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February SunCrest Market Update
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2019 Utah Housing Forecast
Last month, we told you about some bigger housing trends across the US and what is predicted for 2019. But recently, we sat down with Windermere’s chief economist Matthew Gardner to talk about trends that will specifically affect Utah.
Bubble and Balance
Is there a housing bubble? What is unemployment doing? Gardner predicts the psychology of buyers and sellers will play a significant role as the housing market becomes more balanced. The level of buyers and sellers will begin to equal out and we’ll see a more healthy level of home price appreciation.
Our take: The SunCrest outlook shows those subtle changes are already starting to re-shape the landscape. All that pent up buyer demand may soften as more sellers list their homes in the spring and summer, so we anticipate an uptick in the number of days a home is on the market as well as a more gradual home value appreciation instead of instant equity.
Interest rates
Gardner isn’t as bullish as some of his peers, but is calling for rates to raise to just under 5.5% by year’s end. This forecast is still below the historical average but those who have been in the market since the latest recession may reconsider moving when faced with giving up their 3% rate.
Our take: In SunCrest, we anticipate some homeowners will look at home equity lines of credit and choose to renovate or remodel, rather than selling, especially if they’d be looking to relocate nearby. If rates rise and home appreciation returns to normal, it may cause would-be sellers to stay put.
Millennials
This isn’t the first time we’ve written about Millenials (ages 21-37), and wont be the last. Gardner highlighted them as the country’s largest group of home buyers, but they’re facing a rising affordability challenge. Low inventory, rising interest rates, and eight years of price appreciation are causing some Millenials to stay in rentals (or with parents) longer as they jockey for position in the market.
Our take: The average Utah millennial will face an affordability challenge if looking for a single family home in SunCrest. Outside of the Stoneleigh Heights townhomes, the average SunCrest median single family home price was $495,383 in 2018, well above the average purchase price Millenials are spending. This has a real effect on the way you market your home when selling, and how to make the right offer when buying.
Source: Windermere Economics Ellie Mae - Sales between Jan. 18- Dec. 18 keepingcurrentmatters.com utahrealestate.com
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
January SunCrest Market Update
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SunCrest Market Update-January
The State of Real Estate in 2019
We don’t have a crystal ball, but at Windermere we do have a team dedicated to analyzing the market and making predictions. Will the hot market stay hot? Will interest rates go up? This month we look at the some national predictions in the headlines.
Interest Rates
Interest rates for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage climbed consistently throughout 2018 until the middle of November. We’re seeing them hold steady in so far in 2019 with experts are calling for a slight increase again by the 4th quarter of 2019.
Average List Price
Home sellers have had high expectations for the listing price of their home – and rightfully so. SunCrest has experienced years of double digit appreciation! In 2019, we anticipate a decline in average list price as home price appreciation returns to historical averages, and home sellers’ expectations catch up to market conditions.
Who Is Buying
Millenials, particularly those 25-34, will be buying more houses than any other age group. With Utah’s robust job market and low unemployment, we anticipate more homes being purchased by millennials in 2019 than any other year. That can play a significant role in how you market and sell your home.
Our Take:
The winds of change are upon us. From the changing psychology of buyers and sellers, to creeping interest rates, the outlook shows those subtle changes that are re-shaping the landscape. SunCrest buyers, particularly millennials, who have been sidelined because of low inventory are expected to reenter the market as more inventory comes available and prices continue to level out. For sellers, current inventory levels remain at their lowest levels on record. As affordability tightens with rising rates, sellers should prepare for an increase in the time it takes their home to sale and look for gradual appreciation instead of instant money. We think sitting down, reviewing all the facts, and walking through your goals and timing will help best prepare you for your next move.
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
December SunCrest Market Update
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SunCrest Market Update-December
SunCrest,
Where do we even begin? Maybe at the start… five years ago. That’s
when we came to you – our friends and neighbors – with an idea to help
give warm clothes to people in our local communities where we live,
work, and play. Every year, you’ve delivered in a big way.
This year, we partnered with The Family Support Center’s Midvale LifeStart Village, a non-profit that provides Housing and self-sufficiency programs for homeless parents in Salt Lake County. SunCrest, you stepped up big! Nearly 500 items were received keeping pace with previous donations, and we were again blown away. It’s a reminder of how we live in the best community! In addition to the used items that were distributed to The Family Support Center, roughly 50 brand new items were also donated and gifted to families staying in the center. Every single item you gave will help someone this season.
Thank you, SunCrest. Thank you for your donations, big or small. We are continually amazed, year after year, watching this annual tradition grow. Personally meeting neighbors to pick up donations and hearing, “I’ve been saving these for months to give to you,” or, “I went and bought these items for the drive,” has been truly humbling. No donation went unnoticed and we are grateful for your continued generosity. Thank you!
With gratitude,
Scott and Robyn
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
November SunCrest Market Update
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November SunCrest Market Update
We get asked all the time: should I fix up my house, or save that money for a new one? A recent survey* showed that 76% of Americans prefer to fix up their current house rather than move. That preference increases with age. The Silent Generation (ages 73-90) and Baby Boomers (ages 54-72) are 20% more likely to update their current home versus planting a “For Sale” in their yard and moving.Appreciation:
Matthew Gardner, Chief Economist at our brokerage Windermere Real Estate reports a year over year price appreciation of 9.9% and 9.4% for Utah and Salt Lake County. Here in SunCrest, we’ve dialed existing home appreciation slightly higher at 10.2%**. If you bought your home a while back, it may be difficult to afford a comparable house now, if you were looking to relocate.
Rising Interest Rates: 
Since the beginning of the year, rates have risen roughly 1 percent. Relocating now might mean having to settle for a higher rate, and higher payment.
Inventory: Nationally, we’ve seen the current number of homes for sale decline for 43 straight months. The pace is slowing and many economists are suggesting a gradual shift towards a more equally balanced buyer/seller market. In SunCrest, we’re seeing a tale of two markets. For homes under $500K, there’s less than a 1 month supply of homes for sale, those that do come up for sale are only spending a few days on the market, and many are receiving multiple offers. For homes above $500K, however, we’re seeing greater inventory and competition on the market due to a steady supply of new construction.
You’ve heard the adage, “It’s a double edge sword,” amirite? If you stay in your home because you don’t see many options to relocate, it compounds the problem even more for other homebuyers. However, consider this: nearly half of all buyers who have purchased a home in the past twelve months report that finding a home was “easy” or “very easy.” Overall, sellers are mostly satisfied with the selling the process (insert obligatory hip hip hooray here!) and report that the biggest consideration is deciding when to enter the market are when and at what price. Knowing whether to stay or sell, renovate or relocate, and especially HOW and WHEN to pull the trigger is crucial. Whether you’re considering to buy or sell, interviewing a REALTOR with cost you nothing and allows you understand exactly what they’re going to do to help accomplish your goals.
**Source: utahrealestate.com
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
August SunCrest Market Update
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August SunCrest Market Update
A question we’re regularly asked is “When is the best time or month to list my SunCrest Home?” It’s a simple question but the answer isn’t always so. We often say it depends. We do agree that figuring out the right time to sell can help maximize the sale price of your home and take some stress out of the process, it’s a little more complicated than rambling off a specific day, week, or month even. Every home is unique, and every homeowner has different circumstances.
For fun, we found an online real estate database company touting May 1-15 as the best time to sell your home. Further, they say listing on a Saturday will give you a leg up. According to their national data, they suggest that homes listed for sale in this window sold almost two weeks faster than average, and for $2,500 more. But does that apply here in SunCrest? Lets take a peek at their claims.
Homes listed for sale in this window sold almost two weeks faster than average. This measurement, or “Days On Market (DOM)” is a factor the real estate industry uses to to gauge how long home are for sale before an offer is accepted. The graphs below illustrate a 3 year history of the median and average time a home here in SunCrest is on the market before receiving an offer. While the time spent on the market varies throughout the year in SunCrest, the theory of selling faster when listed in May isn’t always true.
Homes sold for $2,500 more. This seems easy to measure, but SunCrest has affordable townhomes as well as custom multimillion dollar estates, so each neighborhood requires careful consideration and precise attention to detail. For sake of argument, lets take a step back and look at SunCrest as a whole. While SunCrest average median prices are definitely up, the theory of selling for $2,500 more when listed in May just doesn’t hold true for homes on the hill.
Our Take:
Sooo….when is the best time? When you’re ready. We believe every homeowner has different considerations and and every home has a story. Why are you moving? What sold you on your home when you bought it? When do you need to move by? Do you need to sell before you can move and/or buy your next home? Are there updates or modifications that can add value to your home? How does your home compare to others in the area? While each season may bring about different motivation for buyers, we have a hard time saying there is ever a “best time” to buy or sell in SunCrest.
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market.
May SunCrest Market Update
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May SunCrest Market Update – 5 Tips to strengthen an offer
Spring is typically a busy time for the real estate market, and this year is no different. With a competitive market of buyers out there, you could miss out on the home of your dreams if you’re not prepared. Here are 5 tips to help your strengthen your offer:
Our take:
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
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February SunCrest Market Update
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2018 Housing Forecast-Insider Info
At Windermere, we’re fortunate to have Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner, as part of our team to provide valuable analysis of the economy and housing market. In January, Matthew was the keynote speaker at the Salt Lake Board Of Realtors forecast breakfast. We’re sneaking this insider info to you, because we think you’ll be interested in his predictions for the 2018 housing market.
Our take:
These forecasts are made at a national level, so we have some additional forecasts for SunCrest.
- First, SunCrest has seen the total number of existing homes sales decline over the past three years. Put simply – fewer homes were sold in SunCrest in 2017 compared to 2016 and 2015! While we don’t project a further decline in existing home sales, we expect to maintain current sales levels — approximately 10 home sales per month, typically with spikes in Q2 and Q3.
- Second, barring any substantial changes to Edelweiss or Hidden Canyon Estates, we project new homes sales will exceed 10% of all SunCrest area sales. To date in 2018, new construction makes up nearly 50% of all current homes for sale, and over 80% of sales currently pending.
- As of the this writing, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.40 percent, on pace to exceed Gardner’s projection.
We agree with Gardner’s projection about concerns of lack of available inventory and unsustainable home price appreciation. We anticipate prices leveling off in some markets, as would-be buyers become capped financially due to rising interest rates and historically high levels of debt. However, we do not foresee any reason to panic and expect 2018 to be another strong year. Even more than last year, we think that sitting down, reviewing all the facts, and walking through your goals will help prepare you for your next move.
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
January SunCrest Market Update
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Tax Reform and SunCrest Real Estate
Disclaimer: The following is not meant to be a resource for tax advice but instead a resource for basic information concerning certain aspects of the new tax code and it’s potential impact on the real estate market. Please consult with appropriate legal and tax advisors on how the new code may or may not affect you.
By now, you’ve probably heard about the Senate and House bill that overhauls the tax code. While much is still being learned about it, we felt there were a few major proposals being considered that could potentially affect the SunCrest real estate market:
- Changing the requirements for the exclusion of gain on the sale of a principal residence
- Changing the requirements for like kind (aka 1031) exchanges for real property.
- The reduction on the limit of the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID).
- The elimination of the State and Local Tax deduction (SALT) which includes property taxes.
That’s some fancy-pants language, so let’s break it down and see what it may mean in real talk.
Changing the requirements for the exclusion of gain on the sale of a principal residence.
What this means: If you sell a home, you must live in it for at least 2 of the last 5 years, or you are subject to a higher tax rate on your gains.
What changed? Nothing! They considered changing it to 5 of the last 7 years, but did not.
Impact: No new impact on the housing market.
Changing the requirements for like kind (aka 1031) exchanges for real property.
What this means: If you sell a home, you can — under certain conditions — avoid being taxed on the gains if you then use your gains to buy a similar property.
What changed? Nothing! The final bill retains the current Section 1031 Like Kind Exchange rules.
Impact: No new impact on the housing market.
The reduction on the limit of the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID)
What this means: In some situations, you can deduct on your taxes the amount of interest you pay on your mortgage. It had been capped at $1M loans.
What changed? They have reduced the cap amount. Now you can only deduct the interest on new loan amounts (loans made after 12/14/17) up to $750K. Current loans up to $1 million are grandfathered into the old cap.
Impact: Nothing for existing loans. On new home loans, you may still be able to deduct interest on your primary and secondary homes, but only up to $750K. Assuming a 20% down payment, this reduction in the MID will only impact buyers that are purchasing a home between the prices of $938,000 and $1,250,000.
The elimination of the State and Local Tax deduction (SALT) which includes property taxes.
What does this mean: If you itemize your deductions, you could deduct the amount of state and local taxes you paid. That includes property tax. There was no limit.
What changed? There is now a limit of $10K on the amount of state and local taxes (including property tax) you can deduct.
Impact: People who paid over $10K in state and local taxes (think: income tax, sales tax, property tax) will no longer be able to deduct anything over that amount. This affects higher taxed and/or higher priced home regions.
Our take:
Phew! As active, contributing members to our state and national REALTOR Political Action Committee (a fancy way of saying advocates for property rights and home ownership) we’d be lying if we said we weren’t sweating a few of the changes that were being discussed. However, we do not believe the new tax code will have a significant impact on the majority of the SunCrest housing market. We anticipate higher priced, higher taxed regions (NJ, NY, CA) to be the most impacted. The overall effect of the tax bill is really unknown, but if buyers do see an overall tax cut, we’re hopeful it helps them accelerate savings and reach their home ownership goals. The best advice we can give is to seek counsel from qualified legal and tax professionals to see what this will all mean for you.
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
September SunCrest Market Update
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Are Robots Buying Houses?
No. Well, not exactly. As technology gets more sophisticated, we’re seeing the emergence of something called a real estate “iBuyer,” short for “investor-backed buyers.” Basically, these are groups of investors that pool their money, and then use high-tech software called Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) to find what they believe are good deals and make quick offers to home sellers.
IBuyers like Open Door, Knock, and OfferPad will make offers often accompanied by claims that their transactions are more convenient and have less friction, versus selling your home to a traditional buyer. But it’s important to understand the downside to these transactions as well, and how they come up with their offer price.
The fees on these transactions range from 6-16%, and the offer price may not be fair. AVMs use publicly available information and while some effort is made to consider the individual home, these algorithms are built for mass evaluation and can’t capture real life human curb appeal, condition, or location. Unfortunately, as we explained in last month’s SunCrest Market Update, these AVMs are not known for being accurate, and our niche neighborhood only exacerbates the problem.
Our take:
Ignoring iBuyers isn’t the answer; there may be certain circumstances when an offer from one would make sense to entertain. They may be convenient, but is it worth the fees involved? What is your home actually worth? Knowing exactly what your home is worth and consulting with a trusted advisor is really the best way to know if an iBuyer’s offer—or any offer, really—is the best way to make sure you don’t leave any money on the table.
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
June SunCrest Market Update
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Outdoor House Projects: The Best Bang For Your Buck
With summer officially here, many of us are excited to get out to spend more time in our yards, polish up our green thumbs, and let our lives freely spill out the back door. Sprucing up your outdoor entertaining space not only helps make it enjoyable for daily use, it can help increase your home’s value. Below are a few of the most effective ways to gussy up your outdoor space while adding to your home’s value.
Add Some Color
Liven up walkways, flower gardens, patios, porches, and decks with color. From planters to perennials, shrubs to spruces; adding color and interest can not only make your yard more inviting, but help create a welcoming and enjoyable space to kick up your feet.
Stain Your Deck or Porch
A deck or porch is a big part of your home’s outdoor appeal. We often hear, “If I’m going to live in SunCrest, I want to enjoy the view!” What better way than sitting on the deck or porch? Wood decks need regular care to keep them looking their best and to help protect the wood, or you might consider using a manufactured product like Trex for for less maintenance.
Put In a Patio
Take a deep breath. It’s probably not as daunting as it sounds. Bricks, pavers, and stone patios are long lasting, require little maintenance, and do not necessarily require any special cutting or fitting. Adding a patio can create an extension of the indoor space and provide a place for BBQ’s, book reading, or breathing our cool mountain air.
Touch Up Stucco, Siding, and The Roof
If shingles are missing or curling, stucco severely cracked, or siding and trim weathered from the winter, these are not only visual eyesores, they could also lead to further damage. Preventive maintenance is key!
Our Take:
While big projects like remodeling bathrooms or a complete kitchen overhaul are popular ways to increase a home’s value, something as simple as updating landscaping and curb appeal can have a quick impact on a home’s value without breaking the bank. If you’re wondering can be the best way to add your home’s outdoor appeal, contact us today!
Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.
