A penny for your thoughts

[MR.CJ-7]

I'm just curious...

How do you feel abut the housing market in Utah?
What brought you to the state?
How long have you lived in your current home/apartment?
Any thoughts of taking advantage of the current market to move up to a bigger home?

I know what my opinions are, but I want to see what others think!

btw, the penny offer is legit...you just have to DRIVE to my house to pick it up!!!

 

[Spork]

How do you feel abut the housing market in Utah?

It sucks, Wages aren't high enough for cost of housing.

What brought you to the state?

Never found a good enough reason to leave.

How long have you lived in your current home/apartment?

7 years

Any thoughts of taking advantage of the current market to move up to a bigger home?

No. But the thought of a better job out of state has crossed my mind.

 

[RockMonkey]

The current situation benefits those who are prepared to take advantage of it, and hurts those who were irresponsibly on the ragged edge to begin with. The situation is temporary, so if you intend to take advantage of it, do it now. We have been in our current house about a year and a half, and used the housing market slowdown to jump on a lower interest rate and shorter term loan. Rates are already on their way back up. I think 2009 will be a great year for all facets of the housing market. Approximately 50% of our household income is closely tied to the housing market, and we have definitely felt it this year, but it is already starting to pick back up. Demand has not decreased, the population has not declined. Consumer confidence has just caused many to delay purchases that they will make eventually. When consumer confidence increases the housing market will take off again.

My .02. YMMV

 

[Milner]

Agreed, there is a divide between average wages and average home price. Not as bad as Some states, but....I have friends in CA in much worse positions, and friends in the mid west and further east that can get into similar housing that would be 30-40% more here. (SLC Valley)

The Government should NOT bail people out that are facing foreclosure. If you bought more than you can afford, it is your fault! If you did not educate yourself and weigh your options, it is your fault. Nobody else is obligated to help you. If a deal/loan/whatever seemed too good to be true, it was!! I have made poor finacial decission in the past, and I have paid the price, no one bailed me out!

We have been actively looking at houses for a few years now. The "slump" has not really affected prices in the SLC valley yet....on the houses in our range(200K give or take) Condo's have taken a hit of 10-20K in the same range though. The biggest problem I see is that people owe more than they can sell for. We have made offers on a few only to find out they owe the asking price....A LOT of people got in over their heads with fast talking "creative" loans and now are stuck. The other problem hindering sales are "gun shy" banks. There are so many defaults that they are not giving loans to anyone without excellent credit or 10-20% down....For us that means $20-40K. Who has that kind of cash without draining their retirement accounts?(which is already hurting due to the stock market)

So houses are sitting on the market, not moving, but not dropping either....

Personally I am hoping for about a 20% market adjustment to happen soon. That is the dif in what we can afford and what we want....

Just my $.02 from where we sit.

 

[RockMonkey]

The Government should NOT bail people out that are facing foreclosure. If you bought more than you can afford, it is your fault! If you did not educate yourself and weigh your options, it is your fault. Nobody else is obligated to help you. If a deal/loan/whatever seemed too good to be true, it was!! I have made poor finacial decission in the past, and I have paid the price, no one bailed me out!

Good point.

Personally I am hoping for about a 20% market adjustment to happen soon. That is the dif in what we can afford and what we want....

According to Zillow our home has seen a 14.5% drop in value from it's peak. I don't expect it to drop much more, and we are still well above what we paid 1.5 years ago.

When we first got married we bought a townhouse. It wasn't the house we wanted, but 6 years later we had enough equity to make nice down-payment on the house we did want. Just something to think about.

 

[Cody]

I bought a livable house under 200k, and my reasoning was that there will always be a market for livable homes under 200k. I actually paid 166k for it 12 of 06, and I think that by years end I will probably list it around 200k and see what happens. I figure that 2 years of growth (SLC has grown on average of about 13% over the last year), a back yard instead of a dirt lot, fence, paint, and other minor things ought to increase my value. Plus, when I moved in the neighborhood was all dirt lots, and it has since been developed into homes that are bigger/nicer than mine. The house next door sold for 249k, so I hope that all of that adds up to me at least being able to make enough back on it to put a good down payment on a place in a more desireable hood....

I just wish I had bought something, anything, 6 years ago when I started looking. I was only approved for 125k then, but had I bought any damn house for 125k it would be worth well over 200k by now. Hindsite is 20/20 I guess.

As for how and why I'm here. I popped out at St. Marks, and I happen to love all of the activities that Utah offers. I would have a hard time leaving, but I think it would be a good experience to get out for a couple years. We'll see what happens.


How accurate is Zillow? It lists me at 208k

 

[Bodine]

How do you feel abut the housing market in Utah?
What brought you to the state?
How long have you lived in your current home/apartment?
Any thoughts of taking advantage of the current market to move up to a bigger home?

As far as the housing market is concerned what was up is now coming down its a historical fact how do i know well i am historical.The housing market will rebound it always does.

I was born and raised in this state i have traveled to many places in the united states and have not been anywhere that I could honestly say man I would love to live here. I have always been glad to get back here and I become more grateful for the opportunity this state has to offer every time i come back from an extended stay in some other state.

My thoughts on a bigger home. I would rather live in a smaller less expensive livable home than upgrade. I upgraded 2 1/2 years ago and my home is now currently for sale I would rather go out and enjoy life than be a house payment hostage. I found that out the hard way.

 

[Herzog]

How accurate is Zillow? It lists me at 208k

Zillow has our house at $255k, which is very surprising to me. That's higher than I would expect, especially right now.

 

[Stephen]

I'm just curious...

How do you feel abut the housing market in Utah?

It's a buyers market! If you have the cash to lay out for a good down payment its the time to buy!

What brought you to the state?

Birth

How long have you lived in your current home/apartment?
Any thoughts of taking advantage of the current market to move up to a bigger home?

I've lived in my current place for about a year and a half. Its a rental duplex up in Sugarhouse. I haven't thought about moving because my wife and I don't know where we are going to end up in a few years. Plus, when we buy a house we want one that we really like, not just one for the sake of having a house. To do that we'll probably need a sizable chunk of change to lay down, and thats going to take some time to save up.

 

[Milner]

When we first got married we bought a townhouse. It wasn't the house we wanted, but 6 years later we had enough equity to make nice down-payment on the house we did want. Just something to think about.

Hind sight and all that....wish we had done similar, but I decide to "invest" elsewhere....Big Mistake! Took a few years to recover, still paying for some of that "youthful indescretion" Now just to get what we need is close to beyond our means. You think teachers are underpaid....I make less

As for the Utah market....in the long run you will never loose, realestate never does....
My parents paid $15k for their house in 1965. Today my mom could sell for near $400K.
A block away my Grandmother built a house for under $8K in the early 50's, well over $500K today....

 

[Cody]

well, you have to adjust for inflation too. 15k in 1965 was worth far more than 15k now.

 

[Milner]

well, you have to adjust for inflation too. 15k in 1965 was worth far more than 15k now.

Yep, but it's still a hella return on an investment.

 

[Batman]

My work brought me here a few years ago. I bought a small house but since my job is now permanent I am going to start looking at larger houses. I hope I can find a good deal with this housing market.

 

[Caleb]

How accurate is Zillow? It lists me at 208k

I wouldn't put too much trust into Zillow. My house isn't listed but a couple of my neighbors values are listed at $600K+ which is probably about $100K-150k too high (based on knowing what my home has recently appraised for and knowing how my home compares to theirs) and then another home a street over from me has recently been sold for just over $1mil and they have it valued at $525K. Like I said I wouldn't put too much trust into it.

 

[spencurai]

I date a real estate agent on and off that owns her own brokerage and does quite well in the business. When I spoke to her last week she said people are still buying and selling but the first time buyers are NOT getting approved anymore. You have to be a beacon of light as far as credit and down payment goes to get into a house these days. She is moving into the commercial side of real estate now because those people tend to have the capital to invest and can get approved.

Another thing she said is that real estate speculation dried up almost overnight. She had several clients who were making a lot of money buying and selling houses using the whole zero down, no payments for X months thing. She says she hasn't heard from speculators for months. The kicker is she is still in business so the real estate market isn't all that bad!

I have lived in Utah for about 80% of my life and I agree with most of the people on here. Utah suits my recreation and lifestyle needs so why leave?

I have lived in my current house for about 5 years now. I credit my idiot ex-wife for talking me into a home at the time as it was one of the only intelligent things she had ever done. I have a crap-load of equity in the house now and I could afford for the market to seriously tank before I am upside down in it. I will probably live in that house until the day I die. I refinanced last year and if I follow my payment schedule I will have my house paid off on my 49th birthday at which point I will functionally retire and work at a 7-11 to put gas (or whatever we happen to be using for fuel) in the motorcycle.

I wont use my house or the magically made up equity as a source of speculation or income...the one solid investment I have made in my life thusfar should probably stay in a non liquid state for a LONG time.

 

[Bodine]

people are still buying and selling

My agent said the same thing she also told me not to listen to the media, they are the ones making things sound worse than they are.

 

[MR.CJ-7]

Interesting. My thoughts pretty much reflect everyone else's. I agree 100% with the wages vs housing costs here in Utah. I make a decent wage, my wife makes a decent wage, and yet I am thinking of taking a second job to bring back the "fun" money, but then I won't have time to have "fun"

I also agree that zillow isn't the best for estimates. It gives a rough idea, but is usually high since Utah is a non-disclosure state.

If nothing else, when the tax bill comes around later this year you'll know if the assessor is high(pun intended)

Thanks for your opinions

 

[gijohn40]

We moved into our house almost 2 yrs ago... we paid $185,000 for it then cause the owner had moved to california and had their brother in law living in it and they wanted it sold quickly... according to zillow it now lists for $228,000... we have added alot to it since we moved in and could probably get that amount but a house just like ours sold last summer for $199,000....

So hopefully come later this year when we can refinance it will have increased even more in value!!!

I was born here but moved to st louis and lived there for 4 yrs before moving back... then I moved to Evanston Wyoming and I really loved it there but there just wasn't any jobs so I moved back to utah... Someday I hope to retire in a nice little town in montana!