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.   

U.S. foreclosure activity increased more than 93 percent from July 2006 to July 2007, but at the same time, foreclosure activity in Utah actually dropped more than 58 percent, according to July 2007 data from RealtyTrac. In fact, this is the six month in a row that Utah has seen double-digit decreases in its foreclosure activity. Since January, Utah has also dropped from being the state with the 13th-highest number of foreclosures to being No. 23 in foreclosures. RealtyTrac reported that Utah was only one of seven states that had year-over-year declines in foreclosure activity. Of those seven states, Utah posted the largest decrease.

“States like Texas, South Carolina and Utah have seen slow but steady price appreciation over the past five years, making them much more attractive and affordable,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in a prepared statement.

In Utah, Weber County had the highest foreclosure rate in July, with Salt Lake County and Wasatch coming in at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. Many smaller counties — Box Elder, Carbon, Garfield, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Rich, Sanpete and Sevier — actually had zero foreclosure filings for the month. County

taken from the Utah Association of Realtors newsletter.