Live Salt Lake City listings, filtered
Homes with a basement in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City listings with a basement, fed straight from the MLS and sorted newest first, with a clear read on why full basements are common across this pre-war stock and how to tell a finished lower level from a canvas.
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Want it narrower? Tell me your exact spec.
Newest first
The newest basement listings.
Fed straight from the local MLS and filtered to Salt Lake City homes with a basement: new listings appear here as they list, and sold homes drop off. The read on which kind of lower level you are actually looking at is just below.
Buying here
Sort finished from a canvas before you tour.
Basements vary far more than the listing lets on: finished or a canvas, walkout or fully below grade, tall or low. Tell me what setup you need and I will have the Salt Lake City-area partner agent I work with pull the details on the lower level of any home you flag.
Selling here
Own a Salt Lake City home with a finished basement or a walkout lower level?
Buyers on this page are searching specifically for extra finished square footage downstairs. List it with the Salt Lake City-area partner agent I connect you with and it goes in front of that exact search.
Listing information comes from the local MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
The local read
What a basement means in Salt Lake City.
Start with the good news, which is that this search is not a hunt. In Salt Lake City a basement is close to standard equipment. The valley sits at elevation and the frost line is deep, so footings had to go below it regardless of the era, and once a builder is digging that deep, putting a basement under the house is the natural move. The pre-war neighborhoods of the central and east side, the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Liberty Wells, and Sugar House, carry a deep stock of full basements in their late-1800s to 1930s houses, and the mid-century and newer stock on the bench and the west side keeps the same pattern going in newer form. So the useful question in Salt Lake City is rarely whether a home has a basement. It is which kind, and what condition it is in.
The city's own tilt sorts the answer for you. Across the flatter central grid and the west side toward the Jordan River, the common shape is a full basement below grade on all sides, leaning on egress windows for light and a safe way out. On the sloped East Bench, the Avenues, and Bonneville Hills, where the land climbs toward the Wasatch, a hillside lot can let a lower level open to grade with full windows and a real door, sometimes as a true walkout. The University of Utah area sits on that same rising ground, so basements there follow the bench pattern too.
When you find one, read it closely, because basements vary far more than the listing lets on. Is the lower level finished living space, or is it framed and unfinished, a canvas you complete on your own terms and your own budget? Is it a walkout, or fully below grade? Does every sleeping room down there have a code-sized egress window and well, because without one the room does not really count as a bedroom no matter how it is marketed. How tall is the ceiling, since a basement in one of the pre-war neighborhoods' older homes can be low enough that the space reads as storage rather than a floor of the house. Those answers change how the space lives and what it is worth to you far more than the square-footage line on the MLS.
Then there is the throughline on the oldest stock, which is to inspect the decades, not just the house. In the Avenues and Capitol Hill, surveyed as far back as the 1850s, some foundations are stone or unreinforced masonry rather than poured concrete, and older masonry carries its own seismic considerations in a place that lives in earthquake country, so ask about the foundation type. An old coal-chute or cistern opening sometimes turns up in a basement this age too, a relic to identify rather than automatically a defect. In a basement specifically, walk the perimeter for staining, efflorescence, or settling, and ask how water moves away from the foundation. If a separate second kitchen and a private entrance are what you are actually after rather than plain square footage, the ADU and casita page is the narrower search, a different intent than this one, and it is where the zoning and permit questions live, not here. Earlier in the process than show me listings? Start with the Salt Lake City guide, and when a home below reads right, that is the moment to reach out.
Reading a basement here
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Finished or a canvas: some lower levels are fully finished living space, some are left framed or unfinished for you to complete. An unfinished one buys the square footage at a lower cost. The listing does not always say, so read the finished square footage and the photos together.
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Walkout or full: a walkout opens to grade on the downhill side and gets a real door, while a full basement sits below grade on all sides. The lot decides which one a home can have, which is why the sloped East Bench carries more walkouts than the flatter central grid.
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Proper egress: any below-grade sleeping room needs a code-sized egress window and well, or a door to the outside. Confirm it is there in person before you count the room as a bedroom.
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Ceiling height, era, and foundation: stand in it. A full-height basement lives like the rest of the house, while a low one from the oldest pre-war stock reads as storage. On the Avenues and Capitol Hill's oldest houses, ask whether the foundation is stone or unreinforced masonry rather than poured concrete.
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Water, always: walk the perimeter inside and out for staining or settling, and see where the grade, the downspouts, and any window wells send water. On the flatter west side toward the Jordan River, add the water table and current flood maps to that same check.
The local map
Where the basements actually are.
Basements are common across Salt Lake City, so this map is less about hunting and more about which kind each part of the city tends to have. The rule of thumb is simple: the flatter the ground, the more likely it is fully below grade, and the more a lot climbs toward the East Bench, the better the odds of a walkout or daylight level.
Around the University of Utah
The east-side blocks near the University and Foothill sit on the same rising ground as the rest of the East Bench, so a sloped lot here can open the lower level to grade with real windows and a door. Older homes near campus carry deep full basements, and the newer stock on Research Park's edge follows the same rule of thumb.
The Avenues and Capitol Hill
The hillside blocks just north and northeast of downtown hold some of the city's oldest houses, surveyed from the 1850s, many over deep full basements on tight lots, and the slope can put a walk-down entrance off the hillside. This is also the oldest stock in the city, so stone or unreinforced-masonry foundations turn up here more than anywhere else; ask about the foundation type before you count on poured concrete.
Liberty Wells and the central east side
The brick-bungalow blocks south of Liberty Park, most built between about 1910 and 1935, sit on flatter central ground and are full-basement houses by default. The 9th and 9th and 15th and 15th nodes nearby anchor the walkable central east side. A bungalow basement can be on the lower side for ceiling height, so stand in it before you fall for the floor plan.
Bonneville Hills and the bench
The single-family and ranch-style stock several miles east of downtown, up toward Foothill Drive, often sits on sloped lots where the lower level can open to grade. A daylight or walkout basement is the ideal canvas for a lower level that lives like its own floor rather than a dark cellar. Confirm the egress windows on every bedroom below grade all the same.
Sugar House and Wasatch Hollow
The walkable southeast side mixes pre-war houses with newer infill, and the older homes here carry full basements like the rest of the central city. Wasatch Hollow sits at the foothill edge along Emigration Creek, where a little more grade can occasionally open part of a lower level to daylight, while the Sugar House core itself reads flatter and mostly full basement.
The west side near the Jordan River
Rose Park, Glendale, and Poplar Grove are the more attainable detached neighborhoods, mostly post-war, on flatter, lower ground toward the Jordan River and its Parkway Trail. Full basements are common here, but this is low, flat ground near a river corridor, so read the water the same way you would on any lakeshore or riverbottom lot: check current flood maps and the water table alongside the usual perimeter and drainage look, and do not expect a walkout on this side of town.
Before you tour: what to actually check
Finished or a canvas: confirm whether the lower level is finished living space or framed and unfinished. The square-footage line does not always separate the two, and the difference is a real budget.
Walkout or full: note whether it opens to grade on the downhill side and gets a real door, or sits below grade on all sides. On the East Bench and the Avenues you have a real shot at the first.
Egress on every bedroom: each below-grade sleeping room needs a code-sized egress window and well, or a door to the outside. Look at the actual window wells, not just the listing photos.
Moisture and drainage: walk the perimeter inside and out for staining, efflorescence, or settling, and see where the grade, the downspouts, and the window wells send water. On the west side toward the Jordan River, add current flood maps and the water table to the same check.
Ceiling height and comfort: measure the clearance and check whether the lower level has its own zone or vents. A basement that stays cool in summer still has to be comfortable through a Salt Lake winter.
Foundation, era, and systems: on the Avenues and Capitol Hill's oldest houses, ask whether the foundation is stone or unreinforced masonry rather than poured concrete, since older masonry carries its own seismic considerations here. On any older-core home, date the roof, furnace, electrical panel, and sewer lateral, and note any old coal-chute or cistern opening as a relic to identify, not automatically a defect.
Want the basement shortlist without the homework?
Tell me your budget, the part of Salt Lake City you like, and whether you want a walkout on the East Bench or the Avenues or a full basement on the central grid or the west side, finished or a canvas to make your own. Basements are common here, so the real work is sorting the good ones from the low, damp, or low-ceiling ones. I will connect you with a trusted Salt Lake City-area partner agent for the on-the-ground work and stay on the file for the homework and the financing, with straight answers about egress, drainage, and what really counts as finished space.
Selling a Salt Lake City home with a finished basement or a walkout lower level? The buyers reading this page are searching for exactly that. List it with the Salt Lake City-area partner agent I connect you with, and your home gets featured across MovingUtah, on the pages they are already reading.
Quick answers
Basement-home shopping, answered.
It comes down to elevation and the ground the valley sits on. The Salt Lake Valley's frost line runs deep, so footings had to go below it regardless of the era, and once a builder is digging that deep, putting a basement under the house is the natural move. The pre-war neighborhoods of the central and east side, the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Liberty Wells, and Sugar House, were built with full basements from the start, and the newer bench and west-side subdivisions keep the same pattern going. That makes the useful question here which kind of basement a home has, and what condition it is in, rather than whether it has one at all.
A walkout opens to grade on the downhill side, so it gets a real door to the yard and full windows. A daylight level sits mostly below grade but gets tall windows above the grade line on one side. A full basement sits below grade on all sides and leans on egress windows for light and a safe way out. The lot decides which one a home can have, which is why the sloped East Bench, the Avenues, and Bonneville Hills carry more walkouts and daylight levels, while the flatter central grid and the west side toward the Jordan River are mostly full basements.
Just about everywhere, which is the point. The pre-war central and east side, the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Liberty Wells, and Sugar House, carry the deepest and oldest stock of full basements. The University of Utah area and the East Bench neighborhoods like Bonneville Hills keep the pattern going, and it is the slope up there that allows a walkout or daylight level. The west side near the Jordan River, Rose Park, Glendale, and Poplar Grove, carries full basements too, on flatter, lower ground. The live listings above are the honest count on any given week.
It runs both ways here. Some lower levels are fully finished living space, and some are left as a canvas, framed or unfinished, for a buyer to complete later. An unfinished basement can be a real opportunity, since you buy the square footage at a lower cost and finish it on your own terms. Listings do not always separate finished from unfinished square footage clearly, so read the numbers and the photos together, and I am happy to read a specific one with you before you tour.
Confirm a code-sized egress window and well in every below-grade sleeping room, note whether the space is finished or a canvas, and measure the ceiling height, because a basement in one of the city's older pre-war homes can be low enough to read as storage. Then walk the perimeter inside and out for staining, efflorescence, or settling, and see where the grade, the downspouts, and the window wells send water. On the oldest stock in the Avenues and Capitol Hill, some foundations are stone or unreinforced masonry rather than poured concrete, so ask about the foundation type, treat any old coal-chute or cistern opening you find as a relic to identify rather than automatically a defect, and remember that older masonry carries its own seismic considerations in a place that lives in earthquake country.
Finished lower-level space generally gives you more square footage for the money than the same space built above grade, and it stays cool through summer while adding storage and shelter. But because basements are the norm across most of this stock rather than a rarity, having one is not the differentiator here. What separates the listings is whether the lower level is finished, dry, full-height, and properly egressed. Whole-home prices span a wide range across the central grid, the bench, and the west side, and the live listings above are the honest answer on any given week.