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Manchester, N.H. • Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is again a Utah resident after buying a condominium in downtown Salt Lake City.

The former Utah governor told The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday that he and his wife, Mary Kaye, purchased the condo in the new City Creek Center development because they wanted a home back in the Beehive State.

"I'm a resident of Utah, and I always want to be," Huntsman said. "I'd like to spend more time out there, but right now it's all on the road."

Huntsman, who devotes hefty chunks of his time these days campaigning in New Hampshire, the state with the nation's first primary, bought a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in the 30-story Promontory tower, which is part of the LDS Church's effort to revitalize downtown. The sale price wasn't disclosed.

The presidential hopeful had sold his Salt Lake City home in 2005, when he moved into the Governor's Mansion and later, when he resigned to take on the role of U.S. ambassador to China, used the mansion's address for his voting registration as allowed by law for someone serving the government abroad.

Huntsman bought a $3.6 million home in Washington, D.C., in June 2010, but he calls the Utah condo home.

"It's my residence," he said, noting he stayed there last week. "I wanted someplace where we could return to and be as a family, return to the state, with a sort of regularity."

Huntsman listed the condo's address on a Federal Election Commission report for several loans that he put into his Republican presidential campaign. So far, Huntsman has forked over $2.25 million in his White House effort.

The condo is part of a mixed-use development at the heart of the city. Part of it overlooks the LDS Church's Temple Square, although Huntsman says his faces west with a view of the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center.

Promontory's prices reportedly range from $145,000 to more than $1.5 million. Its website describes the inside of the 185-unit building as elegant, with floor-to-ceiling windows, designer lighting and hardwood floors.

It's "far better than I deserve," Huntsman joked.

The ex-governor said he is changing his voter registration to the condo address.

tburr@sltrib.com