Tooele 3rd Quarter numbers...Do they mean anything?
Well, it's that time again! Time to decipher the lies...I mean statistics on the Real Estate market here in Tooele County. Maybe I should have stuck with lies! The final numbers came out a couple of days ago, and I'm still shocked!
Contrary to every law of economics, marketing, common sense, and maybe even physics, the average selling price for a home here in Tooele County is actually UP over 17% in the third quarter! There are more houses available than at any time in the last several years. They are taking longer to sell than any time since 2005. The actual number sold during this time is the least since 2004.
I guess the law of "supply and demand" has been overrated. At any rate, it's obvious that something very goofy is going on here. Let's see if we can find out what it is.
If I break it down by zip code, ( we have 2 of any consequence) the Gville zip code shows similar odd activity, as does 84074 which is the zip for Tooele, Lakepoint, Stansbury Park, and Erda. That's as detailed as the summary from Wasatch Front Regional MLS gets.
I went in a different way to get sales reports of the last 90 days in individual areas, which doesn't give all of the detail I'd like, but does go a ways toward showing why the average price may be going up.
According to the stats, Tooele County's average sales price is $208,554. If I manually look at the different areas in the County, I see that Tooele City is at $ 179,557. Stansbury Park is at $256,611. Grantsville is at $235,914. Lakepoint is at $346,333 and Erda is a whopping $637,500! By far, the lions share of the sales are in Tooele City, but as you can see, it isn't an accurate picture of the county if you don't look closer. Unfortunately, the system doesn't allow us to track the trends in this way, but as I look back at some of my old numbers, I can get in the ballpark. What I see is a continuing the slow drop in the sale prices as we've seen throughout the year. If I just look at the last 30 days, Tooele City has dropped to an average selling price of just over 168k.
So what does all of this mean? The same thing it's meant all year long. It's an amazing time to buy a home! Inventories are at historic levels, interest rates haven't been lower in years, and, news media reports to the contrary, there are loans available out there, even some 100% products! We are finding amazing deals for our clients here, and I believe that as people figure these things out, the market will start to rebound. When it does, people will see that Tooele County is still the best place in the State to buy your next home. Compare our market with any other place in the State, and you'll see that your dollar still gets you more here. If you don't believe the "stats", take the time to make the short drive out here, and let us show you what we mean!