St Louis Rental Vacancies remain at historically low levels in spite of a slight increase in the first quarter of this year to 8.6% from 8.5% in the 4th quarter of 2014. The St Louis vacancy rate for first quarter of 2015 was also up significantly from the first quarter of 2014 when the vacancy rate for St Louis stood at just 7.2% although we have to remember that was the lowest vacancy rate we had seen in over 10 years. Continue Reading →
St Louis Foreclosures during the first half of 2015 increased in the St Louis metro area 26.52 percent from the second half of 2014 and 25.18 percent from the same period last year, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. According to the report, there were 5,468 foreclosure filings in the St Louis metro area during the first half of 2015 which equates to 1 in every 224 housing units in the metro area.
As the table below shows, with the exception of St Charles County, all of the counties making up the St Louis core market saw an Continue Reading →
Within the last few days, STL Today published an article titled “The affordability crisis in the St Louis rental market”, based upon a study recently released by the Urban Institute, revealing that “there is literally no affordable, non-subsidized housing available to St. Louis low-income families.” Continue Reading →
St Louis foreclosure activity in May 2015 continued the downward trend with a drop of almost 9 percent from the month before for the St Louis MSA as a whole, according to data just released this morning by RealtyTrac. As the table below shows, foreclosure activity in May was up over 55% from May 2014, however, when we look at the 12 month rolling average, which gives a better indication of the trend (blue area in table) we see that for the 12 month period ended in May foreclosure activity is down over 13% from the same time a year ago. Continue Reading →
During the 2nd quarter of this year, there was foreclosure activity on one out of every 887 housing units in Jefferson County, giving it the highest foreclosure rate of the main counties making up the St Louis real estate market, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
That’s right, Zombies are very real and very present in St Louis…at least Zombie foreclosures that is! That’s right. According to a foreclosure zombie report just released this morning by RealtyTrac, St Louis made the list of “Top 10 Zombie Foreclosure Rates Among Major Markets”, coming in at number 6 on the list with 1 of every 1,627 housing units being a zombie foreclosure. In the number 1 spot on the list was Tampa Florida where 1 of every 217 housing units is a zombie foreclosure (the complete list, and infographic, is below). Continue Reading →
St Louis foreclosures increased in April from the month before in the St Louis area counties of St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin, were fairly level in St Louis County and declined almost 12 percent in the city of St Louis. For the 5 counties that make up the core of the St Louis real estate market, the median increase in foreclosure activity in April 2015 from the month before was, as the table below shows, 10.68%, and, compared with foreclosure activity from April 2014, the median increase in foreclosure activity was almost 30 percent, according to data released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
The mortgage delinquency rate (home owners that are 60 days or more delinquent on mortgage payment) dropped to 2.95 percent in the first quarter of 2015, marking the first time the mortgage delinquency rate has been below 3 percent since the 3rd quarter of 2007 when the rate was 2.61 percent, according to a report released this morning by TransUnion. Continue Reading →
Flipping homes accounts for a smaller percentage of home sales today at about 4 percent of total home sales in the U.S., then in the recent past when they accounted for 6 percent of more of the homes being sold (6.8% at the recent peak in 1st quarter 2012), according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
House flipping in St Louis accounted for just 2.4 percent of the home sales in the St Louis metro area during the first quarter of this year, according to data just obtained from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
Paula Anderson, a landlord who owns a two-bedroom home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was charged with discrimination by HUD after HUD’s investigation revealed that there was cause to believe Anderson had violated the Federal Fair Housing act as follows:
As described in paragraphs 7 to 25 above, Respondent Anderson violated 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604(f)(1) and (f)(2) as defined by 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) because she discriminated in the terms, conditions, or privileges of Complainant’s tenancy and made her dwelling unavailable by refusing to allow Complainant to live with her assistance animal and daughter at the subject property when such Continue Reading →
Distressed home sales (foreclosures, REO’s and short sales) made up 13.5 percent of the home sales in the U.S. in February, 2015, a decline of 18% from a year ago when the rate was 16.5 percent and is a decline of 5.6% from January when the rate was 14.3%, according to a report just released by Corelogic. Continue Reading →
Between 2006 and 2014 nearly 9.3 million homeowners in the U.S. were either foreclosed on, did a deed of lieu of foreclosures, or did a short sale of their home, according to a recent report by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Continue Reading →
Foreclosure activity in St Louis was on the rise in March with the foreclosure rate for the St Louis metro area increasing 14 percent from a year ago and over 64 percent from February, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac. As the chart below shows, foreclosure activity for the larger Missouri counties that are included in the St Louis MSA saw foreclosure actions decline from a year ago with the exception of Franklin County which saw a big increase. Continue Reading →
Section 347.057 of the revised statutes of Missouri state “A person who is a member, manager, or both, of a limited liability company is not liable, solely by reason of being a member or manager, or both, under a judgment, decree or order of a court, or in any other manner, for a debt, obligation or liability of the limited liability company, whether arising in contract, tort or otherwise or for the acts or omissions of any other member, manager, agent or employee of the limited liability company.” So, like a corporation, LLC’s provide protection to the individuals, (or other LLC’s, or corporations) that own the LLC from personal liability for business conducted by the LLC. This is not by accident as, without the ability to protect one’s personal assets from liability from business operations, many businesses wouldn’t exist nor would the products and services they provide. For example, perhaps you own stock in a company such as Ford. Would you be willing to buy that stock, and invest in that company, if you were going to be personally named in all the lawsuits brought against Ford? I doubt it. Continue Reading →
Seriously underwater homeowners, those people whose mortgage debt is 125 percent or more of their current home’s value, increased to 13.2% of all home loans during the 1st quarter of 2015, marking the first increase in rate from the prior quarter since February 2012, according to a report released this morning from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
St Louis foreclosures declined in February for the St Louis MSA with a total of 843 foreclosure actions occurring during the month, a decline of over 22 percent from the month before and a decline of over 10 percent from a year ago, according to data just released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
If you are like a lot of people and see St Louis foreclosures, or REO’s (real estate owned by banks and other lending institutions as a result of foreclosure) as a good opportunity to buy a residence for yourself or as an investment either for rental or for “flipping”, you best have cash and be prepared to “buck up” if you want to succeed! I say this because cash buyers continue to dominate the REO and foreclosure market with 61% of all REO and Foreclosure sales this year in St Louis being cash sales thus far. As the table below shows, while the number of foreclosure sales has declined this year from last year at the same time, the percentage of them going to cash buyers has not. Continue Reading →
Traditionally the only Rental history that gets reported to the credit bureaus is negative! If you fail to make your payment to your landlord…look for a collection account or even a judgment to show up on your credit profile and potentially drop your credit score like a rock! Continue Reading →
Two zip codes in St Louis made RealtyTrac’s list of “Zips with the highest gross returns (from flipping property)” for 4th quarter, 2014. The 63139 zip code, which includes the Dog Town area of St Louis, came in number 2 on the list with an average gross return on investment of 163.9% and the 63116 zip code, which includes Tower Grove South, Holly Hills, Dutchtown South and Bevo, came in 9th on the list with an average gross return on investment of 127.7%. Continue Reading →
St Louis foreclosures increased dramatically in January with 1,116 foreclosure actions in the St Louis metro area during the month, an increase of 52.25 percent from December and an increase of 47.42 percent from January 2014, according to data just released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
St Louis had 6,215 completed foreclosures in 2014 putting it 7th on the list of metros in the U.S. in terms of the number of completed foreclosures. As the table below, which lists the 25 top metro areas for foreclosures, shows, Tampa saw the most foreclosures with over 18,000 being completed during 2014, according to newly released data from Corelogic.
According to the Corelogic report, there were 563,294 completed foreclosures in the U.S. during 2014, the lowest total for any 12 month period since November 2007 when it was 589,570.
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Over half (51%) of the foreclosures in St Louis are “Zombies” meaning that the owners have abandoned or vacated their home prior to their lender completing the foreclosure process, according to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
The city of St Louis made the list of the top 50 markets to rent to Millenials, published by RealtyTrac. In determining the best markets in the U.S. for renting to millennial (most of whom are in their 20’s or early 30’s), RealtyTrac looked at rental markets where the gross annual yield on rentals was at least 9 percent, where Millenials make up more than 22 percent of the market (the national average) and where the Millenial population had increased at least 5% from 2007 through 2013. Continue Reading →
There were 119,936 St Louis homeowners with negative equity, or in a seriously underwater condition on their mortgage meaning they owe more than the current value of their home, in the St Louis MSA during the 4th quarter of 2014 which is a 21% improvement from the prior quarter when there were 152,025 St Louis homeowners seriously underwater, according to a report just released today by RealtyTrac.
As the table below shows, for the immediate St Louis, MO area, the city and county of St Louis had the highest percentage of underwater homeowners at 22% and St Charles county had Continue Reading →
Missouri foreclosure filings during 2014 occurred on a total of 9.762 properties in Missouri which is down over 70% from 2010 when foreclosure activity in Missouri hit an all-time record high with foreclosure filings occurring that year on 33,120 properties, according to data just released by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
The bursting of the real estate market bubble back in 2008 led to opportunities for investors to buy up homes at attractive prices throughout the country and even attracted some large firms backed by Wall Street such as Blackstone, American Homes 4 Rent, Colony American Homes and Fundamental REO. While institutional ownership of commercial real estate, apartments and land has been very common, and in fact, predominant, since entering the business in 1979, firms like this investing in single family homes has not. Continue Reading →
As a result of the real estate market crash in 2008 and the subsequent downturn in the economy, many homeowners with prior stellar payment records on their mortgages ended up losing their homes in foreclosure or being forced to do a short sale to get out from under it. Most of these former homeowners then became renters but have the desire to buy a home again once back on their feet. Depending upon just how severely their credit was impacted as well as whether they had a foreclosure, short sale or bankruptcy, they may have to wait as long as 7 years to obtain a home loan again. However, thanks to an FHA program called “Back to Work”, which, surprisingly, has received little attention, there is hope for these homeowners including the opportunity to obtain a home loan again without the normal waiting period if their problems were related to a job loss and they meet certain criteria. Continue Reading →
St Louis Distressed Home Sales ticked up slightly in November 2014 rom October but declined over thirty percent (30.8%) from November 2013, according to data just released by RealtyTrac. As the table below shows, all the counties in the St Louis core market except one saw an increase in distressed home sales in November from the month before and all saw a decline in November from a year ago.
On a national level, distressed home sales in November 2014 accounted for 12.6% of all home sales, down from 13.7% in October and from 14.8% in November 2013.
(We work hard Continue Reading →
St Louis New Home Sales in November 2014 increased 12.5% from November 2013 and, as would be expected given the time of year, decreased about 8% from the month before. New home sales in St Louis out performed new home sales in the Midwest Region as a whole as the region saw 4,000 new home sales in November 2014, the same as a year ago, and a decrease of 20% from the month before, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD.
The median price of new homes sold in November 2014 was $235,900, an Continue Reading →