your specific loan.
