Eating disorders often start at a younger age, but they don’t solely affect this population. Recognizing this, virtual eating disorder support company Equip announced Tuesday that it is now treating adults as well as adolescents. The company also announced an investment from General Catalyst, which helped expand its platform to adults. The amount was not disclosed.
“There is a very pervasive, really dense stereotype that eating disorders only affect 15- to 25-year-old thin, White girls,” said Dr. Erin Parks, chief clinical officer and co-founder of Equip, in an interview. “That is true, it does affect them. But it is not only them.”
She added that because so few people have access to treatment, many older adults have had their eating disorder for a very long time and need support.
San Diego-based Equip, which was founded in 2019, previously focused on those ages 6 to 24. The startup is now expanding to serve people of all ages. The virtual company operates in all 50 states and is in-network with several insurance companies, including Aetna, Elevance, Optum, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare. It connects patients with a care team that includes a therapist, dietitian, physician and peer and family mentor.
Different ages require different kinds of treatment, according to Parks. With its younger patients, the company uses family-based treatment, in which the family is brought in to help care for the patient. For adults, the company is using a method called enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a highly individualized treatment that addresses thoughts, feelings and behaviors affecting the patient’s eating disorder.
Parks said that when it comes to adults, individual treatment is often the best way to go because they may not have a support group. Sometimes when adults have been sick for a long time, they’ve “pushed away” a lot of their family and peers, or they may be too busy with work to build that support group.
There are other virtual solutions for eating disorders as well, including Arise and Within. Arise offers coaching with a care advocate who has lived experience with an eating disorder, therapy, nutrition counseling, group support and psychiatry. Within provides access to a care team that includes dietitians, therapists, nurses and peers.
The expansion to adults was powered by a recent investment by General Catalyst. In total, Equip has raised more than $75 million. With the funding, the company brought on a new president, Nikia Bergan. It also updated its technology and trained its providers in treating adults. In addition, it’s planning to use the funding to gain more Medicaid contracts, Parks said.
Equip considers itself an alternative to brick-and-mortar eating disorder treatments, which often require patients to stay at the treatment facility for a certain period. Parks said the benefit of a virtual program is that patients can be treated as they live their normal lives.
“[If you take] someone out of their life and give them a bunch of skills, then all of the sudden they plop back into their life and have all these triggers that they aren’t equipped to deal with,” Parks argued. “One of the great things about getting treatment while still being able to go to school, still being able to go to your job, still being able to parent your kids, is that you get to work with your providers on your real-life triggers as they come up.”
Parks is likely looking to replicate the positive results it claims to have achieved in the adolescent population in this new, adult population. In its annual outcomes report published earlier this year, the company cited that 81% of its adolescent patients reached or maintained their target weight within one year.
Photo credit: Bohdan Skrypnyk, Getty Images
The commercial market has been slower to adopt value-based care than the public market, but there are ways to move the process along successfully, executives said Monday.
During a panel at the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit 2023 held in Chicago, healthcare leaders discussed the challenges and opportunities in advancing value-based care in commercial health plans. The panelists were Mark Hansberry, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of HealthPartners; Ellen Kelsay, president and CEO of Business Group on Health; and Tiffany Albert, senior vice president of health plan business at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
Bloomington, Minnesota-based HealthPartners, which is an integrated healthcare organization serving more than 1.8 million members, has had some success with value-based care in the commercial space, Hansberry claimed. He shared five rules for scaling value-based care in the commercial market:
1. Payers and providers in a value-based arrangement need to have a shared understanding of what value is for patients, Hansberry said.
“You have to have a universal definition of what value means so that when clinicians look at you as a payer … they need to acknowledge that what you’re saying a clinical outcome is is actually a good clinical outcome, a good measure of performance,” he stated.
2. It’s important to ensure that the providers in the value-based arrangement are able to and willing to take the risk associated with value-based care.
“Most care systems weren’t built to actually manage risk,” Hansberry said. “That wasn’t their job. Their job was to take care of sick people. Now we’re asking them to do something else. How do you actually support those individuals on that journey?”
3. Payers need to support providers engaging in value-based care with “real-time, actionable data and consultation,” Hansberry said.
“It’s not just a data dump or a big Excel file that you pass over and you say good luck with it,” he stated. “Because, by the way, if they perform well in those value-based contracts, you do too as a payer. You want them to perform well. So you want to provide them with good, insightful, actionable data that’s risk-adjusted, that is connected to their practice — not just an amorphous health system — but to their practice so they can take action on those insights. But then you also want to supplement that with that consultation along the way.”
4. The incentives in the value-based contract must be aligned to “enable that [provider] to reap the benefits of the value that they’re creating for those members,” according to Hansberry.
5. Ultimately, a value-based contract comes down to trust between all the parties. But Hansberry noted that this is easier for HealthPartners as an integrated health system.
“We’re fortunate because we’re both a health plan and a care system,” he said.
He added that success in value-based care doesn’t happen overnight, which is partially why it’s difficult to scale.
“It takes time to build trust,” Hansberry stated.
Photo: atibodyphoto, Getty Images
U.S real estate investment trusts today manage $4.5 trillion in real estate worldwide. Many groups on Wall Street offer these tax-friendly funds to retail investors.
KKR’s real estate business is one of the big players in the REIT game. The private equity firm manages multiple REIT funds. The KKR Real Estate Select Trust, which currently manages $1.5 billion in assets, paid a dividend of 5.4% to its investors in July 2023.
But the benefits extend beyond returns.
“When you look at the after tax equivalent of that yield, it is very compelling.” said Billy Butcher, CEO of KKR’s global real estate business. “The depreciation from our properties has covered 100% of the income generated by our properties, and there’s no tax on that dividend,” he said in an interview with CNBC.
Larger funds sometimes contain a diversified pool of assets. Categories may include office, student housing, casino, timberlands, radio and cell towers, server farms, self-storage properties, billboards, and much more.
“Back in the 1960s, there were three or four different types [of REITs], said Sher Hafeez, a managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate services firm. “Now, I can count at least 20 different types.”
Top performing REIT sub-sectors in recent years include data centers, self-storage properties, residential housing and tower REITs. Residential housing delivered a return of 16% from 2010 to 2020, according to a S&P Global Investments report.
The investor-friendly tax rules can also increase the pace of large-scale development.
“Having REITs there as a potential exit helps the market, and helps the availability of financing,” said Michael Pestronk, CEO and co-founder of Post Brothers, a Philadelphia-based housing developer.
Some funds like Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent were founded in the yearslong slowdown in U.S. home construction. At the time, REITs bought and managed commercial-scale properties, which could include products like master-planned communities or traditional apartment complexes.
In recent years, publicly traded trusts have targeted single-family rental market, and today, these REITs have grown tremendously — enough to build new neighborhoods in their entirety.
Watch the video above to learn the fundamentals of real estate investment trusts.
Vice President Harris was in Seattle on Tuesday to celebrate the one year anniversary of the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), what has become the signature climate and economic legislation of the Biden administration.
Harris focused on the green energy provisions of the law, which include expanded tax credits for clean energy and encouraging the expansion of domestic solar and wind energy production. She cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the legislation last year.
“It is clear the clock is not just ticking. It is banging,” Harris said. “And that is why one year ago the president and I made the largest climate investment in America’s history.”
The IRA includes about $375 billion in spending over the next decade to fight climate change. She touted the bill’s $1 trillion investment in a “clean energy economy,” including new jobs.
“We are creating millions of good-paying, clean energy jobs,” Harris told the crowd. “We are rebuilding America’s manufacturing. And we are driving American innovation — something this state knows so well.”
The vice president’s focus on climate comes as Northwest Washington experiences a severe heat wave, sparking excessive heat warnings for the region.
“Here, of course, in Washington state you have endured deadly heat waves, and devastating wildfires. And across our nation we see communities choked by drought, washed out by flood and decimated by hurricanes,” she said.
A protester interrupted Harris during her speech, criticizing her and the Biden administration for not doing enough to fight climate change.
“We are in the middle of a climate emergency. Eighty people have died in Hawaii, Thousands have been displaced by the climate chaos,” the protester yelled. “The planet is burning, and people are dying.”
She shrugged off the interruption and continued without substantively responding.
Harris attended a fundraiser lunch for her reelection campaign after the speech, hosted by Microsoft President Brad Smith. Plates started at $5,000, according to The Seattle Times.
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San Francisco’s high office vacancy rate has sparked worries that property tax revenue will plummet, leading to cuts in city services.
Mit Desai / 500px / Getty Images
San Francisco’s commercial real estate fortunes may finally be turning.
Office demand in the city increased 10.2% in the second quarter of 2023 compared with the first quarter, according to data from real estate tech firm VTS. The researchers also found that the city has, since March, seen more prospective office tenants looking for spaces larger than 50,000 square feet.
The report comes after San Francisco’s office vacancy rate hit a record-high 29.4% in the first quarter of 2023 — January through March — and indicators pointed to a potential further rise. Despite pushes by major tech firms like Salesforce and Meta to get workers back in the office, the Bay Area has the highest percentage of remote workers of any U.S. metro area. (Wealthier workers are more likely to work from home, as are, of course, employees who can do their jobs on a computer.)
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San Francisco’s office vacancies, in tandem with the exit of key retail businesses like Westfield San Francisco Centre, have sparked anxieties about the future of downtown San Francisco. This includes worries that the city’s property tax incomes will plummet, leading to city service cuts. Westfield is giving up its San Francisco Centre property after falling to 55% occupancy.
But the VTS data is a bright spot for the city’s commercial real estate landlords and downtown businesses. The firm calls its office demand index “the earliest look into the health of the office market.” Using touring activity, VTS measures demand by tracking the percentage of total office space prospective tenants are looking to rent.
The growing demand has been driven in part by the explosion of new artificial intelligence companies, VTS CEO Nick Romito told Bloomberg, which first wrote about the report. Though a new San Francisco-based AI startup seems to emerge every week, much of the nascent technology’s development appears to be centered south of the city at Mountain View-based Google, Menlo Park-based Meta and Santa Clara-based Nvidia.
New York and San Francisco were the only mentioned cities with year-over-year demand growth last quarter; VTS found that office demand went down in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C.
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San Francisco has a long way to go in filling up or converting its floors of empty workspace. The city’s office demand is still shy of Los Angeles’ and New York’s, according to VTS, and a commercial real estate researcher told SFGATE in April that vacancies may peak next winter.
Hear of anything happening at a Bay Area tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
- Inflation is coming down, with the latest CPI report for June showing price increases hitting their lowest level in two years, but it has not gone away, and in some states, it is far worse than others.
- The annual CNBC America’s Top States for Business study considers cost of living among 10 categories of competitiveness.
- With the nation facing a serious housing crisis, the 2023 study puts extra emphasis on housing affordability.
Inflation has eased considerably from the more than 40-year high hit last year, and the latest consumer price index reading for June showed prices rising by the lowest level since March 2021. But inflation is still stubbornly high nationwide. And in some states, it is more stubborn than in others.
The cost of living is a key factor in a state’s overall competitiveness, which is why CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business study considers it in our methodology when ranking the states.
We rate the states based on an index of prices for a broad range of goods and services calculated by the Council for Community and Economic Research. New this year, with the nation mired in a housing affordability crisis, we are also factoring in data from the National Association of Realtors’ Affordability Distribution Score, which looks at the affordability of homes for sale across all income levels as of the end of last year. A score of 1 or higher generally suggests a housing market that is affordable, while the lower a score falls below 1, it is an indicator of a less affordable market without enough listings in local buyers’ range.
Some states are relative bargains even in these inflationary times — America’s cheapest states to live in. But the following states are no bargain at all: brace yourself for a tour through America’s most expensive states.
An aerial view of new home construction at a housing development in the Phoenix suburbs on June 9, 2023 in Queen Creek, Arizona.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
The Grand Canyon State is no stranger to growing pains. But as the population surges, the supply of homes in Arizona is falling further and further behind the demand. The average price of a four-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot house in Lake Havasu City topped $1 million last year, or more than twice what it would cost in Sarasota, Florida.
2023 Cost of Living score: 13 out of 50 points (Top States grade: D-)
Consumer Price Index (June, West Region): Up 3.5%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.51 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Lake Havasu City): $1,004,158
Half Gallon of milk (Phoenix): $2.09
Monthly Energy Bill (Phoenix): $264.56
An ‘Available’ and ‘Sold’ signs outside of new homes in the CBH Homes Calvary Springs Community in Nampa, Idaho.
Kyle Green | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Idaho is another state where a red-hot real estate market is putting overall living costs increasingly out of reach. Based on income levels, Idaho ties with Montana and Hawaii for the lowest affordability in the nation, according to the National Association of Realtors. And the home prices have rippled into the rental market, where a two-bedroom apartment at $1,600 a month will cost you twice what it would in Hot Springs, Arkansas. But you can still get a deal on this state’s most famous export: $2.21 for a 5-pound sack of potatoes is less than half what you would pay in Decatur, Illinois.
2023 Cost of Living score: 13 out of 50 points (Top States grade: D-)
Consumer Price Index (June, West Region): Up 3.5%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.42 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Boise): $576,971
Half Gallon of Milk (Twin Falls): $2.79
Monthly Energy Bill (Boise): $126.17
Registered nurse Rachel Chamberlin, of Cornish, N.H., left, tends to COVID-19 patient Fred Rutherford, of Claremont, N.H., right, in an isolation room at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in Lebanon, N.H., Monday, Jan. 3, 2022.
Steven Senne | AP
Health-care costs are the biggest driver of inflation in New Hampshire, the Granite State, where a visit to the doctor will cost you more than $175, or twice what it would cost in Baltimore. A trip to the dentist, at more than $150, is nearly twice what it would cost in Peoria, Illinois. And your $115 eye doctor appointment is 36% more than it would cost in Detroit.
2023 Cost of Living score: 13 out of 50 points (Top States grade: D-)
Consumer Price Index (June, Northeast Region): Up 2.2%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.57 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Manchester): $441,922
Half Gallon of Milk: $2.66
Monthly Energy Bill: $225.85
National Grid worker Jesus Garcia checks on the valves in an underground gas substation on Broadway Street in Newport, RI, as purging of gas from the lines was ongoing.
John Tlumacki | Boston Globe | Getty Images
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Rhode Islanders are far more dependent on natural gas and heating oil that any other state. That helps explain why energy costs in Rhode Island are so high. You will pay twice the monthly energy bill that you would if you lived in Laramie, Wyoming. Prices spiked here last year due to the war in Ukraine. They have come down somewhat, but still not enough to make the Ocean State affordable.
2023 Cost of Living score: 12 out of 50 points (Top States grade: D-)
Consumer Price Index (June, Northeast Region): Up 2.2%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.52 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Providence): $462,061
Half Gallon of Milk: $2.42
Monthly Energy Bill: $251.32
Seattle’s housing market is experiencing explosive growth as employers boost hiring.
Getty Images
Depending on where you live in Washington, housing prices in the Evergreen State can be downright oppressive — close to $1 million for a four-bedroom home in Seattle, and $3,600 a month to rent a two-bedroom apartment. Food costs are high, too. Expect to pay more than $5 for a loaf of bread, or twice what you would pay in Midland, Texas.
2023 Cost of Living score: 11 out of 50 points (Top States grade: D-)
Consumer Price Index (June, West Region): Up 3.5%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.51 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Seattle): $940,665
Half Gallon of Milk: $2.97
Monthly Energy Bill: $188.83
A 55-and-older community in Bozeman, Montana.
Contessa Brewer | CNBC
Montana became such a popular refuge during the pandemic that Big Sky Country now has big home prices to match. Montana is in a three-way tie with Idaho and Hawaii for the least affordable home prices in the nation. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, home prices rose 55% from before the pandemic through the end of last year. Prices have now begun to drop as mortgage rates rise, but that is raising concerns about housing market stability.
2023 Cost of Living score: 10 out of 50 points (Top States grade: F)
Consumer Price Index (June, West Region): Up 3.5%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.42 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Bozeman): $719,461
Half Gallon of Milk: $2.24
Monthly Energy Bill: $140.00
The sun rises behind the skyline of midtown Manhattan, Hudson Yards, and the Empire State Building in New York City as a man walks his dog along the Hudson River on June 25, 2023, in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images
Real estate prices in the five boroughs of New York City are in the stratosphere compared to the rest of the country, though higher wages help affordability. But it is not just housing that makes it so expensive to live in New York, and it’s not just New York City. Basic goods and services can be expensive statewide. Getting a men’s suit dry cleaned in Albany will cost you more than double what it would cost in Columbia, South Carolina.
2023 Cost of Living Score: 9 out of 50 points (Top States grade: F)
Consumer Price Index (June, Northeast Region): Up 2.2%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.56 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Manhattan): $2,434,977
Half Gallon of Milk: $3.04
Monthly Energy Bill: $183.24
Homes seen in South Boston from Dorchester Heights on March 21, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Matt Stone | Medianews Group | Boston Herald via Getty Images
Renting a two-bedroom apartment in Boston will cost you more than six times what it would cost in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as high costs in Massachusetts, the Bay State, ripple through the economy. Your average energy bill is more than two-and-a-half times what it would be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Health care is outstanding here, but a doctor’s visit will cost nearly twice what it would in Kansas City, Missouri.
2023 Cost of Living Score: 7 out of 50 points (Top States grade: F)
Consumer Price Index (June, Northeast Region): Up 2.2%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.54 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Boston): $921,897
Half Gallon of Milk: $3.13
Monthly Energy Bill: $257.12
A house in Portland, Oregon.
Dennis Frates | Avalon | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
Housing affordability is a huge issue in the Beaver State, where homes are only slightly more affordable than the aforementioned three-way tie between Idaho, Montana and Hawaii. Just getting around Oregon can be expensive, with some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation, according to AAA.
2023 Cost of Living Score: 6 out of 50 points (Top States grade: F)
Consumer Price Index (June, West Region): Up 3.5%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.45 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Portland): $661,664
Half Gallon of Milk: $2.88
Monthly Energy Bill: $157.38
A new housing development built along a canal near the Mokelumne River is viewed on May 22, 2023, near Stockton, California.
George Rose | Getty Images
For decades, California was the ultimate growth story. That changed in 2020, when the state lost population for the first time in a century. The exodus has continued, yet the Golden State still has a massive housing shortage. By one estimate, the state should be building 180,000 new units per year, but it is building only a fraction of that. The result is America’s worst poverty and homelessness rates, and prices for many basic needs that are out of control. A dozen eggs in San Francisco costs nearly twice what it does in Yuma, Arizona.
2023 Cost of Living Score: 4 out of 50 points (Top States grade: F)
Consumer Price Index (June, West Region): Up 3.5%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.46 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (San Francisco): $1,502,557
Half Gallon of Milk: $3.38
Monthly Energy Bill: $267.64
A couple of Moli, or Laysan albatrosses (P. immutabilis) (endangered species) displaying courtship behavior close to homes at the Princeville Makai Golf Club on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, Hawaii.
Wolfgang Kaehler | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Hawaii has always been expensive due to its location, and the fact that so many basic items must be shipped here from somewhere else. But the housing crisis has made matters even worse. A 4-bedroom house in Honolulu will cost roughly four times what it would in Daytona Beach, Florida. Gas prices are among the nation’s highest, and the only higher grocery bill in the U.S. is in Kodiak, Alaska. America’s most expensive state might seem like paradise, but the prices are hell.
2023 Cost of Living Score: 2 out of 50 points (Top States grade: F)
Consumer Price Index (May, Honolulu Area): Up 2%
Housing Affordability Score: 0.42 out of 2.00
Average Home Price (Honolulu): $1,605,915
Half Gallon of Milk: $4.32
Monthly Energy Bill: $309.47
On June 27, 2023, the firm’s Emerging Companies Practice (ECP) announced that Neuron, its proprietary cloud-based software platform for start-up clients, now has the ability to generate simple commercial non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) within its corporate governance module. Users may now work with Wilson Sonsini attorneys directly through Neuron to complete a single form, and their legal team can quickly generate an NDA tailored to exact specifications.
This latest enhancement follows Neuron’s addition of the corporate governance module in late 2023. At that time, Neuron was expanded to include corporate governance offerings such as employment and consulting agreements, offer letters, and other agreements enforceable in all 50 states. That release allowed clients and their ECP legal teams to manage corporate governance and board management activities through the Neuron platform. In addition, the ECP launched an innovative fixed-fee subscription for Neuron clients, providing emerging company clients with consistent pricing so they can develop reliable budgets while still accessing world-class legal services.
For more information, please visit https://ecp.wsgr.com/neuron.
KING COUNTY, Wash. — Commercial buildings and residential properties in King County are seeing a decrease in value when compared to previous years.
“In 2021 and 2022, residential prices and values went through the roof due to a major imbalance between supply and demand. The housing market is still healthy in King County, but it cooled considerably in 2023, bringing values down,” said King County Assessor John Wilson.
RELATED | Slow market continues to bring median home values downward
Residential property values in King County hit all-time highs in the second quarter of 2022 and they are beginning to correct downwards. Commercial properties such as office buildings are seeing a drop in value as well. According to King County, the values of commercial office buildings fell by 15% to 20% which could be a direct result of the less in office work activity.
RELATED | Seattle housing market is cooling as prices drop from a year ago, Redfin says
“The commercial market has remained steady in recent years. But in 2023 we are seeing a significant drop in the value of large office spaces, presumably due to the shift away from in-office work,” said Wilson. “COVID has changed how and where many of us work, and that is now showing up in property values.”
King County says that despite the valuation process still being underway, it’s clear that the largest reductions will be on the east side of Lake Washington. Most residential areas in King County should expect to see a decrease though. Queen Anne will see an average 8% reduction in value, but the Sammamish plateau will see a reduction averaging 22%.
RELATED | Debt default could impact housing market in near future
“COVID changed our lives, and it continues to impact the real estate market,“ said Wilson.
County Assessors are required by law to appraise every commercial and residential parcel across the state of Washington each year. The values this year, the assessment year, will be used to calculate property taxes for the following year, 2024.
All residential and commercial property owners will receive an annual value update.
On May 25, 2023, SaaS-based IT service management software vendor 4me announced a strategic growth investment led by growth equity firm PSG. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised 4me on the transaction.
Along with the investment, 4me announced that Kevin McGibben was named as CEO and chairman, and that co-founders Cor Winkler Prins, Laurens Pit, and Mathijs Sterk will continue their involvement in the business.
4me is an SaaS-based enterprise service management platform that combines ITSM, ESM, and Service Integration & Management (SIAM) capabilities designed to deploy and manage compared to traditional vendors for mid-market, enterprise, and externally managed service providers. PSG is being joined by other software and technology-enabled services in the investment, which is designed to help 4me’s ongoing product innovation, as well as geographic expansion in EMEA and entry into the U.S. market.
The Wilson Sonsini team that advised 4me includes:
Corporate
Robert Day
Jake Gatof
Amanda Creedon
Tamara Labanowski
Andrew Savage
Amy Martin
Technology Transactions
John McGaraghan
Atussa Simon
Employment and Trade Secrets
Matt Gorman
Quinn Christie
Privacy and Cybersecurity
Matt Staples
Daniel Chen
Michael O’Brien
Diya Jajal
Employee Benefits and Compensation
Sriram Krishnamurthy
Gregory Hughes
Jason Chan
Lori Howey
Tax
Jonathan Zhu
Derek Wallace
Anthony Yanez
Regulatory
Mike Casey
Jahna Hartwig
For more information, please see the press release.
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Higher mortgage rates are further squeezing the housing market along the Wasatch Front, according to new data from the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.
The data showed home sales in Salt Lake County dropped nearly 33 percent in April compared to the same time last year, with 908 closings recorded last month compared to 1,343 the year before.
“The increased mortgage interest rates have resulted in a considerable rise in monthly payments, making affordability a significant concern for potential buyers,” Rob Ockey, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said in a statement. “Moreover, homeowners are hesitant to sell their properties and lose their current low interest rates.”
Home prices were universally down year over year in April across Davis, Salt Lake, Tooele, Utah, and Weber counties, the data showed.
But Dejan Eskic, senior research fellow at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, told KUTV 2News the springtime market “has thawed the price decline experienced over the cold season.”
“Since January, prices across the Wasatch Front and Tooele have increased 3.3 percent,” Eskic said. “Across the state, prices have also improved, increasing nearly $20,000 or 4.2 percent.”
Homes are also selling quicker now than a few months ago, Eskic said – roughly 23 days on market in April compared to 51 days back in January.
Still, Eskic noted, the housing market in Utah remains “hypersensitive to the volatility in the mortgage rate market.”
As KUTV 2News has reported, mortgage rates have risen sharply recently, largely due to uncertainty over the debt ceiling debate in Washington, D.C. Higher rates make it much more expensive to take out a mortgage to buy a house.
Here are the latest housing prices by county in April, according to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors:
- Davis County: $514,300 (all housing types); $540,000 (single-family); $390,000 (multi-family)
- Salt Lake County: $495,000 (all housing types); $577,000 (single-family); $423,750 (multi-family)
- Tooele County: $449,500 (all housing types); $455,000 (single-family); $338,000 (multi-family)
- Utah County: $470,400 (all housing types); $575,000 (single-family); $390,000 (multi-family)
- Weber County: $415,000 (all housing types); $459,000 (single-family); $355,000 (multi-family)