Why does a home in Clearfield sell for roughly $99,000 less than one in Layton, a city it borders on the north end of Davis County? Most buyers comparing the two answer that question the same way: Clearfield must just be the cheaper option. Older stock, fewer amenities, a bit further from the mountains. Take the discount and move on.
The math says something different. Pull the price gap apart and it has almost nothing to do with what a square foot of house costs in one city versus the other. It has to do with how many square feet you're getting for your money. That distinction changes how you should shop, and it matters more right now because Clearfield is also in the middle of the biggest single redevelopment project Davis County has seen in years.
The Number Everyone Quotes
Over the three months ending May 2026, the median sale price in Clearfield sat at $410,000, essentially flat compared to the same period a year earlier. In Layton, the median over that same window was $509,000, up about 1.2% year over year. That's a $99,000 gap, or roughly 24% more expensive to buy the median home in Layton than in Clearfield.
Both markets moved quickly. Clearfield homes sold in a median of 38 days, up from 31 days the year before, with 82 homes closing in May 2026 compared to 64 the prior May, a sign that more sellers are listing and buyers are absorbing it. Layton homes moved faster, a median of 32 days, with 217 sales in May 2026 against 216 a year earlier and buyers averaging two competing offers per listing.
On paper, Clearfield looks like the value play and Layton looks like the market getting bid up.
Divide by the Square Footage and the Gap Almost Disappears
Here's the part that doesn't show up in a median-price comparison. The median price per square foot in Clearfield over that same three-month window was $222, up 2.5% year over year. In Layton, it was $226, down 1.7% year over year. That's a four-dollar difference. Less than 2%.
Run the numbers backward and the picture gets clearer. Divide Clearfield's median price by its median price per square foot and you land near 1,847 square feet. Do the same for Layton and you land near 2,252 square feet, a difference of about 400 square feet. That's not an exact calculation, since the median price and the median price per square foot aren't necessarily drawn from the same transactions, but the spread lines up almost perfectly with the price gap itself: about 24% more expensive, about 22% more square footage.
Local MLS-based city profiles back this up at the aggregate level too, putting Clearfield's average home size around 2,006 square feet against a Davis County average closer to 2,785 square feet.
| Metric | Clearfield | Layton |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price (3 months ending May 2026) | $410,000 | $509,000 |
| Median price per square foot | $222 | $226 |
| Median days on market | 38 | 32 |
| Homes sold in May 2026 | 82 | 217 |
Put plainly: the two cities are pricing a square foot of finished house almost identically. What separates them is the size of the house sitting on the lot, not a discount on quality, location, or land.
What That Actually Means If You're Comparing the Two
If you're a buyer chasing a lower number on the listing, Clearfield delivers that. But if what you actually want is more square footage for the same dollar, the honest comparison isn't Clearfield's median against Layton's median. It's whichever city has the floor plan size you need, priced at a rate that's nearly identical either way.
That reframes a few decisions. A move-up family that needs five bedrooms and a bonus room might find that a larger Clearfield property, once it exists, costs about what the math predicts rather than carrying some hidden Clearfield discount. A buyer who's fine with a smaller rambler or a starter layout gets real savings in Clearfield, not because the city is cheaper per square foot, but because smaller homes are more common there. For anyone weighing a short commute to Hill Air Force Base against total house size, this is the actual tradeoff, not an assumption about neighborhood quality.
Clearfield Is Also Mid-Transformation
The other piece that changes how this comparison should be read is what's happening near many of the same neighborhoods this pricing data covers. Clearfield Station, a 56-acre transit-oriented development wrapped around the city's FrontRunner stop, has moved from planning into active vertical construction.
The scope is large for a city this size:
- Up to 1,000 new housing units envisioned across the full build-out
- 550,000 square feet of new office space
- 67,500 square feet of new retail and commercial space
- A 2.25-acre public park, Tower Park, already complete, with an airport-themed play structure, four pavilions, and a public restroom
Hamilton Partners, the Salt Lake City firm overseeing the project, has put the total cost of the housing and commercial build-out at around $500 million. Clearfield City covered its share of the roads, water lines, and park with $18.5 million in bonds, to be repaid through anticipated tax-increment revenue, alongside roughly $27 million in combined city, county, and state funding for the infrastructure work, according to reporting from KSL.
The first residential phase, two apartment buildings totaling 213 units, is now under construction near the station, with some units already listed as available to lease and a projected completion for the phase around March 2027. Those apartments market themselves as a military-approved community, a small detail that says a lot about who this project is built for. The announced anchor retail tenant is The Front Climbing Club, taking 37,500 square feet.
Ken Shields of Hamilton Partners summed up the pace of the rest of the build-out simply: the completion timeline "is really determined by the market."
Why This Matters More Than a Sqft Table
A single-family home in Clearfield today is being priced in a city that still reads, on paper, as the affordable, mostly-single-family suburb next to Hill AFB. But the amenity base that price is built on is changing underneath it. New retail, hundreds of new housing units, and 550,000 square feet of office space don't show up in a median price calculation until they're finished and occupied, but they change what "living in Clearfield" means for the next buyer and the one after that.
For a buyer deciding between Clearfield and Layton today, the practical takeaway isn't that one city is a bargain and the other is overpriced. It's that the per-square-foot cost of a house is nearly the same in both places right now, while Clearfield is adding density and amenities that Layton isn't in the middle of building. Buyers who value being early to that shift have a specific window to act in. Buyers who just want more house for the money should be comparing floor plans, not city medians.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
Does the Clearfield Station development affect existing single-family neighborhoods, or is it contained to the station area? The 56-acre project is centered on the FrontRunner stop itself and is planned as apartments, office, and retail rather than new detached single-family construction. Its effect on established single-family neighborhoods elsewhere in Clearfield is more about added amenities and commercial activity nearby than direct competition from new house-for-house inventory.
If price per square foot is nearly the same in both cities, why does Clearfield still get called the more affordable option? Because the median price, the number most people see first on a listing site, is driven heavily by typical home size in each city. Clearfield's typical home runs smaller, so its median price comes in lower even though the underlying cost of a finished square foot is close to identical to Layton's.
If you're weighing Clearfield against Layton, or trying to figure out what a specific floor plan is actually worth once you account for size instead of just the sticker price, that's the kind of comparison Doxey Real Estate Group walks through with buyers every week across Davis County. Reach out for a free home valuation and a straight answer on what your money buys in either city.
