This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Posted: 11:36 AM- ST. GEORGE - Caught up in the nation's mortgage crisis, Southern Utah's red-hot housing market is now on ice, with home prices dropping and foreclosures on the rise.
Two consecutive quarters of dropping home prices has labeled the St. George metropolitan area a "declining" real estate market. A federal report shows first-quarter home-sales prices for 2008 dropped 3.65 percent from the same period last year.
Last month the U.S. Office of Housing Enterprise Oversight ranked the area 235 out of 292 housing markets.
Mortgage lenders say many St. George-area homeowners with subprime mortgages have defaulted on loans or are poised to lose their investments. That's put St. George on the list of places where mortgage insurance companies require stricter standards for issuing loan insurance.
