Should You Pay An Agent Bonus To Sell Your Home?

One of the more controversial topics to discuss within the REALTOR community is the topic of agent bonuses, a bonus that a seller, by way of the listing broker, would pay to the agent that sells their home, over and above the normal sales commission. Sometimes seller’s, or their listing agents, see this as a way to draw more attention to their listing and to encourage buyer’s agents to show it and sell it. However, there are many conflicting opinions on this topic within the industry which creates some confusion for seller’s (and buyer’s for that matter), so I thought I would take some time to discuss it. Continue Reading →

St Louis’ Fastest SOLD Neighborhoods

If you are a home buyer looking to buy a house in Ellisville, you better move quick as the homes there are selling fast! As the table below shows, the average time it took to sell a home, for sales closed within the past 30 days, was just 13 days in Ellisville and, in fact, was below 30 days for all of the cities on the top 15 list. You can see where you city ranks by click on the table to see the current, complete list. Continue Reading →

Home Prices Up In All St Louis Area Counties From a Year Ago; Outlying Counties See Largest Gains

St Louis area home prices, for the 12-month period ending July 31st, have increased from a year ago in all of the St Louis counties that make up the core St Louis market. As the table below shows, the median home price in the St Louis MSA for this period was $164,000, an increase of 5.81 percent from the same period a year ago. Two counties, Lincoln and Franklin, saw home prices increase at a higher rate than the MSA with increases of 7.88 percent and 7.69 percent respectively. The 3 top counties on the list are all outlying counties, Continue Reading →

Home Sales Up In All St Louis Area Counties From a Year Ago; Jefferson County at top of list

Home sales in the St Louis area, for the 12-month period ending July 31st, are up from a year ago in all of the St Louis counties that make up the core St Louis market. As the table below shows, in spite of the fact that the St Louis MSA saw home sales fall 4.2% during the period from 33,840 homes sold to 32,415, all of the counties in and around the St Louis area on the Missouri side of the river saw increases. Continue Reading →

St Louis County Has Highest Natural Hazard Risk For Housing In The Area

ATTOM Data Solutions just released their 2016 Natural Hazard Housing Risk Report, in which they score counties across the nation on risks posed to housing from natural hazards. As the heat map below illustrates, St Louis County has the highest natural hazard ranking in the St Louis area at 59.8, followed by the City of St Louis at 55.3. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Up Nearly 6 Percent From Year Ago

There were 26,039 homes sold in St Louis during the 12 month period ending July 31, 2016 (5-county core St Louis market), an increase of 5.9 percent from the prior 12 month period. As the table below shows, the median sales price during the past 12 months was $174,900, an increase of 4.4 percent from the prior 12 month period when the median price was $167,500. Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – August 2016

The St Louis real estate market is still going strong! As the video below illustrates, the St Louis real estate market continues to do well as we head into the end of summer. The inventory of homes for sale remains low in most areas, which is good news for seller who face less competition and pricing pressure often resulting in multiple offers and quick sales. From a home buyers perspective it may not be as fun as buyers find themselves often competing and frequently losing out to other buyers that either got their first or offered more. Let your heart Continue Reading →

Percentage of St Louis Homeowners With Negative Equity Grows Slightly

The number of homeowners that are “seriously underwater”, or in a negative-equity position (meaning they owe more on their home than it is currently worth), increased during the 2nd quarter of this year, according to a report just released by Attom Data Solutions. During the 2nd quarter of 2106, 17.8% of the homeowners, with a mortgage, in the St Louis MSA were in a negative equity position, up from 16.6% the quarter before and up just slightly from 17.4% during the 2nd quarter of 2015. Continue Reading →

Dennis and Judy Jone’s $10.75 Million Ladue Manse Hits Market

If you are in the market for a 30,000 home with multiple guys suites, apartments for employees, bowling alley, racquetball court, spa, salon, 5,000 bottle wine cellar and a whole lot more on 4 pristine acres in Ladue, then you’re in luck! The home of Dennis Jones, the founder of Jones Pharma, Inc., and his wife Judy, just hit the market with a price tag of $10.75 million, making it the most expensive current listing in the St Louis area. In fact, according to MLS records, there has never been a home sold in St Louis for $10,000,000 with the highest being the home of Robert Fox at 2105 South Warson, which sold in 2015 for $9,000,000. Continue Reading →

St Louis Metro Area Remains A Hot Seller’s Market

The St Louis metro area housing market continues to be a hot seller’s market with 35,703 homes sold during the 12 month period ended June 30, 2016, an increase of nearly 7 percent from the prior 12 month period. The median price of homes sold during the most recent period was $162,500, an increase of over 5 percent from the prior 12 month period. Continue Reading →

New Home Sales In Midwest Soar In June Increasing 44 Percent From Year Ago

New home sales in the midwest region of the U.S. , like the temperature during the period, soared during June 2016 to a seasonally-adjusted, annual rate, of 85,000 new homes, an increase of 44.1 percent from June 2015 when new homes in the midwest sold at an annual rate of 59,000 homes, according to a report just released by the US Census Bureau. Continue Reading →

How Home Prices Have Recovered Since The Bottom In The Lowest And Highest Priced St Louis Area Zip Codes

After the housing bubble burst in 2008 we saw several years of declining home prices before home prices finally reached bottom in late 2011 and early 2012. Due to the tremendous growth in foreclosure activity, as well as artificially inflated home prices as a result of sub-prime lending, many of St Louis’ lowest priced neighborhoods were hit the hardest. So, now that we have seen a solid real estate market in St Louis for a couple of years, and prices are recovering, how have home prices in these hard hit zips recovered? To determine this I have assembled the data Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – July 2016

The inventory of homes for sale in St Louis remains low making it a great time to be a home seller! Home sales and prices are up in the St Louis area although we are beginning to see home prices rescind slightly as we near the end of the summer market and prices historically soften a little. Continue Reading →

Should I Sell My Home Myself?

“Should I sell my home myself” is something that some sellers are asking today, particularly those in fast selling neighborhoods and areas where the inventory of homes for sale is low, after all, how hard can it be to sell a home if homes are in such high demand? Continue Reading →

St Louis’ Slowest Selling Neighborhoods

Ok, this is the list that, if you are a seller, you don’t want to be on however, if you are a buyer looking for an opportunity, here are some places to consider buying a home where the competition from other buyers is not as fierce. As of today, there are 30 cities/municipalities in the St Louis area that are on our “Slowest Selling Neighborhoods List”, below are the top 10 on the list (click on the list to see the current entire list). At the top of the list is Byrnes Mill, one of 3 cities in Jefferson County that made the top 10 list, where homes for sale have been on the market an average of over 600 days. Somewhat surprising is the fact that St Charles county, which has been a pretty has 4 cities on the list. Continue Reading →

Home Affordability in Franklin County Improves By 9 Percent From Year Ago

One of the many benefits to living in the St Louis area has long been the affordability of good homes in nice neighborhoods, but that has even gotten better in the past year in three of the 5 major counties that make up the St Louis market. As the table below shows, in Franklin County, due to lower home prices as well as interest rates, home affordability increased by 9 percent from May 2015 to May 2016. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales in 2016 Up Nearly 9 Percent From Same Time Last Year

There have been 10,070 Homes sold in St Louis this year so far (through May 31, 2016), in the 5-county core St Louis market, an increase of 8.7 percent from the same time last year when there were 9,261 homes sold. As the table below shows, this years home sales is outpacing the prior 4 years thus far. The core St Louis market is comprised of the city of St Louis as well as the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin.

Pending home sales up as well but could show slowing trend…

At the chart below illustrates, Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – June 2016

Home sales continue at a brisk pace and the inventory of homes for sale remains low in all five counties that make up the core St Louis market with St Charles county having the lowest inventory with just a 1.9 month supply of homes for sale. Continue Reading →

St Louis’ Fastest Selling Neighborhoods

If you want to buy a home today you have to be quick, especially in some neighborhoods where the demand is so high and inventory so low that many of the homes sell within a day or two of hitting the market. There are many ways to determine what are the hot neighborhoods in St Louis, but for the purposes of this article, I’m going to look at the average days on market of active listings to determine which cities in the St Louis where homes are selling the fastest. Continue Reading →

New Landlord-Tenant Bill Make Force Missouri Landlords To Use Property Managers-UPDATED Feb 3, 2017

This legislative session, the Missouri State Legislature passed HB. 1862, which modifies provisions relating to the existing landlord-tenant law in Missouri, specifically, it repeals sections 534.350, 534.360, 535.030, 535.110, 535.160 and 535.300 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri and replaces them with five new sections as described in the bill. Continue Reading →

Down payment Assistance Programs Cover All of Buyers Downpayment In Most St Louis Areas

There are a variety of down payment assistance providers in the St Louis area where a qualifying home buyer can obtain assistance with their downpayment to buy a home. According to a report just released today by RealtyTrac, the average amount of down payment assistance covers the typical down payment on a median priced home in 4 out of five of the St Louis Counties that make up the core market, with St Charles County being the only exception. As the table below shows, in St Charles County the average down payment assistance of $5,000 falls short of the typical downpayment on a median priced home of $6,150 but still covers most of it. In the other 4 counties the down payment is more than covered. Continue Reading →

Home Flipping in St Louis Declines In 1st Quarter From Year Ago

Home flipping accounted for 8.1 percent of all the home sales in the St Louis MSA during the 1st quarter of this year according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. This is up 20 percent from the prior quarter however is a decline from the first quarter of 2015 when flipped homes accounted for 8.3% of all the homes sold. Continue Reading →

St Louis Pending Home Sales For 2016 Hit Highest Level In Years

Homes are selling in St Louis at a brisk rate evidenced by the fact that pending home sales, those listings that are under contract to a buyer but not yet closed, for 2016 through the end of April increased 9.2% from the same time last year. As the chart below illustrates, year to date pending home sales in the St Louis 5-County core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) thus far this year are at a level higher than we have seen in years! Pending home sales in the month of April itself just barely outperformed April 2015 (be about 1/2 of 1%) but it did. Continue Reading →

A Better Way To Look At St Louis Home Prices

The National Association of REALTORS®, Case-Shiller and a host of other organizations report home sales prices on a monthly basis (as do we) usually with comparisons of the current months’s pricing to the month before as well as the same month in the prior year. While this is a very good way of spotting trends as well as a leading indicator to show what the near term future may hold in store, this is not necessarily the best data to base the annual change of home prices on. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Prices In April Increased Just 1 Percent From Year Ago For Non-Distressed Home Sales

There were 2,290 St Louis Existing Homes Sold in April (in the 5-county core market), an increase of 1.0 percent from April 2015 when there were 2,265 homes sold. The median home price of homes in the St Louis 5-county core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Franklin and Jefferson) during April 2016 was $173,850, an increase of 4.4 percent from April 2015 when the median price of existing homes sold was $166,500.

For the combined markets of the City of St Louis and the County of St Louis, there were 1,241 existing single Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – May 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 →

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

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 →

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

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

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

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 →