About Tooele County, UT

Monday, April 28, 2008

Without any real news to sink our teeth into today, traders will be alert for anyone who sneezes the wrong way to decide which way to invest. With that being said, Warren Buffet spoke out today on how he not only believes that we are in a recession, but that it will be much more severe than most expected. When the world's richest man speaks, more people listen than those in the old EF Hutton commercials. Oil is making the news as usual with the price per barrel creeping up once again to $120. Bonds are doing pretty well today up 34 Bp for the day. With most investors now keenly eying Wednesday's rate decision, expect the market to move more on innuendo and suggestion until then. As always, if anything changes I will let everyone know.

Karl Menzer

435-849-0212

http://www.karlmenzer.com

Saturday, April 26^that the Tooele High School, the Tooele County Board of Realtors® is putting on a concert to benefit our homeless population in Tooele County. Although it may not seem it, we have a growing number of people in our community who have become homeless. The concert will start at 7:00 pm. Playing will be The KAWZ and Veign. You can purchase tickets in advance from Robin Stewart (435-224-2122), or at most Realtor® or mortgage office. Ticket prices are $7.00 in advance and $8.00 at the door.

You can also call me for more information.

Karl Menzer

435-849-0212

http://www.tooelehomeloans.com

It's been almost 2 years since the collapse of the first mortgage company listed on the implode-o-meter. Own it Mortgage (one of the first big boys) failed a little over a year ago, touching off the "official" mortgage crises. With so many out of the picture today (Washington Mutual being the most recent), it is easy to understand the increased documentation requirements, capped loan LTV's, and all but A paper loans becoming the norm. The latest casualty of this mess is now the 100% financing programs. The interesting thing is that the change didn't come from the lenders, but rather the companies that insure them. MyCommunity, HomePossible, and the Flex 100 are the latest programs to be essentially removed from the picture. Loans to 100% are still available to those who know where to look. FHA (although technically a 3% down program), can still, with a proper grant, essentially be closed with little to no money down. USDA is an option for those in a rural area (all of Tooele County), and VA still allows 100%. There is much more on this that I can't cover today, but please feel free to call and I will be more than happy to go over what is still out there and what is now needed to qualify your clients.

Number of lender who have shut their doors over this: 249

as always, if you jabe any questions, please don't hesiatate to call or e-mail me at 435-849-0212 or karl@karlmenzer.com

Karl Menzer

http://www.buyatooelehome.com/

Actually were reporting on about 98% of the homes in Tooele County. Those homes sold in Tooele City, Stansbury Park, Erda, & Grantsville Ut.

I know were only 13 days into the new year, and it's early to determine trends yet, but in a market like this, and with last year to measure against were going to be doing this about every week.

What motivated me today was reading Cories blog in our Salt Lake Office. I noticed that Bank involved sales and listings, IE: Huds, Foreclosures, REOs, repos, and Short Sales, in most areas of Salt Lake County were hovering around the 7 to 10% range, and seemed to be just a little less than we were hearing about national statistics. On the other hand, in spite of all the bad press, I was pretty sure we were no where near those numbers in Tooele County.

So..... After pulling numbers from the Wasatch Front Multiple Listing Service, (MLS) I have some home sales statistics and some comments about the housing market in Tooele County I'd like to share with you.

Tooele City, Stansbury Park, Erda, & Grantsville Ut. currently have 456 active listings. Only 16 of those indicate that the bank or lending institution is going to be involved in the sale of the houses. (3.5%).

Ten homes closed in the first 12 days of January. None of them were Bank Owned or Short Sales. Sixty per-cent were 4 bedrooms or more.

Average price of home sold was $234,000

Sixty seven, new,Home listings were taken this month at an average price of $263,400.

Fifteen houses, town homes, or condominiums were put under contract with an average asking price of $160,000. Only 2 of the homes under contract were valued for more than $200,000.
Only one of these houses was bank owned.

So there you have it, proof once again that like pizza delivery Real Estate is local, and locals know the market. To find out more about Tooele County Real Estate give us a call @435-840-5029. To see the latest homes available visit our website @Tooele Home listings and check us out.

From an Industry and sales perspective this may not be good news. Current sales volume translates to about 37 sales in January, and that means that at least 150 agents wont sell a house this month.

From a community outlook though it's great news. It means that most of the families have house payments that they can afford, kids and pets won't be uprooted, and no long term friends left behind. To me it means, smart buyers, unselfish Realtors, and lenders with integrity. A Real Estate community we can be proud of.

Thanks for being here and for having this discussion about "trends in Tooele County homes for sale".

Good luck