Cache County Utah Real EstateMarket Conditions

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

Alan Barker — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:53:28 +0000

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.

Percentage of Short Sale Homes in Cache County Are Up

Alan Barker — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:56:29 +0000

With home prices falling in Cache County Utah, the number of Short Sale homes has risen. Here is some more information from the Logan Real Estate blog:

6.54% of the total residential real estate listings on the MLS right now are short sales, the highest percentage of short sales Cache Valley has seen.

One of the main reasons we are seeing an increase in short sale listings, is because home prices are decreasing. There are less sellers that have equity, and so when borrowers get into financial trouble, short selling becomes one of their only choices.

Over the last three months the median sales price of homes in Cache County was $157,800, with an average of $168,711. In comparison, people that bought homes during the summer of 2007, the median sales price was $168,775 and the average sales price was 15.8% higher at $200,442.

Read more at Logan Real Estate Blog:

Cache County Lease Option Homes Up

Alan Barker — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:33:11 +0000

The slow real estate market has increased the number of homes for sale in Logan UT that are offering lease options. Right now there are 22 lease option homes for sale in Logan. A couple years ago, I assisted some sellers with a lease option. At that time there were only three other homes being offered as lease options. Click this link if you would like to view the current Lease Option Homes for Sale in Logan Utah.

With a “Lease Option”, or “Rent to Own home,” sellers rent their home out giving the renter the option to buy the home at a future date. Lease option contracts usually require a substantial down payment. The down payment will be subtracted from the purchase price in the event that the renter buys the house. Lease options also generally have a portion of the rent that goes towards the option as well.

Why is there an increase in Cache Valley Lease Option Homes?

There are too many homes for sale. Cache Valley has record high numbers of real estate listings right now. Because there are so many homes for sale, some homes will just plain not sell. For many sellers who need to move out of the valley, its better to have a renter pay to cover the mortgage payment than it is to have a vacant house. Offering a house as a lease option, opens the door to the number of potential buyers.

Here are a few reasons why right now might be a good time to offer your home as a lease option:

Cover your mortgage payment. Because your house may not be able to sell right now at the amount owed, a lease option gives you one way to pay the mortgage while you wait for the real estate market to improve. Lease options can net more monthly income than just “renting” your home out. In addition, someone who has ownership interest in your property is more likely to take better care of it.

It’s harder for buyers to get financing. Mortgage loan underwriting standards are still very strict. While some potential buyers may have large savings, good credit, and excellent income, they may be unable to buy a house just because they switched careers or are self employed. These people can make excellent renters, and don’t have an option to buy.

Home ownership isn’t as appealing as it once was. Some qualified buyers just don’t want to buy right now. They fear that home prices will go down further, or just don’t want to commit to a certain house. Some people moving to Logan from other areas want to get a better feel for the area before committing where they want to actually buy. For people like this, a lease option is an ideal solution.

Higher Purchase Price. Offering your house as a lease option, may help you to net a higher purchase price. Only 22 out of more than 900 Cache Valley real estate listings are offered as lease options. This is a small percentage of the total inventory. People that want to buy, but cant get mortgage financing have no other option. In addition, if prices do continue to drop over the next few years, your contract lease purchase price has already been set. You may be able to get today’s market value for the sell of your property when the future market value is actually lower.

via Number of “Lease Option” Homes in Logan Up « Logan Real Estate Blog.

Cache County July Home Sales Dismal

Alan Barker — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:19:28 +0000

From watching the statistics and market trends over recent months, I knew that July home sales in Cache County were going to low. But, I didn’t think they would be this bad. I look outside, and the 90 degree temperatures sure don’t indicate that its the middle of winter. My unofficial statistics show that last month was the worst July for home sales in Logan Utah since the MLS started keeping stats in 1997.

July Cache County Home Sales were down 47% compared with July of 2009, and were less than half of last months home sales. Clearly, the tax credit had a drastic impact on the movement of home sales. Historically, July is one of the biggest months for Logan UT Real Estate.

The sad news is that it doesn’t look like this is just a one month statistical blip either. So far, August sales don’t look like they will be much improved. When I did my statistics at the beginning of last month there were 98 under contract homes in Cache County. Right now there are just 98.

The number of Utah Homes for Sale is rising. Cache County now has 906 residential homes for sale, which is an all time high. At July’s home sales pace this represents more than 17 months of active inventory. If you are one of the 900 Cache Valley home sellers, and need to sell, now is the time to do something drastic. It looks like it is going to be a long winter for Real Estate in Cache Valley.

Via Logan Real Estate Market Conditions Blog

Mid Year Sales Numbers Improved in Cache County

Alan Barker — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:36:25 +0000

For single family houses in Cache County Utah, sales were up 8.76% from a year ago. There wasn’t really a price disparity between the percentage change of more expensive homes and less expensive homes. Cache Valley homes priced below $200,000 saw a sales increase of 8.76%, and Home’s priced above $200,000 saw an increase by 8.77%. Last year, homes priced above $200,000 saw a 41% decline compared with the first half of 2008.

Sales of Condos in Logan Utah were more than double last years numbers. 92 Condos and Townhouses sold this year compared with just 43 at this time last year. The average price of condos also declined, the average sold price this year of $124,100 is 10.66% less than last year. The median sales price of condos was just down by 5.14%.

While the quantity of homes that sold was up, prices were way down. The median price of homes sold in Cache County through the first half of the year was $156,000, down 8.18% compared with last years median price of $169,900. The average sold price was down slightly more at 8.54%.

Most of the individual cities in Cache County saw improvements in home sales, with the exception of Providence, and Hyde Park Real Estate. Logan Real Estate sales were up 18.14%, Smithfield Real Estate Sales Rose 26.79%, Hyrum Real Estate Sales increased 24.5%, Nibley Real Estate sales improved 20.6%, Wellsville Real Estate saw 5 more home sales, North Logan Real Estate sales increased 26.7%, and the rural Cache County communities saw home sales improvements of 16.33%.

Via – Logan Real Estate Market Conditions

Logan Utah Real Estate: Record HIGH number of Home Listings in Cache County

Alan Barker — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:16:53 +0000

Right now there are 854 residential homes for sale in Cache County Utah. By my records, this is the highest amount of Real Estate Inventory Cache County has ever had. The previous high I ever noted was 850 in July of last year.

via Logan Utah Real Estate: Record HIGH number of Home Listings in Cache County.

Cache County Home Sales UP in April; Inventory Down

Alan Barker — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:00:39 +0000

During April, Cache County Real Estate sales were up almost 18% compared with last April. They were up almost 16% compared to the good sales numbers we had during March. So far, 95 residential homes on the MLS have been reported as sold.

In the near future, don’t expect home sales to slow down. Right now there are 227 residential homes for sale under contract in Cache County. While some of these will fall through, that represents a substantial number of closings that will happen over the next few months.

The prices of homes that have sold in recent months is down, this is in large part due to the large number of purchases involved with first time home buyers. The average price of the homes sold during April was $163,795, down 6.48% from last years average price.

For other positive news, real estate inventory is also down, finally. This is in large part due to the increased buyer activity and the large number of homes that are under contract. It’s possible that a lot of sellers took their homes off the market when didn’t sell during the tax credit time. There are currently 774 Cache County Homes for Sale. And this actually includes a good number of “phantom listings” where the homes don’t actually exist. This is actually less homes than were for sale during May of last year when the Logan area had 787 residential homes listed.

via: Logan Real Estate Market Conditions Blog

205 Under Contract Homes in Cache County

Alan Barker — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:57:45 +0000

Cache County Real Estate agents have been extra busy over the past few weeks. There has been a lot of activity by buyers rushing to beat the expiration of the tax credit and that has made a huge impact on the number of home sales we can be expecting in the near future.

On Monday there were 820 listed homes in Cache County. Right now, there are just 807. This is really positive to see the inventory moving in the downward direction, especially being that it is normally such a big season for listing homes. Cache County Real Estate Inventory has dropped substantially over the last few days.

The biggest reason inventory has gone down, is because so many properties are going under contract. Two weeks ago there were 172 Logan Homes for Sale Under Contract, right now there are 205! This bodes well for future Logan Real Estate sales.

via Logan Utah Real Estate: Logan Real Estate is Busy – 205 Under Contract Homes.

Real Estate Blog – Phantom Home Listings in North Logan

Alan Barker — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:10:23 +0000

On Monday morning I got my normal new listing email telling me that there were 12 new home listings in Cache County Utah on Sunday. That is a ton of listings for Cache County standards, especially for a Sunday. Well it turns out that 11 of these homes for sale were brand new construction homes, and all of them were priced above $399,000, with one being priced at $1.8 million! These are high end homes in Cache Valley Utah. These are homes in a price range that has a very slim chance of selling right now. After a more detailed review, the building of these “new construction” homes hasn’t even begun yet. These aren’t actually homes for sale, but are simply lots with a made up price and possible floor plan of a home that might possibly be something similar to the home that is actually built in the lot location.

From a marketing standpoint, this is actually a pretty good idea. Harness the power of the MLS and IDX feeds with fake homes for sale to get potential buyers to ask about a particular builder, and think about building.

From a statistics and market condition standpoint, this is downright dishonest and misleading. Having a dozen phantom high end “North Logan Homes for Sale” has a significant impact on the average price of homes for sale, and on the months of real estate inventory our market appears to have.

At the beginning of the month when I ran my monthly home sales statistics, there were 794 homes for sale in Cache County with an average list price at $237,173. Right now there are 820 listings with and average list price of $246,118.

So Cache County home prices went up $9,000 in the last 20 days! This is the first time in 15 months that home prices have gone up. This means our real estate market downturn is finally turning around right?

No. Not really, there just happen to be a dozen fake listings that make the average list price of Cache Valley homes look higher than it really is.

via Real Estate Blog – Phantom Home Listings in North Logan.

Sad News for Sellers of “Ultra High End Homes” in Cache Valley « Logan Utah Real Estate Blog

Alan Barker — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:45:48 +0000

This morning as I was going through the new listings in Cache Valley, I noticed that two of the new homes for sale in Wellsville, were Ultra High end homes. I know that sales of existing large expensive homes is few and far between, but I didn’t realize just how bad it was until I ran some numbers.

For Cache Valley, homes above about $300,000 are generally considered high end homes. Homes above half a million are what I consider “Ultra high end homes.” Right now, Cache Valley has 44 homes listed that are priced above half a million. In the last 10 years, just 73 homes have sold, and 53 of these homes were less than $650,000. Homes more expensive than $650K have an even slimmer potential of being able to sell.

Twenty-Four of the current ultra high end homes for sale in Cache Valley are priced more than $650,000. Since the MLS started keeping track of statistics in the early 90’s, Cache County has only had 21 residential properties listed at more than $650,000 sell, and some of these actually sold for less than $650K. If the pace of these homes doesn’t pick up, we have about 20 years worth of real estate inventory. There currently aren’t any homes priced above $650,000 that are under contract.

via Sad News for Sellers of “Ultra High End Homes” in Cache Valley « Logan Utah Real Estate Blog.