Salt Lake City has had some pretty good press lately about our residential real estate market and overall economy. Most recently Fortune engaged Moody's Economy.com and Fiserv Lending Solutions to look into their crystal ball and tell us which housing markets will be winners in the near future. Their outlook is as expected with 37 of the biggest markets expecting price declines. The good news is that more than half (63) the 100 largest metropolitan markets are expected to increase in 2007.

Salt Lake City ranked 4^th with an expected home price increase of 5.4% in 2007 and 1.9% in 2008. The only markets that topped Salt Lake are McAllen-Mission, TX, El Paso, TX and Albuquerque, NM.

Not surprisingly, areas hardest hit in the forecast are those that had the greatest increases in the housing boom. Las Vegas, Phoenix, and much of California will likely have some of the slowest markets in 2007.

The impact to the Salt Lake home markets from the surrounding areas declines is out-of-state investors not buying investment property and 2^nd homes because they can't sell their current property. Our owner-occupied buyers are going strong and will the 1st and 2nd buyer home market strength will continue as our economy is one of the strongest in the country. 

The slow-down is ok for me. I much prefer stable growth and a sound market to one driven by hype and speculation. It will serve our real estate interests better in the long run.

What do you think?

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