The buyer’s market is gone in the lower price points and we are now in a seller’s market. Problem is, we don’t have enough listings. I have buyers who would buy right now if the kind of homes they wanted were for sale. In Provo, for example, we need more duplexes, especially near BYU. We also need more of everything everywhere.

Short sales are still with us, but are getting more pricey. Banks want market price or something closely resembling it. They have been holding back on what we call the “shadow inventory.” These are foreclosed homes that have been sitting empty for months while the neighbors wondered what was going on. One client watched a townhouse in his neighborhood and even contacted me about it. I told him to call me the moment it went on the market.  More foreclosures are expected, particularly the easy ones. Still, banks prefer you short sell, rather than let your home go into foreclosure.

Like many sellers, banks are waiting for values to rise before they release many of these foreclosed homes. 

Meanwhile I see a pent up demand for houses from boomerang buyers. These are folks who sold their homes short, gave it up for a deed in lieu of foreclosure or lost it in a foreclosure. Enough time has passed for many of these buyers to be able to qualify for a new mortgage and they want to buy back the kind of home they had for less money. Some were smart and rented for less than their payments and invested the difference. Now they have healthy down payments. Good strategy, yet many still cannot get a bank loan right now, so I expect a resurgence of seller financing

So here’s what we have: a new wave of buyers, a shortage of homes for sale and low interest rates. The key to this dilemma is more listings. So 2013 will be a crazy year and a great year to be in real estate. Now if we can just get appraisers and lenders to work out their issues …

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Published reports say that Provo is No. 2 in the nation for annual increased prices, up 21.8 percent. Here’s what’s happening in Utah County as a whole, according to the Wasatch County Multiple listing Service: Median prices are up 9.3 percent, comparing December 2012 with December 2011, a bit more modest than looking at Provo alone. 

Seventy more properties were sold this past December from the previous December for a total of 484 and the total volume was up nearly $5.6 million with $90.9 million in sales. Days to sell a property has decreased from 67 to 58 and the price per square foot has increased from $72.20 to $79.78.

Rodger L. Hardy is a Realtor affiliated with Prudential Utah Real Estate and a former real estate editor. For answers to your real estate questions please email him at rhardy@utahresidentialEteam.com. 

Rodger L. Hardy CSP 

REALTOR®