By Dennis Norman, on November 19th, 2015
Dodge Data & Analytics just released a report on “Green and Healthier Homes” in which it was revealed that many builders are seeing building green as a way to increase business and new home sales. In fact, according to the report, 83 percent of homebuilders and remodelers believe consumers are willing to pay more for a healthier home. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 17th, 2015
According to a report just released by TransUnion, the mortgage delinquency rate for borrowers that are 60 days or more delinquent, declined almost 30 percent during the 3rd quarter of 2015 from a year ago. During the third quarter of this year, the mortgage delinquency rate was 2.40%, down from 3.36% during the third quarter of 2014. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 16th, 2015
Foreclosure activity, after an extended downward trend, has trended upward lately in the St Louis metro area and October was no exception seeing an increase of over 13 percent (13.17%) in activity from the month before and, on a 12-month rolling average, an increase of almost 30 percent (29.85%) from a year ago, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 11th, 2015
Today most, if not all, landlords are aware of the Federal Fair Housing Act with regard to making various types of discrimination illegal when it comes to housing and, even if they don’t have a thorough understanding of all of the nuances of the act, at least have a basic understanding of it. However, today, a lack of a thorough understanding of the law, as well as the risks associated with violating it, or even being accused of violating it, can be quite costly to a landlord. Therefore, if you are considering becoming a landlord, or perhaps are already in the midst of building your real estate empire, spending time studying and understanding the Federal Fair Housing Act and how it applies to you would be time well spent and it would also be a great move to align yourself with a real estate professional with a good understanding of it that can help you navigate the regulatory waters a landlord must navigate today. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 10th, 2015
The number of homes sold “For Sale By Owner” (FSBO) dropped to a record low of just eight percent of all homes sold, according to the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) 2015 Profile of Home Buyers and Home Sellers report. A commentary posted on the Economist’s Outlook Blog by Amanda Riggs, Research Survey Analyst for NAR. on the NAR website indicated that homeowners that sell as a FSBO often find it doesn’t turn out as they expected either in the amount of time it will take on their part nor in the price they ultimately receive. Highlights from Rigg’s commentary include: Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 5th, 2015
Nearly one in every 4 home sales in St Louis (23.9%) during the 3rd quarter of 2015 were financing with an FHA loan, according to data just released by RealtyTrac. This is a slight decrease from the quarter before when 24.3% of the homes sold were financed with an FHA loan, but is an increase of 30% from a year ago when FHA financing was used on just 17.45 of the homes purchased in St Louis. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 4th, 2015
Distressed Home Sales accounted for just 13 percent of St Louis home sales thus far in 2015, a decline of 37.6 percent from two years ago when over 1 in every 5 (20.83%) St Louis home sales was a short sale or foreclosure. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 3rd, 2015
Four of the five counties that make up St Louis’ core real estate market appear to continue to be in a Seller’s market although the markets are cooling somewhat as prices on active listings are trending downward a little and inventories are increasing somewhat, according to the latest data from MORE, REALTORS. The remaining county, Franklin, is indicating a buyers market with a supply of homes for sale in excess of 7 months and home prices trending lower. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 30th, 2015
In St Louis Nearly One In Every Home Sales Is A Condo – As the table below shows, during 2015 nearly one of every 8 (12.22%) home sales in St Louis has been a condominium, exactly the same as last year, and higher than the 11.61% rate on the national level shown in the second table below. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 29th, 2015
Pending home sales in the U.S. fell again in September, to the second lowest level this year, according to a newly released report from the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). According to the report, pending home sales in the U.S. dropped 2.3 percent in September from the month before.
St Louis Pending Home Sales Increase In September..
In contrast to the national picture, as the charts below show, St Louis Pending Home Sales rose in September, increasing 8.6 percent from September 2014 and on a year to date basis, through the end of September, pending home sales for 2015 are Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 26th, 2015
New home sales in the U.S. in September lost some steam declining 11.5 percent from August, however, let’s not forget, August was a record month for U.S. New Home Sales which sold at the highest annual rate since February of 2008, according to a report just released by the U.S. Commerce Department. New homes sold in September at a seasonally-adjusted, annual-rate, of 468,000 homes, a decrease of 11.5 percent from the month before an an increase of 2.0 percent from September 2014 when new homes sold at an annual rate of 459,000 homes. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 23rd, 2015
St Louis Home Sales rose to 2,209 homes sold during September (in the 5-county core market) from 1,992 homes sold in September 2014, an increase of 10.9 percent! September home sales declined 7.3% from the month before which is to be expected due to the seasonality of the market. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 19th, 2015
The St Louis Real estate market continues to out perform last year! However, as we head into winter, home prices in all five primary counties of the St Louis market are trending downward somewhat. However, as I’ve said so many times, real estate is very local so, as I would expect, some local markets are out performing others and home prices are trending upward.
So, if you are a homeowner, how do you know if now is a good time to sell? Well, if the supply of homes for sale in your market is low now could be a Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 16th, 2015
St Louis Foreclosures spiked during the 3rd quarter of this year with all of the counties in Missouri that are in the St Louis MSA seeing an increase of double digits in foreclosure activity from a year ago, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 14th, 2015
My, how fast things change! Nine days ago I wrote about a bad piece of legislation St Louis Councilman O’Mara had proposed with regard to the licensing of landlords and then, two days later, updated the article with the good news that the bill was voted down. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 12th, 2015
If you live in Crestwood, Glendale, Warson Woods or Rock Hill and have considered selling your home, now is the time! With less than a 2 month supply of homes for sale, these four St Louis communities are definitely seller’s markets and now would be the time to list your home for sale. In addition to those 4 areas, as the list below reveals, there are 17 other St Louis neighborhoods that are also very attractive seller’s markets, each with less than a 3 month supply of homes currently listed for sale. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 9th, 2015
No, in spite of the fact this is October, this article is not about Halloween nor the zombies associated with it, instead, it’s about vacant homes that have delinquent mortgages but have not yet been foreclosed upon yet, which the industry has applied the term of “zombie” to. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 8th, 2015
Since the real estate market bubble burst in 2008, the number of foreclosed homes that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has had to manage and sell to investors and new home owners has increased significantly, averaging around 100,000 homes sold per year and hitting a peak of 111,416 HUD homes sold during fiscal year 2013. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 7th, 2015
Where are the buyers markets in St Louis? You cannot determine the health of a real estate market with just one piece of data, however, a good indicator of a potential buyers market would be areas with a high supply of homes for supply. Note that I said supply and not number. This is important, as some areas, such as Chesterfield for example, may have what seems like a large number of homes currently for sale, but given the size of the market and number of sales, it could still well be a sellers market. The supply of homes for sale on the other hand, takes into account the number of active listings as well as the rate of home sales and then determines how many months it would take to “sell out” of homes on the market if no new listings came on the market. A supply of around 4 -5 months has historically been pretty typical. The list below, which is from our real-time data that you won’t find anywhere else and is always up to date, shows the cities within St Louis with the highest supply of homes for sale based upon the current sales rate thus indicating a slow market with too much supply and very possible some good buying opportunities. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 5th, 2015
Last April I wrote an article about a bill in St Louis County introduced by Councilman Michael O’Mara which me, and a whole lot of other people and groups with interest in preserving private property rights, thought would trample on those rights. Fortunately, as I later reported, the St Louis County Council chose not to move forward with the bill at that time. However, St Louis County Councilman Michael O’Mara is back at it with a new proposed ordinance, Bill No. 204, which is pretty much the same as last years version. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 30th, 2015
St Louis home prices have made a strong recovery since bottoming out in 2011 as a result of the housing market bubble bursting in 2008. In fact, for the 5-county St Louis area I often focus on (the city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) home prices have increased 27 percent to a median price of $168,313 after hitting a post-bubble low of $132,500 in 2011. In fact, as my chart below shows, the median 5-county home price for 2015 has topped the peak price of $160,000 at the height of the market in 2007 by over 5 percent. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 29th, 2015
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that they had reached an agreement with Eagle Bank and Trust Company to resolve allegations that “Eagle Bank and Trust Company (Eagle Bank) engaged in a pattern or practice of “redlining” predominantly African-American neighborhoods in and around St. Louis.” “Redlining” is defined by the DOJ as “the discriminatory practice by banks or other financial institutions to deny or avoid providing credit services to a consumer because of the racial demographics of the neighborhood in which the consumer lives.” Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 27th, 2015
If you live in Missouri you are probably aware of the fact that, within our state, is the New Madrid fault, a 150-mile long fault that covers portions of five states, including the New Madrid are of Missouri. The New Madrid fault zone was the location of three (or some say four) of the largest earthquakes ever recorded on this continent, reaching a magnitude as high as 7.0 – 7.5. These massive earthquakes occurred at the end of 1811 and beginning of 1812. What you may not know, is the impact an earthquake in New Madrid may have on your Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 25th, 2015
New home sales in the U.S. in August sold at the highest annual rate since February of 2008, according to a report just released by the U.S. Commerce Department. New homes sold in August at a seasonally-adjusted, annual-rate, of 552,000 homes, an increase of 5.7 percent from the month before an an increase of 21.6 percent from August 2014 when new homes sold at an annual rate of 454,000 homes. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 24th, 2015
St Louis distressed home sales share of the St Louis real estate market continues to decline minimizing the negative effect on home prices caused by distressed home sales. In August, distressed home sales, primarily consisting of foreclosures and REO’s (bank owned properties) at this point as short sales have fallen to the point to be statistically insignificant, accounted for just 6 percent of the overall home sales in the St Louis metro area, according to a report just released this morning by RealtyTrac. This is a decline of over 50 percent (56.3%) from a year ago when distressed home sales accounted for 13.7 percent of total home sales in St Louis. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 23rd, 2015
The St Louis Real Estate market is still doing well! However, some cities, like Valley Park for example, that were strong sellers markets not that long ago have now become more of a buyer’s market and other cities have flipped the other direction. To find out which neighborhoods are buyers markets, which are sellers markets, what home prices are doing and a whole lot more, check out our newly released 5-minute, market video update for September 2015, below. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 21st, 2015
There were 2,370 existing homes sold in St Louis during July (in the 5-county core market) an increase of 1.5 percent from August 2014 when there were 2,335 homes sold. August home sales were down 16.9% from the month before as were St Louis home prices which fell from a median of $183,779 in July to $178,500 in August. The St Louis core market consists of the city of St Louis and the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 17th, 2015
St Louis Foreclosures in August decreased slightly from the month before (1.51%) however increased over 140% from August 2014, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. According to the report, there were 1,176 foreclosure filings in the St Louis metro area in August 2015 which equates to 1 in every 1,043 housing units in the metro area. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 16th, 2015
There were 123,546 St Louis homeowners with negative equity, or in a seriously underwater condition on their mortgage meaning they owe more than the current value of their home, in the St Louis MSA during the 2nd quarter of 2015 according to the most recent data by RealtyTrac. This works out to 17 percent of all St Louis metro area homeowners with a mortgage being underwater on their mortgage which is an improvement from 21 percent just 2 quarters prior. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 14th, 2015
Many St Louis area cities and towns continue to experience a low supply of homes for sale making it a competitive market for buyers in those areas. In fact, as of today, there are 8 cities in the St Louis area with just a two-month or less supply of homes listed for sale! Rock Hill at the top of the list with Continue Reading →
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