In the Salt Lake Tribune there was an article about home prices in the Wasatch Front. At the end of 2012 the Wasatch Front was at a 15 year low when it came to number of listings. With the number of homes on the market many people in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties are left wondering about the recovery that the real estate experts are talking about.
The article explains that listings peaked in the fourth quarter of 2007 at 14,683 homes, according to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, which cited figures compiled by the Wasatch Front Regional Multiple Listing Service. By the end of last year, that number, which includes foreclosures and short sales, had been cut to 7,229 — the lowest count since the fourth quarter of 1997, when 5,767 homes were on the market. Myriad reasons are offered why sellers are holding back, even as demand for homes rises. Some say the 6 percent gain in the median price of a single-family home in Salt Lake County last year wasn’t enough to offset the sharpest decline in values since World War II. “Prices dropped by 25 percent in Salt Lake County. So a [6 percent increase] is good news. But it’s not enough to motivate me to put my house on the market right now,” said Jim Wood, director of the University of Utah’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Jim also mentions in the article that he thinks prices won’t fall anymore in 2013. He believes that prices will rise 10% – 20 % this year.
Earlier this month, Trulia, a real estate website, put Salt Lake City on a list with San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and San Jose, California, as the best examples of booming markets right now. “We have created a seller’s market that is as strong a seller’s market as I’ve seen in the eight or nine years I’ve been in the business,” Kirkham said. “My advice to buyers is, if they have found a property, not to hesitate.”
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