It doesn't matter which home goes up for sale. After months of being outbid by other buyers, the Fowlers are ready to pounce on any property in the vicinity in their price range - even before they have a look inside.

"This is absolutely insane," said Maura Fowler. "We're making offers at least $10,000 above the asking price and we're still being outbid."

Low interest rates and Utah's strong job growth are fueling an explosion in the Salt Lake Valley's real estate market, creating shortages of homes in a number of areas - such as the Avenues and Sugar House - and contributing to sales activity and price increases not seen in a decade.

In the first quarter of the year, selling prices in a number of communities rose more than 10 percent compared with the same time period in 2004, according to a report by the Wasatch Front Regional Multiple Listing Service. The number of days homes remained on the market dropped as well.

No longer do buyers have the advantage. These days, sellers in some areas are being deluged with full-price or above full-price offers within days, hours, sometimes even minutes after their homes are put on the market.

Want to place an offer on a home contingent upon the sale of your own? Forget it - sellers in some areas simply aren't interested.

"I've never seen it this crazy and I've been doing this for 31 years," said Salt Lake City Realtor DeAnn Densley.

Mike and Pam Mackey knew the real estate market was heating up earlier this year when they began seeing homes in their Sandy neighborhood selling in days instead of weeks or months.

The couple received three offers the second day they put their home on the market. They sold to a buyer who paid $8,700 above their asking price.

When they found another Sandy home they wanted to buy, their bid was one of three. But made wiser by their selling experience, the Mackeys quickly rose above the rest with an offer $7,000 above the asking price.

"I knew what I had to do to get the deal done, so I did it," Mike Mackey said.

Matt Page, the Mackey's real estate agent, first started seeing multiple offers and homes going above asking price about two months ago.

He said demand - highest on Salt Lake City's east side - has been focused for the past several years on homes priced below $200,000. Today, he said, interest is high right up to $400,000.

Page attributed the inflating real estate market to debate about whether the country is going through a housing "bubble," which is about to burst, increasing the risk of prices falling in the future.

Numerous experts and economists, however, believe Utah's real estate market is significantly undervalued after having been sluggish in recent years.

Because Utah's home prices are expected to rise substantially in coming years, David Shirley of Salt Lake City figured it was time to stop renting and buy. He offered more than the asking price on a home in the Avenues and was beat.

He moved quicker the next time another home in his price range became available. Just hours after it hit the market, he and his fiancee had toured its interior and made an offer matching the seller's asking price. It was accepted.

"I'm just glad we don't have to keep looking and looking at homes for months," he said.

In the Sugar House area, the Fowlers are still doing just that. And they aren't happy about it.

The couple, who sold their own home near 800 East and 1300 South in just a few days, have made five full-price or more than full-price offers on homes in the 15th & 15th neighborhood - without success.

Maura Fowler, due to deliver the couple's first child in November, had hoped to be decorating a nursery by late summer. But with the sale of their home closing next month, the couple may have to rent a home or apartment well into fall.

And when they finally land a new home, they will have to spend a lot more than anticipated. Originally looking for homes in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, the Fowlers now are considering bottom lines as high as $350,000.

In the meantime, they continue to spend hours - before and after work - monitoring the market with Chris Anderson, their real estate agent.

Each day, Anderson e-mails a list of available properties to the Fowlers after checking the Multiple Listing Service. His goal is to allow the couple to bid on an acceptable property within hours of it being placed on the market.

"We need to be first, or at the very least, second in line to make an offer," he said.

Through it all, the Fowlers are trying to maintain a sense of humor.

"It's become quite the game now - trying to find something before someone else gets there first," Maura Fowler said. "Sooner or later, we've got to win."

lesley@sltrib.com