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 →
St. Louis home prices in the 2nd quarter were at $134,700 for a median priced home according to the latest data from the National Association of REALTORS® making St. Louis 46th in terms of the lowest home prices of the 161 metro areas covered by the NAR report. Another NAR report shows the typical income needed to buy a median priced home and, based upon St. Louis’ median home price, the report shows that, with a down payment of just 5 percent, an income of about $29,601 per year would be necessary to buy a typical home in St. Louis. Continue Reading →
The St Louis foreclosure rate in July increased 4.2 percent from the month before with 1,860 properties receiving foreclosure notices during the month which is an increase of 22.53 percent from a year ago. The increase for the month is in sharp contrast to the U.S. foreclosure rate which declined 7.79 percent in July from the month before and for the State of Missouri as a whole which saw a decline of 3.2 percent from the month before.
St. Louis sellers and listing agents are showing some modest confidence in the St Louis real estate market as indicated by the increases in the asking prices of homes for sale in St. Louis. According to data from the St. Louis Home Team, asking prices in the St. Louis metro area rose just a tad (0.3 percent) in August from the month before and were up 2.4 percent from a year ago. Continue Reading →
Assuming you plan to stay put for 3 years or more, buying a home is a better financial decision than renting a home, according to a new report by Zillow. To arrive at this conclusion, Zillow analyzed the “breakeven horizon” in more than 200 metropolitan areas and 7,500 U.S. cities to determine how many years it would take owning a home before it becomes more advantageous than renting the same home from a financial perspective. In more than 75 percent of those metros analyzed, within about 3 years a homeowner would break-even on owning a home versus renting a home. Continue Reading →
St. Louis home prices are significantly outperforming other metro markets as evidenced by today’s release of the the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for May 2012 which showed both the 10-city and 20-city composites, increased by 2.2 percent from the month before while St Louis home prices (see chart below) increased 9.6 percent from the month before. On a year-over-year basis, both the 10-city and 20-city composites saw declines, 1.0 percent and 0.7 percent respectively while St. Louis home prices in May increased 3.4 percent from the year before. Continue Reading →
According to a report just released by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis (HBA), St Louis new home construction activity is on the rise! The HBA report shows that there have been 1,275 permits issued for new homes through June of this year in St. Louis City and St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin County which is an increase of 29 percent from last year at this time when there had been 989 total permits issued for new homes in the St. Louis area. Continue Reading →
Over one in four homeowners in the U.S. with a mortgage are “underwater” meaning they owe more on their homes than they are currently worth and, according to data just released from a survey by Zillow, 75 percent of them are underwater by 40 percent or more meaning it will most likely be many years until they even have the hope of seeing equity in their home again. Nonetheless, this has not deterred the majority of these underwater homeowners from “staying the course” as 59 percent said would not consider a strategic default in order to get out from under their home. Continue Reading →
The National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for June today showing a decrease of 1.4 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted) and a 9.5 percent increase from a year ago. However, here in the Midwest, the numbers are better with pending home sales decreasing just 0.4 percent from May, the smallest decrease for the month of all the regions, and Midwest pending home sales in June increased 17.3 percent from a year ago, which is the highest year-over-year increase of all regions in the U.S. Continue Reading →
foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) we’re reported on 9,672 properties in the St. Louis metro area in the first half of 2012, which is a 10.08 percent increase from the prior 6-month period and a 8.27 percent increase from the first half of 2011. Continue Reading →
Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for June 2012 and while the rest of the country reels from a decrease of 8.4 percent in the new home sales rate from the month before (seasonally adjusted), here in the Midwest we can celebrate an increase of almost 15 percent in the new home sales rate to 55,000 (seasonally adjusted annual rate) from 48,000 the month before and an increase of 50 percent in actual new home sales in June in the Midwest to 6,000 new homes sold from 4,000 the month before. Continue Reading →
St Louis home prices have not hit bottom yet, according to a report just released this morning by Zillow, which shows that St. Louis home prices fell by 4.0 percent in the second quarter of 2012 from the year before. St Louis home prices are predicted by Zillow to fall another 2.6 percent in the coming year. Continue Reading →
Yesterday’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in June were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.37 million units which is a decrease of 5.4 percent from the month before, and a 4.5 percent increase from the year before and is at the lowest level since October 2011. Continue Reading →
The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued their report on New Residential Construction for June 2012 showing an increase in single-family home building permits from the year before of 19.7 percent and a 21.7 percent increase in new home starts for the same period. Continue Reading →
Fannie Mae has launched a new foreclosure prevention program called “Know your Options” that has been in development for about a year and has, as it’s top priority, “helping homeowners avoid foreclosure”. The program includes working with and training 18 of it’s largest loan servicers as well as launching a website for consumers, KnowYourOptions.com, which contains educational tools and resources for homeowners that may be facing foreclosure and opening 12 “Mortgage Help Centers” in the areas hardest hit by the housing crisis. Continue Reading →
More good news on the real estate market arrived this morning in the S&P/Experian report on credit defaults which revealed that mortgage default rates on first mortgages fell to 1.41 percent in June bringing it to it’s lowest level since May 2007. This is significant as this is the “leading indicator” for foreclosures which have hammered home prices for the past 5 years plus this represents a significant decline from when the mortgage default rate peaked at 5.67 percent in May 2009. Continue Reading →
In the past few months I have received dozens of emails being forwarded around the internet warning of a new “3.8 percent real estate tax” or “tax on home sale” coming as a result of Obamacare. Given there seem to be many misconceptions out there about this topic I decided to address it this morning. For starters, there is not a 3.8 percent house sale tax in the health care legislation per se. There is, however, a 3.8 percent on unearned income for high-income individuals and couples that could end up being applied to the sale of one’s home. Continue Reading →
Here’s some good news to end our week with: In St. Louis the number of homeowners that are underwater on their mortgage (owe more than their home is worth), otherwise known as being in a “negative equity” position, dropped to 90,196 homeowners, or 16.1 percent of all St. Louis homeowners with a mortgage, in the first quarter of this year, down from 101,829 St Louis homeowners, or 18.1 percent during the prior quarter, according to a report just released by Corelogic. Continue Reading →
This morning, RealtyTrac released their U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for June 2012 which shows that foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) we’re reported on 1,785 properties in St. Louis during the month, a 4.65 percent increase from the previous month and an increase of 7.27 percent from June 2011. During the month, 1 out of every 699 homes in St. Louis had a foreclosure filing. For the first half of 2012, there have been 9,672 St. Louis foreclosure filings, up from 8,786 from the 2nd half of 2011 and up from 8.933 from the first half of 2011. Continue Reading →
This week Clear Capital® released its Home Data Index™ (HDI) Market Report with data through June 2012 which showed home prices in the U.S. grew both on a quarterly and yearly basis 1.7 percent from the prior period. This report shows further support for a housing price recovery, which is very good news! 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 →