Short Sale Numbers Up in Logan

While overall real estate inventory is on the decline as the Winter Months begin, the number of short sale homes is up. Decreased home prices in Cache County are leading to more underwater homeowners, and more Logan Short Sales.

There are 828 residential homes for sale in Cache County right now. 51 (6.16%) of these homes are short sales. One interesting trend is that the number of short sales in Logan city itself has substantially risen. Logan has 21 short sales, up from 14 last month. The smaller cities in Cache Valley have 30 short sale listings, down from 35 last month.

October Home Sales Down 55%

During the third quarter, home sales in Cache County were down by more than 37%. That was in large part due to the expiration of the home buyer tax credits. Personally, I thought that during the fourth quarter we would start seeing some more normal home sale numbers. Well, it looks like from October's home sales numbers I was wrong. Cache County home sales were down by more 54.55% last month compared with October of 2009. Reported thus far, just 45 residential homes have been reported as sold. This is the lowest month of home sales since January.

While 45, home sales is a low number for October, the 55% decline is a little misleading. The initial home buyer tax credit ended in November of last year, so there were very high home sales numbers during October of last year. From 2000 - 2004, October averaged 69 home sales each month. From 2005-2009, an average of 97 Cache County Homes sold each month.

Due to the season, not due to lots of home selling, the amount of Logan Utah Real Estate is declining. We currently have 844 residential homes for sale in Cache County. This is down 3.1% from a month a go, but up 11.7% from this time last year. At Octobers home sales pace, Cache County Real Estate has 18.75 months of active inventory.

Logan real estate values also continue to decline. Homes just keep getting less expensive. The median list price of Cache Valley Homes is now down to $184,900, while the average list is down to $226,390. This is still quite high considering that the median price of homes sold during October was just $160,000.

One slightly positive aspect of this months real estate numbers is that the number of under contract homes is actually up from last month. 101 residential homes are under contract compared with 99 a month ago. This should mean that November home sales will be better than October.