First Timers

/in /by

With home mortgage rates hovering at or close to 8%, more and more buyers are finding it harder and harder to either qualify for a mortgage payment or find a livable property in their price range. I recently began working with a couple, first time buyers who could qualify for a home @$500,000. They didn’t have too big of a wish list: good sized yard for their two big dogs, three bedrooms, two baths, and a mother-in-law apartment downstairs with a separate entrance. And, most important, they want to live close to the University of Utah. A home, not a condo was the request, as buying a condo in that price range would most likely have an additional HOA fee of $300 or so per month for that Association’s water/sewer, exterior maintenance, insurance and any amenities like a pool, tennis courts, gym, etc.   Guess what?

Nada. BIG FAT NADA.

One of our immediate issues was that one of the two was quite tall. Older homes often do not have very large bedrooms and so a bed that might fit the two of them would take up most of a main bedroom and leave little or no space for side tables or chest(s) of drawers.  Plus, often living space in the basement would generally be very cramped for a tall person as ceiling height is often low and thus I had to educate them about this important factoid and then take them to homes built in the 1950’s and later to show them the difference. We found that anything close to the U, say within 20 blocks or so was in pretty crappy condition. My clients admitted they have no skills in rehabilitating a property and after learning that I took them to Rose Park where we saw a number of ‘flips’ /homes that have been remodeled in their price range. We saw some cute ones but there were no homes with separate entrances to have a downstairs apartment. They want this so they can have an income stream/renters to help with the mortgage payment.

The reality is that homes with a secondary apartment are about as hot as the hinges on the gates of hell because so many people now NEED rental income to help make the primary mortgage payment AND families are also looking to live together by having seniors or students of the family share spaces with parents or siblings. Housing is expensive! Back when rates were 2.5% for a 30 year mortgage, a payment with 5% down on a $500K home would have been $2,466 and at 8% would be $4,075 per month. We don’t expect interest rates to be coming down anytime soon, or housing prices to head downward. We’ll keep looking for that needle in a haystack but sadly we’ll most likely be battling other first time buyers in multiple offer battles.

GROWING, GROWING, GROWING

/in /by

We are the most popular state these days with many of our cities experiencing amazing growth.  Southern Utah is especially exploding with big and small businesses alike moving there.  If you haven’t heard there’s a mega-resort called Black Desert Resort, pay attention. This luxury golf, dining and hotel /condo project sits on 630 acres in Ivins, about 8 miles northwest of St. George and will be the biggest resort in the state upon completion. The focal point, the Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course is already open amidst the lava and red rocks. The hotel is going to open this fall followed by ongoing construction of a total of 3,330 living spaces, 75-single family homes and hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial and restaurant spaces. Check out the 7,200 course and book tee times now at www.blackdesertresort.com.

And although it’s been an unusually active summer of road repair hell, the repaving and work on 300 West between 900 and 2100 South is finally done with new tar, bike path, crosswalks and sidewalks. The road hadn’t been updated for 70 years except for filling winter potholes and was SLC’s largest construction project in history.  There are about 25 projects of UDOT just in the Salt Lake Valley currently under construction, from work at State Street from 3000-6400 South to Big Cottonwood Canyon, along Redwood Road, and I-80 in Sugar House. Hundreds of tons of asphalt and concrete have been poured and laid and there’s still plenty of work to be done. Downtown Salt Lake City is working on a voter-approved Funding Our Future street reconstruction bond on 200 South, has just finished lower 9th and 9th and is now full swing on upper 9th and 9th. The annual street fair there last weekend had to move to Liberty Park for the Saturday event due to massive construction.  Highland Drive in Sugar House is also under the bulldozers and all of this construction fits in with the City’s plan to resurface 150 lane miles of Salt Lake City roadway.

Also in the capitol city you’ll see more than two dozen mid and high rises currently under construction with folks now enjoying the recently opened Hyatt Regency on the south end of the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center. You’ll see if when you go to FANX this week. The last guard tower at Utah’s old prison was demolished three weeks ago at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley which means after the past nine months the demolition of the old prison is almost complete. A mixed-use development of 600 acres (state-owned land) called ‘The Point’ will start construction in 2025 after final scrape and prep work is done to the land. The longtime chapel that served the inmates over the years is going to stay as part of the history of the site.

Urban Accolades

/in /by

Utah continues to get accolades from around the country. U.S. News and World Report found our state the best state in the nation overall for 2023, for things like fiscal stability, tourism, education and health care, our natural environment, infrastructure, and low crime. Washington State took second place, whereas Hawaii got #1 for health care and natural environment, New Hampshire #1 for opportunity and crime and corrections, Minnesota #1 for infrastructure and Florida (believe it or not) #1 for education. Utah has also been ranked number one for business several times during the past decade according to Forbes and recently BusinessWire reported that Amazon found Utah to be the most entrepreneurial in the country.

In July, checkr (a background check company) found that Provo is the biggest boomtown, the fastest growing city in the U.S. Their metrics describe a city that experiences rapid economic growth and development in a short period of time. Factors include not just population growth, but unemployment rate (Utah’s rate is that @ 97% of our population is currently employed), housing growth, high-earning residents making more than $100,000 and the poverty rate. Of the 10 fastest growing cities, Utah had 4 of the 10-Provo, St. George, Logan, Ogden. Our neighbors in Boise City and Couer d’Alene Idaho took #2 and #3, Bend, Oregon was #4 and Reno, Nevada took the 10th spot.

No matter how you feel about living in Utah, we’re doing really well for a majority of our citizens. We actually have a surplus in our state coffers which very few states can claim. On the flip side of the good news, no town in Utah made the ‘Slowest Growing Cities’ list. The closest slow growth town near Utah is Casper, Wyoming, which made #22 on the bad list.

With growth comes issues that are challenges for our population and our politicians. Poor air quality, high energy consumption, traffic, congestion, increased levels of inequality and homelessness are results of uncontrolled growth. As we speed up growth and urbanization we need to ensure that we have adequate planning for our futures in the state. Having served as a volunteer Planning and Zoning Commissioner for 8 years in Salt Lake City and now as a member of the Historic Landmarks Commission I can highly recommend serving to help your city. It’s not only fascinating to learn about what folks want to build, develop, tear down or improve, but really fulfilling to be part of the process of urban planning. Each city has a way to be involved, by submitting a resume to serve on various commissions and committees. Often, they look for people who live in and represent certain areas of a city, and you don’t have to be a politician, have a college degree, be an architect or contractor to listen and eventually help make good decisions for all of us to build better cities and town.

Movie Trivia

/in /by

This month is the 30th anniversary of a small little film shot behind several homes in Glendale, just west of downtown Salt Lake City. It is a story about kids who play baseball on a dirt lot back in the summer of 1962 that has become over the years a sweet cult film. The simple premise of the coming of age movie is that the character Scotty, a new kid in town, is encouraged by his mom to make new friends. He ends up joining a rag tag bunch of kids who play at the neighborhood sandlot. After one of the kids smash the cover off their only ball, Scotty gets his dad’s ball without dad’s knowledge, and it gets hit over a fence where a scary dog guards a house. He didn’t realize that he’d lost his father’s most valuable possession-a baseball signed by the one and only Babe Ruth and of course, he has to get it back before his dad finds out it was gone. And therein lies the plot.

Leigh von der Esch was the Utah Film Commissioner when the movie was being made here and remembers hiring a helicopter to find the perfect place for the sandlot and once it was identified, Leigh had to find a tree to be the treehouse in the film. She found a live tree on Beck Street that was dug up and moved to the site of the film. The director loved Vincent Drug in Midvale because the store had a real soda fountain they needed in the film. The drug store opened originally in 1911 as a saloon, but when Prohibition came Willis Vincent, the owner, was forced to convert the bar into a drugstore. The place was still open in 1993 and the young actors in the film could line up for shots as they ate ice cream in the store.  Some considered the long counter with about two dozen stools to be one of the best and most well preserved soda fountain in the state known for iron port and sweet or tart cherry phosphates. It was also used for scenes in movies made in Utah like Halloween 4 and 5, the Stand and Touched by an Angel.  Leigh also remembers that the film was going to be shot in Wichita, Kansas, but the needed mountains in the back ground. San Diego was also considered as a location, but lucky for Utah, we won out. The cast is still alive, as is the director, and they come to regular reunions here.

The dirt lot is located behind several houses on Glenrose Drive and is private property. Film fans often knock on doors trying to get access for photos and tons of folks would love to see the site preserved for future generations. Hook & Ladder Co. in Glendale has it’s own replica of the sandlot behind it’s business.

Mud Man 2023

/in /by

I had to laugh being a veteran ‘Burner’ for almost two decades at social media and news posts that came into Burning Man this past Labor Day weekend. From Mike Lee declaring the flood on the Playa as ‘God’s Judgement’ on us for ‘for engaging in lewd and sexually charged events at the festival’ to all of us having Ebola, to hearing the National Guard had been called out to control the 72,000 of us stuck in the mud those days. We got 1” of rain, which for an area that gets a total of 6” per year…that was a lot in a short period of time. The desert itself always has extreme weather and temps as evidenced by 2002’s Burn with heat @103° in the afternoons and high winds that made white-out conditions impassable to cross the Playa. We come prepared with all the things like extra tarps, water, food, spare tires, trailers, RV’s and the like. Newbies (we used to call them ‘virgins’ before BM got woke) often don’t come prepared and bring tents without enough preparedness for rain.

When it rains out there, and it does, Burners are told to stay in place and to find shelter as fast as possible. The Playa which is on BLM and Paiute land is like the Bonneville Salt Flats in that it’s a really flat hard packed surface most of the time. As Utah has salt as the base, the Playa has alkaline dirt that when wet acts just like clay. BM only provides porto potties to its citizens, and for those who didn’t have a trailer or RV, you have to wear plastic bags on your feet and slide to the Johns, or wear socks because the mud doesn’t stick as much for some reason.  If you are wearing shoes the sticky clay-like mud will accumulate 4-6” on your shoe soles, bike and car tires and you can’t move!  It took a few days for the desert to dry out but we discovered the Playa wasn’t completely flat, as certain areas continued to be flooded lake-front property even through exodus.

Certainly you saw on social media the 10-lanes of vehicles leaving the Playa, which for them took 6-12 hours to get from dirt to tarmac? We left at 4:30 AM and there was no wait line because we know not to leave during the BM rush hours. Lot’s of folks wanted to escape early and there was evidence of cars stuck in the mud from too-early of a retreat home and of course you saw Diplo and Chris Rock who had hiked 5-6 miles out to flag down a fan to get them home? They most likely flew into the Playa and no planes were leaving in our unique airport that is built from scratch and taken down just after the event.

 

 

Size Matters

/in /by

Do you remember during the Covid-19 pandemic when there were rampant shortages off and on of different types of foods, dry goods, building supplies, baby formula, new cars and such? Did you dare travel during those years and find that gasoline, airfare and hotel prices were nuts? When it came to foodstuffs, manufacturers adjusted quickly by sometimes raising prices due to lack of ingredients and decreasing the size of the final product.  As an example, Snickers bars downsized form 50g to 44 g-equal to about one bite per bar but they kept prices the same. During the same time we heard how lumber and plywood nearly quadrupled in cost. Wholesale prices for plywood increased form $400 to $1500 per thousand square feet, with average retails prices that increased from $12.80 to $48.00 per sheet.

Well that pandemic is basically over and the supply chain has improved across the country. The National Assn. of Home Builders estimate that 9 out of 10 single-family homes built in the U.S. feature wood-framed walls, ceilings, floor sand roofs. The prices of new homes hasn’t dropped since those masked-up days even though lumber prices have fallen, but what has happened is that many builders around the country are doing the same thing as Snicker’s manufacturer (Mars, Inc.)…decreasing the size of new homes. On average, the Builders group has seen a 2% decrease in new home size across the country, it’s own form of ‘shrinkflation’.

The U.S. Census Bureau and HUD’s August housing report for the country found that housing permits were up 0.1% in June but are still 13% below last June’s numbers in 2022. Housing starts in July were up 3.9%. We aren’t as a nation keeping up with demand and statistics also point to a continuing lack of affordable housing being built to fulfill demand of first time buyers and seniors who want to downsize. Home owners don’t want to give up mortgages they got during the pandemic with annual interest rates of 2.5-3% and this fact alone is what’s keeping housing inventory low nation-wide. The National Assn. of REALTORS reported last month that the U.S. housing market is short more than 300,000 affordable homes for middle-income buyers. They found that middle-income buyers can afford to buy less than a quarter (23%) of the listings that are currently being offered for sale around the country. That’s a lot different than five years ago when those same buyers could afford to purchase half of the homes on the market.

As a side note, the Census Bureau report found that Salt Lake County single family home prices increased by almost 60%  during the pandemic and that we had a huge population increase during the pandemic, with more than 23,000 folks from California moving to Utah for work which is three times more people than the next largest group of immigrants-8,300 from Arizona.

 

Inspect it!

/in /by

Now that the $20,000 grant has become available for 2,400 potential homebuyers of new construction under $450,000 has been released through the Utah Housing Corp., some of you lucky folks will be buying homes that might be almost finished inside. If you are so lucky to have found something in this age of low inventory, congrats and know that it’s really important to get a full inspection before signing the final paperwork to close escrow.

I have found over the years that buyers who purchase a home or condo to be built or under construction are not counseled to have an independent home inspection prior to closing. They generally have several meetings with the builder reps and trust that all the sub-contractors of the builder are all terrific and do a great job. Well, not always. Earlier this spring I was working with buyers who were working with one of the developers in Daybreak. The husband had some building experience and went to the new construction project every few days to watch the progress. As the concrete was poured and the framing started, problems began to surface. The concrete in some places cracked immediately and was very noticeable with the front stairs pulling away from the house. He noticed that several beams in the roofing trusses that had been delivered to the site had large cracks in them. More things about the construction process became noticeable and he called local officials/engineers to come inspect the work and lo and behold, they agreed with the problems and wrote up the builder to fix them. Sadly, the sub-contractors in several cases hid their shoddy work and continued to install broken trusses. The buyers wanted out because they had lost all faith in the builder and for a moment the company wasn’t going to allow them to bail and get their earnest money back. With a call from the buyers attorney the money was refunded immediately and they bought another home.

Just before closing escrow I suggest buyers hire a home inspector to check that the roof looks installed properly, the main electrical panel does not have a lot of ‘double tapping’, the HVAC and water heater appear to be working properly, etc. A ‘roof to foundation’ inspection. One time on a home in Cranberry in Draper, my buyers and I found out that the home they were about to purchase had never been connected to a gas line, nor had a gas line been stubbed into the lot! A home inspection can be $300-500 or so and you get a 30+ page report with photos. I suggest getting a radon test if there’s a basement and even a sewer line scope to make sure the pipe wasn’t cracked or is sagging upon installation.

Be careful and protect yourself before buying any home or condo, new or used. It will save you a ton of money in the long run!

Tough Business

/in /by

The Salt Lake Board of REALTORS just released last month’s sales data for Salt Lake County. Basically, all the stats pointed downward form the same time last year, to wit: 1) number of sales of all types of property were down 26.1%, 2) the median single-family home prices dropped to $600,000 (down 4.1%), 3) the number of sales of just single family homes down 26.1% (748 sales in June), 4) median price per sq. ft. $254.41, down 1.2% and 5) the median home price of all types of residences down 4% to $519,000.

Last week the Fed met and raised key interest rates it charges to banks by .25%, the 11th time since last March, and the highest level in 22 years.  Mind you when I got my real estate license in 1984 interest rates were 18%!  Houses were NOT selling, and builders were in a panic. The market responded by creating something called a ‘negative amortization loan’ which almost immediately boosted home sales here. How did that work?  Imagine walking into a builder’s sales office knowing that mortgage rates were 18% for a 30 year loan, but the builder’s rep asked you if you’d buy one of their homes if the interest rate was 6.5%?  Well of course, you’d be interested, right? The deal was that indeed, the rate would be that low, but the interest difference between 18% and 6.5% would be added back into what you owed on your mortgage…11.5% each month. That difference would increase what you owed the bank each and every month, and well, if you wanted to sell a few years after your purchase you’d find out you owed MORE than the property was worth!  Just like in 208-09, many people lost their homes and simply gave them back to the bank. The 1980-82 recession in the U.S. was the worst economic downturn in the country since the great depression and property values dropped. It was influenced by the 1979 energy crisis which was mostly caused by the Iranian Revolution that caused a major disruption to the global oil supply. There were long and ugly lines at gas stations around the country as vendors ran out of fuel due to the poor supply chain. Much like today, Americans in the Reagan era were concerned with high budget deficits in the U.S. Treasury and bemoaned a lack of trust in the government. Sound familiar?

The June sales stats also picture a local real estate industry that can’t possibly support a living wage for real estate agents when total sales in a month of all types of residences in the County were a mere 1,072 when there are over 10,000 members of the Salt Lake Board of REALTORS. That stat points to just over 10% of the membership selling homes last month, and like any sales profession, ‘10% sell 90% of the inventory’. Thinking of being a real estate agent? It’s a tough business!

$20K Help or Not?

/in /by

First time home buyers or folks who haven’t owned a home in the past three years should be jumping up and down now that the $20,000 has been authorized/released from the State Legislature for qualified buyers. BUT it’s not as wonderful as it seems.

First, only 2,400 qualified homebuyers will be able to get the funds through the First-time Homebuyer Assistance Program.

Second, you can’t buy a home that costs over $450,000.

Third, and this is a biggie…you can only buy NEW CONSTRUCTION.   This last requirement was lobbied by developers and may not help that many people wanting to live in certain areas. There’s very little new affordable construction going on in rural areas of the state, and almost none close-in to downtown Salt Lake City except for a few townhomes. When searching the WFRMLS for new construction properties in the Salt Lake Valley, a whopping 37 show up under $450,000 and all are townhomes. Townhomes may be great for some, but often they have many stairs so that differently abled persons and seniors could not buy one. Utah County had 74 properties with only two home subdivisions (not townhomes) in Eagle Mountain and Spanish Fork. Davis County had a mere 9 available, again, all townhomes. Washington County also had 9 properties, mostly townhomes, with a few one level homes available in Hurricane. Summit County has NO properties that fit the requirements and Wasatch County has one newly constructed home in Daniel for $160,000. Many builders do NOT list their properties on an MLS and so buyers have to drive around or hunt and peck on the interweb to find other options.

Townhomes are similar to condos in that some have HOA fees for exterior insurance, water, sewer and grounds maintenance. Depending on the subdivision you may or may not own the land underneath the unit. They are a great housing alternative for some because they are an affordable option for some and offer a ‘lock and leave lifestyle’ if the exterior landscaping is paid for in a monthly fee. The most common floorplan is living space above a two car garage, with the second level the kitchen, great room and probably a half bath, and laundry and the rest of the bedrooms/ baths on the second floor.

IF you think you’ve found housing that fits the rules for the program, your first step is to get pre-approved with a participating lender to get credit-qualified. The $20K loan is 0% interest with no monthly payments and can be used toward the down payment and/or closing costs. When you refinance or sell the property you have to repay the amount borrowed OR 50% of the home equity.

For more information, contact a local mortgage broker who can qualify you and spell out the numbers for you for a loan. I don’t suggest internet brokers as they may not be familiar with the program. And check out utahhousing.org.

PADDLE TIME

/in /by

When it’s hot as hell we all like to find cool water. From our myriad of lakes and reservoirs to out rivers around the state, people love to swim, boat, paddleboard and kayak especially now that a really harsh winter has almost melted away. There’s one waterway many of us don’t think about-the Jordan River with its Jordan River Parkway connecting 45 miles from Utah Lake to the Salt Lake Fairgrounds. Yet the earliest known people in the state, from Native Tribes to Mormon pioneers knew the river intimately as a source for irrigation.

The Jordan began as a cold-water fishery with 13 native species including the Bonneville cutthroat trout, it later turned into a warm-water fishery with mostly the common carp fish swimming in its waters. It is the only outlet for the waters from Utah Lake.  Sadly, the river was a catch-all for sewage from settlers and later industry waste like from the Geneva Steel smelter where Vineyard in Utah County is now located and in the 1960’s Utah Lake and the river was a stinking mess. Yet citizens cried out and sewage treatment began and with help from the Feds Clean Water Act and monies from the Superfund it got cleaner and cleaner.

Nowadays the Jordan River is much cleaner and is a destination place for many as there are now many boat ramps and parks along the waterway as well as a wonderful, paved pathway. The Jordan River Commission has a great website that shows the addresses of all the current boat ramps from Utah County to Salt Lake County. The helpful site jordanrivercommission.com offers videos about paddling along the river, hints for self-guided and group paddle trips and where to sign up for Utah Outdoors bicycle trips alongside the waterway as well as paddle trips in the water.  The Commission is also going to lead guided paddles weekly during September as part of the “Get To the River Festival”.

The most recent boat ramp just opened up at Pioneer Crossing Park in West Valley at 1272 W. 3300 South (just east of the Utah Cultural Celebration Center) last week and to the joy of many suffering from the July heatwave it was great to slip into the river and enjoy a cooler temp along the banks and under the trees and brush alongside it. Alongside the ramp there is a park with a small playground and places to sit that will be expanded to an even larger park soon.

I have to laugh at people who look at Utah Lake and the Jordan River as a ‘no-go’ because the water looks polluted and is almost white in color. The water in Utah Lake sits over a white/gray clay bed which makes the waters murky. Although no one is encouraged to swim in the Jordan, you can rent kayaks through the commission to enjoy this wonderful waterway.