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Real estate still looks rosy in Utah, local experts say

It sounds like Mr. Wright is blaming high home prices and ground prices for a sluggish new home market when in reality the company he works for has been one of the key factors in biding land prices higher and escalating home prices. Up till now it has meant huge profits for Ivory. Now they sing the blues? You can�t have it both ways Mr. Wright.

what a ridiculous story. The D news flip-flops all over the place on this issue. Either it's a good real estate market, or it isn't. The reality is my husband works in building and there IS a correction in pricing, and sales ARE falling. Any real estate agent or builder will tell you that. The current asking prices are too high, and the people who have to sell are lowering their prices. This is slowly driving asking prices down. Why does the D news keep running these misleading headlines? And even more bizarre, why would they run an article with the headline "real estate still looks rosy in utah" and then proceed to write an entire article disproving their headline?

I disagree with John Norman's assertion that the Utah market is strong. I have had personal experience trying to sell a home and have several friends who are real estate professionals who confirm that the market is stalling along the Wasatch Front.

The Market "still looks rosey"???? Are you serious? I have two homes on the market. One home I have had to lower the price to $85 per square foot. built in 2004 and completely new inside with over 3400 sq ft finished for $309,000. This is a joke. Someone step up and tell the real story please.

The headline here is just completely wrong. As mentioned in earlier comments, the content of the article does nothing but disprove the headline. This is of course not to mention the fact that the actual reality that we are all experiencing disproves the headline as well. As Kelly Matthews indicates, you simply cannot have a livable mortgage based upon today's average home price with today's average income. But, anybody could have said the same thing 2 years ago.

The severe pullback in mortgage lending occurring over the past month will affect the Utah housing market. Prices will decline because easy money, no-doc, teaser rate, toxic mortgages that have been pushed by unscrupulous lenders are no longer available. The simple fact is that even with strong job growth, Utah wages cannot support the current housing prices. My guess is that this story is an attempt to appease the real estate cartel who spend a good amount on advertising with D news.

Indeed a confusing story, or at least headline. Just last week Mr. Matthews was on KUER with a local broker, the latter verifying that the market is flagging significantly, for 2 primary reasons: lack of affordability and reduction of stupid loans that will surely haunt many who have them. Sure, it's not a crisis yet, and may never be, but the market is slowly returning to a more reasonable level. Oh, and another way you can tell the market is slowing? The number of "for sale" signs are increasing dramatically and many include "price lowered" signs on them. Many homes are sitting a lot longer before selling. A good thing.

All real estate is local -- but all real estate financing is international. Just as most trends show up late in Utah, the real estate boom did, and the unfolding real estate bust will, too. Utah was simply the next field the speculator locusts set out to devour, once they'd ruined California, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

Folks, it is an iron law that real estate values don't go up, long-term, faster than growth in purchasing power. Cheap credit artifically goosed demand for a time, but that cheap credit is gone. A disparity between incomes and housing prices will always adjust to equilibrium.

The DesNews tends to have rose-colored glasses at times, which can be nice, but not helpful for those in the real world. In one sugarhouse zipcode, for example, 87 homes have gone on the market in the last 30 days. A year ago it was half that number.

Interestingly, also today, the Trib runs a more accurate story about the housing market.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6636084

Talk to any builder, any developer and any 'real' real estate professional and they will ALL say the SAME thing. The market in Utah is going to follow California and Nevada. One national mortgage company just laid off 17 Thousand people. Another over 5 Thousand. Those are THOUSAND folks, not hundreds; And as has already been said, they were big players in the sub-prime market. I know a developer who has not sold a home in five months. I know another developer who has not sold in 4 and a half months. From Park City to Santaquin, the market has slowed. Last week in one California city there were 167 foreclosures.....Of 500,000 people; That followed a month of OVER 1500 foreclosures in the same city. I think the D-News is the most responsible and most reliable of all papers....but this article heading is off base and the content does not address reality.

Hold on Utah... there is a serious 'correction' coming. Just like everything in Utah, we're behind the rest of the country... when home prices were going crazy in the US, Utah held steady, when a 'correction' hit the rest of the country, Utah went up. My point, look what's happening the in the rest of the country (especially regionally, ie Nevada & Arizona) and you'll be looking in the mirror in the months ahead.

At Utahrealestate.com which lists the houses for sale in SL County and other areas of the state, the number of houses for sale in SL County is approximately 18,541 amd this number changes freqently throughout the day. 4 Months ago the number was well under 10,000. I've seen homes in my neigborhood for sale for 6 months or longer without moving, even though prices continue to drop.

The supply is higher than it's ever been and builders are starting to finish up projects that have been in the pipeline for the better part of a year. Mortages are harder to get. Ajustables will be resetting soon and there will be more distressed properties on the market with people unable to make payments and trying to sell.

It will get a lot worse before it gets better. "Rosey" is not the term to be used in a headline....

Just moved here. Could have bought, but can rent for 50% less than what a mortgage would have been on a comparably priced home if I had bought. I'm waiting for the dust to settle. I'll enter the market in 12-18 months.....that is if I can find a mortgage. Oh yeah, and if I can get my home in the east sold. The market I left has 135 homes for sale while the long term average inventory is 35-45 homes.

Folks, in my opinion it is just the beginning of the ugliness and if the market is "rosy", that's just the beginning of the "inflammation".

I live in Arizona and just spent 5 weeks in Utah, looking at real estate. I sold one property and was looking to buy another. Almost without exception, every property I looked was offered to me at a substantially lower price than listed. I had desperate owners calling me back, lowering the price even further, asking me to buy their property. My reponse? I'm still waiting because the prices are going to get even lower.

I agree Mark. I just moved here and was looking to buy. After getting a better picture of the market, I see the trouble coming. I am now renting for much less than purcahsing, and have had over 5 people call me back telling me their contract fell through, they have significantly lowered the price, and asking if I would be interested in looking again. I don't think so. Wait a year or two and then the picture will be 'rosey', at least for buyers.

Good points on all these comments. I woander if D News actually reviews them to see how out of touch some of their articles actually are. Yep, Utah is the next domino behind Nevada, California and Arizona. More and more people here are realizing that, despite how the D News keeps trying to spin it.

I think you're all CRAZY. I don't care what any of you think. Utah property values are going to continue to increase despite all your worries. Fact is:
1 - the number of people moving here continues to increase (thanks Mexico) and always will
2 - the job market rocks (businesses are booming)
3 - gas prices just keep going higher (which effects everyone)
4 - Everyone needs a home and those graduating from high school/college are filling the home shopping market quicker than the folks who die and leave.
5 - Like somebody famous once said: Buy land because they're not making anymore of it.
6 - Homes go up in value commensurate with the costs of replacements (building materials, etc).
7 - In Utah, have you EVER seen a period where homes actually depreciate for more than a year?
8 - What is going to happen is RENT will go up drastically because of all of this. Watch and see.
9 - Somebody has to own the home - and banks would rather earn interest from somebody than to hold on to them and make the equity. The loan industry will change sooner than the real estate "bubble".
10 - PREDICTION: Just when you think the sky is falling, something big will happen to change everything. Homes aren't like the stock market - you can't live in a 401k.

Just finished the paperwork on selling home, got offered more than my listing price after it was on the market for eight days.

It was a lower priced "starter home". This leads me to belive that the price on the McMansions will drop.

You can't live in a 401K, but you can't leverage it 100%, either. It takes at least an 80% drop in the stock market (which we haven't had since 1929) to wipe out your 401K, assuming you've used margin. If you've put 10% down (and who does THAT anymore?) on a house, a 10% drop wipes you out. 11% puts you underwater.

Property prices don't shoot up $100K in a couple of years without a correction. Property prices WILL go up -- long-term, and from a sustainable baseline -- as the economy grows and the currency inflates. I just think we've used up about a decade's worth of appreciation in the last two years. It will be a long time before any significant appreciation returns.

Many of the people who moved to Utah sold their homes in LA and moved were homes were cheaper and crime was less. Utah is effected by outside economics. Job creation is related to liquidity. The problem in the equity markets is liquidity. Notice, consumer spending is down?

All markets are cyclical. If you invest you should be glad they are. If you are waiting to sell. Don't wait longer. Smarter buyer don't buy at the peak of a market.

It's not number but incomes that feed markets. The number in Mexicans doesn't effect the cost of a Mercedes. You a bank with many repos. The market is soft. You can't sell homes. You rent them to gain cash flow.

Smart business is knowing when to sell and when to buy.