"Champagne taste on a beer budget?" This is the one!! Gorgeous 6 bdrm, 3 bath home lovingly updated!! Newer flooring, paint, furnace, A/C, water heater, kitchen w/granite counters & new appliances, fam rm w/surround, HUGE 2 car garage, large deck & more!! A MUST SEE!!!
| Beautifully cared for, large family home. 6 bdrms, 3 baths, family/living rm w/f/p, family rm wired for surround sound w/dimmer lites, ceilings fans throughout, new windows, 2010 furnace, A/C, & water heater, kitchen w/ granite counters & updated appliances, some newer carpet, lots of extra storage, new garage door & opener, large deck w/ sensor lites, fully fenced yard. Garage is extra wide, RV parking. Exterior is brick & steel siding. This one is a must see!! $159,900!!!!
|
And we sold this baby in 18 days!!
“It’s hard to argue against buying a house now, assuming you can get a loan,” writes John Waggoner, a columnist with USA Today. Sure, Waggoner says that getting a credit check for approval of a mortgage can be a “only slightly less intrusive than a CIA background check,” but for those who are able to qualify, a lot of analysts say that now can be a good time to purchase a home.
1. The price is right. The median single-family home price hit its lowest in more than a decade when it reached $154,600 in January, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. That was the lowest since October 2001. During the height of the housing market in July 2006, the median home price for a single-family home was $230,900.
2. It’s cheaper to buy than rent. In nearly every major metro market, it is cheaper to buy a home than rent. Rents have been on the rise the last few years and are predicted to continue to rise. Meanwhile, home affordability is at record highs, which means that buying a home is more within reach to the median income family.
3. Inventories of for-sale homes are shrinking. Ned Davis Research estimates that excess inventories of homes to be eliminated by the end of next year. “When excess supply dries up, people start building more new houses, which has the virtuous effect of reducing the unemployment rate and increasing the economy generally,” according to the USA Today article.
4. Mortgage rates are at record lows. Mortgage rates have hovered near record lows for weeks, which has helped pushing housing affordability higher. For example, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, which is the most popular among home buyers, is 3.59 percent, according to Freddie Mac—just above its record low set on July 26 of 3.49 percent average. “It’s conceivable that at some point in the next 30 years, your interest rate would be less than the rate of inflation,” writes Waggoner for USA Today.
Source: “If You Can Pull it Off, a House is a Smart Investment,” USA Today (Aug. 9, 2012)
Some Americans are still jittery over the housing market, but here are eight positive signs that should quell some of their fears.
But while the signs point to a housing market on the mend, some Americans still remain hesitant. Many Americans are still underwater on their mortgage, owing more on their home than it is currently worth. Also, the economy continues to weigh on the recovery, particularly a dampening employment outlook, which analysts see as tied to housing.
Still, The Wall Street Journal concludes in a recent article that if you take into account all the positive signs lately in the housing market, “housing presents an attractive long-term investment that should hold steady or even have upside surprise in the short term.”
Source: “Finally, It Is Time to Buy a House,” The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 1, 2012)
Median home price in Salt Lake rises for first time in 5 years
Real estate » Seller’s market emerges amid low inventories.
By Tom Harvey
| The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jul 26 2012 10:36 am • Updated 3 hours ago
The Salt Lake-area single-family home market has suddenly shifted sellers’ way. But at the same time buyers are finding mortgage interest rates at record lows — meaning that selling prices are rising for the first time since the 2007 collapse of the housing bubble.
The single-family median price was $214,900 in the second quarter, up nearly 6 percent from the same period in 2011, the Salt Lake Board of Realtors said Thursday in releasing its quarterly statistics.
The last time prices increased in Salt Lake County was in the second quarter of 2007, when the median reached a peak of $256,000.
Donna Pozzuoli, president of the Realtors group, said inventories of foreclosures have fallen, short sales (in which a lender agrees to accept a price worth less than the outstanding loan) are proceeding more quickly and interest rates are very low.
That means "we’re getting multiple offers because we’ve got sellers ready to listen for a change and buyers who are feeling confident enough to proceed with the low interest rates," she said. "I think that’s what’s really driving it."
Realtors said they are having to educate potential buyers about the change in the market from one in which they had a greater choice of houses and could make offers below the seller’s asking price.
On Thursday, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said the average rate for 30-year fixed mortgages was down to 3.5 percent, the lowest over the past 60 years. The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage also was at a record low, 2.8 percent.
Kimberlee Casaday, the president of residential lending for Zions Bank, said the bank has seen an increase of about 30 percent in loan applications this year over last. A variety of loan products, low interest rates and affordable prices that are back to levels of several year ago are driving up consumer confidence, she said.
In Davis County, the median sales prices rose 3.42 percent from the second quarter of 2011 to the same period this year, to $196,500. In Utah County, the increase was less sharp, from $191,900 in 2011 to $195,000, or a 1.62 percent increase.
