The housing turnaround is about to catch almost everyone in the business by surprise, and one of the biggest companies headquartered in American Fork is making a big bet. Bank of American Fork sprung ahead and opened a new mortgage office, in St. George, the latest sign of the mortgage industry’s strong confidence.

As desirable as the long-awaited improvement may be, the unusually low level of homes for sale is creating widespread problems for buyers and sellers alike, leading to bidding wars and bubblelike price jumps in places that not long ago were suffering from major declines, such as in southern Utah and Arizona.

The 1,525 square-foot office, which is located at 491 East Riverside Drive, St. George, is the bank’s latest bid to fill the rebounding demand. The office will be staffed by Chris Palmer, loan officer, and Kimberly Nunley, loan processor, the bank told the Citizen. (The American Fork bank is still in the hiring process for a secretary and another loan officer.)

“Bank of American Fork is looking forward to serving the people building and buying homes in the St. George area,” said Richard Beard, president and CEO of Bank of American Fork. “We already have a strong customer base in Washington County with people who know us and appreciate working with a strong, locally-owned community bank. We hope our unique offering of big-city banking with small-town service will be valuable to this vibrant and growing area of Utah.”

In Utah, over the past year, the housing market has shown significant signs of improvement, which has helped boost consumer confidence. From January 2012 to January 2013, the average sales price of a home in Utah increased 8.5 percent according to the Utah Association of Realtors. Today, 53 percent of Utahns believe home prices will continue to increase over the next 12 months, which is a 20 percentage-point increase from this time last year.

Nationwide, sales prices rose 7.3 percent over the course of 2012, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index, ranging from a slight decline in New York to a surge of 23 percent in Phoenix. 

Bank of American Fork, a subsidiary of People’s Utah Bancorp, operates 13 full-service branches. Established a hundred years ago, it has more than $992 million in assets.

Rodger Hardy, an American Fork-based realtor, said house prices are decidedly trending up: “If you’re waiting for the bottom to hit before you buy your next house, you missed it,” he said. “It happened back in the first quarter of 2012, just over a year ago… It’s a great time to buy a house. Prices are rising, but housing is still affordable and interest rates are at historic lows.”

Danny Crivello can be reached at crivello@citizen.af, via cell at 801-477-6397 or on Twitter.

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