Salt Lake City Real Estate Blog

We recently had an appraisal done on an existing home in a subdivision that still has new homes being constructed. When speaking to the appraiser, I mentioned that the builder had a recent sale of exactly the same model of home in the same subdivision that was not on the MLS. In the past, appraisers were often able to use HUD-1 Settlement Statements in their appraisals. However, according to this appraiser, they are no longer allowed to use HUD-1 Settlement Statements. (more…)

The number of single family homes sold in Salt Lake County increased for the fourth-straight month. There were 835 homes sold in May, which was an increase of 4.11% over April’s numbers. While the numbers are still way down on last years numbers (in fact year to date they are 37% lower), at least the number of homes sold seems to have stabilized. Even with the increase in the number of homes sold, home prices for properties over $300,000 remain under pressure.

May 2008 - 835
Apr 2008 - 802
Mar 2008 - 765
Feb 2008 - 585
Jan 2008 – 507

Looking forward, as of today there are currently 1415 single-family homes under contract in Salt Lake County. While a good number of these will fall out of contract, the high number suggests that we will build upon May’s numbers and return an increase in homes sold for June 2008.

If you are looking for a place to rent, Salt Lake is an expensive place. Rents went up 8.8% from 2006 to 2007, with a further 6 to 8% rise expected this year. This coupled with a vacancy rate of just 4.5% means tough times for those looking for a rental property. (more…)

These are not my words, they are from a recent article in Forbes Magazine. According to the magazine article, Salt Lake is the sixth most recession proof city in the U.S. This is based on the fact that the city’s unemployment rate is low, that we are still creating jobs and that the housing market remains strong (well at least compared to other cities). (more…)

While places like California and Florida saw their home prices decline over the last year, Utah was a different story. Home prices for the fourth quarter 2007 went up 9.27% compared to the same quarter in 2006, which was the largest increase in all 50 states. What’s more, that was the fifth consecutive quarter Utah led the nation in house price appreciation.

At a city level, four out of the top 10 cities were in Utah, Salt Lake City no. 7, Ogden-Clearfield no. 4, Provo-Orem no. 6 and Logan was no. 8.

However, all good things come to an end. The Utah housing market has slowed considerably over the last couple of quarters and the home sales data for the first quarter 2008 is due to show a considerable tightening of the market. The number of homes sold is way down on last year’s numbers, (for example, 687 in Feb 2008 compared to 1,148 in Feb 2007) and the days on market are climbing accordingly.

The Salt Lake high-end housing market recently received a boost, when conforming loan limit went up from $417,000 to $729,750 in Salt Lake County, Tooele County, and Summit County.

This increase means that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can now provide loans up to $729,750, which should result in a much-needed boost to the Utah housing market. High-end homes have recently undergone a slowdown, mainly because lenders shutdown the Jumbo Loan market as part of the sub-prime scare. Lenders have since discovered that Jumbo Loans are not the real problem, and are now starting to relax lending requirements. This coupled with the new lending limits should hopefully put some much-needed life into Salt Lake’s high-end real estate market. Many home buyers will now be able to take out a single loan, without the need to take out a jumbo loan, with their high interest rates and down payment requirements.

In addition to Fanny and Freddie raising their limits, FHA loan limits also went up from $364,000 to $729,750, further opening up finance options to home buyers.

To determine how these changes will affect you, we recommend that you seek the advice of a mortgage professional. Alternately, you can post your question here, and we will get a mortgage professional to reply.

The median annual home price information for 2007 is now available at Salt Lake County Home Prices , Utah County Home Prices , and Davis County Home Prices. Home prices went up in the vast majority of zip codes in all 3 counties, but not at the same pace as 2006.

Green building trends, and environmentally conscious living, are growing in momentum all across the United States, and included in that movement is the city of Boston, where a first of its kind green residential development recently opened to the public. The Macallen Building in northern South Boston opened to residents in June of 2007 (see related event information on the Boston Condo Blog) as the first gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified condo development in the Massachusetts capital.

The new condo development is nestled among hip, and up and coming, Boston condo developments in an area less than a ten minute walk from the core of downtown Boston, and is immediately accessible via the Boston subway, called the “T”.

The Macallen Building strived hard to achieve the highest LEED green certification level.  Due in part to its green roof, the Macallen will save over 600,000 gallons of water each year, and its systems allow for annual electric savings of approximately 30% compared to similarly sized buildings. One of the most striking features of the Macallen Building is its sloping 6 to 12 story green roof, which is set with sedum, a flowering plant that will change colors with the seasons collecting rainwater runoff for landscaping use.

The entire building is non-smoking, and unique to Macallen is heating and air conditioning systems in each unit that pull fresh air, not re-circulated air, from the outside directly into your unit to maintain the best indoor air quality, while insulation comes from recycled jeans.  The development team, Pappas Enterprises, went so far as to come up with a Green Manifesto.  The Macallen Building at 141 Dorchester Avenue in South Boston has set the gold standard in Green construction for Boston real estate, and it will be up to those following the Macallen to keep pace with the high standards that have now been set for future city of Boston condo developments.

Here is an interesting article in the Utah Business Magazine on why Utah real estate may not suffer the same as Florida, California and most of the rest of the country. It explains that we are now in more of a balanced market with home prices still increasing, and that the strong economic growth is helping limit any downturn in the local real estate market.

It also touches on one of my pet peeves, where local media report on the national real estate market like it is the local market. When people see that home prices are falling in Florida and California of course they are going to get worried, particularly when the report does not explain that the market is not like this in Utah.

The 2nd quarter 2007 home prices are now available for Salt Lake County, Utah County and Davis County. On the surface everything looks OK with the vast majority of zip codes seeing their home prices showing double digit increases compared to prices in the 2nd quarter 2006.

That is until the look at the underlying data. Take the number of homes sold, in June 2007 1,366 homes were sold in Salt Lake County while June 2006 saw 1,931 sales. That’s a drop of nearly 30%.  In Utah County things are the same with 532 home sales in 2007 and 726 in 2006 (a fall of nearly 27%).

OK so maybe fewer people are listing their home and that’s why we have fewer sales? Not so there are actually more homes being listed, in Utah County for June 2007 523 homes were listed for sale and in June 2006 403. For Salt Lake County there were 1041 new listings in June 2007 and in June 2006 881.

So what does this mean? It means we are in a transitional market, going from a very strong sellers market to more of a buyers market. Homes are sitting on the market longer, inventory is increasing and sellers are having to drop their asking price.