March 03, 2009

February 2009- Northern Utah Market Data

ALL REAL ESTATE IS LOCAL

With national attention still being drawn to the real estate market as the first step to improve the economy, we thought you would like to know what is happening locally with home sales, home prices, as well as the time it takes to sell a home in the various Northern Utah Counties.

In order to determine when the housing rebound will occur, we need to keep track of the unit sales data, new listing, and monitor the price of homes to see when they begin to move up again. We will try and give you this information in the first week of the following months. Here are February, 2009 results.

Unit Sales are the number of properties closed in the month.
Median Price is the middle number of the range of homes sales.
Average Price is the just that, the average of all homes sold.
DOM is the Days on the Market needed to sell the home.
New Listings are the number of new listings added in the month
Total Listings are the aggregate of all the listing currently on the market.
Month of Inventory is the number of months it will take to clear the current inventory based on the current sales rate.

It is also interesting to compare the January 2009 Market Data Report to see what trends are happening in the market place.

Buyer’s will be happy to know that prices are very affordable in all counties with more inventory being added to the market than are selling. This will continue to put pressure on Sellers for price adjustments to meet the current market conditions. Most sellers are lowering prices slightly and paying much, if not all of the buyer’s closing costs in order to attract buyers. Buyer’s have an advantage of very low interest rates that will save them thousands of dollars over the length of the loan.

For Sellers, the good news is that the number of sales increased in February when compared with January in most counties. Davis and Weber Counties actually saw an increase in the average prices of homes; the other counties saw small decreases in values which matches the national trend. Even with more buyers entering the market place, the number of new listings still exceeds the number of sales meaning that pressure will continue on sellers to price to the current market. Predictions are that there will be many more homes entering the market in the spring. This Shadow Inventory will further push prices down for Sellers. The message is now is the time to sell and not wait for a market to improve when so much Shadow Inventory is coming on the market. The Absorption rate for the first two months of 2009 is still very much a buyer’s market.

For information on how your own neighborhood is doing please contact me directly. There is no cost or obligation for this information. Also, if you would like to receive a free report on “How to Avoid the Ten Biggest Seller Mistakes that Could Cost You Thousands” then please send me an e-mail.

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Posted By: Steve Randall