New home sales here in the midwest region of the U.S. occurred in April at an adjusted annual rate of 78,000 homes, an increase of 36.8 percent from the month before when new home sales activity was at the rate of 57,000 homes per year and an increase of 20 percent from April 2014 when new homes were selling at the rate of 65,000 homes a year, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. Continue Reading →
Pulsenomics just released the results of it’s most recent Home Price Expectations Survey in which over 100 housing experts were questioned about their expectations for the housing market in the coming years. The report revealed that, overall, the panel predicts home prices from now through 2019 to increase at an annual rate of 3.6% which just so happens to be consistent with the overall historical performance of the market. Continue Reading →
Cash home sales accounted for just under 1 of every 4 (23%) home sales in St Louis during the month of April 2015, a slight decline from a year ago when cash home sales were responsible for 25% of the total home sales. Continue Reading →
Flipping homes accounts for a smaller percentage of home sales today at about 4 percent of total home sales in the U.S., then in the recent past when they accounted for 6 percent of more of the homes being sold (6.8% at the recent peak in 1st quarter 2012), according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
House flipping in St Louis accounted for just 2.4 percent of the home sales in the St Louis metro area during the first quarter of this year, according to data just obtained from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
Pending home sales, the measure of homes with contracts on them but not yet closed, is up five percent on a year to date basis through April of this year compared with the same time last year, for the five-county St Louis core market (St Louis City and the Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin). Through the end of April, there have been 7,434 pending home sales, up from 7,080 at the same time last year but still down from 7,984 at this time in 2013. The chart below shows the past five years and, beneath that, Continue Reading →
Distressed home sales (foreclosures, REO’s and short sales) made up 13.5 percent of the home sales in the U.S. in February, 2015, a decline of 18% from a year ago when the rate was 16.5 percent and is a decline of 5.6% from January when the rate was 14.3%, according to a report just released by Corelogic. Continue Reading →
St Louis home sales, in the 5-county “core” St Louis market, increased 16.9 percent in March from the year before, with 2,589 homes sold in March 2015 up from 2,214 sold in March 2014. As the chart below shows, there was the normal “seasonal” dip during the winter months, but the St Louis real estate market has come out of winter strong!
St Louis home prices on the rise too!
As the chart below also illustrates, the median price of homes sold in St Louis has increased from a year ago as well. The median price of homes sold in Continue Reading →
Between 2006 and 2014 nearly 9.3 million homeowners in the U.S. were either foreclosed on, did a deed of lieu of foreclosures, or did a short sale of their home, according to a recent report by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Continue Reading →
Real property tax rates in St Louis County effectively cost homeowners in that county about 1.43 percent of the value of the home which is 57 percent higher than Jefferson and Franklin counties were property taxes cost homeowners about .91 percent of their homes value. Continue Reading →
Pending home sales in St Louis rose in February with 1,710 sales pending in the St Louis 5-county core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), an increase of 17 percent from 1,460 pending home sales the month before, however was a decrease of 11% from February 2014 when there were 1,917 pending home sales in the St Louis 5-county core market. Continue Reading →
RealtyTrac published a report earlier this week that prompted an article on Bloomberg Business with a headline of “U.S. Home Prices Are Surging 13 Times Faster Than Wages”. RealtyTrac’s report included a chart (below) showing several metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. where, over a recent two year period, home prices were outpacing wages and that “either wages are going to need to go up or (home) prices are going to need to at least flatten out and wait for wages to catch up”. Continue Reading →
St Louis home sales jumped in February to 1,633 homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core market (the city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), an increase of almost 15 percent (14.8%) from February 2014 when there were 1,423 homes sold, and an increase of over 22 percent (22.3%) from the month before, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS Continue Reading →
This week FNC, Inc., a large company that provides real estate market information to mortgage lenders across the country, published their FNC Residential Price Index™ report which showed St Louis home prices declined slightly in January from the month before (0.4%) and were also down slightly (0.7%) from a year ago. Continue Reading →
If you are like a lot of people and see St Louis foreclosures, or REO’s (real estate owned by banks and other lending institutions as a result of foreclosure) as a good opportunity to buy a residence for yourself or as an investment either for rental or for “flipping”, you best have cash and be prepared to “buck up” if you want to succeed! I say this because cash buyers continue to dominate the REO and foreclosure market with 61% of all REO and Foreclosure sales this year in St Louis being cash sales thus far. As the table below shows, while the number of foreclosure sales has declined this year from last year at the same time, the percentage of them going to cash buyers has not. Continue Reading →
Reminenscent of the “good ole” days in the real estate biz, homes in St Louis are selling quickly, often within a day or two of hitting the market and frequently at full price or close to it! Continue Reading →
Two zip codes in St Louis made RealtyTrac’s list of “Zips with the highest gross returns (from flipping property)” for 4th quarter, 2014. The 63139 zip code, which includes the Dog Town area of St Louis, came in number 2 on the list with an average gross return on investment of 163.9% and the 63116 zip code, which includes Tower Grove South, Holly Hills, Dutchtown South and Bevo, came in 9th on the list with an average gross return on investment of 127.7%. Continue Reading →
The St Louis real estate market is definitely recovering from the housing bubble burst that sent it into a tail spin about six years ago. With the recovery, home sales have increased, although at a slower pace in 2014 than the year before, and St Louis home prices have increased but, in spite of this, are St Louis home prices too low? Continue Reading →
St Louis home sales slowed in January to 1,322 homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core market (the city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) which is a decline of over 36 percent (36.65%) from the month before, and a decline of almost 3 percent (2.94%) from a year ago, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS. As the chart below shows, the median price of homes sold in St Louis in January was $144,498, down from $159,500 in December but up from a year ago when the median home Continue Reading →
Institutional investors (entities that bought at least 10 residential properties in the last 12 months) are having much less of an impact on the housing market throughout Missouri than they were a year ago, according to a newly released report by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
Cash home sales in St Louis during November, 2014, were responsible for 35.71 percent of all the home sales in the St Louis metro area for the month, according to data just released by CoreLogic. This is a decline of 9.32% from November, 2013 when cash home sales in St Louis accounted for 39.38% of the total home sales for the month Continue Reading →
The St Louis real estate market is off to a good start and homes and condos in many neighborhoods are SELLING FAST! Find which St Louis neighborhoods are hot markets and selling fast as well as which are not and much more in our newly published, 5-minute, market video update for February 2015, below.
If you have considered selling your home, or perhaps tried and failed in the past year or so, now is the time to consider it again. Give us a call and we’ll be happy to let you know the value of your home in today’s market or, try our new online Continue Reading →
The city of St Louis made the list of the top 50 markets to rent to Millenials, published by RealtyTrac. In determining the best markets in the U.S. for renting to millennial (most of whom are in their 20’s or early 30’s), RealtyTrac looked at rental markets where the gross annual yield on rentals was at least 9 percent, where Millenials make up more than 22 percent of the market (the national average) and where the Millenial population had increased at least 5% from 2007 through 2013. Continue Reading →
So you may be asking, why am I writing about crime here, after all isn’t this site about real estate? Correct but there are few things that can affect property values more than crime rates and school districts. Not to mention, from an economic development standpoint, crime also plays a role in the success we have as a region attracting businesses to St Louis to create jobs which also has a major impact on home prices. Continue Reading →
Last summer I wrote an article addressing the issue as to whether paying a higher rate of commission will help a seller sell his or her home faster. My research for that article, in which I looked at a years worth of home sales in the St Louis area, showed that a higher than normal commission rate in fact did not lead to faster home sales. Now that we are seeing the market heat up I decided to take another look at this topic and this time focus on whether paying a higher real estate commission results in getting a higher price for the seller. Continue Reading →
St Louis home sales for 2014 fell 2.4 percent from 2013 with a total of 30.557 homes sold in St Louis (in the 5-county core market) during 2014, shy of the 31,329 homes sold the year before. St Louis home prices, on the other hand, increased 5.6 percent during the same period, increasing from a median price of $142,000 for homes sold during 2013 to $150,000 for homes sold during 2014. Continue Reading →
There were 119,936 St Louis homeowners with negative equity, or in a seriously underwater condition on their mortgage meaning they owe more than the current value of their home, in the St Louis MSA during the 4th quarter of 2014 which is a 21% improvement from the prior quarter when there were 152,025 St Louis homeowners seriously underwater, according to a report just released today by RealtyTrac.
As the table below shows, for the immediate St Louis, MO area, the city and county of St Louis had the highest percentage of underwater homeowners at 22% and St Charles county had Continue Reading →
The 63376 zip code area of St Charles County, which includes the City of St. Peters and a portion of Cottleville, had the most homes sold in 2014 of any other zip code area in St Louis with 1,145 homes sold. For the zip area with the second most homes sold in 2014 we jump to the east side of the Missouri river with the 63021 area of St Louis County, comprised of Ballwin, Manchester and Ellisville, with 856 homes sold. The chart below shows the top 20 zip areas in the St Louis area and then the charts that Continue Reading →
St Louis home sales in 2014 failed to keep pace with the year before however St Louis home prices rose during the same period. How much they rose as well as how much St Louis home prices are expected to increase (or decrease) in 2015 are just two of the important pieces of information you will find about the current St Louis real state market in our newly published, 5-minute, market video update for January 2015, below.
There are neighborhoods throughout St Louis that are low on inventory and high on demand creating a seller’s market! If you have considered Continue Reading →
The bursting of the real estate market bubble back in 2008 led to opportunities for investors to buy up homes at attractive prices throughout the country and even attracted some large firms backed by Wall Street such as Blackstone, American Homes 4 Rent, Colony American Homes and Fundamental REO. While institutional ownership of commercial real estate, apartments and land has been very common, and in fact, predominant, since entering the business in 1979, firms like this investing in single family homes has not. Continue Reading →