January Year Over Year Home Sales Improved

The Logan Real Estate market is clearly not recovered from the great housing recession yet, but there are some positive signs.

January Home Sales were the best they've been since 2008, and up by 15% from last year. Reported thus far, 46 residential homes in Cache County have been reported as sold.

Logan Real Estate inventory has actually dropped over the last month from 716 listed homes to 714. Typically, the number of homes for sale increases from January to February, this is also a good sign for the real estate market. Although inventory is down from a month ago, there are still 17 more homes for sale in Cache County than there was at this time last year. At January's sales pace this represents 15 months of active inventory, which is quite high.



The list price of real estate in Cache Valley continues to drop. Last month the median price of homes for sale was $179,900. This month that median price is down $5,400 to $174,500.

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.

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 Home Sales Consistent

For the second straight month home sales in Cache County are at least as good as they were a year ago. In October, 91 residential homes in Cache Valley were sold. This is exactly the same number as were sold last year. The average price of these homes sold was actually up 5% at $189,264, but the price per square footage was down to $79 per square foot. The lowest level in a year and a half. This shows that some large homes were sold at some pretty good prices during October.

Inventory of existing homes continues to go up. There are currently 778 active residential home listings in Cache Valley. The median price of these listings has dropped slightly and is now $207,900, $33,000 higher than the October median sold price of $174,000. To view all Logan Utah Homes for sale visit Real Estate Logan.com.

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.