The market in Salt Lake is certainly slowing down, but for all our sakes, that is a good thing. Last year's appreciation rates of 20-25% were great for all homeowners and created a bit of a buying-frenzy that had many buyers involved in multiple-offer transactions and many Builders and Sellers seemed to be raising list prices on a weekly basis. Those days are gone, but those who own homes and those who are considering a home purchase should be welcoming the current slowdown in the market because it is this very slowdown that will protect your investment.

Being late to the housing boom is great because we get the benefits of the boom for what seems like a longer time, yet we also get the warning signs from other markets that tell us that the end is near and it is time to calm things down. If our marketplace were to have ignored those warning signs and kept raising the values of our homes by 20-25% this year, we would most certainly be due for the necessary correction and depreciation that has hit many other markets nationally over the past year.

As it is, it would appear to me that we are making the necessary corrections in advance by slowing the appreciation back to sustainable levels, thus avoiding a decrease in housing values.

If you haven't bought a home yet, but are considering it, make sure you use an Exclusive Buyer's Agent who will represent your best interests in the transaction, and not the Sellers.