Dennis Norman - St Louis Real Estate News

St Louis Foreclosure Filings During Third Quarter Increase 45 Percent From A Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on October 14th, 2022

During the third quarter of this year, there were 907 properties with foreclosure filings in the St Louis MSA, according to ATTOM Data’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. This represents an increase of 44.43% in St Louis foreclosures from the same quarter a year ago but is a decline of 16% from the second quarter of this year, according to the report.

As the table below shows, with the exception of Bond County in Illinois, all 15 counties reported had an increase in foreclosure activity during the 3rd quarter over last year, and all at least a double-digit increase. Lincoln County, Continue Reading →

Fannie Mae Predicts Lower Home Sales and Home Prices Next Year

By Dennis Norman, on October 13th, 2022

Yesterday, Fannie Mae released their October housing forecast in which they forecast, among other things, where home sales and prices are headed. The report incudes a forecast for next year, which included:

Home prices in 2023 to decline 1.5% from 2022 Home sales to finish 2022 down nearly 18% from last year and drop another 22% in 2023 New home construction to end 2022 down 3.6% from last year and drop another 25% in 2023. Mortgage Interest Rates will continue to rise the rest of these year, ending the year at 6.7% and then will ease back to 6.4% in Continue Reading →

Nearly Half The Active St Louis Listings Have Reduced The Asking Price

By Dennis Norman, on October 12th, 2022

As the STL Real Estate Trends report below shows, as of last week, 43% of the active listings in the St Louis 5-County core market have a current asking price that is lower than the initial asking price. This is more than a 100% increase from the same week last year when only 20% of the listings had a reduced asking price.

Franklin County saw the biggest increase in price reductions on listings from last year with an increase from 14% to 47%. Franklin County also has the highest percentage of active listings with a reduced price and St Charles Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Report For September 2022

By Dennis Norman, on October 11th, 2022

Below is our St Louis Real Estate Market Report for September 2022 for the City and County of St Louis combined. You can access the full infographic, containing data for St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin Counties as well by clicking on the image below. Worth noting and remembering is not all data is created equally nor is all of what you see reported accurate. Given the challenging and rapidly changing economic times we are in which are having an direct impact on the St Louis housing and real estate market, now, almost more than ever, you need to be sure Continue Reading →

House Payment On Typical St Louis Home Increased Over 50% In Past 12-Months (Infographic)

By Dennis Norman, on October 8th, 2022

Click on the image below to see the Infographic

St Louis New Home Activity Continues To Decline

By Dennis Norman, on October 7th, 2022

There were 4,486* building permits issued for new single-family homes in the St Louis area during the 12-month period ended August 31, 2022, a decrease of 8.93% from the same period a year ago when there were 4,926 permits issued, according to the latest data from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri (St Louis HBA). Six of the seven counties covered in the report saw a decrease in building permits from the same period a year ago with four of the counties haveing a double digit decline.

*The city of St Louis did not report Continue Reading →

Why St Louis Home Prices Are Going To Decline

By Dennis Norman, on October 6th, 2022

A little over two weeks ago I wrote my most recent article addressing St Louis home prices titled “Will St Louis Home Prices Decline?” in which my short answer was “yes”, but kind of tongue in cheek and based upon the seasonality of home prices, but my longer answer was more vague. I mentioned that there certainly is a correction coming but pointed out that there are so many variables that will affect prices that it is hard to say to what extent this correction will be. While this is still true, a lot has happened in the short time Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Trend Lowest In 2-Years with YTD Sales 9 Percent Lower Than Last Year

By Dennis Norman, on September 28th, 2022

There are many headlines out there talking about home sales down 20% from last year on a national level but here in St Louis we are not seeing as large of a decline in home sales. As the chart below shows, for the 12-month period ended August 31, 2022, there were 27,891 homes sold in the St Louis 5-county core market, which as the trend line (dark green) depicts is a declining trend we’ve seen for the past 11 months now. This 12-month trend is the lowest trend since September 2020 when there were 27,572 homes sold in the prior Continue Reading →

Mortgage Interest Rates Top 7 Percent for first time in over 20 years

By Dennis Norman, on September 27th, 2022

Today, the interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 7.08% marking the first time in over 20-years the rate has gone above 7%. Historically speaking, as the 2nd chart shows, this is not that high of an interest rate and, in fact, lower than the median rate over the past 50 years, however, it’s a very high rate based upon the the recent past.

The affect of interest rates on home prices…

Interest rates just began increasing in the past few months, rising above the 4% level in February, so it will take time to see the impact of Continue Reading →

Showings On St Louis Listings Drop Below To Lowest Levels Of The Year

By Dennis Norman, on September 26th, 2022

It’s no secret that the real estate market slows down in the winter and typically nearly screeches to a halt from shortly before Christmas to shortly after New Years. Therefore, when tracking showing activity in the St Louis area, the first week of January of each year is used as the base, or “0” value and then each rolling 7-day period afterward is compared to that first week.

As the chart below shows, in 2020 and 2021 all weekly averages of showing activity were above the baseline of January until getting close to Thanksgiving, with the one exception being late Continue Reading →

Will St Louis Home Prices Decline?

By Dennis Norman, on September 20th, 2022

The short answer is yes. They decline every year as we head into winter due to the seasonal nature of the business. If you look at the first chart below which depicts the median price of homes sold in the St Louis 5-County core market since 1998, you will notice a very consistent pattern of prices rising in the spring and summer, then declining in the fall and winter. For the most part, the other pattern you will see is that the peak each spring is higher than the spring before and the bottom each winter is higher than the Continue Reading →

Lawsuit Filed Against Zillow With Accusations of Wiretapping and Invasion of Privacy

By Dennis Norman, on September 15th, 2022

On Monday of this week, a federal lawsuit was filed in the United Status District Court for the Western District of Washington by Natalie Perkins and Kenneth Hasson against Zillow Group, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation. The suit was filed as a class action complaint on behalf of “All natural persons in the United States and its territories whose Website Communications were captured through the use of Session Replay Code embedded in Zillow’s website”.

In the complaint, the plaintiff’s allege that the defendants, Zillow and Microsoft, violated the Washington Wiretapping Statute (Wash. Rev. Code §9.73.030, et. seq.) through the use of Continue Reading →

New Home Building Permits In St Louis For Most Recent 12-Months Decline Over 8 Percent

By Dennis Norman, on September 13th, 2022

There were 4,600 building permits issued for new single-family homes in the St Louis area during the 12-month period ended July 31, 2022, a decrease of 8.06% from the same period a year ago when there were 5,003 permits issued, according to the latest data from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri (St Louis HBA). Five of the seven counties covered in the report saw a decrease in building permits from the same period a year ago with three of the counties have a double digit decline.

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Trend Declines In August For the 11th Consecutive Month

By Dennis Norman, on September 6th, 2022

The 12-month home sales trend in the St Louis 5-county core market declined in August to 27,840 homes sold in the 5-county area during the prior 12-months, marking the lowest 12-month sales number since September 2020. As the chart below illustrates, the 12-month home sales trend in St Louis has declined now for 11-months in a row landing just slightly higher than the 12-months sales of 27,573 for September 2020.

The St Louis home sales trend is still higher than any period after August 2006 and prior to September 2020…

At the current level, the St Louis home sales trend Continue Reading →

Year To Date Home Sales in St Louis Metro Area Down Nearly 11 Percent From Last Year

By Dennis Norman, on August 25th, 2022

There have been 21,164 homes sold in the St Louis Metro area during the first 7-months of this year which, as the STL Market Chart below illustrates, is a decline of 10.7% from the same time last year when there were 23,709 homes sold.

2022 home sales fairly consistent with 4 out of 5 prior years…

As I stated above, St Louis YTD home sales are lagging behind last year however, last years sales appear to be the market peak and the difference, as shown below, between current YTD sales and the years prior to last year is not as Continue Reading →

One-Third Of St Louis Homes Listed For Sale Have Reduced The Price

By Dennis Norman, on August 12th, 2022

We continue to see more price reductions on listings, or, as some agents prefer to refer to them as “price improvements”, throughout the St Louis area. As the infographic below depicts, as of today one-third of the active listings in the St Louis 5-County core market have a current asking price that is below their original price.

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Continue Reading →

Will The Housing Market Crash?

By Dennis Norman, on August 12th, 2022

Apparently a lot of consumers are concerned about the housing market crashing or at least concerned enough to be online searching for answers. According to Google Trends the search phrase “Will The Housing Market Crash?” has hit it’s 5-year peak in terms of interest level during the last 4-5 months. In addition, according to Google Adwords tools, there are 10,000 – 100,000 searches for month for the phrase “Will The Housing Market Crash?” and 100,000 – 1,000, 000 monthly searches for “housing market crash“.

Will there actually be a housing market crash in St Louis?

I guess first we should Continue Reading →

Yesterday’s Headlines Say Interest Rates Are Below 5 Percent – Why They Were Wrong

By Dennis Norman, on August 5th, 2022

I saw dozens and dozens of headlines yesterday reporting that mortgage interest rates had fallen below 5% on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. The catch is on the day that was reported, yesterday, interest rates were actually above 5% on a 30-year fixed-rate loan. As our chart below shows, the MND Rate index was reporting 5.09% and, below that, Optimalblue was reporting 5.326%. Both of the aforementioned charts are updated daily and considered by many in the industry to have the most current and accurate information.

How could all the big headlines be wrong?

Well, actually the articles I scanned Continue Reading →

Number Of New Homes Built In St Louis In Last 14 Years Less Than Half The Number For the Prior 14 Years

By Dennis Norman, on August 4th, 2022

During the 14 year period prior to the housing bubble bursting in 2008, there were 92,065 building permits issued for new single family homes in the 3 most active home building counties in St Louis. As the table shows below, over half the permits issued during that period were in St Charles County alone, with the other half in the counties of St Louis and Jefferson.

Needless to say, when the housing bubble burst in 2008 and the market collapsed, new home construction came to a screeching halt. However, after about 5 years, the market quickly regained lost ground and Continue Reading →

New Home Building Permits In St Louis For Most Recent 12-Months Decline Over 12 Percent

By Dennis Norman, on August 3rd, 2022

There were 4,516 building permits issued for new single-family homes in the St Louis area during the 12-month period ended June 30, 2022, a decrease of 12.05% from the same period a year ago when there were 5,135 permits issued, according to the latest data from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri (St Louis HBA). Five of the seven counties covered in the report saw a decrease in building permits from the same period a year ago with three of the counties have a double digit decline.

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Continue Reading →

Supply of New Homes For Sale Reaches Highest Level In Over 12 Years

By Dennis Norman, on July 27th, 2022

According to the latest data from HUD and the US Census Bureau, there is a 9.3 month supply of new homes for sale in the U.S. as of June, 2022. As the chart below illustrates, this is the largest supply of new homes for sale since May 2010 when there was also a 9.3 month supply. It wasn’t that long ago, August 2020 to be exact, when the supply hit a record low level of 3.3 months.

St Louis New Home Supply is a little lower…

It’s a little hard to pinpoint the new home supply in St Louis for Continue Reading →

Mortgage Interest Rates Ease Back to May Levels

By Dennis Norman, on July 22nd, 2022

Interest rates on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage peaked at 6.28% a little over a month ago on June 14th, sending shockwaves through the St Louis housing market. After peaking however the rates have subsided, today dropping to 5.5%, the lowest rate since July 5th. This decline brings the mortgage rates down to the range they were I for most of May this year.

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Mortgage Interest Rates

(click on chart for live, interactive chart)

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming Continue Reading →

Inventory Of Homes For Sale In St Louis Increases Year Over Year For First Time In Nearly Three-Years

By Dennis Norman, on July 21st, 2022

The inventory of homes for sale in the St Louis core market area increased to a 1.04 month supply in June 2022, an increase of nearly 12 percent (11.8%) from a year ago when there was a 0.93 month supply. As our chart below illustrates, this is the first time since August 2019 there has been a year-over-year increase in inventory and then the increase was just 3.1%. While a double-digit increase is significant, we do need to keep in mind that, at just over a one-month supply of listings for sale is still crazy low! The median listing supply Continue Reading →

National Headlines Say Homebuyers Canceling Deals At Highest Rate Since Start of Covid…Is this true in St Louis?

By Dennis Norman, on July 15th, 2022

If you’re heard it once, you’ve likely heard it a hundred times, “all real estate is local”. This is why you can’t put too much faith in national news or data if you are interested in buying or selling a home in St Louis. This is also why at MORE, REALTORS®, we put so much time, effort and money into producing the best and most accurate local data we can. We think it’s important to bring the data and information down to the local level.

“Homebuyers are canceling deals at highest rate since start of COVID” was the headline earlier Continue Reading →

St Louis Area Housing Market Report For June 2022

By Dennis Norman, on July 12th, 2022

St Louis Real Estate Report for June 2022

(click on infographic for complete report including other counties)

Nearly One-Third Of St Louis Homes Listed For Sale Have Reduced The Price

By Dennis Norman, on July 8th, 2022

Price reductions are quickly showing up more and more on real estate listings in the St Louis area. As the Infograph below illustrates, 31% of the current active listings in St Louis have had at least one price reduction. Since the price homes sell at isn’t known until closing and a home sale typically takes 4 to 6 weeks to close, the actual sold prices won’t reflect these price reductions for a while. For example, in the past 30 days (through today) there have been 2,381 closings of home sales in the 5-county St Louis core market at a median Continue Reading →

The Coming Recession and Its Potential Affect on St Louis Home Prices

By Dennis Norman, on July 7th, 2022

Ever heard the expression “It’s not if, but when..”? That is something that I’ve heard for a while now about a recession. With everything that has happened to our economy including rising interest rates, rising inflation, the government printing more and more currency and running up greater debt, it seemed inevitable we would see a recession. To officially be in a recession, the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has to fall for two successive quarters. For the first quarter of this year, GDP declined at an annual rate of 1.6%. The second quarter GDP numbers won’t be released until later this Continue Reading →

Showings Of St Louis Listings Fall To Levels Below January

By Dennis Norman, on July 6th, 2022

Mortgage Rates Fall Slightly to Lowest Level In Two Weeks

By Dennis Norman, on June 23rd, 2022

After hitting the highest rate in over 13 years just two weeks ago at 6.28%, as the chart below shows, mortgage interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages declined today to 5.75%. The likelihood of interest staying under 6% is hard to to say at this time but I would say enjoy it while it lasts!

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Mortgage Interest Rates – 30 and 15-Year Conventional Loans, FHA Jumbo and and 5/1 ARM Loans Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Continue Reading →

Over One-Fourth of St Louis Homes For Sale Have Reduced Asking Prices

By Dennis Norman, on June 17th, 2022

Price reduction, what’s that? All we seem to have heard about the last couple of years with regard to home prices is how much OVER the list price buyers were having to pay in order to buy a home. So, to be talking about price reductions today seems odd. However, as the infographic below illustrates, there have been listings with price reductions over the past couple of years, it’s just the current level of them is higher than we have seen in a while.

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Continue Reading →