Showing posts with label Market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Market. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Staging Your Home For A Spring Sale


Staging your home for spring sale
Any home stager will tell you that “staging is staging” and the principals remain the same throughout the year—keep things clean, clutter free and colorful. But that doesn’t each season comes without its own brand of staging magic.
For spring, there are a number of things you can do both inside and outside to take advantage of the beautiful weather.
Barb Schwarz, creator of Homes Staging® and CEO of Stagedhomes.com, suggests adding splashes of color to your porch with potted flowers. She favors larger pots placed on each side of the front door bearing tulips or daisies with greenery in the middle.
Bringing spring colors into a home is just as easy, especially with accessories like throw pillows, area rugs, artwork, towels and bedspreads.
staging your home for spring“Change accessories and the whole house changes,” Schwarz said. Swap-out decorative pillows on a sofa for a fresh, new look. “This year nature colors are really in; green is really big and hot orange is an accent that is strong.”
Designers recommend using other knickknacks that speak of spring, such as pears, eggs, sea shells, nature, leaf patterns in fabrics, wicker, real leather and rust metal as contrast.
Schwarz said it’s also a good idea to replace the drapery panels in a home or office. She recently changed a den from a daisy pattern in blue to cream plain panels that went from ceiling to the floor “and the whole room looked bigger and more elegant,” she said.
Of course, all rooms in the house are important and there are ways to liven up each one as the spring season blooms. You want the buyer to buy the whole house, not just one or two rooms staged, so it’s important to create a cohesive design.
Yet don’t forget your “great outdoors.” Clean up your yards, remove fallen leaves and dead plants, and trim bushes and hedges.
Indeed, spring brings more buyers so take advantage of all that the season has to offer.

Monday, April 9, 2012

February 2012 Utah County Housing Statistics



Housing Statistics
Pending home sales posted a tenth straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 564 which is up 37.9% this February. Closed sales are back up with a 7.7% increase, sitting at 337 sales last February and 363 sales this year. This should continue to increase with the high pending home sales.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. February new listings were down 9.1%. This has pushed our total inventory down 25.1% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 6.7 months, a 33.7% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County February 2012 Utah Housing Statistics

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

January 2012 Utah County Housing Statistics


Housing StatisticsPending home sales posted a ninth straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 478 which is up 23.8% this January. Closed sales did dip slightly with a 4.8% decrease, with 333 sales last January and 317 sales this year. This should rebound though with the jump in pending home sales.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. January new listings were down 10.7%. This has pushed our total inventory down 22.8% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 7.0 months, a 31.3% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County January 2012 Housing Statistics

Friday, December 16, 2011

October 2011 Utah County Housing Statistics



Housing StatisticsFor the fifth straight month closed home sales have posted at double digit gain over the prior year. October put us at 16.8% over 2010 closed sales, pushing our year to date at 366 more sales than last year, an 8.8% increase. This trend should continue as pending sales posted a sixth straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 19.1% this October compared to last and YTD we are up 12.6%.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. October new listings were down 15.3% and YTD we are down 14.5%. This has pushed our total inventory down 18.8% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 8.0 months, a 24.0% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County October 2011 Housing Statistics

Friday, November 4, 2011

Utah's Housing Affordability Index Reaches Record High


Housing Affordability IndexWhile some would have you believe that the sky is falling when it comes to real estate, Chicken Little is actually craning his neck because the housing affordability index is so high!
Since 1970 the National Association of REALTORS has been tracking this index. Earlier this year we reached the all time record high for this index! As of September, 2011, Utah’s index is at 168!
Housing Affordability Index 1970 - 2011The index is designed to show the relationship between the median income and the median home price, it also takes into consideration the current interest rate. To put it more simply the index represents the percentage of the median income needed to purchase a median price home. In other words, in Utah right now, a family earning a median income makes 168% of what is required to purchase a median priced home.
housing affordabilityWhy is this important? Well first off it’s good news in the sense that more people can afford to be homeowners. This is especially important when you consider that current studies are showing that it’s more expensive to rent than to own! Secondly, if a median income family wants to buy a median priced home they will be spending less per month on that home than they would have just a few short years ago!
With decreasing inventories, home prices stabilizing, and interest rates at historic lows, coupled with this record high Housing Affordability Index; it really is a great time to buy a home!

Monday, October 31, 2011

September 2011 Utah County Housing Statistics



Housing StatisticsFor the fourth straight month closed home sales have posted at double digit gain over the prior year. September put us at 19.0% over 2010 closed sales, pushing our year to date at 288 more sales than last year, a 7.6% increase. This trend should continue as pending sales posted a fifth straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 35.6% this September compared to last and YTD we are up 12.7%.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. September new listings were down 7.5% and YTD we are down 14.5%. This has pushed our total inventory down 19.8% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 8.3 months, a 21.6% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County September 2011 Housing Statistics
Utah County Median Sales September 2011

Friday, October 28, 2011

Home Affordable Refinance Program Offers Hope, But More Must Be Done for Home Owners

Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.
Copyright 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

August 2011 Utah County Housing Statistics


Housing StatisticsFor the third straight month closed home sales have posted at double digit gain over the prior year. August put us at 27.0% over 2010 closed sales, pushing our year to date at 199 more sales than last year, a 5.8% increase. This trend should continue as pending sales posted a fourth straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 34.1% this August compared to last and YTD we are up 11.5%.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. August listings were down 16.4% and YTD we are down 15.3%. This has pushed our total inventory down 20.1% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 8.7 months, a 18.9% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County Housing Statistics August 2011Utah County Median Sales Price August 2011

Friday, September 16, 2011

More Great Utah Housing Market News!


housingThe first piece of good news comes from Fiserv, the creator of the Case-Shiller Indexes. The company recently said housing prices are projected to rise in all Utah metro areas by the beginning of 2013. The analysis is part of a forecast for more than three hundred eighty metro areas.
By the first quarter of 2013, Fiserv says home prices should be up eight-and-a-half percent in Ogden-Clearfield, more than five percent in Salt Lake, more than five percent in St. George, nearly five percent in Logan and around one percent in Provo-Orem.
Fiserv says prices will dip further in 2011 with modest appreciation in 2012. Between 2012 and 2013, more than ninety-five percent of all U.S. metro areas will have seen prices rise.
The forecast is based on the Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes, with data supplemented from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fiserv and Moody’s Analytics created the forecasts, which were published in early August.
The second highlight comes from CNN Money’s “Best Places to Live” list. Five Utah cities were on the list that evaluated “America’s best small towns.” The top Utah town was Farmington, coming in at number twelve. The Davis County town got top marks for affordable homes, low taxes, job opportunities, a small-town atmosphere and financial soundness.
Other Utah cities that did well were number twenty-three North Salt Lake, number sixty-three North Logan, number eighty-one Lindon and number eighty-five Draper.
With five cities on the list, Utah had the highest number of best places, along with twelve other states. No state had more than five cities on the list, and many states did not have any towns featured.
The final highlight is Salt Lake City’s recognition by Inman News as one of the top markets for real estate agents. Utah’s capital recently ranked number four on the group’s list of metros where real estate professionals are doing comparatively well. The report looked at sales, median prices, real estate licensee data and Realtor membership counts for its analysis.
More great news… check out utahREpro aka Chris Nichols on ABC 4 News this week:
And don’t forget the latest in statistics for Utah County and Utah State!