Dennis Norman - St Louis Real Estate News

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – April 2016

By Dennis Norman, on April 18th, 2016

The number of months of supply of homes for sale in St Louis has increased in each of the 5 core counties, since last month, but the St Louis real estate market is still going strong!

Want to know more? If so, then check out our just-released, 5-minute, video market update below which will go into more detail and give you a quick overview of St Louis home prices, where the sellers markets are, the buyers markets and much more! If you are considering buying or selling a home, or are an investor or just a homeowner wanting to keep up Continue Reading →

St Louis Foreclosure Activity Down In Most Areas

By Dennis Norman, on April 14th, 2016

St Louis foreclosure activity during the first quarter of this year in the St Louis metro area was at a rate of 1 of every 469 homes, ranking St Louis 99th, in terms of foreclosure rate (a list that is good to be low on), of metropolitan areas in the U.S. with a population in excess of 200,000 people, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →

St Louis Pending Home Sales Fall In February From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on March 30th, 2016

There were 1,875 home pending home sales in the St Louis area (5 county core market) in February, 13.7 percent less than a year ago when there were 2,172 pending home sales. Listings with a contract on them from a buyer, but have not closed yet, are counted as pending home sales. Continue Reading →

Home Affordability Rises In St Louis County, Falls In St Charles County

By Dennis Norman, on March 27th, 2016

A recent article by STL Today indicated that home affordability in St Louis had fallen, specifically noting that affordability in St Louis County had fallen below historic “norms”. As is always the case with stats, it depends upon which data you are taking into account and the accuracy of the data. I decided to take a look at the data and see if my data showed the same result as the STL Today article. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Rise Slightly In February But At Slower Rate Than Last Year

By Dennis Norman, on March 25th, 2016

St Louis Home Sales in February rose to 1,973 sales for the 5-county core St Louis market, an increase of 4.9 percent from January’s 1,880 sales. February home sales (closings) in St Louis, while increasing 3 percent from a year ago, did not increase from January’s sales at the same rate as last year. From January 2015 to February 2015, in St Louis, we saw an increase in home sale closings of over 23 percent which, coming out of the historically slowest closing month of the year (January) and headed to the biggest selling market of the year (spring), we would expect. This year, however, we saw just a 4.9 percent increase in sales (closings) from January to February. Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – March 2016

By Dennis Norman, on March 20th, 2016

Today may be the first day of spring, but the St Louis spring real estate market has been here for a while already! Spring is always brings a better real estate market and this year, thanks no doubt partially to the mild winter we had here in St Louis, the spring market arrived early! Homes that are priced appropriately for the market, and in areas and price ranges of moderate demand, are selling fast! Continue Reading →

Report Shows Relationship Between Registered Criminal Offenders And Home Prices

By Dennis Norman, on March 17th, 2016

This morning RealtyTrac released a report identifying neighborhoods with higher rates of registered criminal offenders (including sex offenders, child predators, kidnappers and violent offenders) and then comparing the housing statistics for those neighborhoods to ones with lower rates of registered criminal offenders. For the report, cities were given an index, from 0 to 100, with a higher value indicating a higher percentage of offenders, then these cities were sorted into five categories, based upon their index, from Very High Offender Rate to Very Low Offender rate.

The findings from this report are below:

Cities in the U.S. at the Continue Reading →

New Home Construction In Midwest In February Up Nearly 89 Percent From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on March 16th, 2016

Home builders began construction on new homes in the Midwest region of the U.S. in February at a pace of 153,000 new homes annually, an 88.9% increase from February 2015 when new home starts in the midwest was at an annual rate of 81,000 homes. February’s spike in new home construction was an 18.6% increase from January’s annual rate of 129,000 homes. Continue Reading →

St Louis HOT Real Estate Markets

By Dennis Norman, on March 14th, 2016

Just like the early arrival of spring temperatures in St Louis, the spring real estate market has arrived early in St Louis as well! New listings of homes priced appropriately for the market and, in price ranges and areas of good demand, are having multiple showings the first day of hitting the market and are often under contact by day 2 or 3 of hitting the market. Continue Reading →

St Louis Homeowners With Negative Equity Declines Over Eighteen Percent In Past Year

By Dennis Norman, on March 11th, 2016

In the St Louis area there were 44,674 (7.9 percent of all residential properties) with negative equity, or underwater, during the 4th quarter of 2015, according to a report just released by Corelogic. This is a decline of 18.6 percent from the year before when there were 54,604 St Louis homeowners in a negative equity position (9.7 percent of all residential properties) . Continue Reading →

House Flipping Activity In St Louis Last Year Same As Year Before

By Dennis Norman, on March 4th, 2016

Flipping houses, something that went from something a few professional speculators only did years ago when I was actively buying homes for resale, became somewhat of a national pastime during the real estate boom years in the 2000 – 2007 period. Continue Reading →

St Louis Pending Home Sales Slip Slightly In January – Prices Up

By Dennis Norman, on March 1st, 2016

Pending home sales in St Louis fell slightly last month from a year ago for the 5-county core St Louis market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin). Through the end of last month, there were 3,182 pending home sales for the area, down slightly from 3,200 during the same period a year ago. Continue Reading →

Cities In St Louis Where Home Buyers Have The Advantage

By Dennis Norman, on February 25th, 2016

The St Louis real estate market is off to a good start for 2016 but that doesn’t mean there aren’t St Louis neighborhoods that are experiencing a buyer’s market giving home buyers an advantage over sellers, at least to an extent. Continue Reading →

St Louis Foreclosure Activity In January Declines Over Twenty Five Percent From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on February 19th, 2016

St Louis foreclosure activity in January was at the rate of 1 in every 1,533 households, which is down almost 16 percent from December and down over 25 percent (25.79%) from a year ago, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →

Where In St Louis Have Home Prices Increased (or Decreased) The Most?

By Dennis Norman, on February 18th, 2016

St Louis home prices have been, for the most part, increasing over the past couple of years at what most would consider from a historical basis, a “normal” rate. However, market conditions can vary widely from neighborhood to neighborhood as illustrated by the table below which shows St Louis zip codes where homes prices (on a per square foot basis) have increased the most in the past year. As the table shows, there are 13 zip codes in the St Louis area where home prices, on a per foot basis, increased over 10% during the 12 month period ending January 31, 2016 from the prior 12 month period. Continue Reading →

Traffic Tickets May Soon Cost Homeowners More Than Just A Fine

By Dennis Norman, on February 17th, 2016

Credit reporting giant, TransUnion, did an evaluation to determine if there was any relationship between homeowners with criminal charges, including traffic violations, and their homeowner insurance claim loss ratio. What TransUnion found was that there was a “strong correlation between violation activity (traffic and criminal violations) and homeowners insurance loss ratio performance.” Continue Reading →

4 Reasons Why You Should Buy A Home Now In St Louis

By Dennis Norman, on February 14th, 2016

For those that have been reading my articles for a while, you know I am not a Pollyanna when it comes to the real estate market, opting instead to tell it like it is, even when the news is not so encouraging. For that reason, as well as the data behind my opinion, I think my suggestion that now is a good time to buy a home in St Louis should be considered to be a credible opinion from an industry insider. Continue Reading →

City of St Louis Property Vacancy Rate Over Four Times Higher Then National Rate

By Dennis Norman, on February 11th, 2016

According to a report just released this morning by RealtyTrac, 6,809, of the 103,855 residential properties in the city of St Louis, are vacant. This vacant property rate of 6.6 percent for the City of St Louis is over four times higher than the national rate of 1.6 percent. Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – February 2016

By Dennis Norman, on February 10th, 2016

The St Louis real estate market performed well in January and 2016 is off to a good start! Want to know more? If so, then check out our just-released, 5-minute, video market update below which will go into more detail and give you a quick overview of St Louis home prices, where the sellers markets are, the buyers markets and much more! If you are considering buying or selling a home, or are an investor or just a homeowner wanting to keep up on the market, you don’t want to miss this! Continue Reading →

If You Live In One Of These Cities And Want To Sell Your Home It Could Take A While

By Dennis Norman, on February 9th, 2016

If you live in St Clair and want to see your home, with an 18 month supply of homes currently listed for sale, you are going to have to either price your home very competitively to make it stand out from the crowd, or be prepared for it to take a while. As the table below shows, second on the list of cities with the highest supply of homes for sale, is Pacific, with more than a 13 month supply of homes for sale. Continue Reading →

St Louis Non-Distressed Home Sales In January Up Thirty Percent From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on February 8th, 2016

The St Louis real estate market is off to a good start for 2016 with non-distressed home sales during January increasing 30 percent from a year ago. In the St Louis five-county core market, there were nearly 1,700 total homes sold (1,697) during January 2015, up 19.3% from January 2015 where there were 1,423 total sales. Non-distressed sales (private sales only, no foreclosures, REO’s, etc) accounted for 1,430 of the home sales during January 2015, an increase of 30% from January 2015 when there were 1,101 homes sold. Continue Reading →

Where in St Louis Did Home Prices Increase and Decrease The Most in 2015?

By Dennis Norman, on February 3rd, 2016

The St Louis real estate and housing market saw a good year last year but, as we are frequently reminded, real estate is very “local” and prices, as well as market conditions, can vary widely even between cities or towns just a mile or two apart. This is clearly illustrated when I look at a report our company produces, based upon home sales data, obtained directly from the St Louis REALTOR® MLS, that shows the median price per foot for homes sold (or currently for sale) throughout the St Louis area. I like price per square foot data as I believe that is one of the more accurate ways of seeing trends in home prices. We compile this data and publish it live, and real-time, online, for each city in St Louis as well as zip code. Continue Reading →

The Truth About The Mortgage Interest Deduction

By Dennis Norman, on January 27th, 2016

Before I begin, I should point out that what I’m about to tell you runs contrary to what the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), the largest trade association in the country and one I belong to and support, will tell you. The NAR position on the mortgage interest deduction (MID) is, quoting from their website, “the mortgage interest deduction (MID) is a remarkably effective tool that facilitates homeownership.” Continue Reading →

Most Expensive Homes Sold in 2015 In Select St Louis Neighborhoods

By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2016

Last year was a pretty good year for the St Louis real estate market with many areas of St Louis seeing an increase in the number of homes sold from the prior year and most of the St Louis area seeing home price appreciation. Many neighborhoods in St Louis saw some new record high home prices so I thought I would take a look at some popular St Louis neighborhoods and the most expensive homes sold in them during 2015. Continue Reading →

FEMA Announces Disaster Assistance Is Now Available to Missouri Flood and Storm Victims

By Dennis Norman, on January 25th, 2016

Today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that federal disaster assistance has been made available to residents of 33 counties in Missouri that suffered damage as the result of severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds, and flooding that occurred between December 23, 2015 and January 9, 2016. Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – January 2016

By Dennis Norman, on January 19th, 2016

The St Louis real estate market performed well in 2015 and, by all indications, 2016 should be an even better year for the St Louis real estate market! Continue Reading →

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and His Impact On Fair Housing

By Dennis Norman, on January 18th, 2016

Today, as we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I wanted to focus on the dramatic change for the good that was brought about in the area of housing as a result of the efforts of Dr. King and the movement he started. Through the efforts of the civil rights movement, Dr. King and others were able to get the attention of our nation resulting in President John F. Kennedy, in a nationally televised address on June 6, 1963, urging the nation to ” take action toward guaranteeing equal treatment of every American regardless of race.” Continue Reading →

St Louis Foreclosure Activity During 2015 Tops 2014 By Nearly Forty Percent

By Dennis Norman, on January 15th, 2016

During 2015, a total of 10,391 housing units, or 1 out of 118 units, in the St Louis MSA had a foreclosure filing, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. This is an increase of 38.29% in foreclosure activity from 2014. Continue Reading →

Florissant City Council Passes Ordinance Increasing Landlord License Fees By Nearly 1500 Percent

By Dennis Norman, on January 12th, 2016

Last night, the City Council for the City of Florissant passed bill number 9135 which, if approved by voters in April, will increase residential rental real estate license fees. In addition to increasing the rental real estate license fee from $15.00 to $50.00, this ordinance also changes the calculation of the fee from a “per owner” fee to a “per unit” fee. Continue Reading →

Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order To Stop St Louis County From Implementing Rental Licensing Ordinance

By Dennis Norman, on January 8th, 2016

Yesterday, St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Gloria Reno granted a temporary restraining order against St Louis County to stop implementation of their recently adopted rental licensing ordinance. This is a huge victory for landlords, and property owners in general, as the new ordinance, as I wrote about previously, trampled property rights in many ways. Continue Reading →