Short Sales Rising as Home Prices Declining

The number of short sale homes in Logan Utah continues to rise as home prices decline. Nationwide, the average median home sales price is now at 2002 levels, it's not that low in Logan, but over the last three months the median sales price of $156,250 is the lowest Cache County has seen since 2007. The current average list prices are the lowest they've been in even longer.


Cache County currently has 64 short sale listings in Cache Valley, or 8.82% of the 726 Logan MLS listings.

Prices Down, Sales Down for Cache County Real Estate

Cache County home sales during February weren't exactly great. I thought we were going to see an improvement in home sales during February, but it wasn't the case. Home sales were down 19% compared with February of last year and 8.7% compared with January.

Real estate inventory did see an increase since my last post, but it is still substantially down compared with February of last year. Right now Cache County has 711 MLS homes for sale. This is down by 5.5% compared with last month, and is even less than real estate inventory in March of 2009. Last years inventory may have been artificially high though as many sellers listed their homes early in homes of finding a buyer who was looking to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit. At February's sales pace, the 711 homes for sale gives Cache County 16.9 months of active inventory.



The good news for Logan UT Real Estate is that home sales look like they will improve this month. There are currently 102 home listings under contract. At this time last month, there were only 71 under contract properties. This is the highest monthly total since November.



Of the homes sold during February the median sold price was $158,000 and the average sales price was $167,773. This is down nearly 7 % from a year ago.

Less than 700 Homes for Sale in Cache Valley

Good news. Real Estate Inventory in Cache Valley Utah continues to drop. There are now just 699 MLS listings in Cache Valley.



This is the lowest Logan real estate inventory levels have been in more than a year. Traditionally, there are more listings at the end of February than the beginning. This year the trend has reversed as at the beginning of the mont there were 704 Logan homes for sale. This is a positive sign that the housing market might return to balanced levels near the end of the year.

The number of listed short sale homes in Cache County has declined one home, but with less homes for sale, the percentage of short sales actually rose. 8.58% of the active home listings are short sales including 29 properties in Logan, and 35 homes in the outlying Cache Valley communities.

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.

Short Sales Spike in Logan

With home prices declining, and more people who bought during the housing boom that need to sell now, the number of short sale homes in Logan, UT is rising.

Over the last month, the percentage of Cache Valley Short Sales rose by 16.4%. There are now 61 homes on the MLS listed as "short sales." As a percentage of total listings, the number of short sale listings has risen to 8.38% of all residential listings.

If more homes don't start selling, and if home prices don't start going up soon the number of foreclosures in Cache Valley will also see increases in the near future.

December Best Month for Logan Home Sales Since August

There is some good news for the Logan Real Estate market. Home sales were actually improved during December. It was the best month for home sales since August as 64 MLS homes have been reported sold so far.

Some other good news is that inventory is also substantially down. At Decembers home sales pace the 716 active listings represent just over 11 months of active inventory. This inventory is higher than at this time a year ago when there were 687 Cache Valley Homes for Sale.

Real Estate prices in Cache County, Utah continue to decline. The current average list price of homes for sale is $216,103, with a median list price at $179,900. During January of last year the average list price was $238,338, and the median list price was $189,250.

January of 2010 was one of the worst single months for home sales ever. Expected home sales for this month will likely be better than those of a year ago, but should be down from December. There are currently just 70 under contract listings in Cache County at the moment. This is 23 less pending homes than Cache Valley had at this time a month ago.

The time is still ripe to get great home deals and mortgage rates on Utah Real Estate. To start your home search visit Utah Homes for Sale today.

Percentage of Short Sales in Logan Rising

The good news is that Cache County Real Estate inventory has substantially declined over the last month. There are 48 less Logan Real Estate listings as there were a month ago.

While the overall number of Logan homes for sale is down, the number of short sale homes is not, and the percentage of listings that are short sales are rising. 6.54% of the total residential real estate listings on the MLS right now are short sales, the highest percentage of short sales Cache Valley has seen.

One of the main reasons we are seeing an increase in short sale listings, is because home prices are decreasing. There are less sellers that have equity, and so when borrowers get into financial trouble, short selling becomes one of their only choices.

Over the last three months the median sales price of homes in Cache County was $157,800, with an average of $168,711. In comparison, people that bought homes during the summer of 2007, the median sales price was $168,775 and the average sales price was 15.8% higher at $200,442.