AGENT MLS HOME FINDER

The Salt Lake City real estate market represents the housing of one of the communities that has found mostly effective ways of dealing with the difficult situation created by the nationwide economic downturn. There have certainly been flaws in the manner in which the local government has opted to deal with declines in a number of relevant real estate and other market indicators, but on sum Salt Lake City seems to be in better shape looking forward than many other cities with similar demographics. Unfortunately, Salt Lake City is in some ways one of the cities in the United States that continues to feel the acute sting of the downturn, while the state of Utah still ranks as one of the worst in terms of foreclosures.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech in front of the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, that he believed that the economy is most likely starting to recover from the effects of the recession, according to an article in the Associated Press. However, the article, written by Jeannine Aversa, continued to say that “Deutsche Bank analyst Karen Weaver on Tuesday predicted that national home prices won’t stop sliding until next summer and will likely fall another 10.5 percent from this summer’s levels. Bigger declines are expected in cities like New York, Salt Lake City, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Baltimore.” According to an online article published by KSL News on September 10, 2009, “Utah was among the top 10 states in the country for the number of foreclosure filings last month. According to the latest report by RealtyTrac Inc., nationwide more than 358,000 foreclosure-related filings were recorded in August…Utah came in 7th in the nation with a total of 3,277 foreclosure filings.”

The bright side of this downturn is that the state and local governments have implemented a number of measures to help real estate in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City homes for sale weather the storm. According to a September 4, 2009 article from the Forbes website, “Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Friday he’ll use $8 million in federal stimulus funds to help kick start the state’s sluggish housing market. Herbert’s office released a statement saying the state will offer $4,000 grants to 2,000 home buyers.”