You’ll find our blog to be a wealth of information, covering everything from local market statistics and home values to community happenings. That’s because we care about the community and want to help you find your place in it. Please reach out if you have any questions at all. We’d love to talk with you!
Today we are excited to take you to Glitter Mountain, also known as the Glitter Mine.
This gorgeous natural wonder is on the Arizona side of the border and just 15 minutes from St. George. You can enjoy the sights, run on the trails, and pick up all manner of glasslike geodes on the way.
This is an amazing place that you definitely need to take a trip out to soon.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
For the latest episode of “St. George Hotspots,” we want to show you some clips from our recent trip to Las Vegas for The Ultimate Wealth and Achievement Summit.
We’re blessed to live within driving distance of so many great events just like this, and it was at this conference that we got to see Tony Robbins speak.
We captured some great moments on film that we think you’ll really enjoy.
What does the future hold for our 2019 real estate market?
Experts predict that this year will be better than 2018. This is good news considering 2018 was a great year to begin with. Specifically, 94% of the top analysts in the country predict that home prices will rise nationally, 4% predict that they’ll decrease slightly, and 2% predict that they’ll stay the same.
On a local level, the NAR predicts that average home prices in Utah will rise by 3%. Basically, this means if you own a $300,000 home, it will appreciate by $10,000 by the end of the year.
Right now, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate stands at 4.875%. Although this is a slight increase compared to where rates were a couple of years ago, they’re still historically low. When you consider that rates were as high as 21% in the early 80s, even if current rates rose to 5%, homes would still be more affordable now than they’ve been at any point in the past 30 or 40 years. This means if you’re a renter, now’s a great time to buy a home and start building equity, especially since rent prices have been increasing.
Experts predict that this year will be better than 2018.
We have just under 1,500 homes for sale in St. George, and our absorption rate is roughly 3.5 months. Generally, this means we’re still in a seller’s market, but once you get above the $400,000 range, buyers have more leverage and conditions are more balanced.
St. George is one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, so our numbers should be higher than the national predictions. It might seem like we’re building homes like crazy, but we’re also selling homes like crazy. Nationally, we’re below where we need to be in terms of inventory, which is why it’s also great news that the number of homes coming on the market is expected to increase. This will give buyers more homes to choose from and more leverage.
If you have any more questions about our St. George market moving forward in 2019 or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you.
The holiday season has officially arrived. We hope you enjoy this wonderful time of year and make some fantastic memories with your family and friends. We just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued support. We love helping people make their real estate dreams come true, so thank you for working with us. This may be a busy time of year, but we are always here to help you and answer any questions you may have. Just give us a call or reply to this email. And in case we don’t hear from you, have a happy New Year as well!
We believe there won’t be a recession happening in our market over the next three to four years, and there are three reasons why.
First, there’s a big difference between the loans being done today and the loans that were done prior to the previous recession. Back in 2004, for instance, it seemed all a buyer had to do to get a loan was fog a mirror. There were a lot of scary loans being done. A lot of people with limited income were getting stated income loans, and those loans were negatively amortized for the first several years before the payments went up. It was pretty obvious that those loans were going to go belly-up, and, sure enough, they did.
After that, the entire industry got pinned down and it became difficult to get a loan. Today it’s become much easier, but not to the degree that it once was. Today’s loans are also given out more intelligently. You have to be able to prove your income, and you have to be able to prove you can afford your loan.
Second, our unemployment rate is only 3.7%, which is the lowest it’s been in almost 45 years. Back in 2008 when the market crashed, the unemployment rate was 5.8%. In 2009, it jumped all the way up to 9.4%. If someone loses their job today, they’re far less likely to have to wait around for several months before another one comes along.
We’ll eventually see home prices stabilize.
The last reason is the state of our rental market. Back in 2004 and 2005 when all the loans started going bad, rent was still cheap and it was easier for a lot of families to just sell their homes and become renters. That’s not the case anymore.
The bottom line is this: We’ll eventually see home prices stabilize. They won’t just keep going up and up and up. We’re actually starting to see this stabilization happen right now.
If you’re thinking of buying or selling a home or you have any other questions about our market and the factors we just mentioned, don’t hesitate to call or email us. We’d be happy to help you.
There are several myths going around about the real estate industry, but today we want to focus on three that have been pervading the market lately.
1. We are heading toward a real estate bubble. Home prices have appreciated over the last six years both nationally and here in the St. George market. We’re very close to the peak of the market, which is where the bubble burst last time.
Part of the misconception here is that people tend to relate the real estate market peaking with a resulting economic crash. The reality is that we have a lack of inventory in the market; the last time we hit a real estate bubble, we had a six-month supply of homes for sale. Right now in St. George, we only have three months of supply.
Supply and demand are what’s driving the prices at the moment. From where we stand, we are not in a housing bubble.
2. Affordability is going to become a widespread issue. Many believe that we’ll soon reach a point where people just can’t afford to buy a home. When it comes to purchasing a home, the first thing you should do is contact a lender to get a good idea of what you can qualify for.
From where we stand, we are not in a housing bubble.
Rising rates might affect entry-level homebuyers more than others, but looking at the market from a historical perspective, until rates hit 6%, we likely won’t run into widespread affordability issues. Nationally, the average rate is 4.59%.
3. The real estate market is slowing to a crawl. Last year, many people who had previously been renting their homes decided to fulfill the American dream and purchase their first homes, a lot of which were homes in the $250,000-range. Those homes flew off the market.
Now, the market has slowed down a little, but it’s nowhere near being a dead market. We have a little bit less inventory this year than last year, but real estate markets do fluctuate. We just have to ride the tide and come out on top—there’s a home out there for every family, and a family for every home.
If you or anyone you know are looking to buy a home in the St. George area, please feel free to reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you.
Finney Farm is a local dairy that makes great milk and cheese products, and we highly recommend you visit their booth the next time you’re at the farmers market.
For part three of our trip to the Downtown Farmers Market in Ancestors Square, we’re chatting with Winfred Barlow of Finney Farm. Finney Farm is a local dairy that makes award-winning milk and cheese that we always keep our refrigerator stocked with.
Winfred and his wife started with just one cow in their backyard. At first, they were just having fun making cheese for their family, but soon enough one cow turned into two, then two turned into four, and so on and so on. Before they knew it, they had a certified dairy. They started selling their products at the farmers market about a decade ago, and they currently milk 50 Brown Swiss cattle all by themselves.
As far as their products go, they focus on cheddar cheese because they consider it a family cheese. A lot of people at the market prefer sharp cheese, though, so they also offer a variety of those as well as a host of other cheeses that are all made with raw milk and natural sea salt. With as much milk as they’re able to process each week, they can afford to get creative with their products. Right now, they have about 16 tons’ worth of cheese aging to perfection.
Though cheese is what they’re known for, raw milk is their passion, so they sell a lot of that as well. “You can make bad cheese out of good milk, but you can’t make good cheese out of bad milk,” Winfred says. They jump through numerous hoops to make sure their milk is certified-fresh, and they have a state-certified lab at their facility that checks the quality of their milk daily. They also sell frozen yogurt that’s made with cane sugar.
Currently, they have two storefronts—one in Hilldale (where the dairy is located) and one in New Harmony. They’re also looking to expand to another location—possibly in St. George—when the farmers market is over for the year.
Finney Farm is hoping to become a household name, and we think they’re in the right place to do it.
According to Winfred, St. George’s culinary appetite is a step up compared to everywhere else they go, and they’re happy to oblige us with all their higher-end cheeses.
“People want to eat good in St. George,” he says.
Finney Farm is hoping to become a household name, and we think they’re in the right place to do it. If you want to learn more about Finney Farm, you can visit their website www.finneyfarm.com or check out their Facebook page.
Remember, the Downtown Farmers Market takes place each Saturday at Ancestor Square from 8 a.m. to noon. If you have any questions for us about it, don’t hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We’d love to hear from you.
It seems like every other client we have asks us whether a home inspection is important. The short answer is that yes, it is. Here is a prime example why.
A good friend of ours bought a beautiful home up in Northern Utah and decided to jump over the home inspection to save a few hundred bucks. Six months after they moved in, the pipes in their basement backed up and caused the lower level to flood unexpectedly.
A home inspection is always worth the investment.
They thought they got it fixed, but then it happened a second time. The repairs ended up costing them $15,000. If they would have had the $500 home inspection up front, they would have uncovered this issue and been able to get it fixed before they bought the home.
We all like to think we’re experts when looking at a home, but the fact is that you can’t catch everything if you’re not a home inspector. It pays to pay a professional to come out and have a look to protect what is probably the biggest investment of your life.
If you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell a home in St. George, give us a call or send us an email because we would love to help. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
It's time for the second part of our visit to the farmers market on “St. George Hot Spots.” Today I am with the manager of the Downtown Farmers Market at Ancestor Square, Kat.
She tells me that the market has been around for 11 years and was started by the Painted Pony and George's in downtown. Beyond just keeping the tradition alive, Kat has helped it expand and hopes to make it a year-round event. She wants to start by adding a holiday market for visitors to shop local for gifts as well as a spring fling market.
If you would like to be a vendor, Kat says that you would need a business license. You would also have to be the one making or growing everything you sell as they don't allow resale items. This means that you can buy the yarn and make it into a sweater to sell, but you can't sell the yarn itself.
They don't take any percentages or commissions because the venue is set up specifically to help the local people get a foot up.
You can start the process by visiting their website, farmersmarketdowntown.com, and turning in your application. There are three applications available depending on whether you're a farmer, baker, or a maker. Then, Kat will call you and verify that you're making your products and get you on their insurance policy.
They do operate a tiered booth system. It is $5 for a farmer's booth, $10 for a baker's booth, and $15 for an artisan's booth. They don't take any percentages or commissions because the venue is set up specifically to help the local people get a foot up.
While you're at the market, you should check out Kat's items for sale, including heavy-duty canvas market bags and market shirts that are locally designed and printed through a local printer. The money from these items goes toward funding the market. You can also enter every week for $1 to win a shirt of your choice in her t-shirt rally.
Stay tuned for our next segment about the farmers market. Until then, if you have any questions about buying or selling, please feel free to reach out to us. We look forward to speaking with you soon.
Here at Team Robinson Real Estate, we like to have fun. We enjoy making videos with useful content about real estate, but the process of making these videos doesn’t always go over smoothly. As a departure from our regular content, we want to share some of our hilarious bloopers and outtakes we’ve had during our shoots. To see our blunders and mistakes, watch this short video.