In Salt Lake County the real estate market is still on the downward slide, but because the county and state have been very proactive over the past five years there are some positive things happening in Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas.

One of the problems that is always in the headlines is the number homeless families out there. If you listen to all the news reports there should be an endless string of homeless families because of the over four million foreclosures in the last five years across our nation. HUD has actually started several programs in every state trying to help remedy the homeless plight. In Utah they are actually very successful and since 2006 the number of homeless families in Utah has been reduced by almost seventy percent. This has been accomplished despite have one of the highest foreclosure rates over the last five years. In Salt Lake County, they are working with a ten year plan which so far has seen five hundred housing units and a 201 unit property completed in Salt Lake City that was specifically built for the chronic homeless families in the area. One of the groups that this program is especially targeting are the veterans of our armed forces. After serving in our nation\’s military, with all the sacrifices you have made, you should have a place to live. To discover that one out of six people in a shelter is a veteran is unacceptable.

The cost of this program is about $9,000 per individual which is really inexpensive when you compare it to the cost with having to use public services, shelters and providing assistance for the homeless, which will run anywhere from $10,000 up to $100,000 per individual. The program has also been using case managers to help the families locate work and provide other assistance until they have become self sufficient.

There is one statistical area that has shown a large increase (non-owner occupied homes) that indicates a change in the way people view owning a home. Over the past five years this trend shows that nationwide, the number of owner occupied homes have been decreasing by approximately 200,000 per year while the non-owner occupied housing has been increasing by over 670,000 per year. In Salt Lake County, the latest statistics shows that in the year 2000 the percentage of homes that were owner occupied was well over 50%, now in 2010 it has fallen to a little over 48.5%. It seems strange that after decades where most families were striving to own their home, now more families are choosing to rent instead. This show that there seems to be an insecurity that many families have when it comes to buying a home, especially in today\’s economy. There are several reasons for this reluctance, even with the super low interest rates, which some experts had predicted would be enough to entice renters into buying. It seems that the high volume of foreclosures and the continuous downward spiral of housing prices, are more relevant to the potential buyers then the low interest rates, resulting in many of them deciding to postpone buying a home and just continue to rent, for now.

One of the more serious issues that has come up in Salt Lake County has the Utah State Attorney General starting proceedings to sue one of the larger lenders (Bank of America) for performing thousands of illegal foreclosures in Utah. It seems that there has been many complaints filed against lenders, especially certain ones who have not shown any signs of consistent effort in implementing the federal mortgage modification program. The growing perception is these lenders had no intention of following through with this government program. There is a large number of complaints that talk about how the paperwork would become lost, not just once, but two or three times by the lenders. Then while the lenders are supposedly working on the paperwork for this program, the homeowners get a foreclosure notice from these lenders and soon the homeowners are being pushed out of their home. What will come of this lawsuit could be interesting. I can not see how the homeowners who already lost their homes will gain much out of it, but then I am not a lawyer.

I think the local governments in Salt Lake County and in the State of Utah should be given some kind of accolade for being so proactive, trying to help people when they can, and for the most part are trying to make a few things positive when the economy and housing market is currently not very positive.

Author Bio: William Nottoli retired from the Air Force in 1989, was a Realtor and licensed loan officer in Utah from 1998 to 2007, currently an Affiliate Marketer.
http://www.saltlakecountyutahrealestate.com
http://www.wrnottoli.com

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: Salt Lake County real estate,Salt Lake City real estate, Utah real estate foreclosures,