About Washington County, UT

Look at these beautiful colors? by Robert Swetz

Have you ever seen such Beautiful Colors before?

I took this photograph today on my way home from South West Utah. This photograph was taken just west of Hurricane Utah on some small reservoir.

These are some of my groups if you want to join or view any of my photographs:

This post has been included in Utah Information Washington County, UT Information Hurricane, UT Information
Post is included in group: MY VACATIONS AT ACTIVE RAIN
Post is included in group: LATE NIGHT - EARLY MORNING AT ACTIVE RAIN
Post is included in group: EXPRESS WITH WORDS AT ACTIVE RAIN
Post is included in group: EXPRESS WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AT ACTIVE RAIN
Post is included in group: CLOUDS AT ACTIVE RAIN (clouds attached)

The colors of Red, Blue and white from the clouds make this photograph one that would be great to paint.

I have many more wonderful pics I will be posting to The Rain for inspiration.

Have a wonderful evening/ morning!

photograph taken by Robert Swetz

Bloomington Hills is a neighborhood within St. George Utah. It is located to the east (and slightly north) of Bloomington (which are at the southern end of St George). In the early 80's, Bloomington was considered "the place to be" by residents. Bloomington Hills was considered more of an affordable second choice option. Now, Bloomington Hills is a beautiful, equally desired neighborhood.

Bloomington Hills is built around the city golf course, St George Golf Club, which the city took over in 1983. This course features a par 73, 18 hole course and is approximately 7,200 yards. The par 3's are said to be the most difficult in Washington County, with at least 190 yards on average. Like neighboring Bloomington, homes can be purchased (and a few lots remain) directly on the course, or you can purchase away from the golf course. Bloomington Hills has many neighborhood amenities such as parks and trails.

There's an area near the golf course which offers Condo or Townhome style living. Most lot sizes in Bloominton Hills are approximately a quarter acre. Since Bloomington Hills is literally built up on a hill, many residents can enjoy a spectacular view of the golf course, entire valley, and nearby red mountains which Southern Utah is famous for. It's ironic that Bloomington Hills came as a "second choice" to Bloomington, when you have the privilege to see such an incredible view from your property – it seems to me that this would invite more popularity. I suppose the residents who "settled" for the more "affordable" option don't have much to regret.

Trails are existing and new trail plans are currently underway for Bloomington Hills. It's a great place to live if you are an outdoor enthusiast. There is a wonderful pond off the golf course filled with ducks, swans and other wildlife for visitors to enjoy a peaceful resting spot. Neighbors are outgoing and friendly, but you can find this throughout the entire St George area, which is part of the charm. The "small town" feel packed with big city amenities is what Bloomington Hills and St George have to offer.

Overall, this neighborhood is a desirable place to call home. New schools have opened in the area and students can enjoy the close proximity to the school as well as enjoying the new construction and modern amenities it brings. Affordable homes or luxury living are available in this community. If you are interested in locating a home in this community, visit my Property Search page. Should you be interested in selling your Bloomington Hills property, give me a call and allow me to present a current market analysis on your home.

If you want to taste some great cinnamon rolls Grandma Tobler's Kitchen is the place to go. They are located at 2862 Santa Clara Drive, Santa Clara, Utah, just outside of St George. They serve baked goods and lunch. Grandma Tobler's Kitchen is open Tuesday through Saturday and lunch is served from 11 am - 2 pm.

I recently did a blog on a shoe tree I saw between LaVerkin and Toquerville Utah. I wondered why there were shoes all over in the tree. Hope that someone will have some information on it. Rich Dansereau added an interesting comment about bottle trees down south and the folK lore behind them (also a great picture of one). I was wondering what other folk lore people might like to share?

While this post was written with Washington County / St. George, Utah Real Estate in mind, I think the general concepts are true for 90% of the country. I work on a regular basis with a large volume of "expired listings." 25% of the Larkin Group's total sales volume is directly with this group. These people have been on the market a LONG time and they're NOT happy about it.

However, can I share with you the absolute #1 thing I hear from that group, bar-none? "We are just going to wait for the market to come back...and besides nothing is selling anyway!"

Why do they think the market will magically bounce back say, next year? Two reasons:1. Because it would financially benefit them if there were a quick recovery and... 2. because the market has never done this in Washington County before, therefore most people are in denial about the reality of the situation.

But I digress.....Many Sellers are frustrated with the disparity between what they thought their home was going to be worth and what is actually is. They are concerned about a "paper" loss, if that makes sense. They want to ‘wait it out', yet they may be waiting a LONG time. Am I saying that it is a bad time to buy? Well not necessarily at all. I'm just pointing out that statistically, Sellers may be looking for a pot of gold in terms of a short turn-around to real estate values. Allow me to statistically prove my point.

If you look back over the past 10-20 years, US home appreciation has never been above around 6% on a year over year average.

Along comes the recent housing boom and we start seeing 30%, 50% or even higher appreciation! As a matter of fact, it was 73% in Washington County over the past 5 years to be exact. The problem is that at the same time, wages were NOT increasing at those rates, and many buyers were getting into loans they could not eventually afford.

Fast forward to 2007/2008. Those same buyers now have their loans "resetting" to much higher interest rates, the respective profession they work in is suffering due to the housing market so their personal income is down, and the their home is now worse significantly less than what they paid for it.

Add that to the fact that many of the very buyers they need can't purchase their home because they are waiting to sell their own homes, or can't qualify for a loan in the current mortgage climate.

So as Sellers consider their options and look forward to a future market recovery, they should consider the following:

1. Home values will have to stop falling before they can rise.
2. When they do stop falling they most likely will remain static for a period of time....could be months, could be years!
3. Then they will start creeping back up at a conservative pace, say 3-6% annually.

That all summarized, you can clearly see that hoping for your home to be worth more, or even as much as today in the next 12 months is wishful thinking at best.

Prognosis:

At the end of the day Sellers may do as they see fit. But my advice to those who want to "wait" for a shorter-term, miraculous turn-around to a currently frigid real estate climate would be this: pack your long-johns, it's gonna be a cold winter.

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE, go HERE.