High-End Homes Not Going Anywhere in Utah Housing Market
It could be a long, dry summer for home sellers at the top end of the Utah housing market.
About 111 houses in the price range of $300,000 to $1.4 million are on the market in Tooele Valley, according to the Wasatch Front Regional Listing Service - but real estate agents believe those houses could be up for sale for several more months because finding buyers for such pricey real estate is particularly difficult at a time when the market is cooling off.
Sales of homes in Tooele Valley jumped dramatically from 2004 to 2006, but have leveled off in 2007.
That slowdown, however, hasn’t affected Utah home prices, which continue to rise. During first quarter 2007, 32 houses sold in the Grantsville area at a median price of $259,547 & up 58 percent in price from this time last year. In the Tooele, Stansbury Park, Erda and Lake Point, 213 houses sold during the first quarter of 2007 at a median price of $189,900 and a 32 percent jump from 2006.
Information from the Tooele County Board of Realtors showed the average sales price countywide for a home sold during the first quarter of 2006 at $155,065. The average sales price for a house during the first quarter of 2007 was $204,843 & a 32 percent jump.
Grantsville leads in the number of houses on the market priced at $350,000 and above with 18 houses in that range; Tooele shows 13 houses on the market in that price range. In Erda there are nine, Stansbury Park five, Lake Point two, Stockton two and Rush Valley one.
“We’ve had a lot of spec homes pop up in Grantsville,” said Tooele County Board of Realtors President Michelle Warner, referring to homes built by a developer before a buyer is lined up. “There are between 20 and 22 houses built and standing without a buyer. Most of these are not built by local builders, but builders outside the area. I think these outside builders are anticipating a big influx of people moving into Grantsville.”
New home construction is hot along the entire south boundary of Grantsville and on the town’s west side.
Warner is currently marketing two high-end homes nearly completed at Dolorosa Estancia subdivision, a high-end gated community that borders Durfee and Worthington streets in Grantsville. She said both are model homes with luxury amenities for potential Utah mortgage applicants.
One is priced slightly above $1 million and the other slightly below $1 million. The Dolorosa Estancia website shows that three-quarter acres lots in the subdivision are selling for about $150,000 each. Of the 70 lots available, 16 are already reserved or sold, according to the Web site.
Coldwell Banker mortgage broker Brad Sutton said builders speculating they will find a buyer once a house is built is a new trend in Tooele Valley.
“Builders have been more willing to build spec homes the past two years,” Sutton said. “Before they would do just the opposite and they would make sure they had a buyer. In fact, prices were rising so fast that some builders did not want to have a buyer early on. Because most of these spec homes were in the $300,000 range, it would take them up to six months to build. By the time they had it built, a $300,00 house would be worth an additional $27,000.”
For those looking for land and a house in the $500,000 range, Erda is the place. Eight houses in Erda are listed above $500,000, and there are two houses in Grantsville listed above that price, with one in Dolorosa Estancia listed at $1.2 million.
Tooele Prudential Real Estate owner Vickie Griffith said there are still several mid-range-priced houses on the market in Tooele Valley.
“It is good for a buyer right now because there is a wide selection of houses and properties,” she said. “The only problem is that it is hard to find anything under $130,000. We don’t have affordable new houses.”
She said all the rules for new construction for Tooele City are hurting the availability of affordable housing.
Griffith said some buyers are coming to the area because of recent industrial developments. She said she had talked to people coming into Tooele because of Conestoga Wood Specialties, Bonnie Plants, EG&G, Miller Motorsports Park and some who were being transferred to the Tooele Army Depot.
SOURCE: The Tooele Transcript