By Dennis Norman, on June 8th, 2019 A bill introduced by St Louis County Councilmember Lisa Clancy would require landlords in unincorporated St Louis County to participate in the Section 8 program as well as pretty much any other rental subsidy program. St Louis County bill number 102 (see complete bill at bottom of article), introduced by Councilmember Clancy, if passed, would amend the existing St Louis County “Fair Housing Code” ordinance adding “lawful source of income” to the list of things that a landlord cannot discriminate based upon.
The St Louis County Fair Housing Ordinance (section 717.020) currently makes it unlawful for landlords to discriminate on Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 6th, 2019 There were 528 homes “flipped” in the St Louis metro area during the first quarter of 2019, which equated to 7.7% of the total number of homes sold in the St Louis metro area during the quarter, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Research. This is down 14% from the 1st quarter of 2018 but does reflect a 3% increase from the prior quarter. As our table below shows, on a national level, house flipping accounted for 7.2% of the homes sold during the 1st quarter of this year, which is a 23% increase from the quarter before Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 27th, 2019 If you are a homeowner, then during the past week or so you probably received a change of assessment notice from your county assessor informing you of the Assessor’s new assessment of the value of your property. While most people purchase a home with the expectation of it going up in value and, generally, are excited when they find out it has increased in value, this is not one of those occasions. An increase in the Assessor’s opinion of your property value generally results in just one thing…a higher property tax bill.
What can you do if you don’t agree Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 23rd, 2019 Home sales in St Louis through the end of April this year, are lower than they have been at the same time of year since 2015. As our exclusive year-to-date sales chart for the St Louis 5-County Core Market below shows, there have been 7,101 homes sold YTD this year (through 4/30) which is down 5.7% from the same time last year when there were 7,529 homes sold. The last time year-to-date home sales were lower at this time of year than now was back in 2015 when there were just 6,727 homes sold.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 22nd, 2019 For the 12-month period ended April 30, 2019, there were building permits issued for 757 new homes in St Louis County, a decline of 22.80% from the prior 12-month period, according to the latest data from the St Louis HBA. As the table below shows, St Charles County saw a decline of 6.38% during the same period. In February of this year, only two counties showed a downward trend in building permits, but in March that grew to 4 counties and for April, 5 of the 7 counties we are reporting on, show a decline in new home building permits. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 21st, 2019 The strong St Louis housing market, as well as the strong economy, continues to help improve mortgage delinquency rates and foreclosure rates in St Louis. The rate of foreclosure in St Louis in April was 1 foreclosure filing for every 2,167 housing units, a decline of 17.4% from the month before when the rate was 1 in every 1,865 housing units, according to the latest data from ATTOM Data Solutions. The April St Louis foreclosure rate was down 17.9% from the year before.
As the table below shows, over half the counties in the St Louis MSA saw an increase Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 16th, 2019 The number of home sales in St Louis may be down from the recent past but it’s still a Seller’s market! The lack of home sales in St Louis is certainly not a result of a lack of interest, on the part of home buyers, but more a lack of sellers. This is clear in the data I presented in this months market update video. Find out more, as well as get information on some of St Louis’s best resources for home buyers and sellers in our just-released market update video.
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By Dennis Norman, on May 14th, 2019 During the 1st quarter of this year, the homeownership rate for the St Louis MSA was 66.5% giving St Louis the 26th highest homeownership rate of the 75 largest MSA’s in the country, according to the latest date from the U.S. Census Bureau. As the table below shows, the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL MSA had the highest homeownership rate during the quarter at 78.0% and Fresno, CA MSA had the lowest at 48.0%.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Homeownership Rate By MSA – 1st Quarter 2019 Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 13th, 2019 The rate of homeownership in the state of Missouri was 70.2% during the 1st quarter of this year, giving Missouri the 14th highest rate of homeownership throughout the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, based upon the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. As the table below illustrates, New Hampshire had the highest rate of homeownership at 74.0% and the District of Columbia the lowest at 38.4%.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Homeownership Rate By State – 1st Quarter 2019
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By Dennis Norman, on May 12th, 2019 The St Louis MSA rental vacancy rate during the 1st quarter of this year was 8.1%, an increase from 6.6% the prior quarter, according to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Given that for 2018 the median rental vacancy rate of 6.8% in the St Louis MSA was a 13 year low, it’s not surprising we may see an uptick in vacancies.
As the table below shows, the rental vacancy rate for the St Louis MSA for the first quarter of 2018 was 9.6% and then fell to 5.6% during the 2nd quarter so perhaps we’ll see a Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 11th, 2019 During the 1st quarter of 2019, the homeownership rate for the St Louis MSA was 66.5%, down from 70.5% the prior quarter, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. As the table below shows, the 12-month rolling average for the St Louis homeownership rate was 67.5.% in the 1st quarter of 2019, the highest 12-month rate since the 1st quarter of 2016.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES St Louis MSA Homeownership Rate -2016 – 2019
(click on table for complete data from 2005 – present)
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By Dennis Norman, on May 9th, 2019 As of the end of the first quarter of this year, 16.2% of the homeowners in St Louis were “equity-rich”, meaning their mortgage total is less than 50% of their homes current value, according to the latest data available from ATTOM Data Research.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Equity-Rich St Louis Homeowners – 1st Quarter 2019
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By Dennis Norman, on May 8th, 2019 During the first quarter of 2019, 14.5% of the homeowners in St Louis with a mortgage, were underwater on their mortgage, meaning they were in a negative-equity position, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Research. As the table below shows, this slight increase follows a decline in the rate for the two prior quarters. The St Louis negative-equity rate is about one and a half times that for the U.S. as a whole.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES St Louis Underwater (Negative-Equity) Homeowners – 2013-2019
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By Dennis Norman, on April 24th, 2019 For the 12-month period ended March 31, 2019, there were building permits issued for 748 new homes in St Louis County, a decline of 23.60% from the prior 12-month period, according to the latest data from the St Louis HBA. As the table below shows, St Charles County saw a decline of 11.23% during the same period. Last month, those were the only two counties showing a downward trend, but, this month, Franklin County and the City of St Louis have also seen new home construction trend downward. Warren County again showed the greatest upward trend in new home construction Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 23rd, 2019 According to the latest estimates by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), there are approximately 2 million licensed real estate agents in the United States. Last year, according to the NAR, there were a total of 5.341 million existing homes sold which equates to one agent for every 2.67 homes sold during the year in the U.S. Wow, talk about competition! Granted, not all licensed agents sell residential real estate as many focus us on commercial real estate, including industrial, retail, office, multi-family, and land, and others focus on farms, large tracts of land, recreational property, etc. Nonetheless, there is Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 18th, 2019 Year to date, through the end of March, there have been 4,829 homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core market, a decline of 6.3% from this time last year when 5,156 homes had sold. As the second chart below illustrates, the St Louis home sales trend (trailing 12 months and represented by the dark green line) peaked in October 2018 with 26,032 homes sold in the prior 12 months but then stalled and has begun a slight downward trend since with 25,583 homes sold in the 12 month period ending in March 2019.
Meanwhile, St Louis home prices continue Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 16th, 2019 During the first quarter of this year, there were foreclosure filings on 1,948 properties in the St. Louis MSA, which equates to 1 foreclosure filing for every 51 housing units, according to the latest data from ATTOM Data Research. As the table below, which shows data for the 20-largest metro areas in the U.S., shows, this foreclosure rate puts St Louis at number 7 on the list in terms of foreclosure rate.
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1st Quarter 2019 – Foreclosure Filings – 20 Largest MSA’s
Data Source: ATTOM Data Solutions -© 2019 St Louis Real Estate News
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 12th, 2019 Home sales in St Louis are on a slower pace than this time last year. The St Louis real estate market is still performing well, but just not at the same sales rate as last year thus far. Find out more, as well as get information on some of St Louis’s best resources for home buyers and sellers in our just-released market update video.
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By Dennis Norman, on April 12th, 2019 While over the past few years we have seen a strong real estate market and easing mortgage loan guidelines, which is all good, unfortunately, mortgage fraud has been on the rise, according to a report just released by CoreLogic. According to their 2018 Mortgage Fraud Report, the CoreLogic® National Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index was 151 for the fourth quarter of 2018, up 10% from a year ago when the index was 138.
According to the report, Missouri was one of the top five states for increases in fraud risk for each of the past two years, moving from number Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 11th, 2019 Real property tax in Missouri consists of taxes assessed by the state of Missouri, the County the property is located within as well as the municipality the property is located in. Not all municipalities charge property tax though, and the rate charged by county varies, so there can be a fairly significant difference in property tax rates from neighboring municipalities and counties. The table below shows the 20 Counties in Missouri with the lowest effective property tax rates. At the top of the list is Benton County where the effective tax rate is just 0.11%. Franklin County is the only Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 10th, 2019 Yesterday, I wrote about Missouri having the 27th lowest effective property tax rate of the 50 states, so today I decided to look at property tax rates for the largest MSA’s around the country. Included in my list are the 219 MSA’s with a population of 200,000 or more. As the table below shows, at the top of the list, with the lowest effective real property tax rate of the MSA’s is Laredo, Texas with an effective property tax rate of just 0.35%. The states of Alabama and Colorado both have 3 MSA’s on the list of the 10 MSA’s Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 9th, 2019 Missouri falls in about the middle of the states in the U.S. in terms of real property taxes based upon the effective rate. As the first table below shows, Missouri, with an effective property tax rate of 1.04% in 2018, comes in at the 27th lowest state. Hawaii is at the top of the list with the lowest effective tax rate at 0.37% and New Jersey comes in last with the highest property tax rate at 2.25%. Right behind New Jersey, is our neighbor to the east, Illinois, where the effective property tax rate is 2.22%, over twice as high Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 2nd, 2019 Homes that sold in St. John, Missouri within the past 30 days took an average of just 18 days to sell, putting St John in the number 1 slot of Fastest Sold cities in the St Louis MSA. As the table below shows, the cities that made the top 10 list are all on the Missouri side of the Mississippi, with 7 cities in St Louis County and 3 in St Charles County.
If you are a homeowner thinking of selling and see your city on this list, now would be a really good time to consider listing your home Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 1st, 2019 For the 12-month period ended February 28, 2019, there were building permits issued for 785 new homes in St Louis County, a decline of 21.11% from the prior 12-month period, according to the latest data from the St Louis HBA. As the table below shows, St Charles County saw a decline of 13.05% during the same period however the other counties reported on by the St Louis HBA are all showing increased new home building activity for the period. From a percentage standpoint, Warren County saw the biggest increase at 30.04%.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 31st, 2019 During the first quarter of this year, homebuyers in the City of St Louis needed to spend a median of just 16.9% of their annual wages to buy a median-priced home, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Services. This makes the City of St Louis the most affordable county to buy a home in the St Louis area. As the table below shows, St Charles County, where it takes 37.7% of annual wages to buy a median-priced home is the least affordable county for 1st quarter 2019.
On a positive note, St Charles County had an affordability index Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 25th, 2019 Some new home buyers believe that if they buy a new home directly from the builder or the builder’s sales person, they will get a better price. But is this true? Do you get a better deal buying a new home directly from the builder?
First, we should address a “better deal” and what constitutes a good “deal”. If it is strictly price, then, while I think it is somewhat short-sided on the part of the buyer and falls in that “penny-wise, dollar-foolish” category, in some instances, with some builders, the builder will save some cost by you buying from Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 22nd, 2019 I saw an article recently about the results of a survey done of home sellers that found that nearly half of them didn’t realize they pay the buyers’ agent commission when they sell their home.
Sellers pay the buyers’ agent in almost all home sales in St Louis…
While I don’t know for sure, I would guess that the people surveyed were homeowners that planned to sell their homes, rather than sellers that already had their homes listed for sale. I say this because the standard listing agreement used by St Louis REALTORS® spells out the total commission being charged Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 19th, 2019 Year to date, there have been 2,903 homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core market, a decline of 3.6% from this time last year when 3,010 homes had sold. As the second chart below illustrates, the St Louis home sales trend (trailing 12 months and represented by the dark green line) peaked in October 2018 with 26,032 homes sold in the prior 12 months but then stalled and has begun a slight downward trend since with 25,756 homes sold in the 12 month period ending in February 2019.
Meanwhile, St Louis home prices continue to rise with the median Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 14th, 2019 The St Louis real estate market is still doing well however, home sales are off to a slower start this year than last year. Find out more, as well as get information on some of St Louis’s best resources for home buyers and sellers in our just-released market update video.
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By Dennis Norman, on March 8th, 2019 Since the announcement of the Better Together plans to merge the County and City of St Louis together into one big “Metro City”, there has been a lot of talk about the impact this would have on the St Louis real estate market. I’ve had several conversations with people in the real estate industry that feel St Charles County, as well as some of the other surrounding counties, will benefit if the Better Together plan succeeds. Their optimism is based upon the belief that, given what appears to be a tremendous groundswell of opposition to the plan from residents of Continue Reading →
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