Dennis Norman - St Louis Real Estate News

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – May 2016

By Dennis Norman, on May 17th, 2016

The current home price trend is down in each of the 5 core counties this month, but home sales are still robust in most St Louis markets and the inventory of homes for sale remains low.

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 Continue Reading →

Home Mortgage Loan Originations Decline In First Quarter Of 2016

By Dennis Norman, on May 12th, 2016

Home mortgage loan originations in the St Louis metro area declined during the first quarter of this year to 5,843 total loan originations for purchase mortgages, a decline of 16 percent from the prior quarter when there were 6,976 purchase mortgage loan originations, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →

Past 5 Years Increase In Regulatory Costs Associated with New Homes Nearly Five Times Higher Than Increase In CPI

By Dennis Norman, on May 10th, 2016

The median price of a new home in the U.S. in 2011 was $227,200 and this year, thus far, the median price is $288,000, an increase of 26.7 percent in that five-year period, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Continue Reading →

Help For Underwater Homeowners – One-time principal reduction plan

By Dennis Norman, on May 6th, 2016

In mid-April the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced a new program aimed to help homeowners with a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan that are seriously underwater on equity, meaning that their mortgage balance is at least 115 percent of the current value of their home. This new principal reduction modification program offers, to those that qualify, a one-time reduction in the balance of their mortgage to bring them out of a negative equity position. Continue Reading →

St Peters Is Hottest Sellers Market In St Louis Area with Just One Month Supply Of Homes

By Dennis Norman, on May 2nd, 2016

The St Peters real estate market is the hottest sellers market in the St Louis area, based upon the months supply of homes for sale. As the table below shows, as of today, there are 69 active listings of homes for sale in St Peters and there were 68 homes sold which translates to a one month supply of homes for sale there today. Continue Reading →

Cash Home Sales In St Louis Decline Over 9 Percent From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 29th, 2016

During the 12 month period ended March 31, 2016, just over 1 of every 5 home sales in St Louis (21.46%) was a cash sale which is a decline of 9.2% from the prior 12-month period when nearly 1 in 4 home St Louis home sales (23.63%)was a cash sale. Continue Reading →

St Louis Buyers Markets

By Dennis Norman, on April 26th, 2016

Yes, believe it or not, in spite of how fast some homes, in some price ranges and neighborhoods are selling, often the first day on the market, and in spite of how many St Louis markets are currently seller’s markets, giving seller’s the upper hand in negotiations, there are some buyer’s markets in St Louis, where the buyer actually has an advantage over sellers! To find these markets, there is no one statistic or piece of data that can identify it, but I use a couple to find those markets and will share what I feel are currently the best places in St Louis to be a home buyer today. Continue Reading →

New Home Sales In Midwest Rise Over Ten Percent In March From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 25th, 2016

New home sales in the midwest region of the U.S. during March rose 10.3 percent from March 2015, according to a report just released by the US Census Bureau. In March 2016, new homes were sold in the Midwest at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 64,000 new homes, an increase of 18.5 percent from February, when the rate was 54,000 homes and a 10.3 percent increase from March 2015 when the rate of new home sales in the midwest was 58,000 homes annually. Continue Reading →

Information On Over 1,000 St Louis Open Houses For Today

By Dennis Norman, on April 24th, 2016

It’s a beautiful spring Sunday morning in St Louis and many people will spend part of the afternoon touring open houses…some looking for their next home, some to see what homes in their neighborhood are selling for and some simply to kill time, satisfy curiosity or get some decorating ideas. Whatever your reason for seeking out St Louis open houses, the best source to find information on all the homes that are scheduled to have open houses today (with information from a database that is updated direct from the MLS!) is StLouisOpenHoues.com. Continue Reading →

HUD Issues Directive Warning Refusing To Rent Based Upon Tenants Criminal History May Be Discrimination

By Dennis Norman, on April 23rd, 2016

Earlier this month, General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued guidance on the “Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transaction”. This guidance has caused concern among many landlords as many, in an effort to assure safe housing for their tenants, do criminal background checks on prospective tenants and have a policies against renting to applicants with a criminal background, a practice that, according to this guidance, may very well be considered to be discriminatory now. Continue Reading →

Earth Day Housing Facts

By Dennis Norman, on April 22nd, 2016

Today is earth day, so here are some interesting housing facts from the U.S. Census Bureau, related, more or less, to earth day issues: Continue Reading →

Fastest Selling Cities And Zip Codes In St Louis

By Dennis Norman, on April 22nd, 2016

Three of the five St Louis area cities where homes are selling the fastest are in north St Louis County. As the table below shows, which ranks St Louis area cities by the average days current listings of homes for sale have been on the market, which is a good measure of how fast homes are selling, the city of Crestwood, with an average of 29 days on the market, is number 1 on the list. In 2nd, 3rd and 5th place respectively are the north St Louis county cities of Moline Acres, Dellwood and Black Jack. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Prices Softening In Spite Of Spring Market

By Dennis Norman, on April 21st, 2016

St Louis home prices appear to be trending downward a little even though we are in the midst of a fairly robust spring market. This is based upon the current price per foot of active listings for sale compared with what home sales that closed last month, as well as prior 12 months, sold for on a per-foot basis. As the tables below show, the price per foot trend is down in all 6 counties we track, with the biggest downward trends showing in St Louis County and the city of St Louis, both of which have seen the median price per foot of active listings fall below what homes in those counties sold for in the prior 12 months. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Increase 8.6 Percent In March From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 20th, 2016

There were 2,869 St Louis Existing Homes Sold in March, an increase of 8.6 percent from March 2015 when there were 2,640 homes sold. The median home price of homes in the St Louis 5-county core market during March 2016 was $155,500, an increase of 3.3 percent from March 2015 when the median price of existing homes sold was $150,000 Continue Reading →

New Home Construction In Midwest During March Increases Over 40 Percent From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 19th, 2016

New home construction in the midwest region of the U.S. continued strong in March with home builders beginning construction on new homes at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 123,000 home, a 41.4% increase from March 2015 when the new home start rate was 87,000 homes. March’s rate was a decline of 21.2 from February when an increase of nearly 90 percent from the year before sent the annual rate to 153,000 homes. Continue Reading →

“Coming Soon” Listings – Good For Sellers Or Just Listing Agents and Buyers?

By Dennis Norman, on April 19th, 2016

It’s hard to drive through a neighborhood today and not see a “coming soon” rider on a for sale sign in front of a house. With the St Louis real estate market still favoring sellers in many markets due to a low supply of homes for sale, it’s not surprising that coming soon listings create somewhat of a fervor among would-be buyers and their agents. Continue Reading →

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!

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 →