Living in Clearfield, Utah: An Honest Guide from a Local Realtor

Clearfield is the city most people in Davis County drive past on I-15 without stopping, and the city a lot of families end up buying in once they price out Layton, Kaysville and Farmington. That is not an insult. It is the whole point.

This is an honest guide to living in Clearfield, Utah — what homes actually cost, which neighborhoods are which, how the commute really works, where people go outside, and who this city fits. I am not going to tell you Clearfield is charming. I am going to tell you what you get for the money, which is a different and more useful thing.

What homes actually cost in Clearfield

Here is the number that explains Clearfield’s entire housing market, next to its neighbors:

Clearfield sits roughly $112,000 below the Davis County median. For a family that wants Davis County schools, Davis County parks and a Davis County commute but cannot make $537,000 work, that gap is the entire reason they are reading this page. Clearfield figures are Redfin’s three months ending June 2026; Layton and county figures run through July 2026.

Two other numbers matter as much as the price. Homes here took a median of 39 days to sell and closed at 99.4% of list price, on 82 sales. Read that together and you get a market that is neither frantic nor soft: sellers are mostly getting their number, and buyers have enough room to inspect a house properly and negotiate repairs. That is a healthier place to buy than the bidding wars further south.

What you are buying, mostly, is post-war and mid-century housing. Clearfield grew up around the Freeport Center and Hill Air Force Base, so much of the older stock is 1950s through 1970s ramblers and split-entries on generous, flat lots — the kind with a real backyard, a mature tree and a detached garage. Newer subdivisions sit on the city’s west and south edges. The practical consequence: in Clearfield, condition varies enormously street to street, and two houses with identical square footage can be $80,000 apart on the strength of the roof, the furnace, the windows and the sewer line. An inspection here is not a formality.

The neighborhoods, by name

Clearfield does not have famous neighborhoods the way Bountiful has the east bench. What it has is a long list of platted subdivisions, most of them small. These are the names you will actually see attached to Clearfield listings:

In practice, most people here think in terms of four areas rather than subdivision names. Downtown and the station area, around Main Street and the Clearfield FrontRunner stop, is the part of the city seeing the most new multi-family building and civic investment. The Freeport side, west of Main toward the Freeport Center, is the oldest housing and the cheapest entry point. South Clearfield, around South Clearfield Elementary and Barlow Park, mixes older homes with newer infill and is where a lot of families land. The east side, up against Hill Air Force Base, is convenient to the gates and quiet in a way that surprises people.

Schools

Clearfield is in the Davis School District, and the short version is this: five elementary schools sit inside the city, but five junior high boundaries and three high school boundaries reach into Clearfield. A home on the west side can be assigned to Syracuse High; a home east of I-15 can be assigned to Northridge. Boundaries here do not follow the city line, and they do not follow the zip code either.

Because that catches so many buyers out, I wrote it up properly — every school, grade levels, addresses, how boundary permits work, and how to check any specific address in about two minutes: Best Schools in Clearfield, Utah: A Parent’s Guide.

The commute

For a large share of Clearfield, the commute is the shortest one in the state, because they work at Hill Air Force Base — which sits directly against the city’s east side. Hill employed 26,893 people in 2024 and is Utah’s largest single-site employer, with roughly $12.7 billion in annual economic impact. If you or your spouse works on base, living in Clearfield can mean a commute measured in minutes rather than freeway miles, and that alone is why many families choose this city over cheaper options further from the Wasatch Front.

For everyone else, I-15 runs the length of the city’s east edge, with Ogden to the north and Salt Lake City to the south. State Route 193 — the Bernard Fisher Highway — connects Clearfield east toward the base and the freeway.

The piece people underuse is the train. Clearfield Station, at 1250 South State Street, is a stop on UTA’s FrontRunner commuter rail line running Ogden to Provo. It opened in April 2008, has about 561 free park-and-ride spaces, and is served by UTA bus routes 470, 626, 627, 628 and 640. For anyone commuting to downtown Salt Lake, that station is a genuine alternative to sitting on I-15, and homes within walking distance of it carry a real advantage that is not yet fully priced in.

I am deliberately not printing train times here, because UTA adjusts the FrontRunner schedule and a number I post today will be wrong within a year. Check current times at rideuta.com — and if you are weighing two houses on commute, tell me and we will drive both at 7:30 on a weekday rather than guessing.

Parks, trails and getting outside

This is where Clearfield quietly outperforms its reputation. Seventeen city parks for a city this size is a lot, and several of them are genuinely good rather than just a patch of grass with a swing set.

The other thing families use constantly is the Clearfield Aquatic & Fitness Center at 825 South State Street, which pairs an indoor facility with an outdoor leisure pool and splash features. On a July afternoon it is where half the city’s children are, with the Wasatch peaks sitting right behind the deck. For a city of this size and price point, having a municipal aquatic centre of that quality is not a given, and it is one of the things people quietly move here for.

Fisher Park and the Bernard Fisher Highway are both named for Colonel Bernard F. Fisher, who called Clearfield home and who, in March 1966, landed his A-1E Skyraider on a strip under enemy fire in the A Shau Valley to pull out a downed fellow pilot. He took nineteen bullet strikes to his aircraft and flew both men out. He was the first airman to receive the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. If you live here, your kids will play at a park named after him, and it is worth knowing why.

Beyond the city limits, Clearfield’s position is the real prize. The Great Salt Lake and the causeway out to Antelope Island State Park lie a short drive west through Syracuse — bison, brine shrimp, and some of the best sunsets in Utah. The Wasatch Range is straight east, which puts several canyons and ski resorts within an easy morning’s reach. You are not paying a premium for either view, and you get both.

Who Clearfield actually suits — and who it does not

It suits you if: you or your spouse works at Hill Air Force Base or in the Freeport Center. You want a yard and a garage more than you want a new build. You are a first-time buyer who wants into Davis County before prices move further. You commute to Salt Lake and would rather take the train. You want your kids in Davis schools without a Farmington price tag.

It may not suit you if: you want a walkable historic main street with restaurants — that is Bountiful or Kaysville, not Clearfield. You want a large modern home on a big lot; the new construction here is limited and the older stock is modest. You are noise-sensitive and would be buying close to the base flight line or the rail corridor — go stand in that yard on a weekday afternoon before you decide, not on a quiet Sunday.

I would rather tell you that honestly now than sell you a house you resent in two years.

Buying or selling in Clearfield

I am Julie Burningham with Equity Real Estate, and I work both sides in Clearfield — listing homes for sellers and representing buyers. I have owned a home in this county since 2001 and raised four children through Davis County schools, so I am not describing this area from a map.

If you are buying, the two things I do first in Clearfield are run the school boundary on the exact address and look hard at the mechanical age of the house, because those are the two places this market punishes people. If you are selling, the 99.4% sale-to-list figure means pricing correctly matters more than staging tricks — and spring is when the families are looking.

Either way, reach out. I am happy to talk it through even if you are a year out from moving.