News from Paragon Pools

St. George, Utah Area Permitted 576 New Pools in a Year — One for Every Five New Homes

The 2026 St. George Pool Market Report from Paragon Pools compiles twelve months of Washington County permit records into a single public source

Washington County, Utah — the St. George metro area — issued 576 residential swimming pool permits in the twelve months ending July 31, 2026, according to the 2026 St. George Pool Market Report released today by Paragon Pools of St. George. Over the same period the county issued 2,992 permits for new single-family homes: about one pool permit for every five new-home permits.

The report compiles building-permit data from every Washington County jurisdiction to answer a question homeowners, builders, and real estate agents ask constantly: how many pools are being built here, where, and at what declared value.

Key findings, August 2025 – July 2026

• 576 residential pool permits were issued countywide, roughly 11 per week. Licensed contractors pulled about 93 percent of them; owner-builders accounted for the remaining 7 percent.
• The city of St. George issued 263 pool permits, 46 percent of the county total. Washington City issued 132, Hurricane 81, Ivins 60, and Santa Clara 22. The remaining 18 were spread across unincorporated Washington County, La Verkin, Toquerville, and Springdale.
• The Ledges of St. George led all master-planned communities with 31 pool permits across its phases, followed by the Estates and Reserve at Old Farm (15), Finley Farms in Washington City (13), Entrada at Snow Canyon (9), and Desert Color (8).
• Forty-two percent of permits declared a value of $100,000 or more, and 6 percent declared $150,000 or more; the median declared value was $90,000. Declared values are reported on the permit application for fee purposes and typically understate the finished cost of the project, particularly once decking, shade structures, outdoor kitchens, and landscaping are included.
• Spring is permit season. March 2026 was the busiest month with 61 permits; February was the slowest with 31.
• Late-spring activity cooled from a year earlier. May through July 2026 produced 140 pool permits against 158 in May through July 2025, down about 11 percent, in line with the slowdown in new-home starts.
• No single builder dominates. 103 different contractors — pool builders, production home builders, and landscape contractors — pulled at least one pool permit during the year.

“People assume everyone in St. George has a pool, and the numbers say something more interesting than that,” said Del Tanner, founder of Paragon Pools in St. George, Utah. “About one in five new homes gets one. And the families who build are increasingly designing the whole backyard around it — the spa, the kitchen, the shade, the pickleball court. The pool is the anchor, not the project.”

The full 2026 St. George Pool Market Report, including a month-by-month chart and breakdowns by city and community, is published at poolsbyparagon.com/poolmarketreport and will be updated quarterly at the same address.

About the data

Figures are drawn from public building-permit records for Washington County, Utah jurisdictions as compiled by Construction Monitor, covering permits dated August 1, 2025 through July 31, 2026; comparison figures for May–July 2025 are drawn from the same source. “Pool permits” are residential permits classified as swimming pools or swimming pools with spas; pool houses, shade covers, and standalone spas are excluded. New-home counts are permits classified as single-family homes over the same period. Declared values are as reported on the permit application. Counts may shift slightly as jurisdictions finalize records. Source: Paragon Pools, 2026 St. George Pool Market Report, https://poolsbyparagon.com/poolmarketreport/. Data may be cited with attribution to Paragon Pools, St. George, Utah.

About Paragon Pools

Paragon Pools designs and builds custom pools and complete backyard environments — spa, outdoor kitchen, shade structure, sport court — for homeowners in St. George, Utah and Washington County’s custom-lot communities. As a Utah B100-licensed and insured general contractor, Paragon builds the entire outdoor project under one license. Every project begins on site and is fully designed in 3D before ground is broken. We build the backyard everyone ends up at. Paragon Pools is headquartered at 1575 S River Rd, St. George, UT 84790, and is not affiliated with similarly named companies in other states. poolsbyparagon.com