Why it IS a good time to Sell Cache Valley Real Estate

Yesterday there was an article in the Herald Journal that had a pretty negative tone about the Logan Utah real estate market. It quoted me, and apparently riled up a bunch of local real estate agents. They called the local Realtor Board, and complained about the comments I said.

Personally, I didn’t think that the article was that bad. It stated the facts, and explained some of the reasoning of why home sales in January were so low. Sometimes we have to face the reality. We can’t sugar coat everything. The article came across more negatively than I would have liked, but lets face the facts. A journalists goal is to get their articles read, and striking headlines are more often read than boring sales statistic numbers.

With that said, If you price your home right, it is actually a good time to sell for several reasons. One thing to remember is that you only need to sell your house to ONE potential buyer.

1. Buyers Have Urgency - There are lots of potential buyers out there who have a sense of urgency to buy. The home buyer tax credits require that homes go under contract by the end of April. Mortgage interest rates are likely at the lowest they will ever be. Many people realize this, and want to take advantage of mortgage savings.
2. Great Time to Upgrade - There are lots of deals out there if you are looking to upgrade. The deal you get on the house you upgrade to can far exceed the loss you would take on the sell of your house. If you lose $5,000 on the sell of your house, but get $25,000 in equity on the home you purchase you have a net gain of $20,000. The low interest rates and great deals on homes for sale in Logan have personally tempted me into possibly upgrading.
3. Spring is in the Air – Spring is traditionally a huge season for looking for homes for sale in Cache Valley. New potential buyers are starting their home search every day. Remember, they are only going to be buying one house. There are also lots of buyers out there who have seen everything currently on the market that matches their criteria and are looking for something better. They know that lots of new listings are coming out each day and are waiting to find the best home possible.
4. It is NOT a Buyers Market for Starter Homes - Homes priced below $161,000 are actually selling at balanced market paces. Many have multiple offers. It is not a buyers market at all for the less expensive properties for sale in Cache County. Cache Valley home prices between $160,000 and $180,000 are also selling at almost balanced market paces.

While many of the higher end homes won’t sell this year, some will. For many sellers, it is a GREAT time to sell in Cache Valley. You only need to sell your home once.

Logan Utah Home Sales for January 2010

Real Estate in Logan Utah was not doing so good during January compared to months previous. During January only 16 homes were sold, whereas, there were 25 homes sold the previous month, December. Although home sales went down since December, they were about the same as January of last year.

Not only have homes sales dropped in Logan but so has the Average Sales Price of the homes being sold. This January the Average Sales Price was around $125,228 which is down from December when it was $130,716. In Logan the amount of homes sold during January was around the same amount as last year but as for the Average Sales Price, that wasn't the case. Last January the Average Sales Price was $172,173. That is around $57,000 more than January of this year.

Other cities in Cache County are experiencing sort of the same decline in home sales. In Providence, Smithfield and Hyrum the number of homes sales is pretty much always in the single digits anyways but there has still been some decline in their home sales.

In Providence, homes sales were barely down from December's home sales but before December home sales were higher with 7 and 9 home sales rather than only having 3 and 4 home sales Like December and January did. But unlike Logan, Providence's Average Sale Price is up more than $4,500 from last January, not down.

In Smithfield and Hyrum Utah, homes sales went down as well. Although both cities already have low home sale numbers anyways, January wasn't any better. Smithfield went from 11 homes sold during December to 6 homes sold during January. Hyrum went from 5 homes sold during December to 0 homes sold the entire month of January.

Number of Cache County Homes for Sale High

Number of Logan Homes for Sale Alarmingly High | Logan Homes – Free Logan Home Search:

"I conduct market condition stats for Logan Real Estate during the first part of every month. One of the things I pay attention to is the number of homes for sale in Logan Utah. This number has more significance on future pricing trends than anything else. It is simple economics. When there are more homes and less buyers, prices will go down. When there are more buyers than there are homes for sale, prices go up. While doing some statistics today to calculate the percentage of short sales in Logan, I noticed that there are currently 747 homes for sale in Cache County right now.

Just two weeks ago, there were 718 active residential listings in Cache County. That’s a net list vs. under contract of more than two new listings a day. At the rate we are going, we will likely see a record number of homes on the market, and will see more than 900 listings at once by the time summer hits.

In comparison, last year Cache County had less than 700 homes on the market. February of 2008 had 514 homes listed, and February of 2007 had around 400 listed homes, almost half the number we have right now.

It is possible that many of these homes were listed by people who want to take advantage of the move up tax credit. If this is the case, after April we may see a reduction in Logan Utah Real Estate inventory."

This article was taken from LoganHomes.info

Cache Valley Short Sales Remain Stable

For the third straight month there are exactly 47 short sales in Cache County Utah. 13 of these short sale homes are found in Logan while the remaining 34 are found in the outlying communities in Cache Valley. While the number of short sale homes for sale has remained the same, the percentage of Cache County homes for sale that are short sales has actually declined, because the number of total residential home listings has gone up. There are currently 747 active residential listings in Cache Valley, meaning that 700 of the homes for sale are not short sales. 6.29 percent of the current listings are seeking short sale approval.

Click this link if you would like to view the current short sale homes for sale in Cache Valley.

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

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:

As you can see, homes priced above $500,000 are having a very difficult time selling. Last year just eight of these high end homes sold. There are currently 44 homes priced above half a million on the market. On average these homes have already been on the market for 310 days.

Logan Utah Real Estate Sales start 2010 off..... poorly?

Nobody knows exactly how well the Logan Real Estate market will do this year. Most of the Realtors I've talked too are optimistic that it is starting to improve, that things will be better. The last half of last year were much improved with their year over year comparisons.

Well the numbers for the first month of 2010 are mostly in. And so far, the numbers look pretty dismal. I normally don't do market condition stats quite this early simply because there are always some slow Logan Realtors out there who just forget to update their listings in the MLS. But, if these numbers hold accurate, home sales this January are worse than last year, and mark the single worst month for number of Cache County Home sales in nearly nine years.

Thus far, only 39 residential MLS listings in Cache County have been reported as sold. This is down nearly 5% from January last year, which was the worst month of the year for home sales.

The average price of homes sold during January was also down. The 39 homes that sold had an average price of $166,581 and a median sold price at just $146,250. This is the lowest single month average since May of 2006.

While home sales and prices were down, the amount of Logan Utah Homes for Sale was up. Cache County currently has 718 residential homes for sale. This is nearly 30 more homes for sale than we had during February of last year.