Real Estate Info for Salt Lake & Davis County

What a year it’s been so far in 2008. If you read the papers or watch the news you’d think all of the homes in America stopped selling, and the next great housing depression has begun. Although I exaggerate, it is interesting to see how the national media, in particular, takes national averages and extrapolates that data to reflect the entire country.

The truth is, residential real estate is still a very localized phenomena. There are parts of the country which have been hammered in terms of price points (Las Vegas, California, Phoenix, large sections of Florida, etc) but others have been flourishing (many locations in the Midwest). Utah (and the Wasatch Front specifically) fall into the middle of the statistical heap. Although our sales activity is off between 20-30%, prices have held up reasonably well considering.

In spite of the unit sale slowdown mentioned earlier, average sale prices are holding up well with prices at the levels reported during the same period in 2007 for Davis County. Farmington specifically is reporting a slight overall increase in average price points of just under 4%. Much of this increase in the average is due to two large sales of over $900,000 during the reporting period.

Median sale prices have also held up well consider the slowdown in unit sales. When comparing Davis County to various other parts of the country (and even other areas of Utah), Davis County is holding up relatively well. The data indicates a clear slowdown, year to date, in the pace of sales activity, when compared year over year. However, the data also reflects a slower but still healthy market remains. The data confirms a continuation of the healthy buyer’s market which began to take shape in the first half of 2007.

It has been an interesting start to the year in terms of the real estate market. As you can imagine, there has been an abundance of reports relative to both the national and local real estate markets. There are as many different opinions as to the condition of the market as there are home styles .

My personal tendency is to simply look at the actual data, compare it year over year and try to avoid unsubstantiated anecdotal information when assessing the market. To that end, there is no denying a slowdown in the local real estate market in terms of unit sales activity and in terms of home price appreciation rates. Unit sales have declined for both Davis County and Farmington specifically. To give some perspective, however, it should be noted the unit sale activity level in the first five months of 2008 is nearly identical to the unit sales activity during the same period of 2004. At the time, 2004 unit sales established a new record level of unit sales activity (it was followed by new records set in 2005 & 2006.

In spite of the unit sale slowdown in first five months of the year, average sale prices are holding up well with very modest gains reported in both Davis County and Farmington. Median sale prices have fallen due to the severe slowdown in sales of homes in the over $600,000 price range. However, this reduction in median price points in Farmington is still in the single digits. Overall, when comparing Davis County to various other parts of the country (and even other areas of Utah) you find Davis County is holding up relatively well. The data indicates a clear slowdown, year to date, in the pace of sales activity, when compared year over year. However, the data also reflects a slower but still healthy market remains with a continuation of the healthy buyer’s market which began to take shape in the first half of 2007. This presents a good opportunity for either first time home buyers or for “move up” buyers as the affordability index has improved over the past 12 months.