By Dennis Norman, on October 24th, 2013 Cash Home Buyers in St Louis were responsible for 50 percent of the home sales in September 2013 in the St Louis Metro area, according to a new report just released today by RealtyTrac. The report showed that state-wide, cash buyers accounted for 48 percent of home sales in Missouri during the month. As the table below shows (a St Louis Real Estate News Exclusive), in the city of St Louis 69 percent of the home sales in September were cash sales.
Cash sales are often associated with investors and, as the table shows, there is no lack of investor Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 22nd, 2013 Would you like to buy a new home in St Louis but not sure if you have the time to wait for one to be built? Before the market crash there were plenty of “spec” homes (homes builder’s built on speculation, trusting a buyer would buy it after completed) for buyers to choose from but today there are not near as many being built (“build it and they will come” didn’t pan out so well for builders when the market crashed).
Nationally, according to 2012 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, it takes about 6 months on average to build Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 21st, 2013 The foreclosure rate in St Louis fell to 1.04 percent for the month of August, a decline of 33.5 percent from a year ago when the St Louis foreclosure rate was 1.55 percent, according to a report just released by CoreLogic. The national foreclosure rate for August at 2.36 percent was over twice as high as the St Louis rate. Other good news for the St Louis real estate market contained in the report was that the St Louis mortgage delinquency rate (90 days or more late) was 3.78 percent, a decrease of 16.6 percent from a year ago when Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 20th, 2013 A new Rasmussen Reports survey just released reveals that most Americans (51%) believe buying a home is a good investment. The results of this survey are in line with what similar survey’s by Rasmussen have revealed throughout 2012 and 2013, however is down from May 2009 when 67% of Americans Surveyed said it was a good time to buy, marking an all-time high.
Thinking of buying a home? Search St Louis homes for sale here.
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By Dennis Norman, on October 17th, 2013 House flipping in St Louis is on the rise according to the 3rd quarter house flipping report just released this morning by RealtyTrac, the foreclosure tracking gurus. What is “house flipping”? Well, back when I entered the real estate business (1979) and began buying and selling homes, a “flip” was referred to as a house we sold and would close the our purchase, as well as our resale, on the same day. Today, “flipping” is applied to a home that is bought and then resold within a short period, for the purposes of the RealtyTrac report, 6 months.
The RealtyTrac Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 16th, 2013 Thirteen of the 15 top sellers markets in St. Louis are found in St. Louis County, with the City of St Louis and Franklin County each having one neighborhood on the list. This list is produced by MORE, REALTORS, and is based upon their Market Action IndexTM which, among other things, looks at supply, demand and inventory for an area and then applies an index value to it.
(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 ]
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By Dennis Norman, on October 15th, 2013 January 10, 2014 new QM rules (qualified mortgage) will go into effect and will most likely negatively impact the ability of some home buyers to obtain a mortgage. In terms of how many borrowers the new rules will affect, it is hard to say. There have been several analysis’ done of the percentage of home loans originated in 2012 would not have met the QM rules and the estimates vary from 12 percent to more than half. Personally, I think the lower estimates are probably closer to accurate, but it is still a significant number…potentially somewhere around 1 of every Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 11th, 2013
St Louis is a pretty modest place as a whole and is very affordable when it comes to housing costs. This doesn’t mean that you can’t find a multi-million dollar estate if you are in the market for one.
The proof is in the slideshow below…the most expensive homes currently on the market in the St Louis area:
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By Dennis Norman, on October 10th, 2013
St Louis foreclosure activity during the 3rd quarter of this year was down 35.70 percent from a year ago, according to a report just released this morning from RealtyTrac. There was foreclosure activity of some kind (notice of trustee sale published, foreclosure auction or new REO property) on 3,256 properties in the St Louis metro area during 3rd quarter of this year. This works out to foreclosure activity on one of every 382 properties in the St Louis metro area. St Louis’ foreclosure activity rate ranks 98th of the large metro areas (200,000+ population) in the U.S.
Nationally, foreclosure Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 9th, 2013 Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), cautioned today that, given the fact the U.S. Government spends one dollar for every 75 -80 cents it takes in, if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, the government will have to decide where to cut its spending. Should the government choose not to pay its interest obligations, “we can expect interest rates on Treasury bonds to rise…and if that happens, mortgage rates will rise, because mortgage rates follow Treasury rates.”
Yun went on to say that if mortgage interest rates do rise we can expect home sales to drop Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 8th, 2013
It’s a fickle market…
The government shut-down and economy that is, at best, somewhat unstable, continues to keep home buyers somewhat timid. As the data shows in our just-released 5 minute market update, St Louis home prices and St Louis home sales have both increased in the past year, but the market is fairly fragile at this point.
Thinking of selling and want to know if your neighborhood is a seller’s market? Contact us and we’ll answer that question for you.
You can now subscribe to our ITUNES Podcast Channel to receive our updated market videos via podcast automatically Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 7th, 2013 As we enter the 7th day of the government shut down, concern grows among home buyers and sellers as to how this may affect the transactions here in St Louis. The short answer is that, fortunately, it appears the impact will be minimal for the most part. This morning at a meeting of the St Louis Industry Forum, which I chair, this topic was discussed and from the input of the real estate-related professions represented, it appears the impact of the government shutdown on real estate transactions here will be minimal.
Shelly Clark, President of Cardinal Surveying, said that there Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 3rd, 2013
Agency relationships between a buyer or seller of a home and the real estate agent are probably one of the most confusing aspects of the real estate transaction for consumers and for many real estate agents as well for that matter. Dual agency takes the confusion to a whole new level though for the parties involved as the issue gets quite complex. At the very basic level, dual agency exists when the same real estate agent represents both the buyer and seller in the same real estate transaction (a bad idea in my humble opinion). At a more complicated Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 2nd, 2013
Three of every 10 Americans don’t qualify for a home loan, according to the Zillow Mortgage Market Place Analysis. The analysis also showed that only borrowers with a credit score of at least 740 should expect to get the best mortgage rates offered due to tougher mortgage lending standards.
In doing their analysis, Zillow analyzed a total of 13 million loan quotes and over 225,000 purchase loan requests from September 2013. What was revealed was that borrowers with a credit score under 620 who requested a home mortgage for a 30-year fixed-rate loan, were unlikely to receive a loan. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 27th, 2013 Daniela Spiridon, a 42 year-old woman from St. Charles, pled guilty yesterday to six felony counts of wire fraud related to a scheme she operated out of an office in Chesterfield, according to a report from the FBI. According to the indictment Spiridon was charged under, she operated her business out of an office at 18118a Chesterfield Airport Road, in Chesterfield, MO under several business names, including A&AD Investments, LLC; CDRS ESC Investments, a.k.a. CDRS ESC and CDRS LLC.
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By Dennis Norman, on September 26th, 2013
Just over 1 of every 4 (26%) St Louis home sales (5-county core area) in August 2013 were cash purchases, according to MORE, REALTORS. This is the highest rate of cash sales in St. Louis since April 2013 and is the highest number of total home sales for a one month period in over 4 years!
The average home price on cash sales in August was $116,724 and the average home price on all home sales for the month was $187,978.
On the national level, almost half of the homes sold (45%) in August 2013 were cash purchases, according Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 25th, 2013 New home sales in the midwest in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 61,000 homes, a 19.6 percent increase from July and an increase of 15.1 percent from a year ago, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. On a national level, new home sales in August were at the annual rate of 421,000 homes, a 7.9 percent increase from the month before and a 12.6 percent increase from a year ago.
New homes sold during the month of August 2013 were sold for a median price of $254,600, a slight decrease Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 23rd, 2013 St Louis new home construction activity decreased in August 2013 with 311 building permits for new homes being issued in the St Louis metro area (the area served by the Home Builders Association of St Louis and Eastern Missouri) a 9.9 percent decrease from the month before and is an increase of 8.7 percent from August 2012 when there were 286 building permits issued for new homes, according to data published by the Home Builders Association of St Louis and Eastern Missouri.
St Louis home building is making some headway toward recovery by climbing out of the tough it hit Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 20th, 2013
St. Charles county is a “hidden gem” for real estate investors wishing to buy rental property, according to RealtyTrac’s newly published “List of Top 25 Hidden Gem Single Family Rental Markets“. St. Charles County was the only Missouri county that made the list and it came in at 21 on the list with a gross yield on rental property of 9.4 percent. The gross yield is determined by taking the annual median rent for a county and divide it by the median price of home in that county. In the case of St Charles county, the median Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 18th, 2013
St Louis has some top rated public school districts cranking out kids with high GPA’s but also has some districts facing real challenges, the most recent of which being the Normandy School District. I think most people agree that the quality of the schools has an impact on home values in that district as demand to be in the top districts is thought to help protect home values but to what extent?
St. Louis has school districts at the top, as well as the bottom, of the list.
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By Dennis Norman, on September 17th, 2013
The housing market continues to show signs of recovery, today with the report by S&P/Experian showing that their credit default index for first mortgages fell by 12 percent in the past year and by over 20 percent (20.8%) for second mortgages during the same period. While this may not be that exciting of a topic or seem like such a big deal to some, given the fact that mortgage delinquencies are a leading indicator of foreclosures and, over the past few years, foreclosures have pommelled some neighborhoods all but destroying home values, this is really huge from a big Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 16th, 2013 Eleven of the 12 fastest selling St. Louis neighborhoods are found in St. Louis County with the lone exception, which also happens to be #1 on the list, found in the city of St. Louis, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS.
The fastest selling neighborhoods list is ranked based upon the median time current listings have been on the market. At the top of the list, with a median time on market of 25 days, is the 63101 zip area of the city of St Louis, followed by the 63040 zip area in Grover at 29 days. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 14th, 2013
There were 59,709 St Louis homeowners with negative equity in the 2nd quarter of 2013, a 33 percent decline from the first quarter of this year when there were 89,690, according to a report released by CoreLogic. During the 2nd quarter just over 1 in 10 (10.6%) of all St Louis homeowners with a mortgage owed more on their home then the current value thereby putting them underwater, or in a negative equity position. The quarter before, about one in 6 (16%) St Louis homeowners with a mortgage were underwater.
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By Dennis Norman, on September 13th, 2013
There were 1,198 St Louis foreclosure filings in August 2013, down 1.27 percent from 1,213 in July and down over 40 percent (40.58%) from August 2012 when there were 2,016 foreclosure filings, according to RealtyTrac.
Of the 20 largest metro areas in the U.S. covered by the report (see below), St. Louis had the 7th lowest foreclosure rate for August with 1 foreclosure filing for every 1,039 housing units. Boston had the lowest rate with 1 foreclosure for every 2,669 housing units and Miami the highest with 1 foreclosure for every 324 housing units.
(We work hard on this Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 11th, 2013
It’s still a seller’s market but it’s losing a little steam…
Most of the St Louis area finds itself in a sellers market still however a few more neighborhoods slipped back into a buyer’s market this month, according to the St Louis Market Update from MORE, REALTORS. The St Louis real estate market is definitely volatile, making it more important than ever to be aware of current market conditions if you are in the market as a buyer or seller and the 5 minute market update video for September below can do just that for you!
Thinking of selling Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 10th, 2013
The Missouri Supreme Court just handed down an opinion affirming a jury’s award of $1,950,000 to a an owner of property 1653 Creve Coeur Mill Road which was taken by eminent domain by St. Louis County for the Page/Olive connector as part of the Highway 141 extension.
The events leading up to this case began in December 2009 when St Louis County filed a condemnation suit against property owners to make way for part of the extension of highway 141 which included 1653 Creve Coeur Mill, at the time owned by descendants of Arthur and Stella Novel. According to Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 6th, 2013
Nearly one of every 4 St Louis homeowners with a mortgage are seriously underwater, meaning their mortgage exceeds the current value of their home by 25 percent or more, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. As the table below shows, the city of St. Louis has the highest percentage of seriously underwater homeowners at 31 percent and Franklin county the lowest at 14 percent. In addition, there are another 104,000 St Louis homeowners in a “near-equity” or “resurfacing equity” position, meaning their loan equals 90 to 110 percent of the current value of their home. As long Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 5th, 2013
Home prices in St Louis (core market) rose from a median price of $145,000 for homes sold in August 2012 to $155,000 for homes sold in August 2013, an increase of 6.9 percent. The core market for St Louis includes the city of St Louis as well as the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin.
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By Dennis Norman, on September 4th, 2013
St Louis home sales, for the 12 month period ending August 31, 2013, increased 13.9 percent from the same period a year before. In the five county area that makes up the bulk of the St Louis real estate market (city of St Louis and the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) there were 26,436 homes sold during the period, up from 23,208 the year before.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 29th, 2013
In July 2013 just a little over 1 of every 5 (22 percent) St Louis homes* that were sold were cash purchases, marking the lowest rate of cash sales since June 2010, according to MORE, REALTORS. On the national level, 2 of every 5 (40 percent) homes sold during July were cash purchases, according to a report released this morning from RealtyTrac.
The total number of homes sold in St Louis* in July was 2,731, a slight increase from June’s 2,672 sales and a 17 percent increase from July 2012 when there were 2,326 homes sold in the St Continue Reading →
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