This morning I got an email from a great friend and colleague of mine aboiut the housing market in Texas, Mississippi, and Utah.  My friend is in Texas and Mississippi buying properties, getting a great deal, and doing a lot of good.  He knows those markets well.  Even though my friend has lived here in Utah in the past, and has visited here recently, he is a little out of touch with the market, and tried to quote the Deseret News as a source of good information on the current state of the housing market here in the great state.  This is the response email I sent him.

"When will you stop quoting MSM for "facts" The des news is nothing but a sensationalization of numbers to make things seem worse than they actually are, Jasen Lee is a REPORTER, he has no market experience, someone with 30+ years of experience in Real Estate should know better than to ask a hair dresser for a appendectomy, I am not yet "bullish" on the housing market in Utah by any means, however what it doesn't tell you is that a majority of the houses in the foreclosure "pool" were spec homes that have never been lived in, that they were all over 500K, and a majority were over inflated anyway.  St. George is right on, but I hate the "Provo/Orem" moniker, it should read Utah County, and that should be split into 3 areas at the least, North, Central, and South.  North County is filled with Spec homes; empty never lived in homes, over inflated values in Cedar Hills, Alpine/Highland, and Saratoga Springs.  Central County, Provo/Orem and PG/Lindon are very stable, and have seen growth and appreciation, and South County is growing like crazy, Mapleton, Spanish Fork, and Payson are all doing very, very well, I have a developer looking to start a 144 unit development in South County in the next couple of months.

Things could be much much better, too many people are scared to buy in the affordable area, 300K and below, because the MSM keep propagating that the "sky" is falling.  Rates are still excellent; homes fewer than 300K in Utah are appreciating at a 10% rate even right now, do you realize that a foreclosure rate of 1 on 472 is .021% not 21, but .021. That means slightly over 2 in every 1000 homes is in some stage of foreclosure, 2 in 1000, and we both know that being in foreclosure could mean a lot of different things, NOD filed, short sale, etc.

Builders like Ivory, Fieldstone, Richmond American, and Tuscany are giving tremendous deals on new homes to get rid of the land.  In the 150-200K range, in SFR's, not town or condo, there is a scarcity of properties, one of my agents was looking for a home for a client and she found four in Orem TOTAL, four active listings, it is simple econ 101.  "

Now is a good time to get Pre-Approved for a loan, not just prequalified! Whether you are moving in, or moving up, give me a call and let's get you iinto a home.