Cache County Utah Real EstateMarket Conditions

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.

April Should be Huge Month for Home Sales

Alan Barker — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:03:11 +0000

April is looking like it is going to be a huge month for Cache County Real Estate. Tons of Homes are going under contract every day. There are lots of new listings hitting the market, as is typical during spring, but the amount of total real estate inventory has only risen slightly because so many homes are going under contract.

Of the Cache County homes under contract 100 of them are homes priced between $100,000 and $200,000. There are 21 homes priced between $200K and $250,000, but just 11 homes under contract priced above $250,000.

In just the last two weeks, 59 residential properties in Cache Valley have had accepted offers. In the last 30 days, 106 properties went under contract. In total there are 143 properties under contract in Cache County Utah.

via Logan Utah Real Estate: Lots of Homes “Under Contract” in Logan – April Should be Huge Month for Home Sales.

Cache County Real Estate Improving

Alan Barker — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:59:25 +0000

The Cache County Real Estate market is improving. Both home sales and prices were up in February compared with last month, and with February of Last Year.

Here is the latest from the Logan Real Estate Market Conditions Blog:

Monthly Average Price of Cache County Homes

Home Sales in Cache County for February were much improved over January. They weren’t stellar by any means, but they improved compared with February of last year.

52 residential Cache County Homes sold last month as reported on the WFRMLS. This is up by more than 17% compared with February of last year when just 43 residential homes sold. The average price of these properties was $180,232, and the median sales price was at $164,495. This is the highest monthly average for home prices in five months. It is also up by 4% compared with the average sold price in February of last year.

The list price of homes in Cache County continues to remain stable. This is the fifth straight month that the median price of homes for sale in Cache Valley has been in the $189,000 range.

Logan Utah Real Estate: Cache County Real Estate Market Healthy Below $160,000.

Alan Barker — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:51:55 +0000

Real Estate in Cache County is pretty healthy for homes priced less than $160,000. This price is the median point for home sales, meaning that half of the homes that sold were $160,000 or less. The interesting thing is that of the current active home listings, only 1/3rd are priced below $160,000. This essentially means that if you are buying a home in the higher price ranges, you have twice as much inventory to choose from.

Compared with the homes that sold last year, there is less than 7 months of active inventory for listings priced less than $160,000. Cache County Homes priced between $160,000 and $180,000 see 7.36 months of inventory, and homes priced above $180,000 have more than 10 months of inventory. This chart shows the absorption rate broken down by different price ranges:

via Logan Utah Real Estate: Cache County Real Estate Market Healthy Below $160,000..