Obviously here at UtahRealHomes, we care mostly about Logan Utah Real Estate, but we always have an eye on national conditions and trends because we know that it can have an effect on our market here in Cache Valley and Northern Utah. Below is a small excerpt from an article that was posted at realtor.org regarding the current conditions and how they are better now than this time last year.

Existing-home sales declined slightly in February, with modest gains in the Northeast and Midwest offset by softer sales in the South and West, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Existing-home sales 1, which are finalized transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, slipped 0.6 percent nationally to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.02 million units in February from 5.05 million in January, but are 7.0 percent higher than the 4.69 million-unit pace in February 2009.

Check out Realtor.org to get the full article and find other recent articles regarding national real estate conditions. If the article is accurate and things are on the rise, you better get off the fence now and start looking at homes before prices increase and the sellers market returns.

Being a Realtor working with Cornerstone Real Estate Professionals in Logan Utah has been a real pleasure. Especially when you know that the people you work with have a real perspective on today’s real estate business. Below is a little spoof video produced by some of the Realtors at Cornerstone showing how bad a home showing could go. Many of you may have had similar experiences with your Realtor and can relate to what you will see in this short film.

Cornerstone is using this video and other tools to help educate and improve their agents. Cornerstone Real Estate Professionals are by far the best in Northern Utah. Please use our free Utah Home Search tool or contact us today to utilize our services, which are completely opposite of what you see below.

Enjoy

Presented by Cornerstone Real Estate Professionals
Your Source for Logan Utah Real Estate

We are all feeling the affects of the local and national economy. How can you not, with all of the media attention focused around it, and when all of us know someone who has been laid off this year, or lost a home, or who is struggling to pay their bills.

Well, the good news is, and continues to be that the Logan Utah Real Estate market will fair better than all of the other areas in Utah, at least according to a recent report on HousingPredictor.com. Below is a small piece of their article, and you can find the entire article here.

Local Utah Housing Markets at a Glance
City                         Forecast

• Salt Lake City     − 8.6%
• Ogden                    − 10.9%
• Provo                    − 8.2%
• Logan                    − 3.8%

In Logan the housing downturn has been aided by government incentives in the lower price ranges, but an over-abundance of properties in the higher ranges is still bogging down the market. Since prices didn’t escalate at double-digit rates of inflation annually during the boom, Logan will sustain the downturn much better than other areas of the state. Home sales are projected to improve across all price ranges in 2010 in the Logan area, and are forecast to see less deflation than in the past at 3.8% for the year.

The hard hit economy has forced lawmakers to cut millions of dollars from the state budget, jeopardizing programs and municipal services. Until the financial crisis, Utah had one of the strongest economies in the nation.

In Provo the market has seen rising home and condo sales with government stimulus efforts. However, the financial crisis has taken a toll on Provo’s resort economy, which has some of the best white powder snow skiing in the country. Provo has gained a reputation for being a leading worldwide resort community, and the second home market has sustained a battering with rising foreclosures.

Weary bargain hunters are expected to make efforts to pick off deals as bankers slash prices on foreclosures to sell off the inventory. The sales will have a detrimental impact on the market, which is forecast to sustain 8.2% in deflation for the year.

So there you have it, Utah will fair better than most of the Nation, and Logan Utah specifically will be atop the list for the 2010 housing market.  If you’re still on the fence to buy your new Logan Utah home, it’s time to hop down and make that purchase and take advantage of the federal tax incentive.  I have relatives who are closing on their first home this week and will be getting $8,000.00 back to spend on whatever they would like.  So start searching for the perfect homes in Utah here.

Alright, I am going to delve into the topic of RSS. What is RSS? It has been given many different meanings since it’s creation, but for sake of keeping things simple, it stands for “Real Simple Syndication”. Basically, if you want to stay informed of updated information from a website, blog, e-newsletter etc., you can subscribe to an RSS feed of that source if they have it available.

I have found many uses for RSS that has literally saved me days of my life. For example, I use Google’s customized home page and fill it with RSS feeds that give me everything I care to stay updated on. I have a page for all of my friends and families blogs, one page to feed my sport addiction, and another page for general news and misc items. I can literally check all blogs, news and sports in just a few minutes, rather than visiting every site individually. It takes forever just getting all the information to load if you are visiting sites one at a time, not to mention trying to remember the different sites and their addresses. Sure, you can bookmark or add sites to favorites, but then again you are back to visiting sites one at a time. Not very life saving.

Here is why this is important, and the many ways this Logan Utah Real Estate site uses RSS.

First off, you can subscribe to this site and have all of the Logan Utah real estate news, mortgage news, updated rates and other information delivered right to your inbox, rss reader or my preferred, Google home page.

Second, and perhaps most important for anyone looking to buy a home in or near Logan Utah. When you use our Utah Search tool, just by searching you are automagically set up to receive updated property information for homes or properties similar to what you searched for. This is an incredibly powerful tool. If you search for homes between 150-200k, in Logan, with 3+ bedrooms, and just don’t find anything that peaks your interest, no worries, because when another home is listed that meets that criteria, you get an email. This allows you to be one of the first to know about the Logan Utah property and enables you to make the first offer, beating out the competition.

You can also use this tool to save favorite properties that you want to keep an eye on. An additional feature that other sites don’t provide is that when you revisit the site to search, it remembers what your search criteria was the last time, and auto fills the form, saving you time an providing convenience (only when using the same computer).

Below is a screenshot of my Google home page that demostrates how I use RSS for my sports information. I highly suggest you use Google home pages, I highly recommend that you add this site, and I highly recommend you use the search tool from this site, and you can literally save days of your life, and possibly get you the home of your dreams before someone else gets it first.

Alright, I have written about how Logan Utah is one of the safest cities in America. I have written about how our economy and Real Estate has remained solid during a bad recession. I have written about all of the wonderful reasons you should live here, and now I have a reason to write about why you should use the best Real Estate Brokerage in the county.  That’s right, Cornerstone Real Estate is number one again, and proving that we can service the public with better, more reliable service than any other brokerage in the valley.

We not only have more tools and resources to market your Logan property if you need to sell, but we also maintain the largest internet market share in Northern Utah.  We show your house on more websites, and in return, more buyers use us to shop for homes because it is us they find online.  Talk about killing two birds with one stone.  No one else puts more effort into being number one on the internet than Cornerstone Real Estate Professionals.  From blogs to email marketing, virtual home tours to complete sites focused around your home, no one does it better, and we have the stats to prove it.

Don’t believe me, go ahead, try if for yourself.  Open Google and search for “Logan Utah Real Estate“, or “Logan Home Search“, or “Homes In Logan Utah“.  All of those searches will result in a number one website placement for a Cornerstone site.  Why does this matter?  Because when you need to sell your home, or you need to find a home, we are there, # 1, every time.

We had the most sales in the month of November and continue to impress by leading Cache Valley in December.  If you need Real Estate Services, there really is no better place to go.  Contact me directly, or use our free Logan Utah Search tool and we will be able to help you with all of your Home Searching needs.

It is still a buyers market in Logan Utah, and the number of Logan homes for sale are still high. You can find a large selection of affordable homes in any part of Cache Valley. If you are looking for your first home, or ready to upgrade, times couldn’t be better. Your house options have never been more plentiful, interest rates have never been lower and the Federal Tax Incentive has been extended into next year.

I have included some graphs below to show you the difference in sales over the past two years in Cache County Utah.   Take a look and get excited to find the home that is right for you.  You can use our free Logan Real Estate Search tool and find any home for sale with photos, detailed info, maps, street views and more.

If you want to build your home, well your in luck.  Land is also plentiful and prices are dropping.  Sellers are anxious to sell their property and very willing to negotiate terms.  Buy the Cache Valley Land you want and build your dream home anywhere in or around Logan Utah.

Logan Utah’s local paper, The Herald Journal reported today that Logan Utah has made the top ten safest cities in America yet again.  What a wonderful place to live, raise kids, go to school, work, retire or enjoy any recreational activities you can think of.

To  search Utah Real Estate, use our first class, user friendly and free search form that includes street views, maps and detail property information.

My good friend and preferred mortgage lender Jeannette John with MetLife sent me an update today that rates are at 4.625%.  What?  Are you kidding me?  No, she was not kidding.  Add those rates to the Fed’s home purchase incentives, and you you have a Utah home buying opportunity as never seen before.

Why wait to invest in Logan Utah Real Estate.  Act now and get into an incredible loan, and get up to $8,000.00 back to buy new appliances, carpet or a remodel.  Interest rates are not going to last at this level for very long.  If you were to buy a $100,000.00 Logan home at this rate and compare it to a loan at 6%, you are saving about $75-$100 per month.  Buy a more expensive home, and the savings go up also.  Call us today, or contact Jeannette directly and get your loan in order so we can get you into that house of your dreams.

Currently, there are 738 homes for sale in Logan Utah and Cache Valley.  There are also 447 pieces of vacant land in Logan on the market.  Many of these properties are becoming bank owned and need to be sold at a much reduced price.  Banks aren’t in the business of owning Cache Valley homes, they want you to own the home and they collect the interest on the loan.  That is why they are willing to sell you homes that they now own at a much reduced price.  These are great opportunities for first time home buyers and also anyone who may be thinking about, or in need of moving up in home size.

Currently, there are 44 short sale homes on the market in Logan.  What is a short sale home?  It is a home that isn’t worth what the owners owe on it.  So the bank will need to forgive the difference in the price they loaned money for, and the price the home is now worth.  This makes for a great opportunity to get into a home that has the potential to put equity in your pocket in the near future.    Many times, these are pre-forclosure homes and the owners are close to just walking away from the home.

So why not take advantage of the first time home buyer credit, or the newly integrated existing home buyer tax credit and purchase one of these homes in Logan Utah.  There really isn’t a better place to live for a quality of life you can’t find anywhere else.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported today that home prices may be on the rise.  I have pasted their report below for your review.  Does this mean that Utah homes are beginning to make a U-Turn, and if so, perhaps a good first step towards an economic rebound going into 2010.

Washington » Home prices rose slightly in September, the fourth straight monthly increase and a clear sign the housing market recovery is continuing.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities released Tuesday rose 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted reading of 144.96 in September. Prices rose month-over-month in 11 metro areas, a weaker showing than in recent months.

“We have seen broad improvement in home prices for most of the past six months,” David Blitzer, chairman of the Standard & Poor’s index committee. “However, the gains in the most recent month are more modest than during the seasonally strong summer months.”

Industry experts, however, still worry that rising unemployment and foreclosures could stifle the rebound in prices.

So, if you are in the market for a home in Utah, or have been putting it off, waiting for the economy to turn around, you may not want to wait too long, or you’ll be paying more for it.  Search for Utah Homes by clicking here, then contact us for showings and we’ll get the ball rolling.