Nationwide 30-year fixed mortgage rates have climbed to their highest level of the last five weeks according to last week’s rate survey conducted by Bankrate.com. Continue Reading →
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If you are a homeowner then it is probably good that St. Louis did not make the list of best markets for buying short sales, but if you are a buyer hoping to get a good deal on a home then it may be a disappointment not to see St. Louis on the list. While we do have plenty of short sale opportunities here in St. Louis, our city did not make RealtyTrac’s list of the top 15 markets in the U.S. for buying short sales, but the top 15 are listed in the chart below: St. Louis car dealer Bommarito Auto Group’s tag line is “where price sells cars”….well, according to the results of a newly released survey, I think the same is true about the current real estate market…it’s “where price sells homes”. The number one reason given for choosing the home purchased by first-time home buyers was price, according to the recently released 2011 American Housing Survey (AHS) by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Thirty-eight (38) percent of first-time home buyers said price was their key concern, followed by thirty (30) percent who gave proximity to work as their chief concern. Continue Reading → Almost one of every five (19.9 percent) St. Louis home sales in 2012 was a distressed sale, about 5 percent more than 2011 and 2.65 percent fewer than in 2010, according to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac. During 2012 there we 8,932 foreclosure sales in St. Louis at an average price of $93,699 or a discount of almost 40 percent (39.66 percent) compared to non-distressed home sales. Continue Reading → It is more important now than ever, as a result of increasing regulation and scrutiny of the mortgage industry, to plan ahead when you are planning on obtaining a mortgage loan to buy a house or refinance an existing loan to ensure that the process will go smoothly and as expected. Your loan approval is subject to the financial information you provide at the time of your loan approval. Any subsequent changes in your financial situation before the actual date of closing could jeopardize your loan approval and delay your closing. Continue Reading → New home sales in January were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 437,000 homes, an increase of 15.6 percent from the month before and an increase of 28.9 percent from a year ago, according to the new home sales report for January 2013 just released by the Commerce Department. The median price of new homes sold in January 2013 was $226,400 and the inventory of new homes for sale at the end of the month worked out to a 4.1 month supply. Continue Reading → Over 84 percent (84.1) of the homes sold in St Louis during the 4th quarter of 2012 were affordable to a family earning the St. Louis median income of $70,400, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) that was just released. This is actually the lowest the affordability index for St. Louis has been since the 3rd quarter of 2011 when it was 81.5 but is significantly better than it was a little over 5 years ago, in the 3rd quarter of 2007 when only 70.4 percent of the homes sold in St Louis were affordable to a family with a median income. Continue Reading → First off, no I have not lost my mind, I can actually support the idea that there may be somewhat of a housing shortage soon but, as the headline implies, I don’t necessarily think it’s going to happen in St. Louis, unfortunately. However, its’ a distinct possibility in many markets throughout the U.S. particularly those with population growth and an increasing supply of jobs. Continue Reading → The St. Louis Real Estate Market is heating up in many areas and, in fact, some neighborhoods are beginning to take on the appearance of a seller’s market. A decline in the inventory of homes for sale along with some increased demand is helping spark life into many markets…I show the impact on two of these markets in this months video but we can easily show you how your neighborhood is doing as well. Or, if you are trying to decide if not is the time to buy, contact us and we’ll help you answer that question and see specifically what areas are the best for buyers at this time. Continue Reading → The real estate market is definitely heating up in many cities throughout the U.S. as well in many areas of St. Louis. A decreasing inventory of homes for sale, and even a shortage of homes for sale in many areas, along with increased confidence from consumers in the real estate market, has driven many cities from a “buyers market” to a “sellers market”. Continue Reading → Missourians have received more than $112 million of mortgage relief as a result of the National Mortgage Settlement reached a year ago with the nations largest lenders, according to Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster. Koster, along with Attorney Generals from other states, sent a letter to Congress last November urging them to extend a measure that was due to expire at the end of 2012 that would provide tax relief for some people receiving mortgage relief in the form of principal reduction and short sales. January 1, 2013, Congress passed the extension as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Continue Reading → Forty-one percent of the respondents to the Fannie Mae National Housing Survey for January 2013 said they expect home prices to rise in the next 12 months which is down slightly from 43 percent last month but up significantly from a year ago when only 30 percent felt home prices would rise. Continue Reading → New home sales activity slowed at the end of 2012 with new homes selling in December at a seasonally adjusted rate of 369,000, a decline of 7.3 percent from the month before but an increase of 8.8 percent from December 2011, according to the December 2012 new home sales report from the Commerce Department. This means 2012 ended with an increase of almost 20 percent in new home sales from 2011 when there were just 306,000 new homes sold. Also on a positive note, the median price of new homes increased from $218,600 in December 2011 to $248,900 in December 2012 while, during the same period, the inventory of new homes for sale in the U.S. declined from a 5.4 month supply to 4.9 months. Continue Reading → The number of homeowners with an intent to sell that think now is a good time to sell, increased almost 50 percent in the Redfin survey that was just released today from the prior survey three months ago. Today, 22 percent of the homeowners surveyed said now was a good time to sell, up from 15 percent in the prior quarter. Eighty-one percent (81%) of those surveyed feel home prices will rise in the coming year and that is up from 75 percent in the prior quarter. Continue Reading → As part of the fiscal cliff deal, Congress extended the cancellation of mortgage debt relief provision for 1 year, through the end of 2013. It seems there is little focus on the importance of this law, it is crucial to foreclosure mitigation efforts such as principal forgiveness and short sales. Continue Reading → Rising home prices helped 100,000 homeowners in the U.S. crawl out of a negative equity position during the 3rd quarter of 2012, according to a report just released by CoreLogic®. During the first nine months of 2012, there were a total of 1.4 million homeowners that found themselves moving from a negative equity position on their homes to a positive equity position. In spite of this vast improvement, twenty two percent of homeowners in the U.S. with a mortgage owe more on their homes than they are currently worth. Continue Reading → The St. Louis Real Estate Market is still dealing with the effects of foreclosures and other distressed sales but continues to show some improvement, and even what I would describe as a sustained recovery in some neighborhoods though certainly not all. 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 video update below for January for the St Louis real estate market. 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 → A report released today by Radarlogic suggests that the housing market is not really recovering as much as it may appear, particularly with regard to home prices. The report says that, the 9.2 percent increase they saw in their home price index for the 12 month period ended November 30, 2012 was the result of a “significant shift in the composition of home sales and overstates the appreciation in individual properties.” The report goes on to say if motivated sales (REO’s, foreclosures, short-sales) are removed from the data, then the “real” increase in home prices was just over half of what their index showed. Continue Reading → On a national real estate site I write for I did an article earlier today about a report that came out indicating the inventory of homes for sale in 35 major metro markets had dropped by 27 percent in the past year while the price per foot of those homes increased about 10 percent. This prompted me to take a look at the St. Louis market to see how it did in comparison and, as the chart below shows, St. Louis has seen a different result with the inventory of homes for sale increasing somewhat in the past year while home prices (on a per square foot basis) remained relatively flat. In January 2012, there were 13,304 homes for sale in the St Louis metro area and today there are 13,758, an increase of 3.4 percent. St Louis metro area home prices per foot are at $95.97 today and were at $95.86 a year ago. Continue Reading → Fannie Mae has declared that housing is finally providing a tailwind to economic growth. The company’s December Economic and Strategic Report says that the market “has turned the corner and a sustained recovery is under way.” Looking into 2013, economists predict mortgage originations will increase by 15% while refinance volume is expected to fall 26%. Continue Reading → The National Association of REALTORS’ (NAR) Pending Home Sales report for November, 2012 shows home sales increased 1.7 percent in November from the month before and increased 9.8 percent from a year ago. Pending home sales have now increased on a year over year basis for 19 consecutive months, according to NAR. I don’t know that “hot” comes to mind when I think about any St Louis real estate market today, however, relative to the rest of the market, I think I can identify some St. Louis real estate markets that I feel are poised to perform better in 2013 than other St Louis markets. Below are my charts showing some key market data for the top markets. Included in my data are 4 pieces of information that I think are key to determining the health of a local real estate market: Home prices – I show what prices have done over Continue Reading → New home sales in November in the Midwest region were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 49,000 homes, a decrease of 12.5 percent from the month before and a decrease of 5.8 percent from a year ago, according to the new home sales for November 2012 just released by the Commerce Department. The new home sales numbers for the Midwest are in pretty sharp contrast to the national numbers which showed new home sales up 4.4 percent in November from the month before and up 15.3 percent from a year ago Continue Reading → A panel of 105 professional economic forecasters from all around the country expect home prices to increase 3.1 percent in 2013, according to the December 2012 Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey. Forecasters are more optimistic about home prices than they were just three months earlier when they predicted 2013 home prices would only increase by 2.4 percent. Continue Reading → Lately we have seen several reports on the housing market that show the housing market is improving and may even be headed toward a recovery however some experts, including Cliff Rossi, Tyser Teaching Fellow and executive-in-residence for the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, say it may be premature to call this a “real recovery.” Rossi is not entirely negative on the housing market and does admit that home prices are stabilizing and inventories are declining, however he has concerns as a result of the “fiscal cliff”, regulatory reform and tightness of credit, to name a few. Continue Reading → The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) announced this morning that U.S. existing home sales increased in November 5.9 percent from the month before and 14.5 percent from the year before. The NAR report indicated the median home price in the U.S. in November was $180,600, an increase of 10.1 percent from a year ago. The St. Louis Real Estate market (the 5-county core St Louis Real Estate area (City of St Louis and the Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), as my chart below shows, saw home prices rise slightly in November from October to a median price of $122,000 which is an increase of 7.5 percent from a year ago. St Louis home sales in November on the other hand declined slightly from the month before to 2,523 homes but was up 19.6 percent from a year ago Continue Reading → In a vote of confidence for an improving real estate market, seventy-one percent of homebuyers surveyed by Redfin said they are expecting house prices to increase during the coming year in their neighborhood. Additionally, the survey showed that over half (59 percent) of homebuyers are concerned about the lack of inventory of homes for sale. Here in St. Louis, as the table below shows, we have over 25 zip codes that have a 3 month, or less, supply of homes for sale which is making it more of a challenge for home buyers to find a home they like and supports rising home prices so, if you are one of those home buyers waiting for the “right time to buy”, I wouldn’t wait any longer if I were you. Continue Reading → I continue to see encouraging news about the housing market and today was no exception. The Freddie Mac housing market outlook for December was released and included a very encouraging outlook for the real estate market in 2013 by its chief economist, Frank Nothaft. Not that I’m on the same level as Northaft, but I will be coming out later this month with a short market recap video for 2012 as well as an outlook for 2013, both specifically for the St Louis real estate market. In the meantime, below are the highlights from Mr Nothaft’s projections for the U.S. Continue Reading → The St. Louis Real Estate Market continues to show some strength and appears to generally be headed toward recovery, albeit a long slow one. 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 video update below for October for the St Louis real estate market. 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 → The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released their “Improving Housing Markets Index” for December and I was happy to see St. Louis as a new addition to the list this month! St. Louis was one of 83 new metro areas added to the improving housing markets list from the prior month bringing the total to 201 metro areas as of this month (7 metros were dropped from the month before.) Continue Reading → |
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