Hot markets - can you trust the national media?

OK. Don't get me wrong. The real estate market in Salt Lake is doing better than most places in the country.

I just want to point out to the person who isn't involved in real estate on a daily basis (i.e. the consumer) that the actual truth about the market is often slightly different than what you hear in the media.

In an age of instant messaging, blogs and fiber-optic data transmission, you would expect to be able to keep a pulse on something so large as the housing market.

In a recent Money Magazine article, Real Estate: Last of the red-hot markets printed on December 2 2007: 10:21 AM EST the consumer sees the graph to the right. 

NOTICE that in the bottom of the graphic in light grey print you see the following disclaimer "Prices are for the year ended June 2007 except for Wilmington's, which is a September 2007 average."

So here you have an article that is going to print discussing "where the housing market still sizzles" using information that is almost six months old. They should have sought more recent data to give a more accurate picture of the current state of the housing market, or they should have titled the graph "Where the housing market was still sizzling six months ago."

I cannot speak for the rest of the markets mentioned, but what I can tell you is this: Prices in the Salt Lake Market Area are still rising, but appreciation rates surely have slowed to about 7-10% (in my estimation). I also expect the appreciation rate to continue to slow in 2008 to about 3-5%.

There are enough compensating factors in our local economy that could keep the appreciation rate from dropping to that level in 2008, but only time will tell as the Buyers begin to come out of hibernation this Spring.

Homebuyer Representation, Inc. is an Exclusive Buyer Brokerage serving Salt Lake and surrounding areas. We do not list homes and we don't represent Sellers. We work for Home Buyers on the Buying side of the transaction at all times.

For more information, just call us at (801) 969-8989 or contact us via the link on this page.

(Now it's time for MY disclaimer: even though the data is old, those markets could still have been the best markets in the country in December, but it would have been nice to have data to support that the information was still correct.)