Urban Utah Homes & Estates Blog
My fellow Realtors are going to be a bit peeved at me when they read this article. Why? It’s college graduation time and I’m going to tell you lucky graduates NOT to run out and buy a home for a few years. I know that seems like crazy advice right now especially since mortgage interest rates are incredibly low and mortgage payments are less than rent payments these days. Please consider some of these points when you approach the biggest financial decision of your new life: 1) What did it just cost you to get that diploma in your hands? Just two years ago the Huffington Post reported that the average college student owed @$25,000 in loans once they graduated. President Obama has been lobbying Congress and speaking at universities around the U.S. in the past two weeks explaining that many student loan payments may double starting July 1, 2012 if changes aren’t made immediately to Federal loan programs. If you’re one of those unlucky kids who’s getting the crap scared out of you because you might not be able to pay back your student loans, then it’s not a good time to buy a home. Your debt is too high and may be getting higher! 2) The Associated Press just released a survey this past week that said basically 50% of college graduates this year won’t be able to find jobs or find positions in their field. Generally when you apply for a mortgage loan, you have to be on the job for at least 2 years. If you just got lucky and were offered a guaranteed job in your new field (i.e.- a position with a local law firm for $45,000 a year as starting pay), a lender will have some hoops for you to…
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Urban Utah Homes & Estates Blog
Utah’s rate of foreclosed homes has dropped 49% in the first three months of 2012. That should be great news for home sellers, right? Maybe property values will stabilize or stop falling? Hold onto your bootstraps-Salt Lake City is still in the top of the pile of mortgage muck for the nation in foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac, Inc (a national data track service). Data released last week by RealtyTrac Inc. shows one in 415 Utah housing units saw a foreclosure filing in March. That's still behind the rates of most of our neighboring states but we’re in the top seven in the U.S. Arizona, Nevada and California are all about tied for bad news, in that-1 in 300 homes in those states are in the foreclosure process. In addition, Utah is 1:415, Colorado 1:591 and Idaho 1:839. And the really creepy part to these statistics is that RealtyTrac reported that more U.S. homes in general are entering the foreclosure process this year and “setting the stage for a surge in properties repossessed by lenders this year.” Hear that wet sucking sound as you pull your shoe out of the mortgage mud? That’s the unpleasant noise of more foreclosures, which equals lower home prices. As a seller, that stinks. For buyers, this is great because lower prices means better deals. Even if Utah may be experiencing a brief respite from foreclosure filings, the nation is up 7% this year in first time foreclosure notices says RealtyTrac, Inc. How does a foreclosure work here is Utah? First, we don’t have state laws that usually make your lender take you to court if you’re late on your payments. Most lenders just have to file a notice of default against you after you’ve become late at the County Recorder’s office. The…
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Urban Utah Homes & Estates Blog
The State of Utah has a pretty terrific non-profit that helps lower and middle income families here own homes. They’ve not necessarily been known as the ‘second time’ loan brokers, but with the economy as such, Utah Housing Corporation is now providing second mortgages to current and previous home owners as well as first time home buyers, for the down payment and closing costs required to purchase a home. This public corporation was created by the State legislature in the mid-1970’s to raise money to assist in creating housing purchase opportunities for low income Utahns. You have to go to a lender to actually get a UHC loan, as they just raise the funds and oversee them, and sadly foreclose on you if you don’t pay back the funds. Think of UHC as your friendly local group of folks who want to get you into a home and work with lenders to help you with a down payment to get into that house or condo. UHC can help you get 6% of the sales price towards a down and the mortgage closing costs of a home loan. For first timers you have to have a credit score of at least 660 and not make more than $57,300 to buy a home or condo up to $250,000. With the new ‘HomeAgain’ or second time purchase, UHC provides money for a down payment via a 30 year fixed-interest second mortgage loan that is 2% more than the rate on the first mortgage. The HomeAgain loan can be granted to sales prices up to $320,000 to people with an income of no more than $81,000. It’s good to mention, too that Utah Housing Corporation is also give out help to folks who have credit scores of 620 or above,…
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Urban Utah Homes & Estates Blog
“There are a million homes for sale! What do you mean this property has multiple offers on it?!” says the buyer who just lost out on a home that had been for sale on the market for five months. Welcome to our world these days. Yes, there are a ton of homes for sale on the market but the majority of them are being offered as ‘short sales’. If you’ve heard there’s 15 months of housing inventory on the market right now, take out the number of short sales and foreclosures out of the mix and we only have about 4 months of homes available. At least that’s my gut feeling lately after talking to fellow agents. For example, I was to show homes to a buyer who just relocated here from back east this past weekend. I pulled up his price range and area where he wanted to live and got 28 listings that matched. Of the 28, 19 were short sales-all of which each had at least two offers pending on them. Of the remaining 11, 6 were on main roads like 700 and 900 east. The buyer has a dog and didn’t want to live on a high traffic road. Of the 5 left to see, 4 were ‘so-so’ and only one kinda rocked his world. So, I wrote an offer for him and submitted it to the listing agent and we waited. Within an hour that agent called to say another offer had come over and she was expecting a third offer later that day. My buyer, a virgin ‘first time buyer’ was a bit miffed when I called to tell him what was going on. He said, ‘I submitted first, so they have to deal with me first!’. Um, no. The seller…
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Urban Utah Homes & Estates Blog
No matter what industry you work in, there is always a year end wrap up and January prediction/ forecast available from some industry expert out in the world. Glass blowers and fuzzy sock makers want to know the prices of materials and demand for products each year just as much as home builders and Realtors want to see into the future of housing. Realtors, economists, builders, commercial agents, banks got together last week in Salt Lake to look at the data and see what this year foretells. Basically, the news didn’t suck. The bad news isn’t any news at all. New home construction is down 76% from 2005. That means 76% of any construction industry related jobs also went down the economic toilet during those years. Many new home developers do not list their product on the local MLS and thus don’t report sales data to the MLS, but James Wood from Utah’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research says that in 2011 existing home sales were seven times higher than new home sales. What’s that mean for you? That means you can probably get a really really good deal on a newly constructed home and I’ll bet the builder will throw in a lot of bells and whistles to make you happy to buy their home…like paying for your loan costs, giving you upgrades on appliances and flooring, redesigning rooms for free, installing sprinklers and sod, etc. Wood also reported that there are 480,000 mortgage loans in Utah and that 124,000 of them in 2011 have negative equity or near negative equity. That doesn’t mean those 25% are delinquent on payments. I take that statistic to mean that it would be hard to sell a home without any equity and that logically people would rather stay…
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Urban Utah Homes & Estates Blog
We just commemorated our service men and women on Veterans Day. Unless you are a Vet, it’s hard to understand the commitment that military service requires. There are over 25 million Vets in this country. Thanks to President Franklin Roosevelt (in 1944), Vet’s can get assistance in buying homes as a reward for their service to all of us. Known as the GI Bill of Rights, the VA Loan became law in 1944 and gives Vets who served on active duty and have a discharge other than dishonorable after a minimum of 90 days of service during wartime or a minimum of 181 continuous during peacetime. There is a two year requirement if the Vet enlisted and began service after Sept. 7th, 1980 or was an officer and began service after Oct. 16th, 1981. There is also a six year requirement for National guards and reservists. The G.I. Bill offers education and housing benefits to Vets. The big deal for potential buyers is that Vet’s don’t have to put a single dime down as a down payment in order to purchase a property, whereas the minimum down these days for a non-Vet buyer for an FHA loan is 3.5%. A VA loan pretty much has the same requirements of all loans: 1) you still have to have a job and good job history; 2) you have to have decent credit; and 3) you have to live in the property. VA loans are made by any licensed bank, credit union or loan/mortgage company. It’s really important for any Vet to work with a good lender when applying for a VA loan, as there is another layer of paperwork to the mortgage process-proving your military service and getting the right forms out of the Veterans Administration. A savvy lender…
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Urban Utah Homes & Estates Blog
I’m just about to put a home across the MLS that is rather historic…it is the birthplace of Gordon B. Hinkley, the 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There’s not a bronze plaque outside the front door noting the significance of the property, but there could be if the owners wanted to get one to display there. Would President Hinkley recognize the place if he were still alive? In this example of a historic property, yes, the President would easily recognize his childhood manse as the house is virtually intact on the outside with a wonderfully restored and upgraded interior inside. If you own a historic home that may be in need of a makover and would like to find money to rehabilitate it, your ship has come in! Thanks to the lowest interest rates in history, home owners can get loans from the Utah Heritage Foundation for restoration, rehabilitation and repair at half of the current U.S. Prime Rate. You have to have good credit and income to apply and receive the money from the UHF and there are a few rules as to what the money can be used for: First priority for funding is placed on exterior improvements, including: brick, chimneys, doors, foundations, masonry, porches, reconstructing existing additions, roofs, seismic retrofitting, siding repair, and windows. Second priority for funding is placed on interior systems, including: code compliance, electrical systems, heating, insulation, and plumbing. Third priority for funding is placed on interior finishes. For example, UHF will not fund a kitchen remodel if the roof needs to be repaired. However, a kitchen and/or bathroom remodel can be funded if they are incorporated into a more comprehensive rehabilitation project. How do you know if your property is historic? The UHF can…
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Urban Utah Homes & Estates Blog
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Babs De Lay,
Principal Broker
Urban Utah Homes & Estates
380 W 200 S, #101
(Dakota Building)
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Phone: (801) 595-UTAH
Fax: (801) 595-6011
Toll Free: (866) 595-UTAH
