Browsing Posts From: Real Estate News

Vacation rentals are a controversial topic depending on the neighborhood you live in.  It seems that this type of super temporary housing use is loved by its owners and sometimes loathed by its neighbors.  With an AirBnB just a few doors from our home, I admit I have had to knock on the door of a loud guest at late hours once or twice.   In conversation with city code inspectors, it seems that some vacation rentals in the city have even been used for nefarious purposes.   The concept of […]

Interstate 15 has played a significant role in the history of Ogden City.  Before the interstate was created, Highway 89 was the main travel path north and south along the Wasatch Front.  In Ogden, this road is Washington Blvd.  As yesteryear’s travelers sojourned through Ogden, many needed a place to rest.  Hence all the motel’s that sprung up in the 40’s and 50’s along Washington Blvd.   However, as I-15 was laid out and constructed, it took a course conspicuously distant from Ogden’s city center.  With travelers bypassing the heart […]

The last several years has seen a lot of public debate and policy action to deal with Utah’s ever scarcer water resources.  The summers of 2020-2022 were particularly hot and dry which added to the concern.  Many Ogden homeowners lost their green yards to water restrictions and many of us are still getting our lawns to recover from those restrictions.  The silver lining to this was water consumption was down and so were the water bills.   Yesterday, Ogden entered the next chapter in ongoing water management efforts.  The City […]

Mortgage lenders lately have been wondering how they are going to survive in a low refinance and purchase transaction environment.  This creative thinking process has spawned a host of ideas.  While 2/1 and 3/1 buydown programs have been promoted for purchases, other lending products are targeting existing equity.  At a recent symposium, lenders gathered to learn about reverse mortgage programs, and rallied to make HELOCs and 2nd mortgages a larger portion of their loan business.   Since I have been around a while, this 2nd mortgage and HELOC talk rang […]

With building material costs high and labor scarce, the cost to build a home is higher than it has been historically.  This increased cost is hampering construction which in turn limits supply and thus increases the cost of existing housing.  Add to this situation historically high interest rates, 40% higher hazard insurance premiums, and record high property taxes.  Has the market had enough yet?  Well, apparently not.   Just last week, April 25th, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that any new construction using HUD backed financing (think […]

Big development continues across Ogden and the Wasatch Front but not all is happy in the land of apartment monoliths.  KSL recently reported on the Union Walk project underway on Historic 25th Street in Ogden.  This unique (and controversial) mixed use project has promised to bring 55 apartments to 25th Street while its design and imposing mass have irked many locals for its lack of parking and unhistoric aesthetic. Now, to add injury to insult, it has been revealed that the developer’s contractor, Makers Line, unilaterally swapped out fire treated […]

In December of 2021, the Lotus Company, a large developer based out of Salt Lake City, purchased three parcels of land which encompasses the Ogden Plaza at 23rd and Grant Ave. The site might be most famous for hosting the Teleperformance building among some other small shops in the strip. The Planning Commission held a meeting recently to review fine tuned details of the plan for the site. Based on the specs and the drawings, the project that will replace the existing structures there is impressive. Above is the current […]

The Ogden City Council met recently to vote on proposed zoning changes to downtown Ogden and portions of the East Central Historic District (Trolley District) neighborhood.  The Council voted in favor of the changes. Here is a map of the new zones:   In the downtown core, new zones allow for buildings up to 20 stories tall.  That has the potential to impact the cityscape significantly. Meanwhile, a couple of the more fascinating aspects of the proposal regard residential zoning changes in the East Central Historic District (aka Trolley District) […]

Recently we received a lead through our online portal purporting to be a land owner in Eden wanting to sell his lot.  We will call him George.  He expressed urgency and wanted us to find out the market value of his land.  As with all of our leads, we were excited at the prospect of helping someone in need of our services.   Looking at his property’s title history, we saw that he had purchased the lot in 2021 and that he lived in Canada.  He also had a Croatian […]

The Ogden Planning Commission has been busy hearing about proposed developments in Ogden City.  Two big projects stand out.   THE MARSHALL WHITE CENTER In what has become one of the biggest political footballs in Ogden City since the pool failed at the existing MWC, it appears we will finally be nearing some closure on this contentious issue.  A developer has made a proposal to the commission to construct a massive modern structure to replace the ailing facility at 28th and Lincoln Ave.   The proposed facility will host a […]

Ogden City recently passed ordinances which significantly affect the East Central Bench neighborhood.  Many of these policies have been a long time coming.  The city council passed all of these ordinances with a unanimous vote.  Here is what is coming to a historic neighborhood near you.   Transit Oriented Development With the new OGX (Bus Rapid Transit) Line coming to completion here in the next calendar year, the city wanted to promote mixed use near the transit nodes.  This mixed use comes in the forms of live/work space and street […]

In another sign that the grandiose promises of “technological disruption” in the real estate market have once again come up empty, Utah based Homie has announced that it is laying off up to 20% of its workforce.  You might recall that Homie started as a low listing fee brokerage wrapped in the cloak of a tech company.  Due to revenue struggles it branched out into title services and financing to help keep the company bottom line going. We have to give them credit for trying.  But, alas, a business model […]

Opendoor is a massive company that buys homes with cash from sellers and then flips them at resale for a profit.  Or, at least that is how the model is supposed to work.  Supported by computer driven models of house prices, market demand, and return on investment, the company emerged on the public stock exchanges in 2020 and entered the housing market in earnest as it snatched up homes while demand and prices skyrocketed. Well, the business model was working wonderfully on the way up.  On the way down, the […]

The Own In Ogden Program has been a long standing institution in the Ogden real estate market. For decades, first time home buyers have been able to benefit from program funds when purchasing their first home.  With housing prices increasing rapidly over the past several years, program guidelines had been unable to keep up with the changing financial landscape.   Recently, Own In Ogden announced exciting new changes to their program.  Program funds have been enhanced to reflect current market conditions and there are some exciting caveats for teachers, police […]

Zillow has a large footprint in the real estate industry.  Its recent purchase of ShowingTime, the showing schedule tool used by most local Realtors, and its prominent place as a syndicated site for MLS listings to be advertised gives it an outsized influence on market players here in Utah.   One program that many market participants have watched with consternation is Zillow’s iBuyer program.  For the past two years Zillow has not only been a conduit for market information, but made itself a market participant by purchasing homes on a […]