Villa’s are becoming increasingly popular in St Louis evidenced by the increase in online searches by home buyers searching for a Villa. Let’s get to the question that may be going through your mind right now, what is a “Villa”, or more accurately, what type of housing in St Louis is the term “Villa” being applied to? The term “Villa” has to be one of the most misapplied terms used in the housing industry today as it’s origin goes back to Roman times when “Villa” referred a large country estate owned by a wealthy person. Today however, Villa refers more Continue Reading →
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A new study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reveals for each $1,000 increase in the price of a new home (median-priced new home) forces 206,000 prospective home buyers out of the market. Continue Reading → Missouri, along with it’s affordable home prices, also has the 3rd lowest mortgage closing costs according to data just released today by BankRate. According to the report, in Missouri, the average mortgage closing costs on a $200,000 home loan are $2,387.00, almost 6% less than the national average of $2,539.00. Holden Lewis, senior mortgage analyst at Bankrate, said mortgage closing costs have risen 6 percent in the past year and says “new mortgage regulations are the biggest reasons why closing costs went up“. Texas, at $3,046, had the highest closing costs in the nation, followed by Alaska at $2,897 and Continue Reading → St Louis Condo sales have steadily grown over the past 3 years from 2,216 sales for the 12 month period ended June 30, 2011 to 3,141 sales for the 12 month period ended June 30, 2014, an increase of 41.8% in that 3 year period. I think this is the result of actually two things; one, the recovery of the St Louis housing market which we are in the midst of, as well as greater acceptance of condominiums for a residence by St Louisan’s. During the same period, St Louis home sales, as the chart below illustrates, have increased as Continue Reading → The rental vacancy rate in the U.S. was at 7.5% for the 2nd quarter of 2014, down from 8.3% the quarter before and at the lowest level in 20 years, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. rental vacancy rate has not been this low since the 4th quarter of 1994 when the rate was 7.4%. Here in the Midwest region of the U.S., the rental vacancy rate was 7.5% during the 2nd quarter of 2014, the lowest rate in 16 years! The last time the Midwest Region of the U.S. saw rental vacancy rates Continue Reading → The home ownership rate in the use for the 2nd quarter of 2014 was 64.7 percent, a small decline from 64.8 percent in the previous quarter and the lowest rate of home ownership in the U.S. we have seen since the 2nd quarter of 1995 when the rate was the same, 64.7%, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Here in the Midwest region of the country, the home ownership rate in the 2nd quarter of 2014 was 69.6%, an increase from 69.3% the quarter before. Unlike the U.S. home ownership rate which is the same now Continue Reading → St Louis pending home sales slipped slightly in June with 2,301 pending home sales for the 5-county core St Louis market (St Louis City and the County’s of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), a decline of 2 percent from the Month before when there were 2,350 pending home sales. Pending home sales in St Louis in June were up 5.18% from June of last year, however, year-to-date pending home sales through June 30th of this year is at 11,606, down 7 percent from this time last year when there were 12,476 homes sold during the same period. Below Continue Reading → St Louis County will hold it’s annual sale of tax delinquent property next month on August 25, 2014, beginning at 10:00 am in the County Council Chambers in the County Administration Building in Clayton. To be eligible to bid you must register prior to bidding. Registration will begin at 8:30 am on the tax sale day in the office of the Collector of Revenue in the County Administration Building. A complete list of all properties available for bid, as well as complete instructions on how to participate in the tax sale, can be found online here. For more Continue Reading → Even though, for a while now, foreclosures have been on the decline in St Louis as well as in most parts of the country, there are still many St Louis neighborhoods that are being impacted significantly by foreclosure activity. While after the housing bubble burst in 2008 we foreclosures appeared in most every neighborhood in St Louis from areas with the lowest values to areas with the highest, there has been a concentration of foreclosure activity in a few areas of St Louis. The city of Florissant, for one, is an area that has had more than it’s fair share Continue Reading → During the 30+ years I have been in the real estate business I have debated this topic with my peers more times than I can possibly count and, it’s safe to say, rarely did we reach a consensus. The topic of commissions is a very sensitive one in this industry and there are strong opinions on both sides of the fence as to whether offering a higher commission rate to the selling agent will in fact get a home sold faster. Before I go further I should pause and give some quick background info on real estate commissions and how Continue Reading → St Louis Home Sales as well as St Louis home prices have increased in the past year 3,179 homes sold in June 2014 in the St Louis core market (St Louis city and the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) an increase of 3 percent from June 2013 when there were 3,086 homes sold. During this same period, St Louis home prices increased 5.81 percent from a median price of $155,000 in June 2013 to a median price of $164,000 in June 2014, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS. While the St Louis real estate market is recovering from the aftermath of the housing bubble hurst, the market is still very price sensitive and therefore I cannot over emphasize the importance of pricing your home right from the outset at the beginning of the listing. However, many sellers fear this strategy as they think no matter what price they list at the buyer will still offer less than the asking price. I will address this issue by saying that is simply not true. Buyers today, in my humble opinion, are more educated and savvy than homes buyers were during Continue Reading → Mortgage interest rates, in spite of predications to the contrary by many, are actually lower today than a year ago, according to the latest date available from Fredde Mac. According to Freddie Mac, the U.S. average interest rate for a 30 year mortgage was 4.15 percent on July 10, 2014, down significantly from July 11, 2013 when the average 30 year mortgage rate was 4.51 percent. As the interactive chart below from the St Louis Fed Reserve shows, mortgage interest rates have definitely risen from the historic lows we say in 2012 and part of 2013 however are still lower Continue Reading → St Louis Foreclosure activity dropped in June to a rate of 1 foreclosure action on every 2,070 units, a decline of nearly 50 percent (49.58%) from June 2013, and down 13.11% from the month before, according to a report just released this morning by RealtyTrac. The table below shows the numbers for the St Louis metro area as a whole as well as a breakdown by county and, as the table shows, all the counties in the St Louis, Missouri core market saw declines of nearly 50% or better in the past year and all, except the city of St Continue Reading → St Louis’ Hottest Real Estate Markets for this month has a new city at the top of the Hot Markets list, Glendale! Glendale, with a market action index of 50 (anything above a 30 is a sellers market, 60 is the highest it can go) is number 1 on the list followed closely by last month’s #1 neighborhood, the 63021 zip of Ballwin with a 49. In terms of inventory of homes for sale, the list is pretty much the same as June, with the top 9 slots all the same as last month and the top 3 having only Continue Reading → Looking to buy a home in St Louis at a BIG Discount? Take it from someone that has been in the business over 30 years and during that time bought and sold over 2,000 homes; there is no silver bullet or magic formula to finding a great deal on a home or other piece of property. I wish it were that easy. You can however use information and resources that are available to help identify potential good deals and then, with a lot of driving and looking at homes, cull through the pile looking for the “deal”. RealtyTrac just did Continue Reading → The St Louis housing market continues to improve however, as I always say, real estate is very local so markets vary widely from city to city and neighborhood to neighborhood. Not that long ago, most of the neighborhoods in St Louis were buyers markets, according to our Market Action Index however, over the past year or so, many have moved into seller’s market territory. This doesn’t mean there aren’t any buyers markets left however, and in the table below I bring you the Ten Best Buyers Markets In St Louis based upon our Market Action Index. Search ALL St Louis Continue Reading → More than 15 neighborhoods in the St Louis area are HOT SELLERS MARKETS while more than 15 are HOT MARKETS FOR BUYERS. If you are a home buyer, seller or investor, wouldn’t it be good to know where these areas are? Or, if you are a homeowner that has considered selling your home, wouldn’t it be good to know if your neighborhood is currently a sellers market? Well, you can find out all of this and much more with just a 5 minute investment of your time by checking out our July 2014 5-Minute Market Update Video below. Many areas Continue Reading → Today’s new home buyer’s most important features are the kitchen and master bedroom, according to a survey conducted by PulteGroup. The kitchen was chosen as the most important feature in a new home by 29% of those surveyed, followed by the master bedroom with 22% picking that as their top feature. So, the bottom line is, the most important thing to new home buyers is to eat and sleep! ;) As for kitchen features that new home buyers are looking for, 23% aid a large eat in area was the most important feature of the kitchen, followed by 22% that Continue Reading → Consumers continue to gain confidence in the housing market but not enough to return us to a “normal” housing market, according to the June 2014 Fannie Mae National Housing Survey. In the survey consumers are asked, among other things, what their expectations are with regard to home prices and, while the expectation is for home values to increase 2.4% in the next 12 months, this is slightly lower than indicated in the previous few months. When asked about the expectation with regard to mortgage interested rates, 55% of the consumers think interest rates will rise in the next year, this Continue Reading → If you are a property in St Louis county and do not agree with the value the St Louis County Assessor, the deadline for property assessment appeals to the St Louis County Board of Equalization is July 14, 2014. You can now file online by going to St Louis County’s website here or you can download the forms by clicking here. If you are “old school” and want to go pick up the forms you can do that at the board of equalization office at 41 South Central. This is not a reassessment year, however you can still appeal the assessment Continue Reading → St Louis’ Most Expensive Foreclosures currently for sale includes homes in St Louis, St Charles and Franklin counties and top out at $1,700,000 at the time of this article. While buying a foreclosure does generally involve more risk than buying a privately owned home that is being sold under “non-distress” conditions, the added risk is usually rewarded in a much better price and therefore a better deal. The main risks with buying a foreclosure have to do with the condition of the property both in that the property is normally being sold as is, there is not a sellers disclosure Continue Reading → I’ll begin with a disclaimer. I realize this is a VERY subjective topic and there are about a hundred different criteria one may use to determine the best area to invest in rental property however, having said that, I attempted to do a broad brush analysis from 30,000 feet. I decided to look at which area, in general, offers the best return on investment when it comes to rental property. For the sake of my analysis, I looked at single family homes as rental properties since they are the most common investment by individual investors. To determine the best rate Continue Reading → As I wrote about recently, lofts in St Louis are making a comeback and the loft market is heating up. Lofts come in a lot of shapes and sizes and, given the challenge presented to developers to create great residential spaces in old buildings original built to be warehouses or for other commercial uses, not all are created equal. Below are 3 of what I think are the coolest loftscurrently on the market. (click the image to see all photos and complete details). (click the image to see all photos and complete details) Continue Reading → Home ownership rates have been on the decline and, in fact, reached a 19 year low the first quarto of this year when the home ownership rate in the U.S. fell to 64.8%. However, for people 65 years and older, the rate of home ownership has been on the rise. As the chart below shows, while the rate of home ownership declined for the U.S. overall, the rate for those persons aged 65 and over has continued to rise. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ] Looking for Continue Reading → The city of Florissant, through it’s “Homeownership Assistance Program” is offering home buyers up to $6,000 in matching funds for a down payment if they will buy a home in Florissant. To be eligible the buyer does NOT have to be a first-time buyer nor meet any income requirements or restrictions as many grant programs have, but they must not currently be a homeowner in Florissant. The matching funds will actually be a loan, however the loan will be forgiven after the buyer lives in the home 5 years. For more information see the Homeownership Assistance Program Website. (We work Continue Reading → Pending homes sales increased in May, up 6.1 percent from April, however was still 5.2 percent below the period a year ago, according to the report just released today from the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for NAR, said he expects home sales to continue improving throughout the balance of the year however still expects 2014 to see fewer home sales than 2013 due to the “ sluggish first quarter”.
(We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ] New home sales in the midwest region during May 2014 increased 5.7 percent from a year ago, according to the latest information from the U.S. Census Bureau. New homes sales in the midwest region of the U.S. were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 74,000 homes during May. New home sales for the month before, April 2014, were adjusted downward to an annual rate of 73,000 homes after first being reported at a rate of 84,000 homes. The midwest region had the smallest month over month, as well as year-over-year, increase in new home sales of the four U.S. regions Continue Reading → Zombie Foreclosures, while fewer, are still quite prevalent in the St Louis area. So, what is a zombie foreclosure? Good question. It’s yet another term that has come out of the real estate bubble burst of 2008 and refers to homes that are in the foreclosure process and the owner has vacated the home prior to actually losing it as the foreclosure is not complete. These properties often become an eyesore and burden on the neighbors, and the city they are in, as they are sort of in “no man’s land” as the owner has left the property and typically Continue Reading → St Louis Foreclosures, and short sales, in May 2014 accounted for just 8.5% of all home sales in the St Louis core market (city of St Louis and the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), according to data released just this morning from RealtyTrac. This is a decline of 26.7% from May 2013 when foreclosures and short sales in St Louis accounted for 11.6% of all home sales. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ] Search St Louis Foreclosures For Sale |
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