Free Utah Real Estate.com

More great news!According to Forbes Salt Lake City is listed as one of the 10 cities where home prices are likely to rise. This is based on job increases and how overbuilt the cities have become after the boom years. (Article attached to this email)

Utah’s great economy is bringing more jobs and housing demand to the area.  Housing related jobs such as Residential Construction workers, Mortgage Broker/Officers, Realtor’s, Developers, & other related fields have seen declines.  These jobs that are down are only a part of Utah’s Job Market.  With demand slow but steady and the supply declining, the real estate market will slowly recover.

We will watch and see how these recent mortgage changes affect the demand.

It is a great time to buy!

Be careful and aware of the many types of fraud.  People in the Wasatch Front have and will be convicted of loan fraud, a Federal Offense.  Desperate to sell the oversupply of homes they get too creative.   You do not want to get caught in the middle of that mess. If you have any questions about a transaction we can help you check on the legality and liability potential.

Visit Kennen’s agent profile for more information.

More good news!
I am happy to report more decreases in listing inventory.  The number of available homes in Utah County are 4,927.  This is down from 5,088 last month and much better than the 5,316 available home’s in the middle of June this year.

455 units sold in August.  August is the best selling month of the year.  This is only a couple more homes than sold in July.  But it is the high for the year so far.  September should show some slowing following the typical pattern.  This is illustrated in the decrease of under contract homes now at 690 units down from 781 a month earlier.  Note: the number under contract is usually higher than the solds for the month because new homes under construction can be under contract for many months while the home is being built, and some contracts fail.

It is not hard to notice home price changes.  The average sales price, year to date, for 2008 is down 7.57% from 2007.  On high end homes you can expect 30 and even 50% declines.  Homes are now more affordable for today’s buyers.

Visit Kennen’s agent profile for more information.

Real Estate Update September 2008

An ever-changing market keeps it interesting!

Before I get into the statistics, I have to tell you how interesting the lending world is right now.  There have been some big changes.

First, the

down payment assistance program with FHA loans are gone

. 100% financing for conventional loans have not been available for months.  This popular loan type will be missed by some.  FHA, for now, does still allow the buyers family to gift the 3% down payment to them.  Closing this loophole, that allowed the seller to give money to the buyer through a third party, will strengthen the lending market in the long term.

Please spread the word to those you know.  New home owners will need 3% down for FHA loans and 5% down for conventional loans.  Requiring down payments for all borrowers will help both the lending and real estate markets stability.

If you are a landlord this is good news

. For many years now it has required less out of pocket cash to buy a home than to rent one.  Anyone with good credit could buy a home.  Now with the down payment requirement changes the rental demand will go up, as should the rents.

Other big news.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been taken over by the FED, because of their lack of capitol in this challenging lending market.  I understand changes have already been made on investor, non owner occupied loans.  The down payment requirement for these loans are now 15% up from 10% previously.  Loans with less than 25% down will be .5% higher on the interest rate.

The lending world has been removing loan programs for months as they tighten their belt in effort to reduce the high number on loans in default.  They now feel the risk is too high on some of these loan programs.  There are many great loan programs available with historically wonderful rates in the 6% range. Talking to a lender before you shop for a home is more important than ever.

Please take the time to let your friends and family know about these changes.  It is our hope that first time home buyers will be informed and prepared to achieve the American Dream of home ownership.

Visit Kennen’s agent profile for more information.

In case you didn’t already know, FSBO (say fiz’ bo) stands for “for sale by owner” in real estate agent parlance.

FSBO’s opt to sell their home on their own in order to avoid paying a commission to an agent, which sounds like a good deal, provided you can successfully A. sell you home, B. get a good price, C. avoid any financial or legal problems, D. handle all the marketing, paperwork, etc.

But I’ll save the ups and downs of going it alone for a future blog post.

For today, I’ll just point out that the one thing FSBO’s need most is buyers, and the best way to get buyers is to advertise.

A sign on the lawn catches the eye of whoever happens to drive by.

An ad in the classifieds catches whoever reads them that day (or week, or however long you run the ad).

The problem with most advertising is money. Advertising costs money. Classifieds in the local paper can run $65 per week. Most homes spend several months on the market before selling these days, so what amounts to only a fraction of the home’s value can add up in a hurry.

To get to the point, Free Utah Real Estate.com is free advertising. Sure, you can upgrade for under ten bucks per month and make your ad appear above others on searches and display additional photos, but even that’s next to nothing.

An ad on an internet real estate page catches whoever finds that page and property, which is the ever-growing preference among home buyers (and shoppers of all stripes). In fact, 85% of home buyers shop online before buying (up from 70% in 2004 and 41% in 2001).

The problem with most online advertising is that home buyers often have to register to see the complete listing, including the seller’s contact information. Buyers are increasingly reluctant to register for anything due to security and SPAM concerns. I once registered to get some real estate information and my email inbox filled with related SPAM for many years afterward.

Again, Free Utah Real Estate not only allows shoppers to view the complete listing without registration, but promises to never disclose your personal information to a third party nor use your email address for anything other than Free Utah Real Estate services.

Finally, many real estate web pages are complex or hard to navigate, adding frustration while decreasing effectiveness. Free Utah Real Estate has a clean, easy to follow format that even your four year old could probably click through just fine!

Yes, yes, I know, your four year old is more web-saavy than you are yourself!

All I’m saying is that Free Utah Real Estate was built for you and it does what you need it to and keeps things simple and effective and if you’re selling your home, especially without the help of an agent, then you’ll definitely want to take a few minutes to create a free (or upgraded) listing so you can rest easier knowing that you’ve got your beautiful home out where 85% of home buyers can find it.

85% figure taken from http://www.thinkglink.com/Six_Mistakes_Home_Buyers_Make.htm
70% and 41% figures from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_19/b3882615.htm.