The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) announced this morning that U.S. existing home sales, and prices, slipped slightly in September, falling 1.7 percent from the month before however were up 11 and 11.3 percent, respectively, from the year before. The St. Louis Real Estate market, as the charts below show, we see slightly different data, at least for the 5-county core St Louis Real Estate area I’m showing (the City of St Louis and the Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin). In this core area, which makes up the bulk of the Saint Louis real estate market, home prices fell 7.6 percent in September, from the month before, to a median price of $121,884 and home sales slid over 20 percent to 2,428 homes sold in September, down from 3,045 in August. Continue Reading →
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According to a report released this week by Interest.com, St. Louis is the 5th most affordable metro area in the U.S. with a median-income household having 23 percent more income than needed to buy a median priced home. Continue Reading → St. Louis home prices are on the rise as all signs continue to point toward a recovery for the St. Louis real estate market! The table below shows the change in the median list prices from a year ago for the 25 St. Louis area zip codes with the highest increases. Now, before people that live in some of the top zip codes on the list get too excited, remember, this does not mean that the actual value of a home rose by the percentage indicated, it just means the median list price has which could be the result of higher priced homes hitting the market. Having said that, the trend of list prices, along with other related data on the St Louis real estate market I’m seeing, is still a positive sign and a strong indicator of better times ahead for the St Louis real estate market. Continue Reading → According to the “Residential Price IndexTM” from FNC, home prices in the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. reached a 20 month high in August 2012. Even better, St. Louis ranked number 7 on the list for home price increases in the past year and number 8 for the increase in home prices in the past month. In terms of year to date increase in home prices, St. Louis home prices have increased 4.4 percent, according to the report, which makes St. Louis 19th in the nation in terms of YTD home price increases. Continue Reading → There were 1,560 foreclosure filings on St. Louis properties in September, which is a decrease of 22.62 percent in the St. Louis foreclosure rate from August, and a decrease of 11.86 percent from September 2011 when there were 1,770 foreclosure filings on St Louis homes, according to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading → REALTORS® surveyed by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), say that low valuations on appraisals are causing their seller’s problems ranging from delaying the sale to renegotiating the price to even killing the deal. Of the REALTORS® that responded, 11 percent say a low valuation on an appraisal cost their seller a sale in the past 3 months, 9 percent said it caused a delay to a sale and 15 percent said a low appraisal resulted in the seller having to renegotiate and agree to a lower price. Shadow inventory, one of the “culprits” that eats away at the housing market and puts downward pressure on home prices, fell to 2.3 million homes in July 2012, down 10.2 percent from July 2011. This works out to a six month supply of shadow inventor and is roughly the same as things stood back in March 2009. Shadow inventory consists of properties with seriously delinquent mortgages (90+ days delinquent), in the foreclosure process or owned by a lender but not listed for sale in the MLS. In other words, shadow inventory is a glimpse of things to come in terms of distressed sales therefore when we see declines in the numbers like this, it is encouraging and yet another sign that a recovery of the housing market may be on the way. Continue Reading → The St. Louis Real Estate Market is showing signs of strengthening and even recovery in many of the neighborhoods throughout St. Louis. To get the latest St. Louis Real Estate Stats and the latest, best and most comprehensive St Louis Real Estate Data, check out our 5-minute video update below for October for the St Louis real estate market. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show Continue Reading → The inforgraphics below from BankForeclosuresSale.com do a great job of illustrating the boom and bust of the housing market as well as show the relationship, and impact, of home prices, inflation and income on the housing market. The good news is, it appears the worst is over and, according to Simon Campbell, a Senior Business Analyst with BankForeclosuresSale.com, “all signs point to increasing demand for housing.” (Can I have an Amen please?). Strategic defaults are something I’ve written about several times over the past few years and is something that there are very strong feelings within the industry at opposite ends of the spectrum on in terms of whether they are OK to do or not. A strategic default is essentially when someone that has the ability to pay their mortgage but, usually because they are “underwater” (meaning they owe more than the property is worth), choose to “walk away” and allow the home to go into foreclosure. Almost one-third (32 percent) of Americans think there is nothing wrong with doing a strategic default, according to survey results just released by ID Analytics. Continue Reading → If you’ve been waiting to buy a new home thinking that prices will continue to fall as builders get more desperate to sell homes, I think you may have missed the boat, er, house. The bruised new home market continues to show signs that the worst is over including numbers just released showing new home sales in the U.S. in August were up almost 28 percent from a year ago and new home prices were up 17 percent during the same period in the U.S. Here in St. Louis, the St. Louis HBA just reported that building permits for new homes in St. Louis are 15% through August compared with this time last year. Continue Reading → Beyond Housing is hosting a housing resource fair tonight at the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus and there will be over 25 local lenders and agencies there to help potential home buyers be aware of programs and resources that are available to help them become homeowners. Included in the program will be information on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) through St. Louis County, a program that Dave Schott has used to help many people become homeowners and had an opportunity to share information about on Fox 2 news this morning. Check out the video below for more information or contact Dave using the contact form. Continue Reading → In spite of warning from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the St. Louis Association of REALTORS (SLAR) and other housing-related groups of the damage the “Mortgage Foreclosure Intervention Code” (Bill #174 introduced by Hazel Erby, District 1) could do to the already struggling St Louis housing market, including increasing the cost of home mortgages, last month the St. Louis County Council passed the bill, it was signed into law by County Executive Charlie Dooley and will go into effect on September 28, 2012. Then, just last week, Lewis Reed, President of the St. Louis Board of Alderman, introduced what is a basically the same bill in an attempt to get the same law enacted by the City of St. Louis. Continue Reading → There is some life coming back to the new home industry as we are seeing increases in new home construction activity. On the national level, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today that building permits for new homes were up over 19 percent in August from a year ago, new home starts were up over 26 percent from a year ago and new home completions up a little over 2 percent from a year ago. Here in the Midwest region, as the chart below which depicts new home starts in the Midwest from January 2006 through July 2012 shows, it definitely appears new home construction has hit bottom, has leveled off and is now trending upward slowly. It’s going to be a long, slow recovery for the new home industry, but at least, for now, it appears things are headed the right direction. Continue Reading → St. Louis home sales (the 5 county core market*) in August increased 2.4 percent from the month before and were up over 13 percent from a year ago, following the trend in U.S. home sales as reported today in the existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS®. According to the report, U.S. home sales in August increased 7.8 percent from July and were up 9.3 percent from the year before. St. Louis home prices rose 2.7 percent in August from the month before and were up 6.8 percent from the year before falling a little short of U.S. home prices which increased 9.5 percent in August from the year before but still showing positive signs of recovery for the St. Louis housing market. Continue Reading → Maybe you’re a seller that has found yourself faced with the reality that you can’t sell your house or condo for a price today that will yield enough to pay off your loan, and you are not a candidate for, or don’t want to do, a short-sale? Or, maybe you are a seller with a house or condo that, for one reason or another, there is very limited demand for and, in fact, it seems that perhaps no one wants to buy what you have to sell? If so, maybe someone suggested, or you have considered, using a lease/option or a lease purchase to sell your home? After-all, there is a large demand for lease-options and lease-purchases by buyers but, you are just not sure if it is right for you? Continue Reading → Should I rent or buy a home in St Louis? This is a question that I’ve been asked dozens of times over the past couple of years and one that given the fact that home affordability is at an all time high and mortgage interest rates at an all time low, is generally easy to answer with “buy if you can”. I guess I many not have realized just HOW much sense that made financially, until a report came out a few days ago that looked to answer this very question and found that home ownership was 45 percent cheaper Continue Reading → There were 2,016 foreclosure filings on St. Louis properties in August, which is an increase of 8.39 percent in the St. Louis foreclosure rate from the month before and an increase of 10.22 percent from August 2011 when there were 1,829 foreclosure filings on St Louis homes, according to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading → As of the end of the second quarter of this year, there are 90,937 underwater St Louis homeowners, a slight increase from the prior quarter when there were 90,196 underwater St Louis homeowners and a decrease of almost 9 percent (8.8 percent) from the 2nd quarter of 2011 when St Louis underwater homeowners numbered almost 100,000 (99,792). One is said to be “underwater” on their mortgage when they owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth, which is also referred to as having “negative equity”. Continue Reading → St. Louis Home Prices are showing signs of stabilizing and the inventory of homes for sale in St. Louis has declined to the lowest period we’ve seen in a while, both of which are signs of good things to come for the St Louis real estate market. Find out more, and get the latest St Louis real estate stats and market data in my video update below for September on the St Louis real estate market. Continue Reading → This week the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) published a report which showed selling a home was taking less time with the median time a home for sale dropping in July to 69 days, down over 29 percent from a year ago when the median time on the market was 98 days. St. Louis homes are taking less time to sell as well and, as you can see from the tables below I prepared, many St Louis areas have a lower median time on the market for homes for sale than the national median. The inventory of St. Louis homes for sale is dropping as well…does this impact price? Read on.. Continue Reading → A report was just published by RadarLogic which said that, even though home prices in the 25 cities covered by their RPX composite index appeared to have increased in the past year, that this was the result of a large decline in the number of distressed sales at bargain prices and not an increase in home prices. Continue Reading → Over the past few months I have talked a lot about whether St Louis home prices have hit bottom yet and, in an article about 3 months ago said it appeared they bottomed out last year. When writing on the topic have stressed that, by the time we see solid proof of the bottom we will be past it and home prices will already be on the rise. Today’s pending home sales from the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) supports this notion and shows signs that increasing demand and decreasing supply is putting a damper on the rate of recovery of home sales and will also lead to higher home prices. Yesterday I wrote about home prices in the U.S. increasing 6.9 percent in the 2nd quarter (according to the Case-Shiller index) and increasing over 5 percent during the same period here in St. Louis. Continue Reading → The S&P/Case-Shiller report was published today showing that U.S. home prices increased 6.9 percent in the 2nd quarter of 2012 from the quarter before. That’s great, but St. Louis is not included in their 10 nor 20 city index so it doesn’t tell us how we are doing here in St. Louis. Fortunately we have the market data available to see how St. Louis stacks up and, I’m happy to say (as the chart below shows), St. Louis home prices, with a 5.2 percent increase from the 1st quarter of 2012 to the 2nd quarter, is only running a little behind the national average! Continue Reading → St. Louis building permits issued for new homes continues on track to out perform 2011 in the largest counties in the area, according to a report just released by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri. According to the report, the counties of St Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson have all seen more single-family building permits issued YTD (through July) in 2012 than in 2011, and Franklin county is only 2 permits shy of where they were in 2011 at the same time. Continue Reading → I have good news for homeowners that are underwater on the mortgage and need to do a short sale, or for buyers looking to buy a short sale. The Federal Housing Financing Agency just issued new guidelines to lenders that service Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans that are intended to “offer a streamlined short sale approach” which will be music to the ears of anyone that has been through the process. I don’t always agree with the actions of the FHFA but I think this is a good move and will help the market. The new guidelines, which go into effect November 1, 2012, include: Continue Reading → I spend a lot of time talking about real estate with people. Some of the most common questions I hear is “how’s the market”, “where’s the best place to buy” and “what markets are hot”. Continue Reading → It’s been a rocky few months, however new home activity in the Midwest continued to show signs of improvement in July. According to the report on New Residential Construction for July 2012 just released by the Commerce Department, new building permits for single-family homes in the Midwest increased in July 2.5 percent from the month before 16.9 percent from a year ago. Housing starts, on the other hand, were down 5.6 percent for the month but was up 12.0 percent from a year ago. Continue Reading → Below is a video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that I prepare monthly. In this video I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the month as well as an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue Reading → St. Louis home prices, after falling about 2.4 percent from the 1st quarter of 2011 to the 1st quarter of 2012, are projected to remain flat from the beginning of this year through the 1st quarter of 2013, according to a report released this week by FISERV. Historically, home prices remaining flat would not be good, but after what we have been through, with St Louis home prices falling 16.7 percent from their peak at the beginning of 2007 to their current level, flat is good. Continue Reading → |
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