Market is heating up in St George
Posted at 11:03 AM, May. 26, 2009
The real estate market in St George is keeping pace with the upcoming Southern Utah Summer weather; and that would be HOT, HOT, HOT! We are seeing lots of buyers from all over the country coming to St George to take advantage of our "great deals". And why wouldn't they? You can pick up a distressed property for 30-40 cents on the dollar compared with prices of a couple of years ago. Astute buyers know that prices will go back up in the near future; maybe not as high as they were in 2005, but the prices will recover. Many of the buyers are coming down from the Salt Lake City area, and tell us that they have always wanted a 2nd or Vacation home in St George and now they can afford one.
There were 44 months worth of inventory our area in January 2009, and that number has decreased to 19.8 months of inventory at the end of April. If this trend continues at this rate, we could move from a buyer's market to a seller's market by the end of Summer. What we are seeing in this market, in all price ranges, are multiple offers. This is especially true of homes that are being sold as "short sales" and foreclosed properties.
If buyers want to take advantage of great prices and have a good choice of homes, they need to jump in the game soon, before it is too late.
St George Utah Real Estate Statistics
Posted at 8:09 AM, May. 4, 2009
How bad is the market in the Greater St George area? Well, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that there are 2367 single family homes on the market compared with 2646 homes on the market last year, which represents a 10% decrease in inventory. The bad news, at least for sellers, is that the average sales price this year is $291,155 compared with $360,286 last year. That is a 19% drop in average price. There are currently 340 homes “under contract” which is 5% more homes expected to close than there were last year at this time.
The condo/townhome market isn’t faring as well as single family homes. There are currently 19% less homes “under contract” than the previous year and the number of sales is down 41%. The average sales price of a condo/townhome last year was $189,922 and this year that price has dropped a whopping 34% to $124,797.
While these figures are not good news for sellers, they are great for buyers. Not only are home prices much, much lower than they were a year ago, there are lots of other incentives for buyers.
First time homebuyers are eligible to receive a $10,000 assistance grant from the City of St George to be used to help with down payments and closing costs for home purchases in the City of St George. The State of Utah is also offering an incentive for home buyers who are purchasing a brand new home in Utah by offering them a $6000 incentive to help with their closing costs. The Federal Government is giving first time homebuyers an $8000 tax credit that they don’t have to pay back!
Coupled with the very low interest rates that are currently available; there hasn’t been a better time in Southern Utah to purchase a home, whether you are a first time buyer or making a purchase of a second or investment home.
Real estate statistics in Southern Utah for 2008
Posted at 4:53 PM, Jan. 15, 2009
In this post I am giving you real estate statistics which compare sales in 2008 with 2007 in the Washington County MLS (which includes a few out of area properties, ie Iron County, Kane County, etc.)
One of the first things that our clients like to know is the absorption rate, or months worth of inventory. At the end of Dec. 2008, there were 36.87 months of inventory on the market. This includes land, condo/townhomes, single family residential, mobile and modular homes, and commercial. What this means is that it would take almost 37 months to sell all of the properties that are on the market, assuming that the same rate of sales continues and no other properties come on the market. (Each price range is a little different, so if you would like to know about a particular price range, please give us a call and we would be glad to look it up for you).
Our current market condition, called a “buyer’s market”, has been in effect in Washington County for more than a year, where the absorption rate in Dec 2007 was 33.42 months, just 3 months less than our current conditions.
Last year there were 1575 single family homes sold compared with 1887 homes sold in 2007. The average sold price in 2008 was $300,888 compared with $338,538 in 2007; the median sold price in 2008 was $250,000 compared with $283,000 in 2007, which represents an 11% decrease overall.
The sales of subdivided lots, declined by 49% from 2007 to 2008. and the average price was 20% less in 2008.
The sales of freestanding townhomes was hit pretty hard last year. There was a 35% decline in sales and a 45% decrease in sales price over 2007. The average price of a freestanding townhome in 2007 was $354,027 and was $186,392 in 2008.
The new construction market was the hardest hit last year. There were only 10 sales in 2008 compared with 45 in 2007 which is a 77% drop in sales.
While this market is not good if you are trying to sell, it is great if you are in the market to buy. There is an abundance of inventory to choose from, the prices haven’t been this low in over a decade and the interest rates are the lowest in 35 years. But you’d better not wait as we are starting to see a shortage of homes priced under $250,000.
Washington County Real Estate Statistics Oct 2008
Posted at 3:37 PM, Nov. 6, 2008
There is good news and bad news in our local real estate market. The good news is that there are some sales. But the bad news is that there aren’t too many and the prices are lower than they were just this past Summer. In October, there were 190 total sales in the County (including residential, land, lots, commercial and multifamily) and the average sales price was $213,746. In June of this year the average sales price was $290,741.
There are currently about 6319 active listings in the MLS, this includes single family, condo/townhome, lots, land, multifamily, and commercial. With only 190 total sales last month, that leaves us with 33.26 months worth of inventory, up from June with 25.63 months of inventory.
Single family home sales in Washington County have dropped 18% this year to date, compared with the same time period last year.
As can be expected, new home sales have dropped considerably from last year, a whooping 85% overall.
If you would like to know what is going on in your neighborhood, or a statistic that we didn’t address here, please feel free to call us. We would love to chat with you about our market.
Washington County Real Estate Statistics Oct 2008
Posted at 10:54 AM, Nov. 5, 2008
Click on this link to see a graph that will show the latest real estate statistics in Washington County Utah. As you can see the number of sales in Oct were a little less than in Sept, and the months of inventory has increased a little more. Hopefully now that the elections are over, there will be a little more consumer confidence and our real estate market will pick up. There are some really great "deals" on the market right now; I have seen some fabulous luxury homes that were on the market a year ago for $1.5 million that are listed right now for $650,000.
members/bassogroup/files/Real estate statistics on Oct 2008.pdf
St George Real Estate trends
Posted at 2:43 PM, Sep. 28, 2008
I am going to give you the year-to-date statistics this month to give you an idea of where we are at in comparison with last year.
Last year at this time there were 1513 single family homes that had sold at an average sales price of $343,137, this year there have been 1173 sales of single family homes at an average sales price of $313,877, which represents a 22% decrease in the number of homes sold this year.
The most dramatic change in our market this year in comparison to last year is in new construction . Last year there were 43 sales of new homes and this year the number has dropped to just 7 new homes sold for an 83% decrease in the sale of new homes from last year at this time. While this isn’t great news for all of the businesses that depend on construction, it is great news for sellers who have been competing with new homes to sell their homes for the past several years.
Subdivided lots, which were selling like hot-cakes in 2005/06, have slowed down considerably this year. There was a 56% decrease in the number of lots sold this year over last year and the prices have dropped 25% overall.
Washington County Real Estate Statistics for June 2008
Posted at 1:55 PM, Aug. 1, 2008
There were a total of 240 properties sold in the Washington County MLS in June , which include homes, lots, commercial, and raw land. This represents 30 less property sales than the total in May which was 270. As of the end of June 2008, there was 26.3 months of inventory on the market.
Single family home sales totaled 158 in June 2008 compared with 198 sales in 2007. That is a 20% decrease in the number of single family homes sold. The price of the median home sold in June 2008 was $269,500 compared with $295,000 one year ago, which is an 8.6% reduction.
The number of building permits pulled so far this year are down dramatically compared with those pulled just one year ago. The average number of permits being pulled monthly this year are 54 compared with an average of 146 that were pulled monthly in the first 6 months last year. In 2005 there were a total of 3479 building permits pulled. If we continue building at the same rate, there will be a total of 648 new builds this year.
Comparison of National real estate trends
Posted at 9:59 AM, May. 8, 2008
I just received some interesting statistics from a real estate friend in Pueblo CO in regards to the 10 worst real estate markets in the country, and of course, I had to compare them with our own real estate market. Here is the news:
10. Denver sold about 2.9% of their inventory in April, Median price $230,100.
9. San Diego sold 2.7%, Medial price $523,000.
8. Baltimore sold 2.5%, Median price $261,000.
7. Chicago sold 2.3%, Median price $261,000.
6. Washington DC sold 2.2%, Median price $400,000.
5. Los Angeles sold 2%, Median price $509,700.
4. Tampa sold .8%, Median price $201,600.
3. Phoenix sold .6%, Median price $241,700.
2. Orlando sold .6%, Median price $240,000.
1. Miami sold .2%, Median price $240,000.
So, how do measure up in St George? Our sales were 3.4% of the total inventory in April and our average price was $247,389, which is almost a 16% drop from the average price of $286,065 in March. Our total inventory at the end of April was 6383 properties (including all residential, lots, commercial and multi-family) and there were 216 sales giving us 29.55 months of inventory.
We have a lot of "distressed" properties on the market that are either in foreclosure or are being "short saled". These properties are selling at below market prices which is making it a little tough to sell properties that are not "distressed". I like to remind sellers that buyers are looking for the best "deals" in this kind of market and to be patient while trying to get their homes sold.
The good news for property owners in the Washington County area is that the average sold price of a single family home has increased in the last 10 years by a whopping 261%. In 1997 the average sold price of a single family was $131,627 and the average sold price of a single family home in 2007 was $343,699. The largest increase in this 10 year period occurred between 2004 and 2005 when the average sold price of a single family home jumped 33%.
First Quarter Real Estate Statistics in Washington County
Posted at 3:11 PM, Apr. 10, 2008
First quarter 2008 sales of real estate in Washington County were down considerably from the previous 2 years. According to records from the Washington County MLS, January saw a total of 159 sales compared with 325 in 2007 and 362 in 2006. February was a little better with 188 properties sold compared with 294 properties sold in February 2007 and 344 properties sold in 2006. Sales started to pick up in March, as they generally do, and finished up with 226 sales total compared with 407 in 2007 and 434 in 2006.
What has really changed in the past 3 months is the amount of inventory on the market. In January we had 39.25 months worth of inventory, in March the figure dropped to 34.31 months of inventory and at the end of March there were 28.15 months of inventory on the market.
We are definitely seeing an increase in our market as the number of buyers and investors take advantage of some of the “great deals” we have on the market due to the numerous “short sales” and foreclosed properties.
If you have always dreamed of buying when the prices are low and then being able to sell when the prices are high—now is the time to make that purchase. It probably won’t get any better than this! Lower prices, low interest rates, and lots of inventory to choose from!
Call us today for a list of “great deals”!
Washington County Real Estate Stats for 2007
Posted at 9:32 PM, Feb. 11, 2008
2007 was an interesting year in real estate in Washington County!
We started out the year with 18 months worth of inventory, (single family, condo/townhomes, lots, multi-family, commercial, and mobile homes) which was about 10 months more than we ended with in 2006 , and we ended 2007 with almost 38 months worth of inventory. What that means is that if NO other properties come on the market, it will take 38 months to sell everything that is currently on the market. That is assuming that the sales rate is consistent with the number of sales in December.
Even though the number of single family homes that sold in 2007 was 17% less than those sold in 2006, the average sales price was only down 2% over the year before. The average sales price in Washington County in 2007 was $339,067; in the greater St George area, the average sales price was $363,892; and in the Hurricane Valley, the average sales price was $260,907.
At the end of 2007, there were 6,196 active listings in the Washington County MLS, and there were a total of 165 sales in December 2007. In December 2006 there were 5200 active listings and 319 sales.
These numbers show that we have a very high supply and a low demand for homes right now. When this situation exists, the buyers are in the driver’s seat and can easily shop for the very best home at the very best price. This means that sellers must price their homes at current market value, or less, in order to be competitive and get buyers to look at, and make offers on their homes.
The interest rates are predicted to fall a little bit this month which makes this a perfect time to purchase a home or condo. If you have been thinking of buying that 2nd or vacation home, now is probably the best time to take the plunge. There are also some really good buys out there due to the number of “short sales’ and foreclosures in the market place.
If you have an interest in selling or purchasing property, please give us a call and we will be happy to assist you in any way that we can. We can send you an email whenever a new listing comes on the market that matches your criteria. Just call or email us with your wish list.
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