Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows U.S. existing home sales in March decreased 2.6 percent from the month before but the Midwest region saw sales activity remain steady coming in at the same rate as the month before. Here in St Louis the story is even better as home sales for the St Louis five-county core (City of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) increased 22.5 percent from the month before and increased 12.4 percent from a year ago. (not seasonally adjusted – see chart below). [...]
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“Ballparking” mortgage rates just is not the same anymore. Home buyers who obtain online quotes from popular websites and “shopping” mortgage rates on the phone are receiving nothing more than a starting point for what their final mortgage rate will be. This is due to a government-led pricing scheme called loan-level pricing adjustments or LLPAs.” [...] Shortly after finishing my video recap of the 2011 St Louis Real Estate Market I began analyzing our market data and giving thought to the 2012 St. Louis Real Estate market. The end result? The MORE St Louis Market 2012 Forecast. For a link to my 15 minute video as well as a downloadable report, [...] I just finished producing a video recapping the 2011 St. Louis Real Estate Market which includes, charts, graphs and facts about what took place in the St. Louis Real Estate market last year as well as where it ended up at year end. This is a compliment to the weekly market update videos I [...] The National Association of Realtors’ research staff recently released its comprehensive annual report: Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers for 2011. Market researcher, Paul C. Bishop, Ph. D., Vice President and Jessica Lautz, Manager of Consumer Survey Research state that they’ve identified “trends that have not been seen in the last 10 years,” which will affect the housing market as we enter 2012. [...] The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for November shows an increase of 7.3 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 5.9 percent increase from a year ago. This is the second consecutive month that the index has increased and marks the highest level the index has achieved since April 2010 when it was at 111.5. [...] The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for October shows an increase of 10.4 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 9.2 percent increase from a year ago. This is the first time in four months that the index has increased and marks the highest level the index has achieved since April 2010 when it was at 110.9. [...] Despite massive loss of value over the last few years, the U.S. housing market has outperformed the stock market since 2000. A report released recently by RadarLogic showed that, over the past decade, the housing market, in spite of all of it’s recent troubles, has still performed better in terms of an investment than other typical investments such as the stock market. [...] Yesterday, statistician’s from the U.S. Census Bureau gave a briefing on highlights of the housing characteristics data contained in the 2010 Census. Several interesting facts came out, but the one that I found most interesting was that the data shows the U.S., at 65.1 percent, has the second highest homeownership rate on record for the period. It’s not that all the recent talk about the decline in homeownership was unfounded however as the census data did show that the drop in the rate of homeownership during this last census period (2000-2010) of 1.1 percent is the largest decrease since the period from 1930-1940. [...] This morning, Freddie Mac released the results of it’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey revealing that the interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.01 percent, which is an all-time record low and the interest rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.28 percent, also an all-time record low! [...] St. Louis home sales in August were up 20.7 percent from a year ago according to today’s home sales for major metropolitan report from the National Association of REALTORS®. St. Louis’ increase in home sales topped the increase nationally which was 18.6 percent from a year ago. St. Louis home pricesin August came in at a [...] Mortgage interest rates have reached historically low levels. It’s truly amazing how much the average borrower’s purchasing power has increased! The following chart tells it all. Check out the chart showing the history of interest rates as well as the examples of the savings below: [...] Sixty-nine percent of American’s polled in Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey in August said that now is a good time to buy a home, this is up from 66 percent the prior month. Consumers are not in a home buying mode as a result of feeling good about the economy however as in the [...] In my opinion, the capital gains tax exclusion that was granted to homeowners under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, is the single best, wealth-building opportunity, that’s ever been made available to the average American. That’s because, under Section 121, of the Internal Revenue Code, a single homeowner can exclude, up to $250,000, from [...] Finally some good news for the St. Louis Real Estate Market! This morning RealtyTrac released their foreclosure activity report for the St. Louis metro area for July 2011 showing that foreclosure activity in the St. Louis metro area in July was down 8.77 percent from the month before and down a whopping 35.46 percent from [...] Clear Capital just released their housing market report which, based upon data available through and including July 2011, has ranked the 15 best and worst performing housing markets in the U.S. based upon their quarter-over-quarter change in home prices. St. Louis came in number 4 on the list of best performing metros with a 12.5 [...] One Additional Mortgage Payment a Year There’s a simple trick to significantly reduce the length of your mortgage and save you thousands of dollars. The trick is to make one extra mortgage payment a year and apply that payment toward your loan’s principal. [...] Would you like to buy one of those foreclosure or REO bargains, but don’t have the cash to have the necessary work done? There’s a new rehab loan program in St. Louis that will help homeowners do just this! This program allows buyers to buy Bank Owned or Foreclosed Property (let’s call them “distressed homes”) [...] A recent survey conducted on behalf of Money Management International (MMI), the largest nonprofit credit counseling agency in the U.S., showed that the majority of Americans still view home ownership as the “American Dream“. The survey found that 81 percent of people still put a lot of value in owning a home however the [...] Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes [...] The headline today on a CNBC article was “US Housing Crisis is Now Worse than Great Depression” and there are many similar articles in other publications as well…in fact, if you Google “Housing Crisis Worse Than Great Depression” there are over 100 exact matches just in the past month. The writer’s all seem to be [...] The results of a survey conducted in eight countries for Genworth Financial was released today and contains some interesting findings. The survey was conducted on existing home-owners as well as people that said they were potential first-time home-buyers in eight countries; U.S., U.K., Ireland, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Canada and India. [...] Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for April 2011 showing an increase of 7.3 percent from the month before, and a decrease of 23.1 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for April was 323,000 homes. The supply of [...] Within days of former State Representative Jake Zimmerman stepping into his new role as the first elected Assessor for St. Louis County, he has jumped into action. In an effort to reach out and provide help to property owners whose property was affected by last weeks devastating tornado, Zimmerman plans to use authority given to [...] Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for March 2011 showing an increase of 11.1 percent from the month before, and a decrease of 21.9 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for March was 300,000 homes. The supply of [...] According to a report released this morning by CoreLogic, St. Louis home prices (including distressed sales) declined by 8.29 percent in February 2011 from the year before. The prior month showed home prices had declined 7.24 percent from the year before, so the bad news is this shows home prices are continuing to trend downward. [...] HUD publishes “Market at a Glance” reports which give a great overview of the economic conditions, population information as well as real estate and housing information for a given area. I have generated the most recent report for the St. Louis metro area showing St. Louis area market conditions on dynamic charts. Highlights: St. Louis [...] The St. Louis County Assessor today released the preliminary real property values as a result of this being a reassessment year. Pursuant to state law, the assessor is to look at what the fair market value of real property was on January 1, 2011 and then use this as the value for property tax purposes [...] The Fannie Mae Fourth Quarter National Housing Survey polled homeowners and renters alike to assess their confidence in homeownership as an investment as well as their views on housing finance and the overall economy. The survey revealed that Americans are more confident about the stability of home prices than they were at the beginning of [...] |
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