By Dennis Norman, on October 28th, 2017 New home construction in the St Louis and surrounding areas for the first three quarters of this year is up slightly from the same time last year, according to the latest permit data from the Home Builders Association of Greater St Louis. However, as the table below shows, only 4 of the 7 counties reviewed had an increase in building permits while the other three, including the county with the greatest number of building permits, St Charles County, saw a decline.
St Louis Area New Home Building Permits – Year to Date Through September 30, 2017
(We work Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 27th, 2017 As of the end of September, in the city of St Louis, 7,265 of the 104,288 residential properties in the city were vacant, giving the city a vacant property rate of 6.97 percent, the 2nd highest of all the counties in the U.S., according to a newly released report by ATTOM Data Solutions. The number of vacant properties in the city of St Louis increased 4.4% from the same time last year. Baltimore Maryland had the highest vacant property rate at 8.14 percent.
As the table below shows, St Clair County, Illinois was the next St Louis area county on Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 26th, 2017 James Bullard, President, and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis gave a rather flattering report on St Louis during a presentation earlier this month. Speaking at the Bi-State Development annual meeting, Mr. Bullard’s presentation, “Living Standards across U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas” compared income, home prices as well as other economic data of 381 MSA’s across the country.
Highlights from the presentation:
St Louis ranks 7th of the 53 largest MSA’s for the ratio of real per capita personal income to U.S. average with a 1.13 (table 1 below) St Louis was one of just two cities (Nashville Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 24th, 2017 The city and county of St Louis, collectively, accounted for nearly two-thirds of the home sales in the St Louis core-market during the past 12 months. There were 16,790 homes sold in the city and county of St Louis during the period October 1, 2016, through September 30, 2017, 61.0% of the 27,517 total number of homes sold in the 5-County Core St Louis real estate market during the period.
Home prices spike in St Louis City/County…
The median price of homes sold during the 12-month period ending September 30, 2017, was $174,900, a rather modest, but sustainable, 2.94% from Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 22nd, 2017 Over the past 20 years, there have been 2.75 times more homes sold in St Louis County (250,486) than St Charles County (90,933). Given that the population in St Louis County at the beginning of this period was 4 times that of St Charles County and, even today is nearly 2.6 times more, St Charles County has definitely held it’s own in the housing market.
St Louis County dominates the $1mil+ home market…
St Charles County may be keeping up with St Louis county in the overall housing market, however, when we look at the luxury home market, homes selling Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 13th, 2017 Is there a market correction coming to the St Louis real estate market? Find the answer, data behind it, as well as complete, and up to date, home price and sales data for the entire St Louis market, in our just released market update video.
In our MORE, REALTORS, 5 Minute St Louis Real Estate Market Update video below, you can quickly and easily get the latest information on home prices, home sales, trends and more for the entire St Louis area!
Sell Your Home For The Highest Price In The Least Amount of Time! See how- Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 12th, 2017 The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) just released it’s 2017 Remodeling Impact Report, in which they rank Kitchen Renovation and Upgrade at the top of their list for appeal to buyers as well as for most likely value to the home for resale. Next on the list, in both categories, was Bathroom renovation.
According to the report:
The average cost of a kitchen upgrade was $35,000 and, on average, added $20,000 to the value of the home, for a recovery rate of 57% of the cost. The average cost of a complete kitchen renovation was $65,000 and, on average, added Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 10th, 2017 On a national level, according to a report released by Corelogic, the foreclosure rate is at a 10-year low and, for the most part, mortgage delinquency rates continue to fall as real estate markets around the country continue to improve.
The state of Missouri, as well as it’s two big metro areas, St Louis and Kansas City, are following suit with improvements in mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates.
State of Missouri- Mortgage Delinquency/Foreclosure Rates: 30+ day mortgage delinquency rate improved from 5.3% of all mortgage loans a year ago to 4.5% for July 2017; 90+ day mortgage delinquency rate improved Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 7th, 2017 CoreLogic just released it’s 2017 Mortgage Fraud Report in which Missouri made the list of the five states with the highest year-over-year risk growth for mortgage fraud. The two types of fraud Missouri made the list on were Transaction fraud risk and Undisclosed Real Estate Debt fraud risk.
Below are some national highlights from the report (all figures are based upon 2nd quarter 2017 compared with 2nd quarter 2016):
Occupancy Fraud Risk increased nationally 7% Transaction Fraud Risk increased 3.9% Income Fraud Risk increased 3.5% Property Fraud Risk decreased 1.9% Undisclosed Real Estate Debt Fraud Risk decreased 2.7% Identity Fraud Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 6th, 2017 St Charles County had the biggest improvement in the housing affordability index during the 3rd quarter of this year of any major County in the state of Missouri, according to a newly released report from Attom Data Solutions. St Charles County, with an affordability index of 109 (above 100 is more affordable than historic average, below 100 is less affordable), saw a 6.5% improvement in housing affordability from the prior quarter but a 2.4% decline from a year ago when the housing affordability index for St Charles County was 112.
The table below shows the housing affordability index for all Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 22nd, 2017 In the St Louis area during the 2nd quarter of this year, there were 30,407 (5.4 percent of all residential properties) with negative equity, or underwater, according to a report just released by Corelogic. This is a decline of nearly 20 percent (19.89%) from a year ago when there were 37,581 St Louis homeowners in a negative equity position.
In addition to the homeowners that are underwater, or in a negative equity position, during the 2nd quarter of 2017 there were 9.660 homeowners, or another 1.7 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage, that were in a “near-negative” equity Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 19th, 2017 For the 12-month period ending August 31, 2017, as the table below shows, there were 36,753 homes sold in the St Louis MSA an increase in home sales of 3.68% from the prior 12-month period. The median price of homes sold in the St Louis MSA during the past 12 months was $170,000, an increase in home prices of 2.92% from the prior 12 month period.
St Louis home sales and price summary by county (see tables below for details):
St Louis City and County Home Sales Up 5.18% Home Prices Up 3.31% St Charles County Home Sales Up 3.07% Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 15th, 2017 Home buyers for sale! Buy one get one free!
Ok, it’s not quite like that but, if you are a home buyer, odds are you have been bought and sold whether you know it or not! Does this sound surprising to you? I’m guessing it probably does as I don’t think most home buyers realize that, just like the homes they are shopping for, there is a market for home buyers (and sellers, of course) as well. I’m talking about “real estate leads”.
How home buyers are bought and sold…
Before I go further, or, especially if you are a Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 14th, 2017 Home flipping accounted for 7.3 percent of all the home sales in the St Louis MSA during the 2nd quarter of this year according to a report released today by Attom Data Solutions. This is a decrease of 15% from the prior quarter when 8.6% of the homes sold were flips and is an increase of 10.6% from a year ago when 6.6% of the homes sold in St Louis were flips, according to the report. For the purposes of this report, a “flip” was defined as a property that was sold in an arms-length sale for the second time Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 8th, 2017 As we approach the fall season (officially referred to as “autumn”, it begins September 22nd) and the temperatures cool, St Louis home prices and sales are beginning to cool as well. There’s no reason for panic as this is normal due to the “seasonality” of the real estate market, however, we in the real estate business never like to see it arrive.
As the tables below for the St Louis MSA, as well as the counties that make up the St Louis real estate market, show, the St Louis real estate market as a whole, is now a “cooling seller’s Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 5th, 2017 If you own a home in Maplewood, Warson Woods, Shrewsbury, Crestwood, or Bridgeton you should sell now before it’s too late! No, there’s nothing bad about to happen to those areas (as far as I know) but these areas are currently suffering from a shortage of homes for sale and are failing to meet the markets current demand. Each of these areas has less than a one-month supply of homes for sale making this a great time to sell!
Below, is a list of the top 10 St Louis municipalities with a shortage of homes for sale but there are Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 1st, 2017 As we head into Labor Day weekend many people will be having friends and family to their homes for barbecues, parties and other get-togethers while other people may just be looking to a quiet weekend at home with family. In either event, if you have your home listed for sale, a showing, or showings, can be disruptive, to those plans and may prompt to you consider taking your home off the market for the weekend, or at least not permitting showings for the next 3 days. After all, it’s a holiday weekend, so what do you have to lose? People Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 28th, 2017 The St Louis real estate market typically hits its peak during the spring months then continues strong into summer. Come August, the housing market in St Louis tends to slow as families squeeze in vacations and school begins. After Labor Day we normally see an increase in activity until the market goes into something reminiscent of hibernation for the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
Even though Labor Day is just a few days away, home sales that closed within the past 30 days show that homes are still selling quickly in St Louis. Below is our list of the 10 Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 21st, 2017 For the 12-month period ending July 31, 2017, as the table below shows, there were 36,741 homes sold in the St Louis MSA an increase in home sales of 13.35% from the prior 12-month period. The median price of homes sold in the St Louis MSA during the past 12 months was $170,000, an increase in home prices of 3.66% from the prior 12 month period.
St LouisHome sales and price summary by county (see tables below for details):
St Louis City and County Home sales Up 6.06% Home prices Up 4.79% St Charles County Home sales Up 4.43% Home Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 19th, 2017 Inman News, a popular source of industry news for real estate agents, recently published an article title “Agents sell homes for more than FSBOs: study”. In this article, the author cited a study done by Collateral Analytics which revealed that homes sold by real estate agents sold for a mean of 5.5% more than FSBO’s (for sale by owner’s).
Being the usual skeptic that I am and also being unwilling to promote industry propoganda just because it sounds good, I decided to attempt to do an analysis of my own based upon the St Louis market. So, what I Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 17th, 2017 Unfortunately today, when we see a headline such as the one in this article, we almost immediately think something bad…its’ hard not too. Considering everything we witness in life and see in the media day in and day out, it’s become normal to think “what have they done?..what are you going to tell me that is bad about them? What’s the dirt?”.
Well, I’m happy to say, I don’t have anything bad to say, I don’t have any dirt on them nor scandalous information but, please don’t stop reading because of that.:)
In fact I’m going to praise Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 13th, 2017 The St Louis real estate market continues to be strong… Get the latest information on St Louis area home prices, sales and the market, as well as why this information is important and even a quick example of how we use this type of information to help our clients, in our just released market update video.
In our MORE, REALTORS, 5 Minute St Louis Real Estate Market Update video below, you can quickly and easily get the latest information on home prices, home sales, trends and more for the entire St Louis area!
Sell Your Home For Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 9th, 2017 This is another one of those topics where there are plenty of varying opinions however, for the sake of this article I’m going to take a look at it from purely a data-driven standpoint which, perhaps, is a little more objective approach. While it’s not that common, especially in a sellers market like a huge chunk of the St Louis real estate market has experienced for some time now, there are currently just 185 active listings in the St Louis MSA offering an agent bonus so just a tad over 1 percent of the 15,546 active listings in the St Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 3rd, 2017 It’s no secret that here in St Louis we are little slow to embrace new trends or styles and that holds true when it comes to our housing market. I remember when I first entered the real estate business in 1979 although condominiums had become quite popular in many metropolitan areas in the U.S. at the time, since the early 60’s when the popularity began to increase, they weren’t very common here. I remember many early condominium developers in St Louis struggling to make a profit doing condo conversions (where multi-family properties were converted into the condominium form of ownership Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 29th, 2017 The St Louis real estate market is hot, but there are some areas that are not as hot as others and are slower selling. While the hottest St Louis markets are seeing homes sell within a few days on average, there are some markets where homes are taking much longer to sell. Granted, as the table below shows, there are only two on the top 10 slowest markets list where the average is over 100 days (and still well below historic average times to sell) so even the slow markets, are pretty good today! Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 23rd, 2017 The St Louis real estate market continues to be like the weather, hot! Many neighborhoods through the St Louis area continue to enjoy a seller’s market, largely driven by a shortage of homes for sale, creating a low inventory. So where in the St Louis metro area are homes selling the fastest? While you would need to click on the list below to go the live data for the latest information from our site, as of the day I wrote this, Vally Park was number 1 on the list. During the past 30 days, homes that sold in Valley Park were on the market an average of only 4 days before selling! Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 19th, 2017 The Mississippi river clearly defines the Missouri/Illinois state line in fact it does so much so that it is often easy to forget that nearly half (8 of 17) of the counties that make up the St Louis MSA are located in Illinois. Granted, many of these are smaller counties, in fact Illinois has 6 of the 8 smallest counties (by population) in the St Louis MSA, however, Madison County and St Clair County, both with roughly 260,000 people, are the 4th and 5th (respectively) largest counties in the St Louis MSA. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 18th, 2017 For the 12-month period ending June 20, 2017, as the table below shows, there were 36,447 homes sold in the St Louis MSA an increase of 2.08% from the prior 12-month period. The median price of homes sold in the St Louis MSA during the past 12 months was $169,000, an increase of 4.0% from the prior 12 month period. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 14th, 2017 Yes, I often harp on the importance of having accurate information when it comes to the St Louis real estate market and, admittedly, am a data nerd, however, considering that a home sale or purchase is generally one of, if not the, largest financial transactions a person makes, I think it’s worth the effort to get it right. This is why at our company, MORE, REALTORS, we have spent thousands and dollars and thousands of hours of work over the course of several years to develop software for our agents, and clients, that provides what we feel is the most accurate and relevant information out there when it comes to St Louis home prices and sales information. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 13th, 2017 Home prices are cooling slightly as we transition from the spring market to the summer market… Every year we see home prices reach their peak in the spring market which, depending on weather, the economy as well as other things, could be May or June typically, and then fall slightly as we go into the summer months. This year is no different and we are seeing the normal seasonal change in home prices but St Louis continues to have a strong real estate market and continues to favor sellers for the most part. Continue Reading →
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