The way Realty Trac keeps trac of foreclosure filings is very interesting. It counts notices of default, notices of trustee sales, and new bank owned homes as “foreclosures.” With this method, the same property could be counted as a “foreclosure” three different months. Foreclosure isn’t an event, but is a process. Generally the Notice of Default is given after three or four months of missed payments, the Notice of Trustees Sale is at about month 8, and if the property isn’t purchased the foreclosure auction, becomes a REO home. Most properties that get a notice of default don’t actually Foreclose. Some homeowners have multiple notices of default as they resolve the preforeclosure before it actually happens.

The RealtyTrac numbers show that In July, Utah had 892 Notices of Default filed and 687 Trustees Sales scheduled. There were also 332 new REO homes. The total number of these filings was up 27% compared to June, and up 294% from last July when foreclosures in Utah were among the lowest in the nation.

In my opinion, foreclosures will continue to rise in Utah. There were too many people who bought homes that they can’t afford because they were convinced that they would continue to appreciate in double digits. Now that home values are falling, these owners have no equity and can’t sell their home in the soft market.  Nationally foreclosures are still on the rise, and the housing boom in many of these areas happened years ago. Hang on for a ride as Utah foreclosures will likely continue to increase.

Weber County real estate continues to do amazing things. Despite the fact that home sales in July were down by 25% compared to last year, home prices rose by almost 5%. The average price of Weber County homes was $193,015. This doesn’t necessarily mean that home values are up, it just shows that the average price of the 266 homes that sold were more expensive than the 354 homes that sold last year.

Currently there are 2,113 single family homes for sale and 272 condos in Weber County Utah. The median price of these houses is $219,950, and average price is $283,530. Condos for sale in Weber County have a median price at $154,900 and an average price at $200,000. The average condo listed has already been on the market for 127 days.

Home sales were down by nearly 23% in Salt Lake County for July. Last year 1018 single family homes in Salt Lake County sold compared to just 789 this year. The average price of homes sold in July was also down by almost 6%. The average price of July homes sold was $291,634 compared to an average sold price of $309,722 last year.

Condo sales in Salt Lake County were down even more. 34% fewer Condominium units sold this year compared to last year when 264 condos sold. The average price of condos remained about the same with an average sold price of $190,682.

Unofficially, 298 residential single family homes were sold in Davis County during July. This is down 25% from last year when 401 single family homes were sold. In addition, the average sales price of davis county homes also declined 4.5% to an average sold price of $254,426 in July.

Davis County Condo Sales were identical to 2007’s numbers as 31 condos sold. The average sold price of these condos was however down by $21,000 at $164,000.

There are currently 2,136 single family homes for sale and 214 condos for sale in Davis County Utah. . The median list price of single family homes is $278,000, and the average list price is $356,447. The current median list price of condos is $200,000 and the average list price is nearly $224,000.

Home prices for July in Utah County were down 14.5% compared with July of 2007. Home sales were down nearly 23%, and Condo sales were down by more than 40%. The Utah County real estate market continues to struggle after appreciating too fast the past few years.

My unofficial numbers for July show that there were 337 single family homes sold and 79 condos sold in Utah County. In total residential home sales were down 27% compared too 2007. On the positive, this number is up from June sales where home sales were down 29%.

July home sales in Logan were only down 10% compared to last year, that means they’re basically up.

Home sales in Cache County were up compared to June, and only down 10% compared to July of last year. 109 single family homes were sold this July in Cache County. The average price of these homes was just under $200,000 at $199,031. There were also 12 condos sold in Cache County, down from 19 sold last July.

Currently there are 672 single family home listings, 77 condos for sale, and 41 multi family properties for sale in Cache County. The number of active listings in Cache Valley has been steadily dropping for the past few weeks. This is good for the real estate market.

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Are you a first time home buyer on the fence deciding if you should buy a new home? Well there is now more incentive for first time buyers to purchase a new home before July 1st of next year. A $7,500 savings on your taxes that is. Today President Bush singed the “Economic Recovery Act of 2008.” This bill helps provide incentive for first time home buyers by giving them a $7,500 tax credit. It also helps foreclosure victims by making it easier to refinance with FHA loan products, and makes it easier to get financing on more expensive homes by increasing the FHA loan limits for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Jumbo Loans.

The $7,500 tax credit is only available to first time home buyers, or people who have not owned a home in atleast three years who make less than $75,000 if single or $150,000 if married. So, nearly all Utah first time home buyers would qualify for this tax credit. The big catch on on this “tax credit” is that if you keep the house for a long time, and gain equity, then you have to repay it; 500 a year for 15 years. If you have no equity when you sell the house you bought receiving the tax credit you don’t have to repay it. It’s really just an interest free government loan.

There is plenty of housing inventory in Utah right now and a lot of motivated sellers who are slashing prices. This winter could be a great time to get a house for way less than list price and save $7,500 on your taxes.

According to Realty Trac, Foreclosures in Utah more than doubled during the second quarter. Last year at this time Utah had the lowest rate of foreclosure. During the second quarter of this year Utah ranked 14th nationally for foreclosure filings. Even though it ranks 14th as a state, the actual number of foreclosure filings is substantially below the national average. Utah had a foreclosure filing for 1 in every 226 households vs. the national average of 1 in every 171 households.

The foreclosures filings in Utah has largely increased because home values have gone down this year. People with financial difficulties last year almost always had equity in their homes, because of the rapid appreciation of real estate values. They were able to sell their homes or postpone the foreclosure by refinancing when they were no longer able to make payments. Now the majority of people facing foreclosure don’t have enough equity to pay the usual selling costs, and homes just aren’t selling very fast right now.

St. George had the worst rate of foreclosures in Utah, 1 in every 86 households. This isn’t a big surprise as its real estate market jumped the same time the Las Vegas Real Estate market did. Currently 1 in every 35 Las Vegas Homes had a foreclosure filing. The Provo/Orem Metro beat the national average, and lead northern Utah with foreclosure filings in 1 out of every 163 Utah County Homes.

For more information on National Q2 foreclosure stats visit Realty Trac Foreclosure Report

Salt Lake County Home Sales Graph

The funny thing about it is that the tax assesors are claiming that prices in Salt Lake County are actually up 3%. Apparently the government doesn’t have a problem raising home values so they can collect more property taxes. There is also an article in the Deseret news about this and they act as if prices are actually up because the tax assesors said so. With this much inventory on the market, median prices won’t really be rising any time soon.

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We know that home sales in Utah have gone way down this year, but Utah is still growing. People have to live somewhere and according to this Deseret News article rents are going up in double digits in the major metro areas.Utah occupancy rates lead the nation, and the Salt Lake and Provo Metros average rents went up by more than 10%. The article claims that Utah rental rates are increasing partially because of increased difficulty to getmortgage loans and an increase in foreclosures. read more | digg story