February's existing home and condo sales rose 32% over January

February's existing home and condo sales rose 32% over January

By Jasen Lee, Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 9:52 p.m. MDT

Existing home and condominium sales in Salt Lake County rose 32 percent last month over January. However, sales were down 23 percent compared to February 2008, the Salt Lake Board of Realtors said.

According to figures released Wednesday, 584 homes and condos were sold in February, up from 444 properties sold in January. A news release stated that the increase in sales could be partly attributed to an incentive campaign by the federal government that offered an $8,000 tax credit to first-time homebuyers or buyers who have not owned a home in the past three years.

"Sales will continue to increase going forward because of record-low mortgage interest rates and a second program that offers a $6,000 state grant for buyers of new homes," Ryan Kirkham, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors said.

Kelly Matthews, chief economist for Wells Fargo, said that the Federal Reserve's decision last week to buy as much as $300 billion in long-term U.S. Treasury securities pushed down mortgage interest rates — which are benchmarked to Treasury bonds — to below 5 percent. Interest rates could fall as low as 4.5 percent, he said.

The release stated that the median price of homes and condos sold in February was $224,450, down 3 percent from $231,500 in January, but flat compared to a median price of $224,956 in February 2008.