Home Sales are increasing, not decreasing, in Salt Lake City

From the Salt Lake Trib's Lesley Mitchell this morning:

"The state's downward spin began in mid-2007 in residential real estate with a sharp fall in home sales. But what began as a real estate-oriented downturn with layoffs at home builders, real estate brokerages and title companies, has expanded to many different sectors of the economy."

While the outlook may seem grim, there is a silver lining to this dreary cloud. Previously owned home sales in the U.S. have unexpectedly started to rise. Even sales of condos and co-ops have jumped slightly. And nearly half of these sales were of distressed properties, such as foreclosures.

This is good news for small scale investors. These seem to be the main group buying up existing distressed properties and installing renters, rather than face the still comatose retail sales market. Add to that the fresh burst of growing Utah families in need of a new home, the recently passed new home tax incentive bill for $6000, the federal tax incentive for home buyers of $8000 and this could be the perfect storm for those who would normally not be able to find or afford a decent home.

Also, it should be noted that while it does seem existing home sales in Utah have plummeted from February of last year to February this year, this is only when lumping sales for Salt Lake County as a whole. Market trends are entirely unique to neighborhoods and the style of the homes. Let's look at year-to-date sales in 2009 compared to the first quarter of last year, according to the Fantis Report based on MLS data. 84105 is down only 1% with a new average sale price of $287,580. Neighboring that zip code is 84106. It's average sale price fell 15% to $236,145. That's a huge difference. Or is it?

Bear in mind these numbers may not truly reflect what happened to everyone's home value. For example, there just aren't many high-end homes selling right now. That really skews the averages downward. It's possible to have more value in your home now than you did last year. The only way to know is with an individual assessment by a qualified appraiser or Realtor who knows your neighborhood well.

Now as to why these numbers are up is anyone's guess. I suspect this may be because homes are starting to price a bit better and we are nearing the bottom of the market. Also, Utah has not been affected as drastically as the rest of the nation and there are a lot more incentives out in the market right now to buy in those hot spots of the city.