Home Prices and Sales - St Louis Real Estate News

Fewer home owners are underwater on their homes according to Zillow report

By Dennis Norman, on November 9th, 2009

Dennis Norman

The percent of American home owners with mortgages in a negative equity position fell to 21 percent in the third quarter of this year, down from 23 percent in the second quarter, as home values stabilized in the short term and more underwater homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure, according to the third quarter Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.

Year-over-year home values in the U.S. declined for the 11th consecutive quarter, falling 6.9 percent to a Zillow Home Value Index of $190,400. However, the rate of year-over-year decline shrank for the third quarter in a row, meaning Continue Reading →

Setting Up the Next Leg Down in Housing

By Charles Hugh Smith, on November 4th, 2009

Loose lending standards in government-backed mortgages is setting up the next wave of defaults and sharp declines in housing prices.

Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds

Beneath the hype that housing has bottomed is an ugly little scenario: lending standards are still loose and the low-down payment, high-risk loans being guaranteed by government agencies are setting up the next giant wave of defaults and foreclosures.

You might have thought that the near-demise of risky-mortgage mills Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have cooled the supply of highly leveraged Continue Reading →

Pending home sales in midwest rise 8.1 percent in September

By Dennis Norman, on November 2nd, 2009

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR

Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index Report for September showing pending sales in the U.S. rose again for the eighth consecutive month – marking the longest streak since since NAR began the pending home sale index in 2001. The pending home sales index for the US rose 6.1 percent from August. Here in the Midwest the pending home sales index rose 8.1 percent from August marking the third month in a row the index in the Midwest increased.

As I have expressed previously, I’m somewhat cautious about Continue Reading →

St. Louis Real Estate – St. Charles County home price declines vs assessors property values; Update

By Dennis Norman, on October 26th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Last week I did a post after reading an article on StlToday.com about the change in property values being made by St Louis area assessors from 2007 to 2009. As I pointed out in my article I assumed the values shown by the assessors including ALL types of property and not just homes, however my analysis was based only upon the sale prices of homes.

Prior to doing the post I had requested just the residential data from the assessor’s office for the area counties but had not been able to obtain that data. Subsequently I Continue Reading →

Web Site Launch Promoting “Vote YES to Stop Double Taxation”

By Dennis Norman, on October 24th, 2009

A new Web site provides Missouri voters with information about a proposed state constitutional amendment barring politicians from imposing double taxation on sales of homes and other real estate. I would encourage Missouri residents to visit www.YesToSaveHomes.com to learn more about the proposal.

Continue Reading →

St. Louis Real Estate – St Louis area home price declines vs assessors property values

By Dennis Norman, on October 22nd, 2009

Dennis Norman

In an article this morning on StlToday.com I saw where property values, as determined by the St. Louis CountyAssessors office, declined 6.1 percent from 2007 to 2009. Hmm, I thought, that sounds pretty good actually, I think the St. Louis housing market would be doing great if that was close to reality. To see how the actual St. Louis housing market did during the same period I researched the sales prices of homes sold in the St. Louis metro area in 2007 and 2009 then computed the change in value during the period. Continue Reading →

HAMP loan modifications up 40 percent in September; Serious mortgage delinquencies up 147 percent in past year

By Dennis Norman, on October 20th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Yesterday the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s trial mortgage loan modifications under the Obama Administrations Home Affordable Modification Plan (HAMP) were up more than 40 percent in September 2009 from the previous month. According to the report, mortgage loans that are 60-plus-days delinquent increased to 1,401,000 borrowers in July, up a whopping 147 percent from July, 2008 when there were 566,000 borrowers 60 plus days delinquent.

Here are highlights from the report (all the data, unless noted otherwise is from July 31, 2009):

Continue Reading →

Over 30 percent of St. Louis homes for sale have had price cut

By Dennis Norman, on October 15th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Last week I did a post on another blog about a report that had just been released by Trulia indicating that over 25 percent of the homes listed for sale in the U.S. had experienced a price reduction in the 5-month period from June 1 through October 1st and that the average price reduction was about 10 percent.

In an effort to see how things here in St. Louis were stacking up to the national numbers from Trulia, I wanted to assemble the same data, for the same period that Trulia did and see how we Continue Reading →

The St. Louis Real Estate Market Bubble and Burst; St. Louis County hurt the worst in the area

By Dennis Norman, on October 13th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Statistics and reports are flying at us from every direction about the real estate market nowadays. Some reports say we have hit bottom, some even say the housing market has started a recovery others say worse times are ahead. Since I don’t think anyone can really tell us what the future has in store for the housing market I thought now may be a good time to look at history…at least short term history, to see where things stand at this point. Along the way we may see a trend or perhaps even feel like we Continue Reading →

Homebuyer Tax Credit Best Tool for Sustaining Housing Recovery, Says NAR

By Dennis Norman, on October 8th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

The best available tool for sustaining the still-fragile housing market is the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit, (expires November 30) and it is essential that Congress extend the credit into 2010, the National Association of Realtors® testified at a hearing of the U.S. House Small Business Committee yesterday.

NAR Regional Vice President Joseph L. Canfora said “the credit is working,” pointing out that the 355,000 to 400,000 transactions directly attributable to the credit made a significant dent in the housing inventory and will help to stabilize home prices. Further, the credit has provided a Continue Reading →

Missouri Association of REALTORS working to prevent double taxation

By Dennis Norman, on October 6th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

According to a report prepared by the Federation of Tax Administrators (FTA) in 2006, thirty-five states plus the District of Columbia impose a real estate transfer tax. What a transfer tax amounts to is when you sell or transfer a house (or other real property) you pay a tax to the state on the sale ranging from a low of 0.01 percent in Colorado to a high of 2.2 percent in the District of Columbia.

In addition, in some states (Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, New Hersey, Pennsylvania, Washington and West Virginia) some of Continue Reading →

Homebuyer tax credit has been primary cause of recent return of buyers to market according to study

By Dennis Norman, on October 5th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Results have just been released of a study conducted by Rosen Consulting Group as to the effectiveness of the 2009 first-time-homebuyer tax credit and the potential need for an extension of the credits.

The Rosen Consulting Group was retained by Fix Housing First, a coalition that was originally working to convince Congress for a housing stimulus package that they feel would have a more significant then what was ultimately passed, and since has been working to get the tax credit extended beyond its current expiration date of November 30, 2009.

The study noted Continue Reading →

Dept of Defense Homeowners Assistance Program expanded to help people

By Dennis Norman, on October 2nd, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

The Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP)was established back in 1966 to give some monetary relief to eligible service members and federal employees who suffer financial loss on the sale of their primary residence when a base closure or realignment announcement cause a decline in the residential real estate market and they are not able to sell their homes under reasonable terms or conditions. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) temporarily expands the HAP program to assist service members and Department of Defense employees who are wounded, injured or become ill when deployed, Continue Reading →

Time is running out to take advantage of Freddie Mac’s ‘SmartBuy’ Sales Promotion

By Dennis Norman, on October 1st, 2009

By: Dennis Norman

Back in July I did a post about Freddie Macs “Smartbuy” sales promotion for owner-occupants buying Freddie Mac Homesteps(R) Homes. The special offer began July 17, 2009 and ends October 30, 2009 so there is less than a month to take advantage of it.

Under this promotion people buying a Freddie Mac home for their personal residence will receive at no cost:

A comprehensive two-year HomeProtect(R) Home Warranty Up to 3.5% payment by Freddie Mac towards buyers closing costs Homeprotect(R) Appliance discount (up to 30% savings on name brand appliances) Continue Reading →

Average home prices across US are about where they were six years ago

By Dennis Norman, on September 29th, 2009

By: Dennis Norman

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, home prices in July declined 12.8 percent from a year ago in their 10-city composite and 13.3 percent in their 20-city composite. On a positive note, all 20 metro areas showed an improvement in the annual rates of decline when comparing July to June.

Continue Reading →

Home prices down 30 percent since peak in 2005 and trend is downward

By Dennis Norman, on September 28th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

I came across an interesting chart that I want to share. The chart below, courtesy of Chart of the Day, shows median home prices in the U.S. since 1970 (adjusted for inflation). As you can see from the chart, home prices trended upward from 1970 until peaking in the late 70’s (right around 1979 when I got into real estate, great timing on my part!) and then began dropping until the mid 80’s when prices began a rather rocky and unsteady climb upward.

As the chart illustrates, median home prices really started increasing, and Continue Reading →

New home sales in Midwest down 5.8 percent in August

By Dennis Norman, on September 25th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes here in the Midwest region in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 49,000 units, a 5.8 percent decrease from July’s revised annual rate of 52,000 units (originally reported as 61,000 in July) and is down 31.9 percent from a year ago.

The U.S. as a whole saw a slight 0.7 percent increase in new home sales in August over the month before and is down 3.4 percent from a year ago.

The report Continue Reading →

Existing home sales in Midwest drop 6.6 percent from July to August; St Louis down 9 percent

By Dennis Norman, on September 24th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

According to the latest report released today from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales for August in the Midwest dropped 6.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.14 million units down from a level of 1.22 million units in July. The August home sales rate of 1.14 million happens to be exactly what it was this time last year for the Midwest which is not as well as the US is doing as a whole. As a whole, the rate of existing home sales in August was up 3.4 percent from Continue Reading →

US Home Prices show modest 0.3 percent increase from June to July according to Federal Housing Finance Agency

By Dennis Norman, on September 22nd, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Today the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported that U.S. home prices rose 0.3 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from June to July and are down 4.2 percent for the past year. Missouri is included by the FHFA in the West North Central division which was right on target with the US with an increase of 0.3 percent from June to July. Our region was only down 1.5 percent from last year according the report.

Many of the reports I’ve seen in the press on this are saying this is a sign of the Continue Reading →

Has the real estate market bottomed out? Is this the recovery? I don’t think so…

By Dennis Norman, on September 21st, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Doing what all normal people do at 4:30 am on a Monday, I was scouring the Internet reading real estate news when I ran across an interesting article by Richard Stoyeck titled “Is Real Estate Coming Back Now?”

I’ll cut through the chase and give you Stoyeck’s answer to the question posed in the title of his story; “It will be in our opinion several years before we can get back to a vibrant real estate market.” If you have been reading this blog for a while then you know I have concerns Continue Reading →

New home construction in Midwest on the rise; Construction outpacing sales

By Dennis Norman, on September 17th, 2009

By: Dennis Norman

This morning the US Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued their report on New Residential Construction for August 2009 showing a slight decrease in new home construction activity from July in the US, but an increase in new home construction activity here in the Midwest.

The report shows the following for the Midwest Region:

Continue Reading →

Deutsche Banks’ Weaver says housing market has not hit bottom yet

By Dennis Norman, on September 15th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Before the sub-prime mortgage implosion Karen Weaver warned of the coming crisis. Karen Weaver, the Global Head of Securitization Research for Deutsche Bank, said last month that she expected home prices to continue to drop through the 1st quarter of 2011. She also predicted that nearly half of the homeowners with mortgages would end up being underwater on their mortgages.

Yesterday Ms. Weaver said that in spite of the recent positive news on the housing market that she had not changed her position and is still predicting home prices to fall another 10 percent before finally reaching Continue Reading →

Title Insurance 101 from a St. Louis Title Professional – Final post in the series

By Dennis Norman, on September 5th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Over the past two days I published the first part and second part of my E-View TMwith Wendy Cromer, Vice-President of Marketing for Security Title Insurance Agency, LLC about title insurance, the new laws affecting it and things consumers should know.

Wendy Cromer, Vice-President of Marketing, Security Title Insurance Agency LLC

Today were going to do the final part of our E-View TM with Wendy:

Dennis-Wendy, title insurance seems to be one of those things that is a mystery to most homeowners. Can you please explain what title insurance is and Continue Reading →

Title Insurance 101 from a St. Louis Title Professional – Part 2 of a series

By Dennis Norman, on September 4th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Yesterday I published the first part of my E-View TM with Wendy Cromer, Vice-President of Marketing for Security Title Insurance Agency, LLC about title insurance, the new laws affecting it and things consumers should know.

Wendy Cromer, Vice-President of Marketing, Security Title Insurance Agency LLC

Today we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday in our E-View TM:

Dennis-Wendy, here in St. Louis we have “split-closings” which I think are viewed by many in the title insurance industry as a bad thing, and in fact the new laws we discussed yesterday Continue Reading →

St. Louis Real Estate Market Facts and Figures for July 2009

By Dennis Norman, on September 2nd, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

The National Association of REALTORS(R) and the St. Louis Association of REALTORS(R) have just released information on the St. Louis real estate market for July. Following are some highlights from the data which is for St Louis city and county.

Sales for July (existing homes-does not include new):

Single family homes – 1446 for the month 48 percent had 3 bedrooms Condos and Coops – 243 for the month 77 percent were 2 bedrooms or less Continue Reading →

US Pending Home sales increase in July; Midwest home sales decrease by 2 percent

By Dennis Norman, on September 1st, 2009

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR

By: Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index Report for July showing pending sales in the U.S. were up for the sixth consecutive month, the best streak since NAR began the pending home sale index in 2001.

Here in the Midwest pending home sales for July were not as strong showing a 2.0 percent drop from June, however still 8.1% above a year ago. The only other region that saw a decline in month to month pending home sales in July was the Northeast with a Continue Reading →

Beware The False Bottom In Housing

By Dennis Norman, on August 28th, 2009

Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds

By: Charles Hugh Smith:

In February 2007 I suggested a 4% mortgage delinquency rate could trigger a decline in the entire housing market. Since that proved prescient, we should revisit the analytic tool behind that call: the Pareto Principle.

There is a whiff of euphoria in the housing market, a heavily touted confidence that “the bottom is in.” It’s all roaring back–rising sales, multiple bids by anxious buyers, 3.5% down payments, low mortgage rates and the bonus of an $8,000 first-time home buyer credit (a gift from U.S. taxpayers). Continue Reading →

New Home Sales in Midwest drop 7.6 percent in July; All other regions saw increase for July

By Dennis Norman, on August 26th, 2009

Dennis Norman

This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes here in the Midwest region in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 61,000 units, a 7.6 percent decrease from Junes annual rate of 66,000 units. The U.S. as a whole saw a 9.6 percent increase in new home sales in July over the month before with the Midwest beign the only region not to show an increase for the month.

New home sales in the Midwest for July 2009 lag 4.7 percent behind July 2008 new Continue Reading →

St Louis home prices declined more in past year than national average

By Dennis Norman, on August 24th, 2009

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued by First American CoreLogic national home price declines continue to improve citing that national housing prices fell 7.8 percent in June 2009 compared to June 2008 representing the small est year-over-year decline recorded to date in 2009. This was a 0.7 percent improvement over Mays decline of 8.5% from the prior year. St. Louis did not fare quite as well in the CoreLogic report. The report shows St Louis home prices decreased 11.34% in June, 2009 compared to June 2008 and, opposite the national trend, represented a 1.43% larger decline than Mays Continue Reading →

One in twelve borrowers seriously delinquent on their mortgage

By Dennis Norman, on August 22nd, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

All the news lately about the housing market, home sales in particular, has been encouraging and showing signs of stabilization in the real estate market and demonstrating that the real estate market may have seen the worst. Just when you think you may be through the storm though you see another dark cloud lurking in the distance. For the real estate market this dark cloud could very well be mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures.

At the end of this week the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that serious mortgage delinquencies (homeowners that are 90 or Continue Reading →