Utah Housing and Mortgage Trends Compared to Other States

U.S. Housing and Mortgage Trends

(Source: October 2011 report by CoreLogic)

• The homeownership rate is down... almost 10% compared to the homeownership rate in 1980.
• The median household income is down... (lowest level since 1996)
• Both renters and owners are spending a greater percentage of their income on housing costs (over 1/3 of their income for both groups.
• Renters are generally paying 5.2% more of their household income toward housing expenditures than homeowners.
• 66% of foreclosed properties became REO, i.e. Real Estate Owned ("bank owned")
• More investors are skipping the foreclosure auction in favor of buying the REO homes directly from the bank. Sales at foreclosure auction generally require the investor to pay cash.

Utah Housing and Mortgage Trends

From the State Summary on page 8 of the CoreLogic Report. (NOTE: In addition to the 50 States, the report also included the District of Columbia)

• Total Sales Year over Year are up 24.3% according to the report. This is 11th best of states reported.
• Ranks 39th in decline of REO sales. There are 3.6% more REO sales (bank owned homes) this year compared to last in Utah, with 24.7% of total sales being distressed sales according to the report. North Dakota ranked #1 in this category with 59.3% less REO sales compared to the previous year with only 2.4% of total sales being distressed sales. Wyoming had 63.7% more REO sales than the year before and 12.2% of total sales were distressed sales.
• There were 35.8% more short sale closings than the year before.
• According to the report, 21% of homeowners in Utah have negative equity (owe more than their home is worth). The good news, I suppose is that 79% of homeowners in Utah still have some equity. 61% of homeowners in Nevada are underwater (the highest % of the states on record in the report) while 94.1% of homeowners in West Virginia still have positive home equity according to the report.
• Perhaps some of the best news according to the report is that Utah only has 4.6 months of supply of distressed homes.

If you are considering a move to Utah, don't buy without an agent on your side! Hire an EBA!