Melissa Ballman:
Why is it so hard for a home buyer to find a house in the Utah housing market? Well, today we’re going to talk about that. I’m going to give you kind of a brief market update. And be sure to stay tuned until the end, because I’m going to tell you about a buyer that I found a house for when the house wasn’t even for sale.
Hi, this is Melissa Ballman, and I am a realtor here in the greater Salt Lake City area and surrounding areas. So what that means, if you’re looking at making a move, I’d love to connect with you and see how I can help. Give me a call, send me a text, shoot me an email, whatever you got to do, but let’s talk about your real estate goals. Before we do that, let’s jump into the Utah housing market and why buyers are struggling so much right now.
If you’ve been searching for a home, it’s no secret that there are not enough homes for the amount of buyers we have, especially under that $500,000 price range along the Wasatch Front. It is insane for buyers. I mean, I’m hearing of 35, 40 offers per house when it’s under $500,000, so no wonder people are having such a hard time. To give you an idea of how low our inventory is for homes that are available. Right now, in Salt Lake County, Utah County, and Davis County combined, the three main Wasatch Front counties, there is only 741 active listings in those three counties. For all residential housing, townhouses, single-family homes, condos, mobile homes, you name it, 741 active listings right now.
To give you an idea of sales prices because we keep seeing them going up, up, up, up, up. In Salt Lake County for the past month. January 17 to February 17, 2021, and these are unofficial numbers just straight from the MLS of what’s being reported right now, Salt Lake County, the average sold price is $499,000. Now Utah County and Davis County are more affordable. In Utah County, the average sold price was just under $460,000. It was about 459 and some change. Then in Davis County, it’s actually just over $423,000 for the average sold price. So, it’s getting less and less affordable in Utah.
Now, buyers are doing all kinds of things just to be competitive to even be considered for an offer in that under $500,000 range. I mean, things that I never thought I would see, waiving appraisal contingencies, paying over appraisal price, 30, $40,000 over, or $50,000 over list price. We’re not going to get into that because every situation is different, and I’m not going to advise you on what’s the best way to get an offer accepted, just more of an overview of the market.
Now, aside from all the things that people are going to tell you, like, “Make sure you’re pre-approved, get your financing in order,” things like that. I’m going to cover some things that you can do as a buyer to be more competitive in the housing space right now. First and foremost, I have to say you have to be creative in finding properties. You can’t just rely on the MLS and what is currently out there because, as I said, there’s not a lot out there. So you’ve got to be creative and think outside of the box.
I hope you’re enjoying my video so far today. If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the bell. That way, you’re alerted each week when I drop a new video. Also, if you’re on Facebook, join our group called salt Lake Life. We talk about all things related to living in the greater Salt Lake City area.
Next, consider what area that is affordable for you and your situation and zero in on that. I know a lot of people I talk to right now they’re like, “Melissa, I just need to find something $450,000 or less anywhere from Ogden to Provo.” That’s great that you’re flexible. But try to zero in on a neighborhood that you would ideally like to be in because it makes it a little bit easier to be creative with your marketing and to find properties that maybe you’re not competing with 50 other people on. I actually did this myself. I had a buyer that wanted a particular neighborhood, and I actually recently found somebody who was going to be selling their house in March. I found them in January that they said, “Yep, I’ll sell my house to a buyer, and I won’t even list it.” So, there are those things out there. You just have to work for it, or you have to have an agent that is willing to work for it and go outside those traditional everyday methods that honestly are pretty easy and not out of the box.
Next, make sure that when it comes time to submitting your pre-approval letter, that you’re not just doing an over-the-phone pre-approval. Make sure your lender takes it that next step and really runs your numbers, has all your documentation, and can give you a really solid recommendation on your loan because pre-approvals are worth the paper they’re written on.
Finally, I always tell people you have to start somewhere, especially in this market. It may not be reasonable that you have your dream home right now, but start somewhere, start building that equity. I’ve told this story before. My first place was a little crappy 50-year-old condo that literally my bed backed up to a road. My head was next to a busy road. Years before I bought it, a car actually crashed into that bedroom. I bought that condo. When I sold it two and a half years later, I bought a brand new construction home, and it was only $80,000 less than what I sold that condo for after two and a half years. So, just get your foot in the door and get in the market. A lot of people discount townhouses and think, “No, I only want a single-family home.” But don’t discount that. Townhouses can actually be just as big, if not bigger, than a single-family home.
Now you may or may not like HOA living. I’ve actually done a video on that. So check that out and see if an HOA would be the right thing for you. But again, my point is, get your foot in the door rather than waiting, waiting, waiting, and waiting until now, the prices have gone up so high it may not be attainable for you to wait in a year and see what happens.
I hope you enjoyed my video today. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to connect with you and see how I can help you, especially if you’re looking at making a move to Utah or around the Wasatch Front. As always, make it a great day.