Everyone loves a deal! When it comes to buying a house, over the past few years there have been many “deals” out there as a result of the housing market meltdown. However, now that the worst of it is over, and many markets have already started recovering, the question for many are “where in St Louis can home buyers find a good deal?“. This is not easy to answer and what is a “good deal” for a home buyer looking for a place to call home for the foreseeable future is not necessarily going to be viewed in the same Continue Reading →
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St Louis home prices have increased over the past year however at the same time St Louis home sales have declined. Spring is finally here (although as I write this I think the forecast is for a low of 28 degrees tonight) and there is definitely increased market activity. The inventory of homes for sale is down from this time last year, but the months supply is up due to decreased home sales. If home sales increase a little, suddenly the months supply is going to drop due to the low inventory and we will definitely see market pressure for Continue Reading → In spite of a somewhat sluggish start to the spring housing market, consumers are more optimistic about the housing market now than they were this time last year, according to the results of the Fannie Mae National Housing Survey results just released. Survey results show that 38% of the respondents think now is a good time to sell a home which, while low, is still almost 50% higher than a year ago when only 26% felt it was. Consumers are also feeling more optimistic about the prospects of obtaining a home loan with 52% saying they believe it would be Continue Reading → Investment property sales in 2013 fell to 1,104,000 properties, down 8.5 percent from 2012 when there were 1,2o7,000 investment properties sold, according to a report just released by the National Association of REALTORS. The median sale price of investment homes purchased during 2013 was $130,000, a 13% increase from 2012 when the median price was $115,000. Who is the typical real estate investor? According to the NAR report, the typical home investor in 2013 was a median age of 42 years, had a median household income of $111,400 and more than half (59%) were in a two income household. What Continue Reading → The vacation home market was hot last year with 717,000 vacation-home sales during the year in the U.S., an increase of 29.7% from the year before, according to the National Association of REALTOR’s (NAR) 2014 Vacation Home Buyers Survey. In spite of the large increase last year, vacation home sales are still down about one-third from the peak of vacation home sales activity seen in 2006. What did vacation homes sell for in 2013? The median price paid for a vacation home in 2013 was $168,700, an increase of 12.5% from 2012 when the median price was $150,000. In Continue Reading → St Louis pending home sales were down in February from a year ago and, thus far, 2014 is off to a slower pace than 2013 in terms of St Louis area home sales. For the 3-county area, which includes St Louis county, St Charles county and the city of St Louis, there were a total of 2,249 pending home sales in February, down 21% from February 2013 when there were 2,848. Year to date through the end of February, there have been 4,433 pending home sales in that 3-county area, down 20.4% from a year ago when there were 5,569. New home sales in the midwest region of the U.S. shot up 36.7 percent in February from the month before and was up 1.5 percent from February 2013, according to a report just released by the U.S. Commerce Department. New home sales in the Midwest were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 67,000 homes, up from a rate of 49,000 homes the month before and up slightly from a year ago when new homes in the midwest were selling at at a rate of 66,000 homes per year. Actual new home sales in the midwest for the first two months Continue Reading → Spring is just around the corner however, as I write this I hate to say there is snow coming down outside my window, and St Louis sellers as well as St Louis REALTORS are anxiously awaiting the increased home buying activity that typically comes in spring. Many people equate the spring market with higher home prices however, there are many St Louis neighborhoods that have seen sellers busy lowering prices in the past 90 days. Perhaps, they were overpriced to start with or perhaps the sellers wish to give themselves a competitive edge going into the spring market, but Continue Reading → Homeowners are feeling more optimistic about their investment in their homes as reflected in a new Rasmussen Reports survey which shows only 18% of homeowners think their homes is worth less today than when they bought it. This is down from 24% in the last survey and is the lowest level since the survey began 3 years ago. On the flip side, more than half (57%) of homeowners surveyed feel their home is worth more today than when they first bought it. To find out what your home is worth, you can check out the online resources below, or you Continue Reading → According to a survey just released by Pulsenomics LLC, almost one of every 11 renters in St Louis (9%) plan to buy a home in the next year and 5 percent of all households said they plan to buy. The survey, which covered 20 major metro areas in the U.S., calculated a “Housing Confidence Index” for each city based upon the survey responses and St Louis, with a 58.9 out of a possible 100, was at the bottom of the list for the 20 cities. However, on the “Homeownership Aspirations Index“, a barometer of the level at which current renters Continue Reading → Don’t shoot the messenger, but I have to tell you I’m not feeling quite as warm and fuzzy about the St Louis real estate market as I was a couple of months ago. In February, there were 1,623 homes sold in the 5-county core St Louis market, a decline of over 14% from February of last year when there were 1,898 homes sold. Also, 2014 is starting out sluggish with just 3,225 homes sold in the first two months, 14.5% less than this time last year when there were 3,774 homes sold. There are definitely encouraging things as well, such Continue Reading → Today’s home buyers are young, according to the Generational Trends Study published by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), which indicates 31% of all recent home purchases were made by the Millenials, also known as Generation Y, which are people born between 1980 and 1995. The next most active generation in terms of home buying is Generation X, people born between1965 and 1979, which accounted for 30% of all recent home sales, according to the NAR report. Who they are and what they buy:[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 ] Rising rents in St Louis now has the attention of Apartments.com which just released a report showing why $1,000 a month rent will get you throughout the U.S. and listed St Louis on the “Rents on the Rise” list. While this is good news for investors and landlords, who can expect better returns from their St Louis apartments and rental properties, tenants would prefer to find St Louis on the “Small Rents in Big Cities” or “Enormous Deals” list in the Apartments.com report. (See below for all cities on the lists) See St Louis Homes Currently For Rent One of the great things about St. Louis is the affordability of good homes in quality neighborhoods, however, St Louis does have it’s share of expensive homes as well. So, what are St Louis’ most expensive neighborhoods? The table below shows the 15 most expensive neighborhoods in St Louis, based upon median asking price of homes currently for sale. [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 ] St Louis rents have risen 18% since the real estate bubble burst (based upon HUD fair market rents for 3 bedrooms) while median home prices have fallen 12% during the same period. Part of the reason behind has been the increased demand for rentals as a result of many homeowners who, after the real estate bubble burst, lost their homes in foreclosure or were forced to do a short sale and then had to seek a rental while they rebuild their credit. This, couple with almost no new apartment construction for several years has created the right environment for increasing Continue Reading → The number of St Louis homeowners with negative equity (also referred to as “underwater” homeowners) increased in the 4th quarter of 2013 to 11.6% of all the St Louis homeowners with a mortgage on their home, an increase from 11.3% in the prior quarter, according to a newly released report from CoreLogic. Another 4.4% of the home owners with a mortgage were in a “near negative equity” position, up from 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nationally, 13.3 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were in a negative equity position during the 4th quarter of 2013, the same as the quarter Continue Reading → Even with rising home prices and interest rates that are following suit, it’s cheaper to buy then rent both on a national level as well as in all of the 100 largest metro areas, according to a report just released by Trulia. According to the report, nationally it is 38% cheaper to buy than rent and in St Louis, it is 54% cheaper to buy then rent putting St. Louis at the #10 spot on “Where Buying a Home is a No-Brainer” list. See below for the complete list of the top 10 no-brainer to buy cities as well as Continue Reading → Not long ago distressed home sales (foreclosures, short sales, REO’s, etc) were a dominant force in the St Louis real estate market, accounting for a good portion of St Louis area home sales. Today, however, with a few exceptions, they have all but left the St Louis real estate market. As far as the St Louis housing market is concerned, this is a good thing, for home buyers and investors looking for what are often bargain prices as a result, they may have different thoughts. As the table below for the five St Louis counties that Continue Reading → St. Louis home sales cooled off in January with 1,592 homes sold in the 5-county core St Louis real estate market (the city of St Louis and the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), a decline of over 15 percent from January 2013 when there were 1,876 homes sold. St Louis home prices, on the other hand, rose almost 12 percent (11.85%) from a median price of $115,000 in January 2013 to $129,625 in January 2014. As the table below shows, all the St Louis core areas so a decline in home sales in January from a Continue Reading → St Louis home affordability has fallen significantly in the past year as a result of increasing home prices as well as rising interest rates, according to a report by MORE, REALTORS. As the table below shows, the hardest hit area was the city of St. Louis where a house payment on a median priced home has increased 50% from the 4th quarter of 2012 to the 4th quarter of 2013. Jefferson county and St Charles county, with the lowest increases in home prices (2% and 7% respectively) had the least amount of damage done to home affordability. [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 Continue Reading → When asked “Is Buying a Home a Good Investment” about half (49%) of the Americans surveyed in a recent Rasmussen Reports survey said yes that a home would be a good investment for their family. Before you “glass is half empty” people say that means then the other half don’t agree, that is not accurate as only 27% percent said they felt that a home is not a good investment for a family presently while the remaining 24% just weren’t sure whether buying a home would be a good investment or not. The survey results above are pretty consistent with Continue Reading → Even though the St Louis real estate market is improving, there are still plenty of sellers out there who have had to lower the asking price on their homes in an effort to attract the attention of the increasingly savvy St Louis home buyer. The table below showing the top 20 St Louis neighborhoods for reduced home prices by sellers includes areas of the city of St Louis, and the counties of St Louis, Franklin and Jefferson but none of St Charles county made the list. (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 Continue Reading → Frigid Temperatures Put The Chill On St Louis Real Estate Market…. Not to worry though for there is plenty of good news about the St Louis real estate market in spite of the recent decline in home sales…Get this, and much more by only investing about 5 minutes of your time watching our newly published video update below. 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. St Louis home prices and home sales fell in January from the month before for the five-county core St Louis market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin). In January 2014 there were 1,569 homes sold, down 29% from December and down 16.2% from January 2013 when there were 1,873 homes sold in the St Louis core area. St Louis home prices for homes sold fell to $129,000 in January 2014 down from $141,000 the month before but up over 12% from a year ago when the median price of St Louis homes Continue Reading → What are the 20 best neighborhoods in St Louis to sell a home? Well, it depends on how you look at it, but I like using the “Market Action Index” (or “Market Heat Report”) published by my firm, MORE, REALTORS. The reason I like the index, aside from the obvious, is that it gives an unbiased, objective analysis of the St Louis markets and rates them based primarily upon supply and demand which is what drives a market and ultimately drives home prices. Please note, being on this list does not necessarily mean home prices are rising, in fact, perhaps Continue Reading → What is the St Louis real estate market outlook for 2014? Where are home prices and sales headed? Are we out of the slump and on the path to recovery in the St Louis housing market? What about St Louis new home construction activity and St Louis new home sales? I had the pleasure this morning of discussing this and much more with Kristi Carson, host of “Today’s Issues” , her show that airs on KSHE 95, Classical 107.3, KHITS 96.3, 105.7 The Point and FM NewsTalk 97.1. In case you don’t catch the show on the radio, you can get it here. Home loan rates have been near historic lows for a while now but the $64 question is, where are home loan rates headed in the future? While there are, of course, a variety of opinions out there, the majority of the noteworthy ones are thinking interest rates are headed upward. In the Well’s Fargo Securities Economic Outlook report for 2014, interest rates in the year ahead (2014) was addresses, saying “we expect long-term rates to exhibit an upward bias as Fed tapering moves forward. However, the extent of any increase in long-term rates should be modest, given continued low inflation Continue Reading → The St Louis housing market bubble of 2006 was followed by the bursting of the bubble shortly thereafter and, even though many of us tried to convince ourselves it would not happen, reality set back in. The reality was, when it came to home prices, the “greater fool theory” would only work so long until the reality of the underlying fundamentals of what makes up the value of a home would rear it’s ugly head and bring everyone down from their real estate high. So, now that several years have passed, and many market prognosticators (including yours truly) say Continue Reading → St Louis distressed home sales continue to fall, according to a report published by MORE, REALTORS based upon data released by RealtyTrac. This report supports other market data that indicates the St Louis real estate market is recovering from the devastation brought on it when the real estate market bubble burst back in 2008. The market crash brought many institutional buyers into the market, buying up homes as prices fell, but the recovery of the St Louis real estate market has slowed this activity as well. Home sales fueled by institutional investors fell 23.6% in December 2013 from the Continue Reading → St Louis homes sales (the 5-county core market*) for 2013 increased from 24,134 for the 2012 to 26,979 for 2013, an increase of 12%, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS. St Louis home prices rose in 2013 to a median sales price of $149,900 an increase of over 11% from 2012 when the median home price was $135,000. For the past few months I have been saying that the St Louis real estate market is definitely in a recovery and the home sales data continue to support this notion. (We work hard on this and sure would Continue Reading → |
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