This was in the Salt Lake Tribune today - It's a great article about Utah Real Estate! Forget the "doom and gloom" reports we keep hearing from the media - The sky really is NOT falling! This article is great, and shows that we truly do have a STEADY economy here in Utah, despite the fact that some other areas are feeling the downturn a bit.
Article Last Updated: 02/26/2008 01:33:16 PM MST
Posted: 11:12 AM- Utah still leads the country in home-price appreciation, a new report shows.
Prices rose 9.27 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with the October-November-December period a year earlier, according to the report released today by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
In the report, Wyoming was No. 2 with a 8.27 percent gain. North Dakota was third, with a 7.87 percent increase, followed by Montana at 6.90 percent and Alaska at 5.97 percent.
Among metropolitan areas, Wenatchee, Wash., was No. 1 with a 13.67 percent increase in home values over that one-year period. The Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux area in Louisiana was No. 2 with a 12.15 percent gain, followed by Grand Junction, Colo., up 12.03 percent.
Ogden-Clearfield was No. 4, with a 10.8 percent increase. Provo-Orem ranked sixth among all metro areas, with a 10.46 percent gain, followed by Salt Lake City, up 9.68 percent, and Logan, up 8.75 percent.
The only other Utah city on the list, St. George, however, logged a 1.91 percent decline in home values, placing it at No. 220. St. George's real estate market began a home-price run-up more than a year earlier than much of the Wasatch Front and began its downturn in 2006. The Wasatch Front's real estate market began to slow in the summer of last year.
Nationally, prices were up only 0.84 percent in the year that ended Dec. 31.
In the earlier part of this decade, Utah's home-price appreciation was the worst in the country, while Utah's neighbors and other states were racking up impressive home-price gains. Then, a few years ago, the state's real estate market took off, too.
But while Utah's market took off, its Western neighbors began a downturn that continues today. Nevada's home prices, for example, fell by 5.86 percent in the year that ended in December. Prices also are down 2.4 percent in Arizona. The lowest-ranked state in terms of appreciation is California, with a decline of 6.65 percent.
Utah's ranking marks its fifth consecutive quarter in the top spot, but rising inventories and declining sales of new and resale homes along the Wasatch Front that started several months ago point to more moderate price increases, most likely in the single digits, over the next year. Some even are predicting home values may decline at some point.
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