November 2023 - Spanish Fork Happenings

The Winter Lights Parade, put on by the Spanish Fork-Salem Chamber of Commerce, is on Saturday, November 25th on Main Street. This year the parade will be in REVERSE starting at 100 South and ending at 800 North. To enter your float, go to:
Event Registration – Spanish Fork Area Chamber of Commerce. (chamberorganizer.com)

General Election Day is November 21, 2023.  Spanish Fork has three vacant positions for the City Council. I encourage you to register to vote if you haven’t done so already with the last day to register on November 10th for this election. For more information on how to register and where to find the candidates stance, visit this website: City Elections (spanishfork.org)

Iceberg Drive Inn is nearing completion but has run into a few hiccups with the parking lot being finished and accessible. They will open once that is complete which is hopefully before December 1st. They are still looking for day shift workers if you are interested, email info@icebergdriveinn.com  Iceberg Drive Inn is located in the Walmart Neighborhood Market shopping center off of Highway 6.

Spanish Fork Parkway is now open and you can drive across the east side of Spanish Fork from Canyon Road all the way to Canyon Creek Parkway and skip the traffic lines on 400 North.

UTA is planning to extend FrontRunner commuter rail service from Provo to Payson, serving three new stations in Springville, Spanish Fork, and Payson. For more information, check out: HOME | FrontRunner South (frontrunnersouthextension.com)

Festival of Lights begins on Thanksgiving night, November 23, 2023 through January 1, 2024 and is located at Canyon View Park (3300 E Powerhouse Road, Spanish Fork). The drive through light show runs every night from 6-10pm but the line is long so be prepared. Single vehicle cars are $10 and you can get more information here: Festival of Lights (spanishfork.org)

Salem News:

Recently they had a groundbreaking for their new Fire/EMT station that will be located behind Stokes grocery store. They are also expecting Loafer Mountain Parkway to be completed this Fall.

Freddy’s: For all those Freddy’s fans, their newest location at 1025 S University Ave in Provo is open.

In Real Estate News, the number of homes sold is down nearly 22% from last year. Also, the listings entered this year versus last year is down as well. As sellers decide to stay in their current home, with their low interest-rate, rather than cashing in their equity in exchange for a higher interest rate, we create an inventory problem. Couple that with Utah being approximately 30,000 units short already, plus new construction is slowing down with the market, what do you see happening in the next couple of years? A less than perfect storm. We have thousands of buyers waiting for interest rates to drop before resuming their home search. As long as rates stay high, we will continue to have an inventory problem that will grow and grow. If buyers are waiting, ideally, they are paying off debts and saving money to use towards their home purchase. But given that we are in such a high state of inflation, many buyers cannot afford to save, while trying to simply survive in this economy. We have created quite a conundrum haven’t we? If you can afford the monthly payment, this is the time to buy. You will likely pay under asking price and also get the sellers to pay for part of your closing costs or help you buy down your interest rate. Once interest rates come down, all of those buyers will flood the market that has less inventory than demand, and you will end up paying over asking, have to bring cash to close, and we will get back into bidding wars. I wish I had a magic wand to fix our housing crisis, but I don’t. I do, however, have amazing lenders that I work with that can help you make a plan. They can give you goals and guidelines to make homeownership a reality. Please don’t be discouraged. Let’s figure out what works for you and get started!