If you are in need of a trusted and competent "home related" service located in Southern Utah, and you don't know who to call then you need to book mark this new website http://www.SouthernUtahHomeServices.com.  Many of the businesses listed on the site has a link to their own business website for additional information.

When you call one of the home service businesses who are affiliated with "Southern Utah's Home Services" you can be assured of excellent service, dependability, guaranteed performance, honesty, and competitive prices.

Why take a chance on calling someone from a phone book or newspaper ad that you don't know when you can call one of our proven professionals and be assured of excellent service.

Each of the businesses in this group are licensed and insured.  Keep checking back on this site as we are adding more members on a regular basis. 

Short sales are a huge part of our market right now.  In fact, there are almost 300 properties that are being offered for sale through our MLS as "short sales".  In case you are not real clear on the definition of a short sale, it is when a lender agrees to allow an owner of a property to personally sell the property for less than is owed instead of the lender forclosing on the property.   Some of these sellers may be in default on their mortgage loans, but a majority of them bought at the top of the market or have taken equity out of the property through refinance.  Now these home owners are needing to sell the property because of divorce, job transfer, loss of income, etc and they are upside down, owing more than their homes are worth. 

Many lenders are asking sellers to sign a promissory note for all or part of the difference between the proceeds of the short sale and the debt obligation.   Another often overlooked aspect of a short sale is that the seller must count the amount forgiven by the lender as ordinary income on their taxes. 

Short sales take longer to close than bank owned properties because of the lengthy process the lenders have to go through to get price opinions or appraisals, and just because of the tremendous volume of short sales that are taking place nationally.  Because of the time element, many buyers are electing to make offers on bank owned properties or homes that are not in a distressed situation rather than have to wait up to 6 months to hear from the lender on a short sale.  

Short sales, while not good for sellers or lenders, are a great opportunity for investors, move-up buyers, and 2nd home buyers to take advantage of fantastic prices in this buyer's market.  I have seen homes sell for more than 50% less than their value of less than a year ago.  There is NO better time to buy real estate than right now!     

The latest figures from the US Census Bureau shows that St George Utah was the 2nd fastest growing metro area in the country between 2006-2007 with an increase of 5.1%.  Palm Coast FL took 1st place in the fastest growth with an increase of 7.2% for the same time period.  Other areas that saw surges of growth were Raleigh, NC; Gainsville, GA; Austin, TX; Myrtle Beach, SC; Charlotte, SC; New Orleans, LA; and Grand Junction, CO.

The population increased in St George from 127,310 to 133,791 between 2006-2007 and it is projected to continue.   So when you look around at all of the construction that is going on in our community and you ask why are they still building when there is such a slow down in the housing market, you know why.   St George is a unique area that is somewhat insulated from the terrific downturn in the housing market.  Yes, we have a lot of properties that are in foreclosure, and yes, we are seeing many people that got themselves into trouble with no interest and low interest loans a couple of years ago, but for the most part, our economy is strong and we are still seeing a lot of people who want to move to our beautiful community. 

January and February were pretty slow in terms of real estate sales, but we are seeing a pretty good March and hopefully, this trend will continue.