Signs of life finally returned to Ogden Valley’s real estate market in the 3rd quarter. Declining prices drew buyers back into the market and the trend seems to be continuing with 27 properties currently under contract as of early November, and 14 closings in both September and October—the first monthly double-digit sales posted since 8/08, and the largest number of closed transactions in a month since 5/06.
Declines in pricing continue to be seen in all sectors of the market—from condos and single family residential properties, to vacant land—and buyers able to do so are getting some great buys. For example, the bank-owned new construction luxury properties at Edgewater Chalets on the south side of Pineview Reservoir, mentioned in my last Update, weren’t on the market for long—selling for as little as $108/ft². Desirable vacant lots/land are priced at one-third what they were 2-3 years ago in some cases.
Year-to-date (YTD), the average sales price for single family residential property in the Ogden Valley is $345,000—a year-over-year decline of about 40% from the same period in 2008--while the average YTD condo sales price is $256,000—a decline of almost 22% from 2008 numbers. YTD numbers for condo and home sales are up by roughly 4-6%, the first year-over-year increase in the past four years.
While total Ogden Valley sales numbers are relatively small, and over a wide enough price range to skew numbers, the trend toward an increasing proportion of total sales being made up of distressed properties is evident. Eight of the twenty residential sales (40%) in the 3rd quarter were short sales or foreclosed properties, as were half of the four condo sales. Three out of the four condo sales were Moose Hollow 2 bedroom condos selling between $147,000 and $185,000 as bargain hunters picked up properties for up to 40% less than what they had previously sold for within the past 5 years.
Review of Notices of Default has shown at least a couple of valley properties added each week to the list of those at risk of foreclosure. Just under 12% of 197 current active condo and single family residential listings in the Valley are short sales, and close to 5% are bank-owned, an increase from a total of 15% for properties in both categories at the end of the second quarter.
Though the numbers of single family residential and condo sales have been declining in Ogden since about mid-2007, a reduction in average sales prices has only occurred since the last quarter of 2008. Year-to-date (YTD) data show an average sales price decrease of about 4% for single family properties and about a 7% decrease in average condo sales price—the first YTD declines in the past three years. 11% of all current active listings in the greater Ogden area are short sales, and 3% are bank-owned.
Despite discouraging economic news, northern Utah will ultimately survive and thrive! Both Powder Mountain and Snowbasin once again received high marks in the 2009 SKI Magazine Reader Survey, results of which are on my Utah Resort Reservations home page.
Ogden-Clearfield topped the list as most affordable intermountain community in a report released this summer by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo, while the Brookings Institution Metromonitor recently ranked the Ogden-Clearfield among the top 40 US economies based on job growth, employment, economic growth, and home prices.
