June 2017 Salt Lake City Real Estate Market Heartbeat
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For June I want to take a minute to alleviate some fears. We've heard out there through the media, social media, just the rumor mill in general that it's a crazy seller's market and that if you're a buyer, don't even bother. And I know that I've even said it's a crazy seller's market, and it is, but it's not impossible for buyers to buy. It feels like it. It feels like, if you find the house that you want, which is a long shot anyway, but if you find it, then you're going to be competing with ten or more other people, the price is going to go, you're going to have to go tens of thousands of dollars over the asking price, which you can't afford, and you're probably not going to get it anyway, so why even bother.
And that's not 100% true.
The frenetic-ness of the beginning of the year market has calmed a little bit. (I don't know if "frenetic-ness" is a word, but I'm going to use it today like it is.) I got some statistics from Utah Real Estate, which is where we input our listings for sale and and also marked them as sold with their final sold prices here in the valley. And in the first quarter only 26% of houses sold for over asking price. That's 74% of houses that didn't. It'll probably go up a little bit for the second quarter, but it's not going to be a ton - it's not going to flip flop the other way. So there are houses that are going for over asking price. They're usually in a lower price point, like under $300,000 or in very desireable neighborhoods - so pockets of Sugarhouse, South Jordan, different areas here and there will do that. But it's not 100% of the houses in 100% of neighborhoods.
There are tons of houses that are going for close to asking price or slightly under. So it's not - all that hype isn't 100% true 100% of the time. We have about 3 months of inventory still so it's still a seller's market out there and it is harder for buyers, but it's not impossible.
I just had a buyer a couple weeks ago - we got her offer accepted on a condo that was listed and condos have been even harder than single family homes and she's under contract, she's got her inspection done this week and she'll be moving in in the next 2 to 3 weeks. So it's possible. We got in to see the house fast, we didn't drag our feet, we wrote a good offer, and she got it accepted. They even received another offer while they were deliberating over ours and took ours. So, it's possible.
I've got another offer I wrote today that, right now, doesn't have any other offers on it. Hopefully it will stay that way until we can get something worked out with that seller. But it's for sure a time you can buy a house. It's easier to sell it, but it's not impossible to buy. Having a good agent, who knows the market, who knows the contracts, who knows what makes offers stronger and weaker is definitely helpful to get you in there and also help set your expectations of what to expect and how to go about in your search.
So if you need any help at all or any questions at all, just give me a call.I'm always happy to help.
