Windermere Real Estate December Newsletter

WINDERMERE NEWS

The Cost of a Home:

Last Year, This Year and The Next Note: It’s important that we give credit to a valuable resource who has provided us with our information. KeepingCurrentMatters.com (*KCM)

The cost of a home is determined mainly by two

components: price and mortgage rate. The monthly cost of purchasing a median priced home has changed over the last twelve months and will continue to change over the next twelve months based on these two factors.

For the first two examples, the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Existing Home Sales Report was used to establish median price and Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey to establish mortgage rate. A 20% down payment was used in all examples.

Continued on following page

DECEMBER, 2013

UPDATE SALT LAKE COUNTY REAL ESTATE NOVEMBER STATISTICS (11.1.13 - 11.30.13) 922 Active Listings Median Listing Price $229,.900 Average Sold Price $223,331 Average Days On Market: 38 *Provided by the Wasatch Front Multiple Listing Service

LAST YEAR The median priced home in the country was selling for $187,800. The 30-year Mixed mortgage rate was at 3.5%. Here is what it cost to buy a home last year:

Price Money Down $187,800 $37,560

Mortgage Interest Rate Payment (P&I) $150,240 3.5% $674.64

TODAY The median priced home in the country is selling for $213,500. The 30-year Mixed mortgage rate is at 4.5%.

Here is the cost to buy a home today:

Price Money Down $213,500 $42,700

Mortgage Interest Rate Payment (P&I) $170,800 4.5% $865.42

The monthly cost increased by: $190.78 NEXT YEAR The Projecting into the future in real estate can be rather tricky. To establish future pricing, the Home Price Expectation Survey, which depends on the over 100 housing experts surveyed, who called for an approximate appreciation rate of 5% over the next twelve months. For the interest rate, we took the average of the projections from the Mortgage Bankers’ Association, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. These experts project the approximate cost of a home a year from now to be:

Price Money Down $224,175 $44,835

Mortgage Interest Rate Payment (P&I) $179,340 5% $962.74

The monthly cost will increase by about: $97.32

SHOULD WE WAIT FOR INTEREST RATES TO COME BACK DOWN?

Some buyers are waiting to see if interest rates will come back down before making a decision about

buying a home. Though no one can guarantee where rates will be in a few months, waiting does not seem to be a good strategy.

Most experts believe rates may actually move higher. The Mortgage Bankers Association, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the National Association of Realtors are in unison projecting that rates will continue to climb.

With home prices increasing and interest rates projected to also increase, the cost of buying a home could quickly increase dramatically.

UPDATE

QUICK CHARTS

ON–MOUNTAIN DECEMBER EVENTS

https://www.pulsenomics.com/Q4_2013_HPE_Survey.php

PARK CITY AREA RESORTS CANYONS SKI RESORT

New Years Celebrations 31st

DEER VALLEY SKI RESORT

Torch Light Parade 30th

PARK CITY SKI RESORT 50th Anniversary Celebrations 21st

WASATCH FRONT RESORTS http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/

SNOWBIRD

Highly Decorated Lighting Ceremony 21st

SOLITUDE BRIGHTON

Children’s Glow Parade 30th Huck, Rail Jam in Terrain Park 20th

*Information gathered through resort web sites.

https://www.realtor.org

http://us.spindices.com/index-family/real-estate/sp-case-shiller

There are some homeowners that might consider

waiting for the spring to sell their house thinking that no one buys a home during the winter months. What we should understand is that homes sell EVERY DAY. As a matter of fact, according to the latest Existing Homes Sales Report from the National Association of Realtors, on average 14,027 homes sell daily in this country.

6955 Union Park Center, Suite 500 Cottonwood Heights, UT 84049

It is true that more houses sell in the spring than the winter in most markets. However, it is also true that there will be more competition as many sellers wait to the spring to put their house on the market.

Thousands of homes sell each and every day in this country. Don’t be afraid to put your house on the market this winter.

WINDERMERE REAL ESTATE 801.485.3151

HeA DL I N eS may have you believing …

If you read some of the headlines about home sales over the last few weeks, you may believe that sales of houses in the U.S. are beginning to slow dramatically. There have been some that have used the recent Existing Home Sales Reports (EHSR) from the National Association of Realtors’ as proof of this supposition. We should be careful not to put too much credence in these reports of impeding doom.

It is true that the last EHSR revealed that sales were down 3.2% from the previous month. However, there are two crucial points that are not being addressed: 1. Home Sales are up 6% over the same time last year.

2. Part of the downturn in recent sales can be traced to the falling inventory of distressed property sales (foreclosures & short sales). Distressed homes accounted for 14% of October sales as compared to 25% in October 2012.

Bottom Line Sales of non-distressed properties are increasing nicely. However, as the inventory of distressed properties continues to shrink, the number of overall properties sold may diminish over the next few months. This is a sign that we are entering a much healthier housing market.