Yes, Home Sales Up in Salt Lake County

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By Lesley Mitchell

RISMEDIA, Oct. 28, 2008-(MCT)-Sales of existing homes in Salt Lake County in September were up 13 percent from last year, marking the first month in nearly two years that Utah’s most populous area has seen a year-over-year increase.

If the trend continues in the coming months, it could signal the Wasatch Front’s sagging real estate market may be on the mend, says the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.

“I think we’ve hit the bottom, said Jillinda Bowers, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. “There are some good deals to be had, and buyers are taking advantage of those deals.”

September’s strong showing, however, could be only a temporary blip attributable mainly to the elimination of a popular down-payment assistance program. Many buyers rushed to purchase properties in September before the program ended Oct. 1.

Under the program, sellers, using a nonprofit intermediary, could provide buyers with most or all of their down payment.

The program was eliminated due to the fact that loans in which buyers received down-payment assistance have a high rate of foreclosure.

Although sales in Salt Lake County were up in September, other data continue to show weakness in the housing market. September’s 1,033 home sales in Salt Lake County, for example, were down 1 percent from the 1,046 sales that took place in August. Rising monthly sales are a key indicator of a market’s health.

Home prices are also showing weakness. The median price of all properties sold in September in Salt Lake County was $220,000, down 2 percent from September 2007 and down nearly 10 percent from a peak of $243,000 in June 2007.

Nationwide, home sales and prices began to weaken several years ago after years of booming sales and large increases in selling prices. The housing market along the Wasatch Front, however, started to weaken last summer.

Years of home-price run-ups made homes less affordable to a growing number of Utah families and tighter lending standards put in place last summer in response to the nation’s subprime lending crisis made it harder to qualify for home loans.

Nationwide, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose by 5.5 percent from August to September, the largest monthly gain since a 5.6 percent rise in July 2003, during the five-year housing boom.

Even with the gain in sales, though, the median sales price has dropped to $191,600, down by 9 percent from a year ago.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said a sales turnaround first seen in California was beginning to broaden to other regions of the country, including Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Rhode Island.

He said housing may be starting to find a bottom.

But he and other experts say any turnaround could be put off by continued economic weakness nationally.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Copyright © 2008, The Salt Lake Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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