Displaying blog entries 51-59 of 59
Here are this month's most important national real estate statistics, facts and figures. Please contact us directly to discuss how they affect you locally! 435-767-9821, or larkingroup@gostgeorge.com
It's fall in Dixie!! That means 2 things: 1. Lots of football, and 2. Tons of Southern Utah residents overwatering their lawns. In this quick video, Jeremy Larkin of the Larkin Group gives some time-tested advice about getting your St. George area sprinkler clocks turned back, spoken as a life-time local who know a bit about Southern Utah lawns.
WHY are home sales down?
Today, on GoStGeorgeTV, we’re going to answer the question: “Can I trust the Zillow home price estimate?”
Zillow has become a wildly popular online tool to get a quick estimated value of home values. We estimate that eight out of ten Sellers we work with first go to Zillow to get an initial estimate for their home. With so many users, so many millions of homes, and having those homes spread across the entire United States, is it possible that the site could have inaccurate estimates? We’ll take a look at the three traditional values for a home and compare them with the Zillow value.
1. The first value is the assessed value.
2. The second value is the appraised value.
3. The third value is the market value.
I want to remind you regardless of what you are hearing in the news about the real estate market, it is the media’s job to embellish reality! If St. George real estate is warming up, the media defines is as a “meteoric rise.” And if it’s cooling? Same pattern, just opposite direction.
So my job is to interpret the truth of the St. George real estate market, then report that to you regularly! Check out our video below to find out what the TRUTH really is about St. George real estate!
2014: Year of Steady Growth
*This post was originally published in January 2014.
Everywhere I go, I am always asked about the current state of the market. To be honest, there is no simple answer. The answer always depends whether you will be buying or selling. However, 2012 was considered a “recovery” year for the St. George market, 2013 was considered a “stabilization” year and now we are banking on 2014 being a really strong “growth” year. What I mean by a “growth” year is that home values are still very strong, interest rates are still very low and buyers in the marketplace. 2014 has the potential to be a good year to both buy and sell!
Check out our video below to find out what Jeremy predicts for the St. George real estate market in 2014!
Have specific questions about your buying or selling situation? We'd love to answer them! Contact us at larkingroup@gostgeorge.com or 435-767-9821. Your confidentiality will ALWAYS be protected!
Something we will be trying to do this year is periodically feature local businesses, people and events that we think are just worth talking about. NO ONE IS PAYING US FOR THESE PLUGS!
We did that in this episode with Town & Country Bank. These guys are just plain "cool" and their "Concierge Banking" is banking like you've never imagined! Check them out in our video.
Now the question on MANY people's minds right now is this: "What is in store for St. George Real Estate?"
It's a question that could be answered with many other questions, but here is my 2-cents as we plow into 2010 in earnest.
5 Reasons St. George Real Estate will Survive (and eventually THRIVE)
There you have it, Jeremy Larkin 101 on why St. George Real estate will continue to be something worth while to live, work and invest in.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:
The tides are a turnin' in many parts of the St. George area real estate market this month! Friends and clients on my mailing list have been hearing about this for the past few months and the positive news keeps coming.
In an article from today's "Spectrum" newspaper titled "Local Economy Stabilizing", local & regional economist Lecia Langston said Washington County's economy is beginning to stabilize. Well it's about time!
For so long our area was "insulated" from the major ebbs and flows of the economy, feeling only a percentage of the cyclical changes that may have been felt in other major metropolitan areas. Why? Well if you live here you know the answer, and if you are moving here you also understand. Great location, weather, scenery, national parks, low crime, the works!
Outside of all the economists' hard-to-understand charts and graphs, what we are seeing "on the ground" is this: Properties hitting the market and selling in a few days or less for list or even above list price, with the final price and terms being determined through a "bidding war." (see this WSJ article on just that: BIDDING WARS)
Here are some hard figures to consider:
| February | |||
| Total Pending | 264 | ||
| Total Active Listings | 2650 | % | |
| Total Sold (30 days) | 106 | Sold | |
| % of Total | |||
| Active REO | 178 | 7% | |
| Active Short Sale | 440 | 17% | |
| Active Retail | 2020 | 76% | |
| Sold REO | 39 | 37% | 22% |
| Sold Short Sale | 9 | 8% | 2% |
| Sold Retail | 58 | 55% | 3% |
| May 5 #'s | |||
| Total Active Listings | 2337 | ||
| Total Pending | 430 | % | |
| Total Sold (30 days) | 202 | Sold | |
| % of Total | |||
| Active REO | 133 | 6% | |
| Active Short Sale | 472 | 20% | |
| Active Retail | 1733 | 74% | |
| Sold REO | 67 | 33% | 50% |
| Sold Short Sale | 37 | 18% | 8% |
| Sold Retail | 98 | 49% | 6% |
1. "Pending" sales up nearly 40% since February. All of the major financial and housing experts use pending sales as a major indicator of housing market health.
2. "Active" listings down 12% in that same time frame. Real estate, just like handguns and hammers, is about supply and demand. Lower supply is what we want.
There is still a TON of foreclosure inventory coming, but I think this is a good thing. Why? Because every well-priced home that hits the market right now, especially under $300k, is selling in just a few days. This tells us the public is finally ready to pull the proverbial trigger and get into the housing market.
Housing has always driven the rest of the financial markets. When people are buying, sellers are getting paid and spending that $$ on other homes, goods and services. In that process, real estate agents, title and mortgage people also get paid. They in turn spend money, and the eternal sales cycle continues.
Please feel free to comment or ask questions on this page about the figures above, as well as your personal opinions about the market. Onward!
I love good news, don't you? In a period of NEVER-ENDING financial pain, death, destruction and just generally bad news once again my beloved Beehive State is a ray of light.
In second edition of a report called "Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index", Utah was just ranked #1 in terms of its' forecasted ability to recover economically.
Here are the top and bottom 5:
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TOP FIVE STATES |
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BOTTOM FIVE STATES |
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1. Utah |
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46. New Jersey |
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2. Colorado |
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47. Maine |
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3. Arizona |
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48. Rhode Island |
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4. Virginia |
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49. Vermont |
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5. South Dakota |
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50. New York
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Sorry New York - things don't look bright for you. And they beat up on California of course for more over-spending, tax hiking and general stupidity in policy-making.
Full Article HERE.
Displaying blog entries 51-59 of 59
