Many U.S. Cities saw an increase in home prices last quarter

The National Association of Realtors released first quarter home price statistics for 152 metropolitan areas showing that 91 of those areas saw increases in sales prices as compared to the same quarter last year.

Salt Lake, however saw an 11.4% decrease for the same period, only eight other areas reported larger decreases. While buyers are greatly appreciating the low housing prices in this market, sellers are finding the low sales prices very disappointing.

The upside of this market is, first, that the low prices (along with the federal tax credit) have greatly increased the number of homes being sold along the Wasatch Front and pricing generally follow the sales trends.  This indicates that an increase in values us forthcoming.  The second positive point to this market is that Utah’s housing market generally follows behind the trend of the rest of the country.  Utah’s values peaked much later than other similar markets and after many of those markets experienced similar declines and foreclosure rates to Utah, those same markets saw some of the biggest increases in the country.

With the expiration of the tax credit, the nation is in a market which has never before existed in our history, so the condition of our housing market over then next few months is incredibly difficult to predict. But, the long term view for Utah looks good. Dave Anderton, the communications director for the Salt Lake Board of Realtors stated, “Sales drive pricing… As sales come back we will see prices stabilize and actually increase over the next year.” I have to agree that the signs are pointing in that direction.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 11:14 am and is filed under Economy, Market Conditions, Selling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.