Good Time for Home Buyers - Herald Jouranal Article quotes Cornerstone

• Good news for buyers

  Cornerstone Real Estate was quoted in the News as the Logan Utah Real Estate Market Experts. Funny thing is that this article took one stat from the FFHA and made false assumptions that Logan's home prices were up. That just isn't reality. That stat was taken from Mortgage Loan Values as well as Home purchases during the second quarter. The actual price of homes sold was substantially down in Logan, not up. If you bought a home a year ago and are planning on selling now, don't expect to get more than you bought for (unless of course you got a screami'n deal).
  

  tags: logan, herald journal, buying

  • Buyers of relatively inexpensive houses like the Knights are helping keep Logan’s housing market moving, said Ben Brown, owner of Logan-based Cornerstone Real Estate Professionals. The cheap stuff is getting snapped up, he said.
    
    “First-time home buyers are what drives any market,” said Brown. “The government hit it right on the nose with incentives. In our market it’s worked extremely well.”
  • According to data from the Multiple Listing Service, the average sale price of a home in the Logan area in June 2008 was $193,919, while in June 2009 it was $174,894 — a 10 percent drop. Sale prices were about 6 percent lower in July 2009 than in July 2008.
    
    Speaking of the lower-than-$200,000 market, Brown said, “It’s just recovered quicker and never dropped as severe” as higher-end housing.
    
    Sales of homes in the $300,000 to $400,000 range remain slow, said real estate agent Alan Barker, contributing to a flood of available properties. The approximately 850 houses on the market in June was double the number in the summer of 2007.
    
    Sales the first few months of the year were off 20 to 30 percent lower then in 2008. Activity picked up in June and July when about 200 homes sold. Still, the inventory backlog is seven to eight months, Brown said — not as bad at the 12-month inventory of a few months back but still significantly off the four to five months of a normal market.
    
    “There’s still enough inventory that prices aren’t going up anytime soon,” said Barker. “It’s good news for buyers.”
    
    
    It is still great news for buyers. I predict that the housing market will continue to move and inventory will decline through November. I think real estate this winter will be very slow though, especially with the end of the first time buyer tax credit November 1st.