Entries by Babs De Lay

We’re Softening

What’s going on?  I held an open house and only two groups came through!  I listed a property and I’ve only had three showings!  Is the real estate bubble bursting? Don’t wait for a popping sound, but the market is softening somewhat. Prices around the country in many areas have adjusted downward by an average […]

BUY TIME

Buyers take note!  The real estate market is changing drastically, especially seen in new data from the Salt Lake Board of REALTORS. Homes sales (condos, single family) fell to just 1,344 in June in Salt Lake County. That’s the lowest they’ve been in June for a decade and 27% less sales than last year during […]

Affordable Housing Hope

First, if you haven’t driven on Foothill across from Research Park and Sunnyside (800 So) you’d miss all the construction going on at the west side of the road. It’s hard to miss since just about everywhere in the valley is a crane, bulldozer or hole being developed. This site is where a private entity […]

Utah Lake

The first peoples in Utah were the Fremont and the Anasazi and then later the Northern Shoshone, Goshute, Bannock, Paiute, and Ute peoples. Like the herds they followed for food, they migrated throughout the state during all types of weather. White explorers encountered these tribes throughout the 1700-1800’s. Fur trappers were the first whites to […]

Can’t Pop that Bubble

For those of you hoping that the crazy housing market is just a bubble about to pop, the news is baaaaad.  Home prices in February have shot up in Salt Lake County by a whopping 23% over last year with Utah County coming in at a record high of 30% in 12 months, Davis County […]

NEEDLE PARK

Decades ago, in New York City there was a forgotten 10 acres of public space called Bryant Park at 1071 Avenue of the Americas between West 40th and West 41st Streets. By the 1980’s it had become our version of what our Pioneer Park looked like-a campground for the unsheltered, a place to buy and […]

MULBERRIES

I love local history, and this time of year history is in bloom. Mulberry trees which are scattered all over the Salt Lake Valley and down as far south as St. George are getting ready to produce fruit this summer which can be used for jam or wine. These historic trees were planted by the […]

Gas Attack

OMG. Have you filled up your gas tank this past week? As someone who virtually ‘drives for a living’ I’m not a happy consumer at the pump. What’s causing these hellish gas prices? Primarily, GREED.  We have enough gas for the vehicles in this country in reserves, but suppliers cut way back during COVID because […]

FREE FARES NOW

I had the opportunity to serve for two years on the Utah Transit Authority Board of Directors before the Utah State Legislature put a kaibosh on a Board of any kind and turned over the major decisions to a few people appointed by the Governor. It was a fast and fascinating education about mass transit […]

So High!

As we like to say in real estate sales, “They ain’t building any more land!”  Dirt that you can build on is a precious commodity in all our major cities in Utah right now, so the next best frontier is to build UP.  I always thought that if I moved back to New York I […]