Logan Utah Real Estate

Logan #15 in Nation in Appreciation; UT #2

 The Logan, UT area has been ranked the 15th highest appreciating area from the 1st quarter of 2007 through the 1st quarter of 2008. We have seen an appreciation rate of 6 % the past year along with a 33% increase over the past 5 years.

Utah as a whole has done extremely well. Over the past 5 quarters in has had the highest appreciation rate as a state (5.58)%; this past quarter it dropped to number 2 behind Wyoming. A couple other Utah cities of note: Provo-Orem ranked 6th at 6.76%, Ogden-Clearfield ranked 9th with 6.64%, SLC ranked 22nd with 5.39% and St. George was at 235th with a drop of 3.65%.

Aren't we happy to own homes in Cache Valley! Now obviously 6% per year is not extremely high compared to a lot of other areas that have seen 20-30% per year; but at the same time we are still going at that consistent rate while most of the nation has began to decline. This is typical of Cache Valley: fairly conservative and extremely consistent.

It's still a great time to buy a home in Utah! Rates are still low, homes are affordable, and owners will continue to build wealth off of property ownership!

Kaleb Kunz

View all homes for sale at www.kalebkunz.com"Search MLS Listings"

Ok, so I'm going to put you all to sleep with a few statistics about our local real estate world. Now really, stats are important; maybe not as much as working and prospecting and all that good stuff, but they are important to see how we are doing.

What I've done is compared the first 5 months of 2008 to the last 5 months of 2007.

Here we go!

Time Period: August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007.

The biggest selling price range in the valley were the homes in the $120,000-220,000 range.  255 homes were sold during that 5 month time period.  Now compare that to the next $100K range...only 71 total homes were sold.  During that time the average price for a sold home was $197,927.  The average list price was $220,387 and the average sold price for condos was $114,229. 

Now compare that to January 1 -May 20, 2008.

The same 120-220K price range has the biggest number of sold homes at 215 (smaller than the previous time period but with the end of the month the number will be closer to 240.  At the next price range the number is once again smaller at 58.  The average price sold home is slightly higher at $199,343 and the average list price was 225,642.  The average sold condo rose higher to $126,000. 

Currently on the market there are 648 homes (not including mobile and manufactured homes) listed and 136 homes undercontract.

So what does this all mean to us?  Here's my take: The mid-priced home range has continued to be in high demand with buyers....which to me is typical of the economic make up of Cache Valley.  The higher priced range has slowed down somewhat but not by much.  Obviously the homes are keeping there values and actually increasing somewhat. 

I'm personally pretty excited to see the increase in condo values. The 2 my wife and I own have been great investments so far!

So everybody, agents and consumers alike:  The market is still going, despite what the rest of the nation sounds like :) Real Estate still is a great investment and there is a lot of money to be made for those who put the work into it!

Kaleb

Here's a quick market summary for real estate in Cache County:

1st Quarter numbers: THe average priced sold home in Cache Country dropped just under $1000 from $186,200 to $185,800.  The number of homes sold dropped from 249 to 217.  The number of listings in the 1st quarter jumped from 429 to 556.

More than likely for the next 2 quarters we should see an increase in the number of homes sold in the valley as well as an increase in the average sold price. Speaking of the average sold price in Cache County; since 2004 it has increased, albeit small compared to some states, in a consistent pattern.  Cache County has never been one to follow the rest of the Nation's hotspots in uncontrolled growth.  Instead we see around the valley consistent growth and rarely see the drops in value that the majority of the nation has seen the past 9 months.

Now with that, it's important to note that there are some sections of the market in Cache County that have been hit.  New spec homes 300K and above have been sitting and these sellers are going to have to drop prices to move their homes.  Homes in the 150-250K range that have been moving so well have seen a little trouble with appraisals coming in $1000-5000 below the contracted price.  Now whether that's because the lenders have been pressuring appraisors to be more conservative or the value is just not there, the problem remains.  I tend to lean toward the first thought....it's hard to say a home is not valued well when you have 2-3 offers on the home but the appraisor won't substantiate the price????? Obviously there's some issure there but that's a blog for another time.

Thanks!

http://www.kalebkunz.com

http://realestatelogan.com