Even more impressive is the huge advantage Cornerstone has for the number of buyer transactions among the major Cache Valley Real Estate brokerages. For the second quarter, Cornerstone had nearly three times more buyers transactions than Parker Real Estate, Youngblood Real Estate, and ERA Advantage Realty. It also had nearly twice as many transactions as Century 21, @Home Realty Network, and Coldwell Banker.

via Logan Utah Real Estate.

 In Logan the amount of homes sold during January was around the same amount as last year but as for the Average Sales Price, that wasn’t the case. Last January the Average Sales Price was $172,173. That is around $57,000 more than January of this year. Other cities in Cache County are experiencing  the same decline in home sales. In Providence, Smithfield and Hyrum the number of homes sales is pretty much always in the single digits anyways but there has still been some decline in their home sales. In Providence, homes sales were barely down from December’s home sales but before December home sales were higher with 7 and 9 home sales rather than only having 3 and 4 home sales like December and January did. But unlike Logan, Providence’s Average Sale Price is up more than $4,500 from last January, not down. In Smithfield and Hyrum, homes sales went down as well. Although both cities already have low home sale numbers anyways, January wasn’t any better. Smithfield went from 11 homes sold during December to 6 homes sold during January. Hyrum went from 5 homes sold during December to 0 homes sold the entire month of January.

Information Thanks to the wonderful Alan Barker!

While the housing market in Cache County is doing pretty well, Cache County Land is far from recovery. For residential lots of less than an acre, we’re looking at more than three YEARS of active inventory. The prices of these Cache County lots still need to come down in price by about 15-30%. Here is a break down of Cache County Land Sales Number and prices for lots less than an acre.

Lot’s Less Than .25 Acres

Lots smaller than a quarter acre are rarely sold individually. Neighborhoods with smaller lots are generally owned buy builders and developers. But, for the few lots that actually did sell last year, this was one of the bright spots. Nine smaller lots sold last year, and there are less than seven currently for sale. That’s less than a years worth of inventory!

Prices of the Lots for Sale are also doing well. The list price of the current Cache County Properties for sale is about par, or even less than the average sold price the last three years.

Lots Between .26-.5 Acres

Now this is where it starts to get ugly. There are currently 113 residential lots for sale in Cache County. Only 34 properties in this range sold last year. That is nearly 40 months of inventory. Not only is there a huge surplus of these types of lots for sale, but the average price of the active listings is $22,00 higher than the average sold price last year. The most ridiculous thing is that these list prices are still higher than lots of this size have EVER sold for. Sellers need to face reality and substantially lower their prices.

Lots Between .5-.74 Acres

Between half an acre and .74 acres there are 55 lots for sale. Last year, only 8 sold. That is 132 months of active inventory. The median list price of these type of lots is $33,000 higher than the median price of the ones that sold last year.

Lots Between .75-.99 Acres

The larger lots less than an acre are also struggling. Only five of these properties sold last year. There are 28 properties currently for sale. The average list price of these properties is higher than they have ever sold before. The current median list price is $169,000. Four lots sold in 2009 and these lots had a median sales price of $76,000.

Real Estate in Cache County is pretty healthy for homes priced less than $160,000. This price is the median point for home sales, meaning that half of the homes that sold were $160,000 or less. The interesting thing is that of the current active home listings, only 1/3rd are priced below $160,000. This essentially means that if you are buying a home in the higher price ranges, you have twice as much inventory to choose from, including more short sale properties.

Compared with the homes that sold last year, there is less than 7 months of active inventory for listings priced less than $160,000. Cache County Homes priced between $160,000 and $180,000 see 7.36 months of inventory, and homes priced above $180,000 have more than 10 months of inventory.

As you can see, homes priced above $500,000 are having a very difficult time selling. Last year just eight of these high end homes sold. There are currently 44 homes priced above half a million on the market. On average these homes have already been on the market for 310 days.

Presented by Cornerstone Real Estate Professionals
Your Source for Logan Utah Real Estate

1. Buy or enter into a binding contract to buy a principal residence on or before April 30, 2010 and close on the home by June 30, 2010.

2. If purchased in 2010 you can file for the credit on your 2009 or 2010 return.

3. “Long Time Homeowners” who buy a replacement residence may claim a credit of up to $6,500. They must have lived in the same principal residence for any 5 consecutive year period during the eight year period that ended on the date the replacement home is purchased.

4.  “First Time Homebuyer” is a taxpayer who has not owned and occupied another main home at any time during the three years beginning on the date of purchase.

Hopefully that will help straighten out the main concerns. Please ask if you need more details.

Within the last two weeks, the number of homes on the market in Logan, Utah has risen by nearly 5%. Exactly one week ago, Cache County had 687 residential real estate listings. Right now there are 720.

Last year we did hit inventory levels this high until around March, when the Spring listing season typically hits. March and April are typically big months for listing homes for sale.

Some of the increase in inventory can be attributed to the $6,500 move up tax credit. People want to sell by April so they can get the government money when they buy their new homes. However, this sharp spike in the number of homes for sale in Logan is alarming. Home prices will continue to decline as long as there are more homes on the market than there are buyers. At last years pace of home sales, we have more than 9 months of Cache County real estate inventory right now.

via Logan Utah Real Estate Market Conditions, Statistics, and Information: Number of Homes for Sale in Logan Rising Quickly.

I read an article in which James Wood, who is the main housing economist for Univeristy of Utah said that he believes homes in the Salt Lake area reached their low point in the first quarter of 2009.  Other national economists agree with this as far as a national bottom as well.

So what does this mean for real estate in 2010? I will tell you what some forcasts are…

1. Sales will improve over the next 2 years but not reach normal trend levels until 2012

2. US home sales will be 15% higher in 2010

3. The US bottom for home prices may not hit until mid 2010 due to Obama’s loan modification plan. This plan delayed many foreclosures that will now come onto the market next spring causing prices to drop again.

4. US home prices could increase 3 to 5 percent next year once the distressed homes sales begin to decline.

5. Utah home prices will bottom by spring or summer 2010.

So, we are on the mend. Now is a great time to buy and the outlook is getting better for sellers. In todays market the most important factor for sellers is to price their home right. For ideas on this please visit my sellers section or give me a call!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!