Real Estate: To Buy or Not To Buy?

Business leaders, economists, and companies such as HomeCity are showing more confidence that real estate will improve and with the combination of low interest rates and low housing prices, now could one of the best times to invest in real estate.

The CNN article, Real estate: It’s time to buy again,” caused quite a stir in cyberspace, both from supporters and dissenters alike. One cyber-pursuer cackles: “Ha! What a joke.” While some see optimistic predictions of the real estate market as delusion-driven or, at the very least, misguided, such predictions are now gaining more and more support from economists.  CEO Charles Plosser informs us that “Consumer spending continues to expand at a reasonably robust pace, and business investment, particularly on equipment and software, continues to support overall growth.” In consequence, “the nonresidential real estate sector is likely to improve as the overall economy gains ground.” The projection of economic growth allows us to rest assured that the housing market will too strengthen with time.

So, why is now the time to buy? Any real estate mogul will suggest trying to buy at the bottom of the market and, indeed, ladies and gentlemen, we are pretty darn close to the bottom. A study by Deutsche Bank shows that homeowners now pay just 9.8% of their income in after-tax mortgage, tax, and insurance payments, down from 17.2% at the market’s peak in 2007. Additionally, with such low prices, home-buying has become incredibly affordable. Phil DeMuth, co-author of the hot-of-the-press Little Book of Alternative Investments, encourages his readers to buy by explaining that “Housing prices are where they were in 2002 and you’ve got mortgage rates at 5% now on a 30-year mortgage.” If you can qualify for a good mortgage, DeMuth says, “I’d say this is an excellent time to take that kind of position.” After a stint of pro-renting advocacy and a healthy dose of pessimism, it seems that we have come full circle back to our culturally-rooted obsession with houses.

Bio: James Kim writes for an Austin Real Estate Company service Homecity.com. HomeCity combines powerful online Austin MLS search technology and other online tools with personalized real estate services to provide clients with the knowledge they need to make the right buying and selling decisions.

Some Pretty Cool Listings

Here are a few listings in Cache County That I thought were pretty cool…

Logan Utah Real Estate Market Conditions: December Best Month for Logan Home Sales Since August

There is some good news for the Logan Real Estate market. Home sales were actually improved during December. It was the best month for home sales since August as 64 MLS homes have been reported sold so far.

Some other good news is that inventory is also substantially down. At Decembers home sales pace the 716 active listings represent just over 11 months of active inventory. This inventory is higher than at this time a year ago when there were 687 Cache Valley Homes for Sale.

Real Estate prices in Cache County, Utah continue to decline. The current average list price of homes for sale is $216,103, with a median list price at $179,900. During January of last year the average list price was $238,338, and the median list price was $189,250.

via Logan Utah Real Estate Market Conditions: December Best Month for Logan Home Sales Since August.

Cache County Home Prices by Square Foot

One metric home buyers and real estate agents use as to quickly determine a homes value is the price per square foot.

Because homes are of different ages, conditions, and locations, there is no standard $ per square footage that applies for all Cache Valley Homes. There are lots of variables that make $ per square foot more or less relevant. Unfinished basements also make calculating the average cost per square foot very difficult.

Here are a few classifications of different property types, and what their average $ per square footage has been over the last six months.

Older Starter Homes -$78 Square Foot

To figure out this square footage I took homes built before 1960, with less than 2000 square feet, on lots smaller than half an acre. There were 40 Cache Valley starter homes used to determine this number.

Older Family Homes -$64 Square Foot

These homes fit under the same criteria, as the starter homes, but just consist of the properties that were bigger than 2000 square feet. There were 28 properties in this sample. Most older homes aren’t big. Initially I ran the numbers for just homes over 2500 square feet, and there were only five of them that had sold in the last six months. So I moved my criteria down to allow for a bigger sample.

Middle Aged Starter Homes -$78 Square Foot

These homes were classified as properties with less than 2,000 square feet that were built between 1961-2000, on less than half an acre. As you can see, the age of these homes didn’t make much of a difference in terms of the price per square footage compared with the older homes.

Middle Aged Family Homes – $68 Square Foot

Homes with more than 2,500 square feet on less than half an acre. The average square footage of these homes was actually about 3100 square feet. There were 37 homes in this group.

New Starter Homes -$105 Per Square Foot

From a per square foot standpoint these are the most expensive properties. They consisted of single family homes with less than 2,000 square feet, built in the year 2000 or after.

New Family Homes -$79 Per Square Foot

These homes were properties with more than 2,000 square feet built from 2000-2010. Despite the “new” factor of these homes, the price per square foot isn’t much more expensive than the older homes. Many of these homes are brand new and have high end upgrades. One reason that the price per square footage of these properties was so low is because many of these homes actually have unfinished basements. The price per square foot of these homes is also low because, there is a huge surplus of these properties. Only the least expensive of these larger newer Logan homes are actually selling.

via Determining Home Prices by “Price Per Square Foot” « Logan Real Estate Blog.

Featured Listings

RSS Cache County Market Update

  • Post Videos from Your iPhone or iPad
    Would you like to post videos to your blog while you’re on the go? Are you interested in a photography theme that’s also video-friendly? Well, look no further, because we have some news for you. The VideoPress upgrade, which allows you to upload and embed your own videos on your blog, now comfortably handles videos […]
  • New Themes: Currents and Debut
    Today, I’m excited to introduce the latest additions to our collection of premium themes. Designed by Andy Rutledge, Currents, is a responsive, minimal yet attractive premium theme from WooThemes. Currents is perfect for news driven sites. The phrase, “less is more” couldn’t be more true. This clean and minimal design maximises your reader’s focus on […]

RSS Cache Valley Mortgage Info