Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Ipad 2 giveaway!

J Thomas Homes is giving away and Ipad 2. Go check out their fan page on facebook to enter. You can also see their floor plans and communities at JThomasHomes.com

Monday, November 28, 2011

10 Cities Where Home Construction Is Taking Off

It's a great time to build a home in Northern UT! The article below shows Salt Lake is among the top 10 cities for construction activity in the country! Contact me for the latest new construction deals in Logan, UT.


10 Cities Where Home Construction Is Taking Off

Builders mostly have stayed on the sidelines the last few years in many metro areas while construction permits and housing starts have dropped to only a fraction of what they once were during the housing boom days and even prior to that. But in many areas across the country, housing starts and permits at least leveling off. What’s more, in some places they're rising.

The cities that are seeing the most construction activity in single-family homes and multifamily units are ones that experienced only a mild recession so they have “less ground to make up during the recovery,” as well as areas with population growth, an article at U.S. News & World Reports notes. For example, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Texas, and Omaha, Neb., are nearly back to normal construction-permit activity.

"What you're going to start to see is construction activity pick up in parts of the country where, although we have an excess supply of homes nationally, we don't in that location," Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, told U.S. News & World Reports. "The fact that we have vacant inventory is a national phenomenon, (but) we don't have vacant inventory in certain markets, which means new construction is going to pick up in some of these markets."

The top 10 metro areas by construction activity in the third quarter of 2011 are:

1. Houston

2. Dallas

3. Raleigh, N.C.

4. Omaha, Neb.

5. Austin, Texas

6. Salt Lake City

7. Charleston, S.C.

8. Charlotte, N.C.

9. San Antonio, Texas

10. Tacoma, Wash.

Source: “Where Builders Are Breaking Ground,” U.S. News & World Report (November 2011)

Fiserv study says Logan, UT Home prices rising

Here is a great story from Utah Realtor magazine. It seems that we are beating the odds in Utah and increasing in value while the rest of the country will see a decline.

A new report has good news for
Utah homeowners: statewide
housing prices are set to rise
about 2 percent by summer 2012 and
nearly 7 percent during the subsequent
year. The analysis is part of a report that
forecasted home price trends in 384
metro areas across the U.S.
Based on projections from Fiserv
Case-Shiller and Moody’s Analytics, the
report said Utah will do better than the
U.S., which is expected to have a nearly
4 percent price drop.
For this year, Utah home price gains
will be strongest in St. George, according
to the report. From second quarter 2011
to second quarter 2012, home prices
are expected to rise nearly 8 percent. In
Ogden, the increase is forecasted to be
more than 5 percent. Logan prices are
projected to go up 3.5 percent while Salt
Lake prices will be flat.
Provo-Orem is expected to still be
stabilizing, with a slight drop of about 1
percent.
From the same period in 2012
through 2013, home prices are expected
to rebound in all areas of the state.
The report said Salt Lake prices should
increase nearly 9 percent. Provo-Orem
prices should be up more than 6 percent
with Ogden-Clearfield nearly 5 percent
higher. In St. George, prices should
increase 3.5 percent, and in Logan they
should be up more than 2 percent.
While Utah will fare better than the
U.S., the country as a whole should see
improvement by 2013, with more than
95 percent of all metro areas projected
to see some housing appreciation.