Buying a Home in Salt Lake City, UT

The Salt Lake Tribune has an excellent "extra" specifically related to Median Home Prices along the Wasatch Front.

The data is broken down by zip code with an accompanying map to make it easy to understand which areas you are looking at.

The link is here: Home Prices Along the Wasatch Front

Whether you are considering a home purchase, or just a curious home owner, this is a site you may want to check from time to time.

If you are thinking about buying a home in the Salt Lake City area, make sure you get an Agent on YOUR side of the transaction!

If you have excellent credit and will be buying a $250,000-$750,000 home in the next 30-60 days and would like an agent who will work exclusively for you, call us at (801) 969-8989 or contact us via the link on this page.

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc.  "The Real Estate Agents on the Buyer's Side" ™ Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Exclusive Buyer Brokerages do not list homes and never represent Sellers.  Their agents represent Buyers ONLY on the Buyer's side of the transaction. They work to get BUYERS the Best Price and Terms when they Buy...

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc. - Salt Lake City, UT

Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Finally...

Good news for those hoping to buy (or sell?) homes under $300,000 in Salt Lake County:

The Salt Lake Board of Realtors said this week that 71 percent of home sales in Salt Lake County in July were for properties priced less than $300,000. The most active price range was from $200,000 to $250,000, the board said.(Salt Lake Tribune)

A majority of my clients thus far in 2008 have purchased homes between $250,000 and $500,000.

Here are my thoughts on this "announcement":

• It's easier to get a mortgage for homes priced at $300,000 or less
• There is a higher percentage of first time homeowners who can only afford to purchase homes at $300,000 or less
• The dollar difference between actual value and asking price is close enough to negotiate on homes $300,000 or less
• There is less oversupply of homes priced at $300,000 or less
• I believe that homes prices at $300,000 or less probably are still appreciating at higher rates than homes at $400,000 and up
• It's easier to save up a 10-20% downpayment of $300,000 or less (First Time Buyers)
  
• Those with plenty of cash to buy the $400,000 and up homes are more likely to be move-up Buyers who will have to (or would rather) sell their homes first. Because of oversupply in homes priced $400,000 and up, many of those owners won't sell their homes until supply decreases and demand increases.

It all boils down to Supply, Demand and Affordability

If you are planning on buying real estate in the Salt Lake City area, make sure you get an Agent on YOUR side of the transaction!

If you have excellent credit and will be buying a $250,000-$750,000 home in the next 30-60 days and would like an agent who will work exclusively for you, call us at (801) 969-8989 or contact us via the link on this page.

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc.  "The Real Estate Agents on the Buyer's Side" ™ Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Exclusive Buyer Brokerages do not list homes and never represent Sellers.  Their agents represent Buyers ONLY on the Buyer's side of the transaction. They work to get BUYERS the Best Price and Terms when they Buy...

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc. - Salt Lake City, UT

Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Finally...

Well, it's that time of year when OFHEO (The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) posts all the real estate data that leads to posts such as this.

It looks like Salt Lake comes in at 1.9% home value appreciation from June 2007 - June 2008. This is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for and expecting about a year ago, as well as what economists were saying was a good thing to happen to Salt Lake's market.

Why was I hoping appreciation would slow to a crawl, and possibly stop?

See, if homes continued to sell for 10-20% higher than they did last year, that would mean Salt Lake would currently be about 10-20% too high and ready for a bust over the next year. Fortunately, Buyers saw this day coming. For our home prices to hold pretty much flat to the level prices were a year ago is one of the best things that could have happened to our market.

The good news is that excess home inventory is drying up and those sellers who were listing their homes "Just for Fun" are pulling their overpriced homes from the market.

All these things point to better prospects for the housing market than if we were still simply paying more for homes just to stay in the top 10 list.

Better to slowly bow out of the hype and return to reasonable and steady increases in value, at least until incomes rise and other costs of living stablize.

If you are planning to buying a home in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, make sure you get an Agent on YOUR side of the transaction!

If you have excellent credit and will be buying a $250,000-$750,000 home in the next 30-60 days and would like an agent who will work exclusively for you, call us at (801) 969-8989 or contact us via the link on this page.

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc.  "The Real Estate Agents on the Buyer's Side" ™ Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Exclusive Buyer Brokerages do not list homes and never represent Sellers.  Their agents represent Buyers ONLY on the Buyer's side of the transaction. They work to get BUYERS the Best Price and Terms when they Buy...

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc. - Salt Lake City, UT

Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Finally...

Salt Lake area home prices (for homes that actually sell) appear to be relatively flat at this time. The good news is that it would appear that Salt Lake still has some cushion considering that the median existing single-family home price "in the West" was $290,600 and Salt Lake came in at only $234,200.

In the West, the median existing single-family home price was $290,600 in the second quarter, which is 17.4 percent below a year ago. After Yakima, the strongest metro price increase in the West was in the Salt Lake City area, at $234,200, up 0.5 percent from a year ago; all other metro areas reported for the West were down from the second quarter of 2007. (From NAR via Marketwatch)

Even though I own a home here myself, I am more than happy to see Salt Lake lag behind other markets in the West. If their prices are coming down, and we are lower than they are, that just goes to show that Salt Lake curbed pricing before Salt Lake's home prices got out of hand. Ideally, the other markets will stabilize at a point higher than Salt Lake which will allow Salt Lake to move back into a conservative but positive level of year-after-year home price appreciation.

The good news would appear to be that buying (or owning) a home in Salt Lake is still one of the best bets in the country. And, if you plan on holding your home for 10 years or more, historically, you should come out ahead.

If you are planning to purchase a home in the Salt Lake City area, make sure you get an Agent on YOUR side of the transaction!

If you have excellent credit and will be buying a $250,000-$750,000 home in the next 30-60 days and would like an agent who will work exclusively for you, call us at (801) 969-8989 or contact us via the link on this page.

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc.  "The Real Estate Agents on the Buyer's Side" ™ Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Exclusive Buyer Brokerages do not list homes and never represent Sellers.  Their agents represent Buyers ONLY on the Buyer's side of the transaction. They work to get BUYERS the Best Price and Terms when they Buy...

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc. - Salt Lake City, UT

Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Finally...

I know you know this, and I know this, but the media doesn't seem to get this...

Fewer housing starts are a good thing!

(Well, at least for now.)

Remember how builders overbuilt and there was a glut of inventory on the marketplace?

Remember how builders were offering the craziest incentives rather than lower their asking prices?

Remember how appreciation all but ceased as thousands of overpriced homes sat on the market?

Well, it would appear that the excess inventory in the Salt Lake Real Estate marketplace is shrinking. Both existing and new construction.

The fact that builders have slowed production will only help the housing values as supply shrinks back to meet the demand. If builders were still building at the paces they had been over the past 3 years, I would be very concerned.

It appears that Salt Lake's market is still taking the appropriate steps to avoid a drop in housing values, and that includes slowing down new construction and letting the supply shrink back to the level of the demand.

For home owners, this is good because we won't overinflate.

For those who will be purchasing soon, this is good because they will be buying into a stable market.

If you are planning on purchasing a home, make sure you get an Agent on YOUR side of the transaction!

If you have excellent credit and will be buying a $250,000-$750,000 home in the next 30-60 days and would like an agent who will work exclusively for you, call us at (801) 969-8989 or contact us via the link on this page.

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc.  "The Real Estate Agents on the Buyer's Side" ™ Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Exclusive Buyer Brokerages do not list homes and never represent Sellers.  Their agents represent Buyers ONLY on the Buyer's side of the transaction. They work to get BUYERS the Best Price and Terms when they Buy...

©2008 Homebuyer Representation, Inc. - Salt Lake City, UT

Exclusive Buyers Agents (EBA) - All Rights Reserved

Finally...