A "Short Take" on "Short Sales"

When real estate values decline, a number of homeowners find that their mortgage is greater than the value of the property and the owner is said to be fianancially "upside down". If the property is sold at a loss, the owner is still responsible for repyaing the entire mortgage. Sometime owners do not have enough cash to re-pay the loan and so they try to work out a deal with the lender to pay less than is owed, thus a "short sale"

If you have questions regarding this form of sale, please give me a call,

Marina at 801-649-5883

Utah still lead the nation for rising home prices

For the scores of homeowners who are having to cut asking prices to get their properties sold, it might not feel like Utah's real estate market could be considered the best in the country. But in a report released Tuesday by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Utah is No. 1 among all states in home-price appreciation, from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the same period in 2007, with a 9.27 percent gain. It is the state's fifth consecutive quarter in the top spot. Utah's appreciation rate is down considerably from the double-digit gains of recent years. When it first topped the nation in appreciation in the fourth quarter of 2006, its one-year appreciation topped 17 percent. By
the third quarter of last year, appreciation had slowed to 12.9 percent before dipping even farther in the fourth quarter. But compared with many other states, coping with a much sharper downturn, Utah's residential real estate market is faring much better.



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Believe it or not, Utah house market is best in the nation

For the scores of homeowners who are having to cut asking prices to get their properties sold, it might not feel like Utah's real estate market could be considered the best in the country. But in a report released Tuesday by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Utah is No. 1 among all states in home-price appreciation, from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the same period in 2007, with a 9.27 percent gain. It is the state's fifth consecutive quarter in the top spot. Utah's appreciation rate is down considerably from the double-digit gains of recent years. When it first topped the nation in appreciation in the fourth quarter 2006, its one-year appreciation topped 17 percent. By the third quarter of last year, appreciation had slowed to 12.9 percent before dipping even farther in the fourth quarter. But compared with many other states, coping with a much sharper residential downturn, Utah's residential real estate market is faring much better. "We do have a lot of inventory, which has caused prices to have flattened," said Realtor Bill Heiner, second vice president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. "But we're still doing well."

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What the Mortgage Bailout Means for You

On Dec. 6, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, with the support of President George W. Bush, unveiled a plan to aid certain homeowners who face the prospect of higher mortgage rates in the next few years. Paulson worked with banks and other mortgage companies to develop the initiative, and thanked them for their involvement. "We have worked through an evolving process to help minimize the impact of the housing downturn on homeowners, neighborhoods and the U.S. economy," he said. While the plan is ambitious and is designed to bring stability to the shaken economy, it will affect only a narrow slice of homeowners in the U.S. "This is not a silver bullet," said Paulson. Here are some answers to questions you may have.

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