Home Prices and Sales - St Louis Real Estate News

Thinking of “walking away” from your mortgage?

By Dennis Norman, on March 3rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

You may want to consider possible legal issues before deciding to “walk away”

Homeowners who are considering “walking away” from their home to avoid making their mortgage payment need to know that their mortgage company may try to file a lawsuit to recover the amount owed on the home.

In addition, homeowners who sell their home for less than the amount they owe – a process called a “short sale” — may be sued for the unpaid balance, even after the sale of the home. Finally, homeowners with unpaid home equity loans or second mortgages may also Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate – St Louis Home Prices Increased 1.32 Percent in 2009

By Dennis Norman, on February 25th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued this morning by the the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) St. Louis area home prices increased by 1.32 percent in 2009. Granted that’s not much but, hey, after what we’ve seen the last couple of years in the housing market I think this is very good news.

This information comes for the FHFA’s purchase-only price index which is based upon repeat sales of the same single-family properties therefore making it a much more accurate barometer of the market than just looking at median prices of homes sold as many reports do. Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate – Report Shows Market Stalled out In December

By Dennis Norman, on February 18th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Radarlogic Housing Market Report Shows First November-December Increase in Home Prices Since 2004 For the US – However It shows a Decrease For December for St. Louis –

When I received the Housing Market Report from Radarlogic, I was happy to see some good news; home prices increased in December from November and a 44 percent increase in the number of homes sold in December versus a year before. Unfortunately those numbers were based upon Radarlogic‘s RPX Composite Price, which tracks home prices in 25 major metropolitan areas (including St. Louis) and when I drilled down to Continue Reading →

FDIC’s Sale of IndyMac to One West Bank – Sweetheart deal or not?

By Dennis Norman, on February 15th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Last week a friend emailed me a link to a video titled “The Indymac Slap in Our Face” that was created by Think Big Work Small. I watched the video which gave a recap of the failure of Indymac bank back resulting in it’s seizure by the FDIC in July, 2008, and the ultimate sale by the FDIC of Indymac Bank to One West Bank in March, 2009.

According to the video, One West Bank received a cushy, “sweetheart deal” and implied it was related to the fact that the owners of One West Bank include Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate – Interest Rates Hold Steady – Still Time for Tax Credit

By Robert Fishel, on February 10th, 2010

There is time left for qualified buyers to take advantage of the 2009 First-Time Home Buyer’s $8,000 Tax Credit & Repeat Home Buyer’s $6,500 Tax Credit. Binding sales contract must be executed by April 30, 2010, the closing can be extended until June 30, 2010. The newly expanded first-time homebuyer and repeat homebuyer tax credit was signed into law a few months ago, but many married, unmarried, or soon to be married tax filers, are confused about claiming these credits. Understandably so. There are numerous scenarios that can come up, e.g. “I am a long-time principal homeowner but my Continue Reading →

St. Louis Real Estate – Realtor Pending Home Sales Index shows Real Estate Market Leveling off

By Dennis Norman, on February 2nd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s December Pending Home Sales Index showing an increase of 1.0 percent in the index from November (seasonally adjusted) and a 10.9 percent increase from last year.

Here are highlights from the report:

December”s pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 96.6 (the index is based upon 100.0 being equal to the average level of sales activity in 2001 which we could call the last “normal” year) which was a 1.0% increase in the index from November and an increase of 10.9 percent from the year before. December”s Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate – New Home Sales Fall again in December

By Dennis Norman, on February 1st, 2010

Dennis Norman

The U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 342,000, a 7.6 percent decrease from the revised November rate of 370,000 and is 8.6 percent below a year ago.

My Mantra

As has been my long-running mantra, I don’t like “seasonally adjusted” numbers and “rate” of sales. Why, for one I can’t figure out how in the world they compute the numbers. Second, I just don’t think discussing the “rate” of new home sales paints a realistic picture of the market. I Continue Reading →

Survey Shows Obama Falls Short on Housing Market Promises

By Dennis Norman, on January 27th, 2010

Even in Tough Times, 77 Percent of Americans View Homeownership as a Part of Their Own Personal American Dream

A national survey released yesterday by Trulia shows that many Americans feel that President Barack Obama has not lived up to the hope he created during his campaign and his first 30 days in office. In Trulia’s latest American Dream survey conducted online on its behalf by Harris Interactive from January 19-21, 2009 President Barack Obama scored considerably lower marks on the topic of restoring the American dream of home ownership compared to a survey conducted February 20-24, 2009 after his Continue Reading →

St. Louis Home Sales in 2009 show signs of bottom

By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2010

Dennis Norman

For the St. Louis area 2009 marked another year of “bad” records for the housing market; record numbers of foreclosures, mortgage delinquencies as well as sales numbers and prices lower than we have seen in several years. However, as I compiled St. Louis area home sales data for 2009 and compared it to the prior two years I realized this is some positive news. It appears we are perhaps seeing the bottom of the market and a flattening of the downward trends.

Unfortunately as our national debt balloons out of control, we continue to see double-digit Continue Reading →

December home sales plummet but 2009 finishes stronger than 2008

By Dennis Norman, on January 25th, 2010

Dennis Norman

NAR’s “seasonally-adjusted” numbers show sales down 16.7 percent for the month…2009 finishes with 5,156,000 homes sold…My projection for the year was 5,143,000 homes….missed it by 13,000 (2/10 of 1 percent) hmm..not bad for a “non-economist” :)

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in December decreased 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 5.45 million units in December from a revised level of 6.54 million units in November, and are 14.9 percent higher than the 4.74 million-unit pace in December 2008.

NAR’s Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, said “It’s Continue Reading →

St. Louis Real Estate Market shows signs of stabilizing

By Dennis Norman, on January 20th, 2010

Dennis Norman

We are long overdue for some good news on the St. Louis housing market and data from December home sales brought just that. Based upon my comparision of homes sold in December 2009 with the year prior, it appears to me the St. Louis housing market may have found it’s bottom and now be starting to level off.

There are still disturbing aspects of the data, like the fact that for the St. Louis metro area there were almost 8 percent fewer homes sold in December 2009 than in December 2008 but there is light at Continue Reading →

IRS Releases Instructions on how to Claim Homebuyer Tax Credit

By Dennis Norman, on January 15th, 2010

Dennis Norman

If you are one of the million-plus homebuyers that was fortunate enough to qualify for the Home Buyer tax credit, read on for information on how to claim your credit.

Today the Internal Revenue Service released a new form that eligible homebuyers must need to use to claim the first-time homebuyer credit this tax season, along with instructions and guidelines for other documentation that must accompany your tax return.

The new form and instructions follow major changes in November to the homebuyer credit by the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009. The new law Continue Reading →

Will you owe taxes on a short-sale or foreclosure?

By Dennis Norman, on January 11th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Depending on which estimate you believe, somewhere between one-third and one-half of the homeowners with a mortgage in the U.S. owe more on their homes than their homes are currently worth. This has lead to an unprecedented amount of short-sales and in many cases, a lender “forgiving” you of the short-fall (the amount of your loan your sale proceeds were not adequate to pay) which, in the past could have left you owing taxes on the “forgiven debt”.

For some of those underwater homeowners that are not fortunate enough to do a short sale they may Continue Reading →

Let’s play ‘spin the data’

By Dennis Norman, on January 6th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Or should I say “It’s all in the headline”?

So what am I talking about? The pending home sales data that was released by the National Association of REALTORS today, of course. Actually I could be referring to any data on the housing market whether new home sales, foreclosure rates, interest rates, existing home sales or inventories of homes for sale.

There only major housing report that was released today was the Pending Home Sales Index for November by NAR. Being a report based upon data you would think the numbers speak for Continue Reading →

What does 2010 hold in store for the Housing Market?

By Dennis Norman, on December 28th, 2009

Dennis Norman

In a just a few days we will say goodbye to 2009; a year that has been brutal to the housing market. So as the new year comes in, what will 2010 hold in store for the housing market?

To answer this question I turned to the housing forecast just released by Fannie Mae to see what their economists were predicting. Here are the highlights from the report, showing actual numbers for the 3rd quarter of this year as well as Fannie Mae’s projection for 4th quarter of this year as well as 4th quarter of 2010:

Continue Reading →

‘Actual’ Existing home sales drop 5.2 percent in November; Up 4.2 percent from a year ago

By Dennis Norman, on December 24th, 2009

Dennis Norman

NAR’s “seasonally-adjusted” numbers show sales up 7.4 percent for the month…”actual” numbers show a 5.2 percent decrease….Sales up 44 percent from last year, lest we not forgot last year was the worst in over 10 years…

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in November increased 7.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 6.54 million units in November from a revised level of 6.09 million units in October, and are 44.1 percent higher than the 4.44 million-unit pace in November 2008. Existing home sales are now at the highest Continue Reading →

New home sales take a dive in November

By Dennis Norman, on December 23rd, 2009

Dennis Norman

New homes were started in November at an annual rate of 482,000 homes and I asked why in my post last week since new home construction was already outpacing sales….well, today the gap got worse..

This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 355,000, an 11.3 percent decrease from the revised October rate of 400,000 and is 9.0 percent below a year ago.

My Mantra

As has been my long-running mantra, I don’t like “seasonally Continue Reading →

Most recent homebuyers are first-time buyers

By Dennis Norman, on December 22nd, 2009

According to NAR 51 percent of recent homebuyers are first-time buyers and 39 percent of recent home sales have relied on an FHA loan

Dennis Norman

The National Association of REALTORS just released a report showing that 51 percent of the homes sold recently have been to first-time home buyers and that 39 percent of all recent buyers have turned to an FHA loan for financing for their home purchase.

I think this clearly illustrates that the first-time home buyer tax credit, coupled with record low interest rates and drastically reduced home prices, is giving buyers, at least Continue Reading →

MHDC approves $20 Million incentive for Missouri home buyers

By Dennis Norman, on December 18th, 2009

Dennis Norman

UPDATE June 7, 1010 – Here are links to the Forms from MHDC to claim the tax credit as well as some sample forms they have provided showing how to fill them in:

Program ApplicationHome Purchase AffidavitPromissory NoteHope Program Information and InstructionsSample Forms

******

Just moments ago, the Missouri Housing Development Commission passed at $35 million economic development initiative. Part of this initiative (to the tune of $20 million worth) is aimed toward helping stimulate home sales in Missouri.

The initiative includes:

$15 million to pay the first year of property taxes for qualified homebuyers who Continue Reading →

New home construction in the U.S. increases in November….but why?

By Dennis Norman, on December 16th, 2009

New home construction is on the rise in November…. WHY??? They aren’t selling as fast as they are being built…didn’t we learn our lesson?

The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a their report on New Residential Construction for November 2009 showing an increase in new home construction activity from October.

The report shows the following:

Building permits issued for single-family residences in November were at an annual rate of 473,000 which is 5.3 percent above the revised October rate of 449,000 and down 12.1 percent from a year ago. For the Continue Reading →

More on the Homebuyer Tax Credit

By Ted Gayer, on December 14th, 2009

Ted Gayer, co-director of Economic Studies, Brookings Institute

According to this article, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) has scored a Senate homebuyer tax credit at $16.7 billion. How does the JCT $16.7 billion cost estimate square with my previous back-of-the-envelope calculation of the cost of the tax credit of $73.9 billion?

For my calculation, I assumed a tax credit of $15,000, available for one year. The Senate proposal scored by JCT is for an $8,000 tax credit. I also assumed the tax credit would be available for one year, whereas the Senate proposal scored by JCT Continue Reading →

Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) Launched

By Dennis Norman, on December 4th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Last week the Treasury Department announced the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA), the latest program under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), designed to offer alternatives to homeowners facing foreclosure.

THE HAFA PROGRAM:

The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program provides financial incentives to loan servicers as well as borrowers who do a short-sale or a deed-in-lieu to avoid foreclosure on an eligible loan under HAMP. Both of these foreclosure alternatives help the lender out by avoiding the

Continue Reading →

Pending home sales rise for ninth consecutive month

By Dennis Norman, on December 1st, 2009

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR

Is the increase real or have the tax-credits created an “artificial” market that cannot be sustained?

Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index Report for October showing pending sales in the U.S. rose again for the ninth consecutive month – marking the longest streak since since NAR began the pending home sale index in 2001.

As I have expressed previously, I’m somewhat cautious about getting too excited about these recent encouraging reports on the housing market as I feel we still have many challenges out there.

Continue Reading →

New Home Sales in US through October; UP 5.1 percent OR DOWN 24.1 percent from a year ago, take your pick

By Dennis Norman, on November 25th, 2009

Dennis Norman

This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 430,000, a 6.2 percent increase from the revised September rate of 405,000 and is 5.1 percent above a year ago.

My Mantra

St. Louis area home sales increase 7.0 percent in October from September; down 4.8 percent from a year ago

By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2009

Dennis Norman

National Association of REALTORS released a report today saying US Home Sales in October increased 10.1 percent for the month and are 23.5 percent higher than a year ago; I did an analysis of the data based just on ACTUAL sales and came up with an increase for the month of 6.6 percent and an increase of less than 1 percent from a year ago…When looking at the Actual sales number for US home sales, the St Louis market is performing pretty close…(to see my complete post and analysis of the NAR report click here)

Here Continue Reading →

St. Louis Real Estate News; St Louis home prices fall in September but projected to increase 2.4 percent in next twelve months

By Dennis Norman, on November 19th, 2009

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued by First American CoreLogic national home prices continue to decline with their HPI (Loan Performance Home Price Index) declining by 9.8 percent in September 2009 compared with the year before. If you take the distressed sales out (foreclosures, short sales, etc) the nation decline in HIP for the same period was 6.2 percent.

St. Louis home prices did better according to the report with the HPI declining 3.85 percent in Sepetember 2009 from the year before. This is an improvement over August which was down 4.09 percent from the year before. Continue Reading →

New home construction in Midwest down in October; New home completions still outpacing sales by over 50 percent

By Dennis Norman, on November 19th, 2009

Even with a decline in the Midwest in new home starts and completions, new home construction activity is still outpacing new home sales potentially leading to inventories increasing again.

The US Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a their report on New Residential Construction for October 2009 showing a decrease in new home construction activity in the Midwest from September.

The report shows the following for the Midwest Region:

Continue Reading →

St. Louis Real Estate News St. Louis Real Estate Market Update

By Dennis Norman, on November 18th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Home sales in the St.Louis area through October 31st are down 4.8 percent from the same period a year ago, however this is a decrease of almost 40 percent from the month before when sales were down 7.9 percent from the same period the year before. St. Louis area median home prices for the period are down 6.5 percent from a year before however this is also an improvement from the 7.1 percent decrease for the month before. The average time it takes to sell a home in the St. Louis area is 2.2 percent less Continue Reading →

Want to buy a home and be guaranteed you won’t lose money, even if the value drops?

By Dennis Norman, on November 13th, 2009

Dennis Norman

I can remember a time, not that long ago, where about the last thing people were concerned about was the value of their home going down. After all, for decades, our homes proved to be safe investments….no, we weren’t going to see their values shoot up 50 percent in one month like some hot tech stocks of the past, but nor were we going to see them drop by the same amount in a month. Nationally home values increased about 5 percent a year, year after year. That was until around the end of 2007 when Continue Reading →

And now for the other side of the coin on the home-buyer tax credit

By Ted Gayer, on November 11th, 2009

Publishers note: If you have been reading our blog for a while you are probably aware we have been supporters and advocates of the home-buyer tax credit as well as the extension and expansion of the credit, which happened last week. We realize however, there are people that do not support the credits for a variety of reasons. I came across the article below which was written prior to passage of the extension of the credit by Ted Gayer. I think this is a well written piece and does present the “other side of the coin”…Ted agreed to allow us Continue Reading →