Top 10 places where you don’t want to be selling a home right now.

The top 10 markets in Utah with too much real estate inventory. The places where you don’t want to have to sell your large, expensive home right now.

1. Bluffdale
2. Alpine
3. Highland
4. Mapleton
5. Eden
6. Holladay
7. Draper
8. North Salt Lake
9. Hyde Park
10. Providence

Read The Full Article | digg story

Utah MLS listings are is 32% High

A lot of commenters on my blog think that home prices in Utah will come down in the double digits. While prices may come down slightly in some areas, the big issue is that there are too many high end and overpriced homes. The average Utah MLS listing is about 32% higher than the average home selling price. Even the current median price of listed homes is 23% higher than the median price of sold homes during the second quarter of 2008. In the major Northern Utah Counties: Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, Cache and Tooele County, the average price of a home sold during the second quarter of 2008 was $248,786. The current average list price of Utah homes on the MLS in these counties is $364,791.

These statistics are unofficial, but will be really close when the actual numbers come out in the next few weeks.

Utah 10 Year Home Appreciation

 

What is a healthy appreciation rate for real estate? It has to be more than the rate of inflation because more real estate cannot be created. It becomes more and more scarce as the population grows, and the population of Utah is growing. To make math simple, I picked 5% as an easy to figure out appreciation rate and ran a few numbers comparing the actual real estate appreciation rate to the 5% amount for the past 10 years for the major Utah Counties.

If 5% appreciation is an accurate and healthy rate for real estate appreciation, then compared to the 1998 average home value, Salt Lake and Utah Counties are overvalued while Davis County is almost right on, and Cache and Weber County’s real estate is undervalued.

 

It’s now harder to get 100% Financing in St. George

Private Mortgage Insurance or “Foreclosure Insurance” is insurance required by many loan products where the borrower doesn’t have at-least 20% equity. Loans where borrowers don’t have 20% equity are “more risky” and have a much higher chance of foreclosure. Because a 20% down payment is unrealistic for most home buyers, Mortgage Insurance was invented to back up these risky loans.

With many declining real estate markets, the mortgage insurance providers have decided that insuring the risky loans in these areas is now too risky. They have cut back on providing mortgage insurance in many markets including Saint George, Utah. AIG United Guaranty has “flagged” these St. George zip codes as “declining markets”: 84722, 84725, 84733, 84737, 84738, 84745, 84746, 84757, 84763, 84765, 84767, 84770, 84771, 84774, 84779, 84780, and 84781.

 Mortgage Insurance in these markets is nearly impossible to obtain for investment properties, second homes, and loan products that require less than 3% down. It’s still possible to get mortgage loans in these areas, just harder to get no money down, 100% financing loans.

The problem with less availability of mortgage insurance isn’t just reduced qualified buyers, but it also sends a message of speculation that these markets are still expected to decline in value. Consumer confidence is down, and many buyers don’t want to buy now because they think that by waiting, they will be able to get a better deal in the future.There are still lots of homes for sale in St. George, to search MLS Listings, click this link.  

Salt Lake named best place to find “Real Estate Bargains”

Forbes Magazine names Salt Lake City Utah the best place in the west to find Bargain Properties.Forbes magazine ranked Salt Lake number one in its top 10 list of cities with the best bargains for house hunters.It claims that SLC “is promising for those with a sharp eye for real estate, where sellers are cutting prices and lending is not in a depression.”This is rated by economic indicators such as healthy job outlook, number of houses on the market, number of foreclosures on the market compared to the number of potential buyers.read more | digg story

Search for homes in the Salt Lake City MLS

Utah’s “Other” Real Estate Market - Park City

Park City has a real estate market all of its own. The average home price is 10 times the average for the state as a whole. It is not even included in the statewide statistics. Take a look at the houses and condos for sale in the Park City UT Real Estate Market. You can get a condo for $100,000, but it will only be for two weeks out of the year! You can also get a condo for $150,000, but its a 250 square foot studio! That’s the size of the average Park City Bathroom! Park City, it’s a real estate market of its own.read more | digg story