St. George Real Estate Sales dip…should you panic?

There are many great St. George area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (435) 215-4533 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

St. George Real Estate Market Update

For this month’s Real Estate Report, home sales both nationally and for Washington County are down from last year. To be specific, residential sales in Washington County were off by over 10% from the first quarter of 2013…but don’t panic just yet! There’s actually a silver lining here. 

WHY are home sales down? 

1. One factor is the continuous decline of foreclosures and short sales and in turn, this has left fewer homes available for the long-term. That is good news!
2. Washington County home values have COME UP nearly 20% since 2011…also great news! But because they’re up, some Buyers are getting priced out of the market, which in turn slows the total # of sales down. But it’s healthy for the market as it prevents another outlandish housing bubble like 2005. And Washington County cannot face another housing bubble – it’s unacceptable! The decline in home sales year-over-year is actually a sign of a healthy, self-balancing real estate market!

Are 4.2 million buyers about to purchase real estate? 

However the big question is what’s next. After doing some research, I found the following:

• In 19 of the top 20 major metropolitan areas nationwide, more than 5% of all residents planned to buy within the next year. 
• 10% of renters nationwide (yes that’s HUGE) said they would like to buy in the next 12 months. 
• If every one of those people surveyed actually did purchase a home, it would represent 4.2 million first-time buyers. More than DOUBLE the 2.1 million first-time Home Buyers in 2013! 

Yes, it’s crazy when you really think about the possibilities. Even MORE WILD?  That 57% of Baby Boomers want to sell the home they currently own, which means they would replace it with another, and 25% say they’d like to purchase a 2nd home. There is going to be a lot of activity ahead for the market!

If you have any more questions, feel free to call or e-mail us with anything Also, don’t forget to utilize our FREE MLS home search and home value report links on our website. And our full, detailed St. George Real Estate report is always available 24/7 so you can be the smartest kid on the block! Check it out here: St. George, Utah Real Estate Report

Our contact info once again, (435) 215-4333 or email us: larkingroup@gostgeorge.com. 

St. George Real Estate: Can You Trust Zillow to Estimate Your Home’s Value?

There are SO MANY  great St. George area homes for sale!  Click here to perform a full home search. If you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation to see what Buyers are actually paying for similar homes in our market.  You may also call us at (435) 767-9821 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today, on GoStGeorgeTV, we’re going to answer the question: “Can I trust the Zillow home price estimate?”

Zillow has become a wildly popular online tool to get a quick estimated value of home values. We estimate that eight out of ten Sellers we work with first go to Zillow to get an initial estimate for their home. With so many users, so many millions of homes, and having those homes spread across the entire United States, is it possible that the site could have inaccurate estimates? We’ll take a look at the three traditional values for a home and compare them with the Zillow value. 

1. The first value is the assessed value. This is the value that the Washington County assessor uses to determine how to tax your property. The assessed value typically falls on the low-side of a home’s market value. Not always, but most often. This value actually has little to do with your home’s true value. 

2. The second value is the appraised value. This value is based on the opinion of a qualified appraiser who will come out to inspect your home and establish a very analytical and scientific estimation. This value is often established during the mortgage origination process, but may be updated as the home undergoes renovations. While this value may not reflect “true” market value, it’s still incredibly important as it has the potential to make, or break, a real estate transaction. 

3. The third value is the market value. Definition: What a Buyer is actually willing to pay for your property! The market value is the most fluid value because it is dependent on the state of the current real estate market. The market value is what the buyer is willing to pay  for your home. Everything else is, quite frankly, quite irrelevant. 

These three traditional values are well established in the real estate realm. Recently, the “Zillow value”, or just about any other FREE online home value estimate, have emerged as a fourth value. Zillow, and these other systems, are what is called an “automated valuation model” that takes neighborhood statistics and tax data to determine a value of your home. Because Utah is a “non-disclosure state”, sales prices are NOT available to a company like Zillow. 

And because they lack that actual sold data, it’s highly likely that using Zillow as your guide will cause you to either, A. Overprice your home and sit for MONTHS, or..B – underprice your home and leave money on the table…yikes!  I encourage you NOT to trust it as a tool to estimate your home’s value.  If you want to play around with it, go for it! As a matter of fact, here’s OUR “AVM” (automated valuation model) site, feel free to play around there! www.DixieHomeValue.com 

Now, if you are looking for an accurate assessment of your home, I encourage you to reach out to credible real estate professional to receive the most accurate pricing of your home. 

If you have any more questions, feel free to call or e-mail us with anything Also, don’t forget to utilize our FREE MLS home search and home value report links on our website. And our full, detailed St. George Real Estate report is always available 24/7 so you can be the smartest kid on the block! Check it out here: St. George, Utah Real Estate Report

Our contact info once again, (435) 215-4333 or email us: larkingroup@gostgeorge.com. 

St. George Real Estate Market: Can You Really Trust the News?

There are many great St. George area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (435) 767-9821 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

What is the REAL Current State of St. George Real Estate Market?

As we “march into March”, I want to remind you regardless of what you are hearing in the news about the real estate market, it is the media’s job to embellish reality! If St. George real estate is warming up, the media defines is as a “meteoric rise.” And if it’s cooling? Same pattern, just opposite direction.

So my job is to interpret the truth of the St. George real estate market, then report that to you regularly!

The reality is that the St. George market is “strong to neutral”, meaning that the market remains normal and healthy!

Currently, Washington County has a 10 months’ supply of homes which means that it would take 10 months to sell every one of those homes. This may be a bit larger of a number in comparison to last year at this time where there was an 8 ½ months’ supply of homes, but it’s MUCH better than say 4-5 years ago when there were 2x as many homes on the market.

So what does that mean for you and your personal situation?

The answer to that question varies greatly based on what price point your home falls in. For instance, if you’re selling a $200k home, it’s going to be MUCH easier than selling a $1 million home where there are far fewer Buyers, and the Buyers at that price point are much more meticulous in their home search.

Want to see exactly how easy (or difficult) it would be to sell your current home?
Here are up-to-date figures for every city in Washington County by price range: http://www.soldinstgeorge.com/our-market/

It is also worth noting that last month, 254 homes sold in Washington County. What does that mean? We typically see 300-400 sales in the peak months of March, April and the Fall season, with the peak of summer and winter being slower times. Does that mean you shouldn’t/couldn’t sell or buy in the “off seasons?” Hardly. Summer and winter may be SLOWER, but not “dead.”

As we move forward into the Spring, if you have individualized real estate questions about what your next step could or should be, don’t trust CNN or other news networks!

If you have any more questions, feel free to call or e-mail us with anything Also, don’t forget to utilize our FREE MLS home search and home value report links on our website. And our full, detailed St. George Real Estate report is always available 24/7 so you can be the smartest kid on the block! Check it out here: St. George, Utah Real Estate Report

Our contact info once again, (435) 215-4333 or email us: larkingroup@gostgeorge.com.