Housing market slows down, but expert says that won’t decrease prices

SALT LAKE CITY — The housing market has slowed down. But experts say that won’t necessarily lower prices. 

Here in Utah, June was the third month in a row that home sales declined.

But it seems many are “waiting out” the housing market. 

Utah Association of Realtors Treasurer, Aaron Drussel says that may work in other markets, but probably not here in Utah. He said since Utah has a shortage of homes, if mortgage rates drop, prices will soar.

“People are feeling like prices are high and they look at that and think ‘I don’t want to buy at the peak,’ the reality is it’s not going to be the peak. The prices aren’t going to come down — there’s too much pent up amount on the sidelines to ever allow for our prices to come down,” Drussel said. 

Drussel also says we’ve made a big mistake by pricing out first-time home buyers. That ripple effect has caused the entire market to slow down.  

“Utah’s always been driven by the first-time home buyer. When we price the first-time home buyer out of the marketplace, it kind of stagnates everything across the board.” 

Drussel also said there’s a lot of uncertain attitudes among potential home buyers. 

“There’s a lot of unknowns. [People say] ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen with the election… the economy… interest rates. I’m going to wait and just see what happens.'”

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