By John Williams, on June 21st, 2013 I once heard it said that people remember you, not by what you said, not by what you did, but by the way you made them feel. I cannot think of another person that this statement applies to more than Tina Niemann.
If you haven’t already heard, Tina passed away on June 14, 2013 after suffering a heart attack. The last time that I saw Tina, was at a luncheon at Bellerive Country Club. Tina saw me and came over and said “I just had to come over and speak to my favorite REALTOR “. Was I really her favorite Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 21st, 2013 A survey by LendingTree reveals that now is the time to buy a home if you want to beat the coming higher home prices and interest rates. According to the survey of individuals that say they are considering buying a home in the coming year, 68% say they feel home prices will rise and 64% think interest rates will rise in the next 12 months.
Of the would-be home buyers surveyed, 57 percent are first-time home buyers and 45 percent said they are “actively” shopping for a home while the remaining 55 percent said they are “casual” shoppers.
Click here Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 19th, 2013
It has only been recently that economists started using the word “recovery” in the same sentence as “housing market” and now there is talk about a possible housing bubble? CoreLogic, in it’s June MarketPulse report, citing a 12.1 percent increase in their home price index from April 2012 to April 2013 cautioned that the double-digit home price gains “prompt caution” and makes some ask “are we witnessing a new housing bubble?”
The CoreLogic report encompasses the largest metro areas in the U.S. so I decided to look at the St. Louis area specifically to see if what we are Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 12th, 2013 There were 88,367 St Louis homeowners with negative equity during the first quarter of this year, according to a report just released by CoreLogic. This represents 15.7 percent of the St. Louis homeowners with a mortgage and is a decline of 10 percent from the prior quarter when there were 98,365 St Louis homeowners with negative equity, or 17.5 percent of all St Louis homeowners with a mortgage.
For the State of Missouri as a whole, there were 120,056 homeowners, or 15.3 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage, with negative equity during the first quarter of this year. On Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 11th, 2013 Over three of every four people (76 percent) say now is a good time to buy a home according to the National Housing Survey for May just released by Fannie Mae. Would be sellers are also feeling better about the housing market with 40 percent saying now is a good time to sell a home.
When it comes to financing that home purchase, American’s are getting more optimistic as well, with 46 percent saying it would be easy to get a home loan today, however 50 percent believe it would be difficult to obtain a mortgage.
Thinking of Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 10th, 2013
St Louis Real Estate Market Shows Strengthening in May!
The St Louis Real Estate Market remains in seller’s market territory this month, according to the latest market data from MORE, REALTORS. The inventory of homes for sale remains low while home sale and prices are increasing.
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.
This is not the market to be an uniformed participant in though or not have qualified, professional representation. This can lead to frustration as a buyer as you continue to “miss” Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 7th, 2013
Missouri Attorney General, Chris Koster, has joined in with Attorney Generals from around the U.S. to combat time share buying scams. According to Koster, deceptive timeshare resellers will often falsely claim to have buyers or renters in place who are ready to pay top dollar for consumers’ timeshare properties. The scamming companies ask timeshare owners to pay hefty up-front fees and do nothing in turn.
The Missouri Attorney General’s office offers the following tips to avoid becoming the victim of a timeshare scam:
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By Dennis Norman, on June 4th, 2013
St Louis was ranked number 2 on the list of “Lowest Performing Major Metro Markets” just released by Clear Capital. The Clear Capital report listed the top 15 performing housing markets in the U.S. as well as the 15 worst performing housing markets in the U.S. during the month of May 2013, based upon home price appreciation on a quarter over quarter basis. At the top of the list of top performing markets is Las Vegas with a 4.5 percent increase in home prices from the prior quarter and a staggering 27 percent increase over the past year. In Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 30th, 2013 St Louis foreclosures rose during the 1st quarter of this year to 2,505 foreclosure sales in the St Louis metro area during the quarter, an increase of 18.83 percent from the year before, according to a newly released report from RealtyTrac. The average sales price of St Louis foreclosures during the quarter was $89,229 and, on average, St Louis foreclosures sold at a 37.95 percent discount from non-distressed sales.
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By Dennis Norman, on May 28th, 2013 A survey just conducted by Redfin of recent homebuyers shows that homebuyers are accepting the fact that they must pay higher prices as a result of being in a sellers market.
Here in St Louis we are seeing this with homes selling, as the chart shows below. for a higher percentage of the list price and in shorter time.
By Dennis Norman, on May 22nd, 2013 St Louis home sales in April increased 13.7 percent from a year ago for the five-county core area (City of St Louis and the Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) while U.S. existing home sales rose 9.7 percent during the same period. During the same time-frame, St Louis home prices rose from a median price of $123,000 13.7 percent to $139,900 while US home prices increased 11.0 percent.
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By Dennis Norman, on May 21st, 2013 The National Association of Home Builders released their housing affordability report for the 1st quarter of 2013 showing that in Mansfield Ohio, the median price for a home was $73,000 and, with the area median family income being $54,600, resulting in 97.5 percent of the new and existing homes for sale being affordable to an average family. At the other end of the list was San Francisco, with a median price of $675,000, median income of $102,000 and only 28.9 percent of its homes affordable to a family with a median income. St. Louis came in at 76 on the Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 14th, 2013 The top four markets in the country for $1 Million+ home sales are all, not surprisingly, located in the state of California, according to a recently released luxury home sales report by Redfin. With 474 $1 million+ home sales, San Francisco was #1 on the list, followed by 469 home sales in Los Angeles, 430 in Silicon Valley and 415 in San Diego, all during the 14 month period ended March 31, 2013.
The St Louis Luxury Home market has communities that would have made the list, however Redfin does not cover the St Louis market. As you can see Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 14th, 2013 St. Louis home prices rose 8 percent, on a year over year basis, from March 2012 to March 2013, according to new released data from MORE, REALTORS. In March 2012, the median St Louis home price (for the 5-county “core” area) was $111,000 and in March 2013 the median St Louis home price was $119,900.
On a national level, metro area home prices in the first quarter of 2013 rose 11.3 percent from a year ago.
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By Dennis Norman, on May 8th, 2013 The St Louis Housing Market was delivered a blow by a Clear Capital report just released ranking the performance of the housing market in St Louis as the 7th worst of the major metro areas in the U.S. According to the report, St Louis home prices dropped 0.3 percent in the past quarter and declined 1.0 percent from a year ago, that, coupled with the fact that REO’s (foreclosed property owned by banks) makes up 1/3 of the St Louis market, put us at 7th on the “bad” list. At the top of the “good” list was Las Vegas with Continue Reading →
Tyler Frank,Paramount MortgageNMLS ID 942420
“The (real estate) recovery has been much more like the tortoise than the hare,” said Stephen Blank, a senior resident fellow of the Washington-based Urban Land Institute. “We’ve become used to slow relief. But we have finally turned the corner.”
Real estate markets on both coasts in places like; New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston were the first to emerge from recession and will pick up their pace of recovery through 2013, said Blank, a principal researcher for Emerging Trends. He was the main speaker at the annual outlook presented by Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 2nd, 2013 St. Louis is the 4th best place in the U.S. for investors to buy property, based upon a recent report by Radar Logic. In compiling the list of cities, Radar Logic examined where institutional investors (i.e., corporations, LLC’s, partnerships and trusts) were buying property and how big of discounts they were receiving compared to other home sales in that area.
The Top 10 Markets For Investors Based Upon Discounted Home Prices: Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 29th, 2013 St Louis Home Sales Up Over 11 Percent In March
St Louis home sales rose in March to 2,729 homes sold in the five-county St Louis core area (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) which is an increase of 11.3 percent from March 2012 when there were 2,451 homes sold. St Louis home prices rose 3.7 percent in March to an average sales price of $146,146 from $140,904 a year ago.
On a national level, the Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) was at 105.7 for March, Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 23rd, 2013 New home sales continued the upward trend in March with new homes in the US selling at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 417,000 homes, an increase of 1.5 percent from the month before and an 18.5 percent increase from a year ago, according to the US Census Bureau and HUD.
New home sale prices declined in March to a median price of $247,000, down 6.7 percent from February’s median new home price of $264,900 but up 3 percent from a year ago when the median new home sales price was $239,800. The inventory of new homes for sale remained steady Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 22nd, 2013 St Louis Home sales rose in March to 2,397 homes sold, up from 1,817 homes sold in February and up 11.7 percent from a year ago when there were 2,145 homes sold. St Louis’ year-over-year increase in home sales in March actually topped the increase in US home sales for the month which rose 10.3 percent from the year before.
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By Dennis Norman, on April 19th, 2013 FICO Survey Shows Bankers Are More Optimistic About Housing Market
Most bankers surveyed (83.7 percent) in FICO’s first quarter 2013 survey, said they felt mortgage delinquencies would decline, or at worst stay the same, during the next 6 months. Additionally, 70.8 percent of the bankers feel home prices are rising at a sustainable pace.
Continue Reading →
Tyler Frank,Paramount MortgageNMLS ID 942420
Home Prices Nationwide Shooting Up Faster Than Anyone Thought Possible Not Long Ago
The US housing market has broken out of a deep slump, and prices are shooting up faster than anyone thought possible a year ago.
Prices of existing homes rose 10% in February nationally from a year ago. What is causing this increase?
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By Dennis Norman, on April 12th, 2013 “Nationwide, we’re not in a bubble,” says Glenn Kelman, CEO of online real estate company Redfin, however Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego may be headed that direction, according to Redfin’s data. Redfin is not in St Louis so our city was not on their list but in the coming weeks I plan to do an analysis of the St Louis market in the same manner they did of other markets and will publish what I find at that time. In the meantime, here’s the info from Redfin.
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By Dennis Norman, on April 12th, 2013
St Louis Real Estate Market Turns Into Seller’s Market!
The St Louis Real Estate Market has become a seller’s market, according to the latest market data from MORE, REALTORS. The inventory of homes for sale is on the decline while buying activity is up which makes for a competitive market for buyers.
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.
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 Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 27th, 2013 Barely over 3 month supply of homes for sale in St Louis
Home sales in the U.S. fell slightly in February from the month before, according to the National Association of REALTORS’ pending home sales index. The index slid to 104.8* in February from 105.2 in January however was still 8.4 percent higher than a year ago and at the second highest level in nearly three-year. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR, said “limited inventory is holding back the market in many areas” and that “only new home construction can genuinely help relieve the inventory shortage…”
As the Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 26th, 2013 New Home Sales In Midwest Outperform The National Market!
New home sales in the Midwest were at an adjusted annual rate of 58,000 homes in February, an increase of 13.7 percent from January’s rate of 51,000 homes, according to data released this morning by the Census Bureau. The Midwest was the only region in February with an increase in new home sales from January and the Midwest and West region were the only two regions with an increase in new home sales from a year ago.
New home sale prices rose in February to $246,800 from $239,600 the month before, Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 15th, 2013
St. Louis Real Estate Market Gaining Steam!
The St. Louis Real Estate Market is getting close to becoming a seller’s market in many neighborhoods. The inventory of St Louis homes for sale is down from a year ago while sales are increasing paving the way for what could be a somewhat robust selling market this spring.
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.
To get the latest St Louis Real Estate Stats and the latest, best and most comprehensive St Louis Real Estate Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 15th, 2013 Of the 6.8 million homes sold during the past two years, almost half of them (46 percent) were sold to first-time home buyers according the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). This is up significantly from 2005 and 2007 when only 35 percent of the homes sold were bought by first-time buyers and is even higher than in 2009, the middle of the home buyer tax credit period, when first time buyers made up 41 percent of the market. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 13th, 2013 Existing home sales are expected to hit the 5 million mark in 2013, according to Kiplinger’s Economic Outlook published yesterday. Kiplinger is predicting a 7.5 percent increase in existing home sales in 2013 over last years 4.65 million home sales. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 11th, 2013 Real estate professionals are definitely showing more confidence in the housing market today, with over eighty percent (84 percent) of them thinking that 2013 will bring more home sales and higher prices than 2012, according to the results of a survey by Market Leader (FWIW I agree). This represents a 28 percent increase in confidence in the market from a year ago when a similar survey was conducted. Continue Reading →
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