Have you heard about the shadow market? Maybe even shadow demand? What are these and what do they mean for the housing market?

Shadow Market

The concept of the Shadow Market is that there is a large supply of investor or government-owned homes that could flood the market. Recently supply has been really low so home prices have been going up due to competition. If the inventory of homes were to rise sharply, it could slow or even prevent rising home prices.

Is there a Shadow Market?

The government reports that there are just under two million home owners who are behind on their monthly payments of government-backed mortgages. These individuals are potential foreclosures. The consequence of almost two million defaulted loans would be a fresh

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The statistics haven't even been finalized yet, but everyone is extremely excited about the housing market. How come?

Right now we are seeing indicators that suggest we may be breaking records for home sales. The current number of homes under contract indicate that we have TRIPLE the amount of normal activity on the housing market.

Here is an example:

In South Jordan, in the $400K - $500K price range we normally see approximately 15 homes under contract at a time. With the number of homes on the market this represents a 5-6 month inventory. In the past few weeks those number have Tripled!

Currently there are approximately 45 homes Under Contract. That's three times the normal 15 homes. With the current inventory of 54 homes available on the

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Zillow is a popular real estate website that uses public records to estimate the value of homes. However, in Utah they have a problem: Utah is a non-disclosure state. That means home owners are not required  to disclose what they purchased their house for. That means Zillow doesn't know what your neighbor's homes sold for, or what you bought your home for. Making their estimates without public records makes Zillow very inaccurate in Utah.

So the question is do they estimate too high or too low. Because it still provides a starting point right? Unfortunately wrong. If their estimates were always high or always low it could still offer some value, but with no information to go on their estimates are all over the place.

For example here are two homes

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Congratulations to Craig Hawker, the Draper Expert. He is the 2012 Realtor® of the Year!

The Salt Lake Board of REALTORS® recognized Craig's accomplishments and drive by awarding him the Realtor® of the Year Award. The yearly event, honors Salt Lake's top real estate professionals based on sales volume and service.

What is Realtor® of the Year?

The Realtor® of the Year award honors Realtors® who are committed to diligently serving the public as well as improving in their real estate profession. Craig demonstrates his service to the public by applying his years of knowledge and experience during their purchase. He continually improves his skills by participating in more than 70 hours of education each year. That is nearly 10 times the educational

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3 buyers lost up to $5,000 this month.  PROTECT YOURSELF.

Just within the last couple of weeks we have had 3 REALTOR®s call us on the phone and ask us to breach contract for their buyers. They each said something similar to, "I know that we are past the deadlines to keep our earnest money. Will you let us keep our money?" What is the point of earnest money if people feel like the buyers should keep it no matter what? It would all be pointless.

Earnest money is to protect the seller of the property. They are agreeing to take their home off the market while the potential buyer investigates the option of buying the home. The truth is we only collect earnest money when buyers, their agent, or their lender, don't fulfill their responsibilities in the

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The top priority of the seller is pricing your home appropriately. Approximately 90% of home buyers search for homes online. What is the first thing they search for? Price! There are a few important things to consider when pricing the home to maximize visibility and result: 

• You want the home to show up in as many searches as possible
• You want to get the highest price possible for your home
• You want the price to be appealing to buyers 
• You do NOT want to eliminate potential buyers by pricing too high
• You do NOT want to start too high and have your home sit on the market forever. This would cause your final sales price to fall

Your primary goal as a seller is to have the home show up in as many searches as possible to maximize…

While renting can be useful for some financial situations, owning a home provides great benefits to you and, ultimately, your financial well-being.

1. Control your space. Use a spare bedroom for your own home office. Create a workout area in the garage. You own the home, you make the rules.

2. Pride of Ownership. When you own something you tend to take better care of it. A home is no different. Cutting your lawn, creating a garden, or just making improvements on the weekends becomes a thing of joy.

3. Stability. When you purchase a home with a fixed interest rate mortgage, you don't have to worry about surprises in your monthly payment. Month after month, you know what your payments are going to be. Renters don't have that luxury. At the end of

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For many people and for many reasons, buying a home is better than renting a home.

In many communities, the inventory of houses to rent is limited, whereas there's likely to be a large variety of houses on the market at many prices. If specific location matters, buying a house is the better way to choose the ideal location than renting a house.

Lifestyle is another major consideration. Owners can modify a house to suit their needs. A popular modification is making a house habitable by someone with disabilities. A renter would not be able to modify a house and a landlord is unlikely to change a house to suit a tenant. If a house needs updating, with new energy-efficient appliances, homeowners will update kitchen and laundry appliance, or put in a new

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While it may take some work to prepare for your open house, allowing interested buyers into their potential future home will make them feel at ease instantly and visualize this home as their own as they walk through and picture their belongings there.

Remember to declutter every area to accent the spaciousness of the home and it's square footage. This will make the buyer even more interested when they see all the advantages of the space available and show the home at its best.

Photos & Clutter

Keeping personal photos or other momentos out of sight will make the home more attractive to a potential buyer. This means they can picture their own belongings in these spaces.

Ambiance

One of the most important factors when having an open house is

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2012 is coming to an end. What happened in the Salt Lake County housing market over the past 12 months?

• Home prices are 4% higher than last year
• The median home price is up 11% from last year. (2011 - $185,000, 2012 - $205,000)
• It was the first year since 2007 that home prices have consistently gone up
• The number of homes sold is up 18 percent from last year
• Housing inventory dropped to 4.2 months (down from 7.2 months)
• Homes typically have taken 61 days to sell (down from 78 days last year)
• Homes sell for 96% of list price, (up from 91% last year).

If the world doesn't end this month where are the best places to buy/sell a home?

Check out the Hot Spots:

#1 - Sandy 84092     Price: $200K - $250K
Chance of

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