Thursday, April 17, 2008 - Salt Lake City Ut Real Estate - Timing the Market

Are you trying to time the market? It's interesting when I talk to buyers and sellers, I always hear "well I think prices are going to come down some more", or "we're waiting to buy until the market bottoms out."

Real estate prices are controlled by one thing, and one thing only. Supply and demand. It's really very simple. Let's take look.

Right now we have 7705 active listings in Salt Lake County. 2460 were listed in the last 30 days, and 1130 were put under contract. 1384 listings have expired or didn't sell, and we have sold 899 properties in the last 30 days.

Salt Lake 1	April 17,2008
Active	7705
Active -30	2460
U/C -30	1130
Expired	1384
Sold	899
Supply	8.57

In the week of January 17, 2008 we had 550 properties sell. For this week, we had 899 sell. That is a 63% increase in the number of sales. Back in January, the average sales price was $274,644, February was $276,009, and March was $275,057. Average sales price for April so far is $284,423. Is it possible the bottom has come and gone?

If you have been waiting for the bottom, I would mobilize all your efforts right now (in other words, get your butt in to the lender and get pre-approved), 'cause you could miss the boat if you're not careful.