NORTH SALT LAKE — Homeowners living around a North Salt Lake slide that destroyed a home are worried about property values, and a Realtor and a resident impacted by a past slide have differing opinions on the obstacles they face in selling their houses in the future.

“There’s no question in my mind that values will drop for a while,” said Rick MacArthur, who lives just doors to the north of the tennis club that was damaged by the slide.

MacArthur said he researched his lot, feels comfortable about his home’s safety and doesn’t plan to move anytime soon — but he acknowledged the looming challenge if somebody else decided to do so.

“If I was in an immediate need to move, I’d be worried about it,” he said.

Charlene Tanner, whose home is next to the slow-moving Springhill landslide that led to more than a dozen homes being demolished, said though her house sits on bedrock and has had few problems, she currently could sell her house for “nothing.”

“It’s not sellable,” she said.

She looks out over the land where the demolished homes once sat — some in a cul-de-sac that no longer exists — and instead sees a makeshift nature trail.

Tanner said her home was valued in 2006 at $310,000, but she now plans to give it to her grandchildren because that’s all she believes she and her husband can do with the property.

She said even neighbors a couple streets away have had difficulties unloading their houses because of the Springhill slide, and she warned that residents near the new slide area may face similar troubles.

“It might come back, but not for a long time,” she said.

Utah Association of Realtors president-elect Ryan Kirkham said Thursday he sees the challenges differently.

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“Maybe a slight bump short-term, but long-term I don’t see it,” he said.

Outside of the obvious at-risk zone, Kirkham said home values in the area won’t suffer long because of a healthy housing market, demand and the views.

“In some cities and some areas, we’re having a hard time finding good houses,” Kirkham said. “So even though you have a little bit of downward pressure or a very short-term scare, if you will, there’s also people that are looking for homes and really wanting homes.”

Kirkham said he could point out something scary about almost any home, and said buyers regularly move to floodplains, on to hillsides and near burn scars — even after disasters.

“I would say that there’s always risk everywhere, and so I do not anticipate a long-term problem here,” he said.

Kirkham said if a homeowner near the new slide decides to sell soon, it could be a challenge in the short-term.

He recommended bringing in an engineer to evaluate the risk of the individual property, to see what could be done to mitigate any of that risk, and if it can’t be fixed, to then level with potential buyers about what the situation is.

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