Aaron Edelheit runs American Home Real Estate Co., which focuses on buying and renting homes in the southeastern U.S. Edelheit, a talented stock picker, is winding down his equity management firm to focus on U.S. housing. Edelheit Says:
Utah home sales in 2011 were the highest they’ve been since 2007, according to a new report from the Utah Association of Realtors. Compared to 2010, sales were up nearly 9 percent. If you are looking at buying in Utah, this is the time to do it before prices rise.
“We’re seeing higher sales because of increased homebuyer confidence, affordable home prices, stronger employment and record-low interest rates,” said Lori Chapman, president of the Utah Association of Realtors. “In Salt Lake, homes sales are expected to rise 15 percent in 2012.”
There is a growing belief among many experts that 2012 will be the year housing turns the corner and starts heading in a more positive direction. Whenever we write a post like this, we unleash the hordes of critics who say we are again wearing rose colored glasses or are puppets being controlled by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and other industry groups.
It is for that reason we will not be covering the projections of those groups. Instead, we want to share the beliefs of other organizations.
Many believe that very few houses are selling and that almost no one can get a mortgage. We want to let everyone know that neither of these assumptions is true. Recently, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Homes Sales Report. According to the report there are, on average, 12,109 homes selling in the United States EACH and EVERY DAY! That means that approximately 12,000 houses sold yesterday, approximately 12,000 will sell today and approximately 12,000 will sell tomorrow. So the thinking that homes aren’t selling just isn’t true.
Another interesting fact in the report was that 72% of these transactions were accompanied by a mortgage. That means that approximately 8,719 people qualify for a mortgage on a daily basis in this country.
There are over 12,000 homes sold and over 8,000 mortgages granted every day. The real estate market is doing better than many believe.
Go here to read how Utah’s housing market is doing, and here to read about how home sales have increased across the country.
Thanks to our friends at KCM blog for this post.
