The new construction home market has been in decline for some time now, but it is starting to pickup in a few areas. One of those areas is the Salt Lake Metro area which was named the 6th most active metro area for new construction home permits (source Trulia).

In the third quarter there were 2.64 new home permits per 1,000 existing homes in the Salt Lake Metro area. The two best areas were both in Texas, Houston 3.68 permits and Dallas 3.41 permits.

Those areas are that are now recovering are ones that experienced a combination of a milder recession, and a growing population (both things found in Salt Lake).

Even with this recent recovery, home building levels are still only a fraction of those seen in the mid 2000’s.

Following on from other encouraging Utah business and real estate news, a recent Forbes study says that for the second year running ‘Utah is the No. 1 State for Business and Careers ’.

Fueled by companies like Home Depot, Goldman Sachs and Boeing expanding their presence within the state, Utah is producing strong business growth and a declining unemployment rate. Companies are attracted by Utah’s low energy costs, attractive corporate tax rate and high number of young well educated people.

Technology companies seem to be particularly attracted to the area, with Oracle, Adobe, eBay and Electronic Arts all expanding into Utah over the last few years.

A recent article in the Builder Magazine predicts a bright 2012 for the Salt Lake City Housing Market. They teamed up with Hanley Wood Market Intelligence to produce their list of healthiest housing markets in the United States. The list was compiled using various criteria including the local employment market, population growth, and income growth. The resulting list saw Salt Lake coming in at the 3rd healthiest housing market in the country, with a projected 4.7 percent price increase in 2012.

This data backs up what we have recently been seeing in the housing market, with this years home prices stabilizing, the rental market tightening and the number of home sales greatly increasing. We are certainly busier than we have been for a while, only time will tell if this translates into home price appreciation in 2012.

There were some good pointers in the latest Salt Lake County housing sales data for August 2011. First of all the number of homes sold topped the 1000 mark for the forth month in a row. There were 1,086 homes sold, that’s an increase of 38.52% from Aug 2010, and an increase of 7.12% from last month. The other positive data was the Average Days on Market (amount of time it takes to sell a home), which dropped to 81, the lowest level seen since Mar 2010.

Helping to boost home sales this summer was a rebound in Utah’s job market, which over the past 12 months has added 30,000 new jobs, a nearly 3 percent increase, according to the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

More jobs means more people able / wanting to buy a home.

Total Sales 1,086
Average List Price $226,218
Average Sale Price $219,684
Sale Vs List 97%
Average Sq. Ft. 2,479
Price Per Sq. Feet $89
Days on Market 81

You can read this post about Salt Lake County August 2011 Housing Sales and other posts on my real estate blog.

A new report produced by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) said Utah has the best economic outlook of any U.S. State. The report shows that those states which were eager to increase spending during the good times and have a high tax burden, are now suffering the most and those that controlled their budget are now in the best position to come out of the downturn first.

While Utah came at the top of the list, New York earned the dubious distinction of having the worst economic outlook. Maybe this has something to do with the 137 proposed tax increases currently being considered.

TOP FIVE STATES
1. Utah
2. Colorado
3. Arizona
4. Virginia
5. South Dakota

BOTTOM FIVE STATES
46. New Jersey
47. Maine
48. Rhode Island
49. Vermont
50. New York

According to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, the economy in Utah is still one of the best in the nation. The November Economic Summary, dated November 27, 2007, shows year-over job growth in Utah of 4.2% in October 2007, more than triple the national rate of 1.2%. Approximately 52,500 jobs were created in Utah in the last year. The unemployment rate continued to be very low in October 2007 at 2.8%, compared with the national unemployment rate of 4.7% for the same time period.

The Report went on to give a favorable economic outlook for 2008, stating that economic growth was expected to continue to be robust, though moderate. Employment growth is expected to slow from 4.5% in 2007 to 3.2% in 2008 and the unemployment rate should increase from the record low of 2.7% for 2007 to 2.9% in 2008. Residential construction is expected to continue to further weaken. However, the trend, which started in 2007, of a shift from residential to commercial construction is expected to continue.

The Summary Report is released on a monthly basis and contains a lot of great information about the demographics, wages, employment, GDP, CPI, interest rates and home prices for the state of Utah. The report can be found on http://governor.utah.gov/dea/ , then click on the Economic Summary link. Alternatively, there is the 2007 Governor’s Report, a 40 page report of various economic data. Just click on the Economic Report to the Governor link.