What happened to real estate sales for November 2008 in Salt Lake County?

According to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, the number of homes and condominiums (units) sold in November 2008 was 576 units. In November of 2007 there were 924 units sold, that’s a decrease of 38%. Another statistic to note was that median price INCREASED by 4% to $229,900 from $221,300 in ‘07.

How can home prices be going up when all the indicators, and may cities home values, are going down?  Well, most of the homes sold, 75%, were under the $300,000 price point, only 10% of the homes sold were above $500,000. The big difference between this year and last year is that interest rates last year were a full 1% higher. Usually when interest rate go down, people can afford more, so they usually purchase a more expensive house. Plus when interest rates are lower more people can afford to buy, so you see more entry level buyers come into the market, thus the large margin of home buyer’s in the entry level price range. When interest rates rise, people can afford less, and there are less buyer’s in the buyer pool, so more inventory means prices tend to go down.

It also might mean that prices in Salt Lake County have stabilized and may start to rise. It also might be temporary, prices should stabilize, then rise for a period of 4 to 6 months before we can claim victory over declining home prices. See my post on when it is a good time to buy to learn more about if you should wait.

What are your thoughts?

 

photo by shutter stock

 

A home is a place of residence or refuge.^[1] It is usually a place in which an individual or a family canrest and be able to store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food.  Wikipedia 

 

Where does it say that a home has to make its owner a bazillion dollars OR is of no use in a declining market? With all the talk these days about the housing bubble and home values, to buy or not to buy, I want to look at the issue from another angle.

People NEED a place to live, shelters from the weather, a place to raise a family, to store their things, create memories. There are 2 options; you are either the owner of your domicile, or a renter/tenant of your domicile.  Why own? First, it cost less to own than rent. Second, payments stay the same monthly (fixed rate over 15 or 30 years) eventually the mortgage is paid off. Third, the tax benefits from owning. Finally, after it is paid, there is a nice little nest egg, and even if it’s worth nothing, you have a place to live!

Let’s look at the last few years and why people are in such a huff over the real estate market. Without going into the details of what and why we had a real estate bubble (there are hundreds of articles out there to read), prices have fallen drastically in some markets of the country, BUT NOT ALL markets! Yes if you purchase 2 years ago and HAVE to sell now, you could loose money. But how many people have to do this? Don’t most people live in their homes at least 5 to 7 years? The problem with the last few years is that some people where caught up in the lure of rising prices and speculation, the upward spiral continued to feed on itself. The mantra for home ownership became, how much can I make on my home? And should I buy 2 more?  But is this what home ownership is all about? For some, yes, for investors, for sure, but for most people, no way!  Owning a home is about shelter, raising a family, security from the weather and the world? Why hasn’t this been the mantra of late? How can we bring this mantra back?

We bring it back by talking about all the reason for home ownership; what are the basic tenets of home. Reinforce the definition of HOME at the beginning of this blog, ask the question, where are you going to live and why would you wait to buy home? Taking this basic premise of home ownership, is it good to own in any market? Must you make money on your home every year? Is the requisite for home ownership to turn a profit?

I would like to take this opportunity, the beginning of the New Year, 2009, to educate and change the mantra of what it means to be a homeowner. Show that it is good to buy a home almost anytime.

Daily Real Estate News | November 1, 2006

Home sales are expected to hold fairly steady in the months ahead, according to the latest reading on pending home sales published by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in September, slipped 1.1 percent to a level of 109.1, following a 4.7 percent gain in August. The index remains 13.6 percent below September 2005.

The index shows home sales will not be moving much in one direction or another, says David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist. “The present level of home sales is relatively high in historic terms, and we can expect generally minor movements around this level,” he says. “We don’t expect to see any changes of note until early next year when we’re likely to see a modest lift.”

The market currently is a little lower than expected as buyers try to time their entry, Lereah adds. “In the meantime, there’s some build-up in demand that will move when consumers realize that conditions are optimal for them.”

The index is derived from pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed and the transaction has not closed; pending sales typically are finalized within one or two months of signing.

An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, the first year to be examined and the first of five consecutive record years for existing-home sales. There is a closer relationship between annual changes in the index and year-ago changes in sales performance than with month-to-month comparisons.

Regionally, the Pending Home Sales Index in the Midwest rose 2.1 percent in September to 96.4 but was 18.4 percent below September 2005. The index in the West slipped 0.4 percent to 112.5 in September and was 15.2 percent below a year ago. In the South, the index eased 1.3 percent in September to 125.0 and was 9.0 percent below September 2005. The index in the Northeast fell 5.9 percent to 89.9 in September and was 15.9 percent lower than a year earlier.

— REALTOR® Magazine Online

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