It is currently a buyers market in Logan Utah as housing inventory levels are approaching record highs. Properties are still selling, especially affordable homes. For the most part, home prices are not expected to decline. The Cache Valley real estate market has slowed since August of 2007, but the Logan trends have not been nearly as drastic as those in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, and Utah Counties.

Logan Utah Real Estate Market Conditions

• Number of Homes for Sale in Logan Rising Quickly
  I just ran a quick check of the number of homes for sale in Cache County, and was astonished to see that in just a week, the number of Logan Real Estate inventory had risen by nearly 5%. Exactly one week ago, Cache County had 687 residential real estate listings. Right now there are 720.

  Last year we didn’t hit inventory levels this high until the March when the Spring listing season typically hits. March and April are typically big months for listing homes for sale.

  

  Some of the increase in inventory can be attributed to the $6,500 move up tax credit. People want to sell by April so they can get the government money when they buy their new homes. However, this sharp spike in the number of homes for sale in Logan is alarming. Home prices will continue to decline as long as there are more homes on the market than there are buyers. At last years pace of home sales, we have more than 9 months of Cache County real estate inventory right now.

  
• 2009 Home Sales in Cache County Down 9%
  While the last quarter of the year saw improvements in home sales in Cache County, overall 2009 real estate sales were substantially down compared with 2008.

  For MLS listed homes, there were just 979 Cache County Homes sold, down 9% from the 1073 homes sold in 2008. Compared with 2007, when 1295 residential homes in Cache County Sold, home sales were down almost 25%. This is the lowest year of total home sales since 2003.

  

  
  

  Prices of homes sold were down by 4.78%. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all Cache County Real Estate depreciated 5%, but it does tell us that the homes that sold were less expensive. In all reality starter homes just slightly depreciated, and more expensive homes likely depreciated in value much more than 4.98%.

  

  It will be interesting to see what happens with real estate sales in 2010. Many economists are predicting that Utah Real Estate will have bottomed out by the end of the summer.

  
• Logan Utah Real Estate December Numbers
  Logan Utah Real Estate sales during December were almost identical to a year ago. From the MLS Listings sold during December, there has been reported one more home sold, and the average and median prices of homes sold was just slightly down.

  December of 2009 had 62 residential homes in Logan listed on the MLS sell. These homes had a median sales price of exactly $150,000 and an average price of $172,734.

  At this time last year, there were 61 Logan UT Real Estate listings reported as sold. These homes had a median price of $151,840, and an average price at $161,499. The average price is almost $10,000 higher this year, in large part because there were two Cache Valley Homes priced above $450,000 that sold in 2009, while there weren’t any homes that expensive that sold last year.

  

  There are currently 693 homes for Sale in Cache County Utah. This is the lowest level of inventory since February. There are 9 more homes on the market right now than there were a year ago. At December’s home sales pace, Cache Valley has 11.24 months of inventory. Until this goes down home prices will remain soft.

  December is the first month in quite some time that is mostly unaffected by stimulus. Although the government tax credits were extended, and still in effect, they were late enough that there were likely very few closings during December that were a direct result of the new $6,500 tax credit.

  If this is any indication of future home sales for Cache County, statistically we can expect a similar year for real estate in Cache Valley.

  
• Q4 Cache County Home Sales up 16%
  Home Sales in Cache County were up by 16% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. So far, the there have been 249 Cache County Homes that have reported as sold on the MLS. These home sales numbers are very comparable with the fourth quarter of 2007 when the housing crisis in Logan really began.

  
  

  
  While home sales were up compared with last year, the median and average price of Cache County Real Estate was substantially down. It was the lowest fourth quarter levels in four years actually. The median home sales price was $154,800, down 7.36% from the median sales price during Q4 of 2008. The average sold price of Cache County Homes was $170,743, down 4.82% from the average 2008 price of $179,743.