The real estate blog.

I had the opportunity to be interviewed a few weeks ago for the monthly magazine of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors June edition. Ironically, my role was as a counterpoint to optimistic economist Jeff Thredgold who often is quoted in the media for Zions Bank.

The point of the story was to emphasize that Salt Lake is still a good real estate market and is likely not to see the downturn being experienced in the bubblicious parts of the country. In an unlikely turn, I was selected to be the housing bear.

But the good economic news does not mean Utah
won’t escape the effects of a national housing downturn,
according to Nigel Swaby, a Salt Lake mortgage broker.
Swaby believes the worst is yet to come when it comes to
falling home sales and foreclosures.

“We are no where close to bottom,” Swaby said. “For the
next year it’s going to be pretty bad. I don’t think people
will get excited about real estate until there are significant
discounts. We’re just not there yet.”

I want to emphasize I’m speaking of the Utah real estate market. I believe some parts of the country have already found bottom. The continued deterioration of the St. George market is a harbinger of what we can expect up North.

The article is pretty in depth and makes some good points about the economy the bubble bloggers fail to recognize. I’m a firm believer in real estate as a long term investment, but I do believe Salt Lake and Northern Utah will experience some pain for sellers and opportunities for discriminating buyers.

Thanks to Dave Anderton for the opportunity to comment.