Saturday, May 31, 2008

Northern Utah Price Appreciation




It's interesting to look at the trends in price appreciation to determine what will happen in the future. When areas appreciate too fast, primarily because of investment speculation and artificial demand, prices do need to come back down to recover. The good news for Logan Real Estate is that real estate here didn't appreciate nearly as fast as it did in the more struggling parts of Utah like Salt Lake and Utah Counties.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Are there too many homes for sale in Logan?

The number of active homes on the Logan Utah Real Estate market is the most I've seen since I've been in Real Estate, and home sales have been relatively slow.

The question is, are there too many homes for sale in Cache County? If there is too much inventory, home prices will have to come down in order to sell.
This graph shows the number of new listings, and the number of homes sold by month for homes in Cache County over the past two and a half years.



Currently there are 680 residential listings in Cache County including 606 single family homes for sale.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Fannie Mae will treat Logan Differently

I usually don’t send out economic news at this time of week, but I thought I would make this exception as I felt this was very pertinent news. According to this commentary, Fannie Mae will not put every market in the country into the same box, but will review each sale on it’s own merit. This is good for Utah and more specifically Cache Valley! As noted, high FICO scores will weigh more into each decision.

Brad White
Northern Utah Mortgage and Loan
Office (435)752-7115
Fax (877)752-7116

Good Morning,
Fannie Mae announced a new, national policy on down payment requirements for conventional,
conforming mortgages the company will purchase or guarantee. Starting June 1, 2008, Fannie
Mae will accept up to 97% LTV ratios for conventional, conforming mortgages processed through
DU, and 95% LTV ratios for loans underwritten outside of DU, in all geographic locations in the
United States. “The new national down payment requirements of 3 or 5 percent will apply to loans
for purchase of single-family, primary residences. Down payment requirements will vary for other
occupancy, property and transaction types. The company will implement systems and operational
changes over the summer to accommodate the new national policy. ‘We are able to adopt this
new, national down payment requirement, even in markets where home prices are declining,
because our new automated underwriting risk assessment model DU Version 7.0 will limit risk
layering and assess each loan more precisely.””
However, most mortgage insurance companies current guidelines will only accept an LTV higher
than 95% with a 700+ Mid Score.
Consumer sentiment has fallen to 59.5 this month, it's lowest level in 28 years. This is great
news for mortgage prices. Single Family housing starts fell 1.7%. Jobless Claims continue high,
U.S. Industrial Production (factories, mines, and utilities) was -0.7%, twice as weak as anticipated
by economists, and capacity utilization, which measures the proportion of plants in use, fell to
79.7 percent, the lowest since September 2005. Lastly yesterday we had the Philadelphia Fed
Index come out at -15.6 in May, better than forecast, from -24.9 in April. (Readings less than zero
signal contraction.)

Monday, May 5, 2008

Weekly Mortgage Rates

Here is the Weekly update on mortgage rates by Brad White at Northern Utah Mortgage:

15 Year Fixed: 5.5%
30 Year Fixed: 5.875%
Rural Housing, No Money Down: 6%

It looks like rates are declining a little. Great news for buying Real Estate in Logan Utah as the Weather in Logan is finally starting to look better.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Logan Home Sales Numbers April 2008

It's hard to believe that May is already here. The weather sure doesn't think so.

Compared to 2007 numbers Cache County April Home Sales were down about 25%, but the average price of April Homes sold was up about 15% to an average sold price of $219,150. This was the highest average monthly sold price ever recorded in Cache County.

There are currently 569 single family homes, and 43 Condos on the Market in Cache County.

At Aprils home sales rate, without any new listings, it would take almost 7 months to exhaust the present supply of MLS inventory.

Mortgage Rates Drop Slightly

As far as rates, it’s really a volatile time, it seems rates don’t know where to land.

30 Year Fixed: 5.875

15 Year Fixed: 5.5

Rural Housing 100% Financing: 6%

Brad White,
Northern Utah Mortgage