One year ago today, the small city of Ferguson gained international attention after Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an incident which spurred weeks of violence and property destruction in Ferguson. This delivered a blow to the Ferguson real estate market which was still struggling to recover from the housing bubble burst in 2008 which had severely impacted the area. Continue Reading →
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The number of St Louis homeowners that are underwater, or have negative equity in their homes, has shown an upward trend lately, while those St Louis homeowners that are “equity rich” has trended downward. Continue Reading → For the month of May, 2015, less than 3 percent (2.95%) of St Louis mortgages were seriously delinquent (90+ days) marking a slight decline from the month before and a decline of 13 percent from a year ago, according to data just released by CoreLogic. Continue Reading → St Louis bank and government owned home sales are down as banks and government enterprises such as Fannie Mae, FHA, VA and Freddie Mac whittle down their inventory of foreclosed homes while, at the same time, new mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure rates continue to decline. While this is Continue Reading → Over two million (2.2 million) boomerang buyers may re-enter the housing market as home buyers over the next five years as their credit recovers to the point where they can obtain a home mortgage again, according to a study just released by Trans Union. According to the study, 700,000 of those buyers will be eligible for mortgages this year alone. Boomerang buyers are described as homeowners who lost their home in foreclosure, did a short sale, deed in lieu or had some other serious negative credit action with regard to their home mortgage, such as becoming 60 days or more 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 → 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 → A definite confirmation of an improving real estate market is the fact that, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac, loan originations, for the purchase of a home, during the first quarter of 2015 increased 17 percent from a year ago. Additionally, Kansas City, Missouri saw the 4th largest increase from a year ago, of major metro areas, with a 32 percent increase in home loans. St Louis made the top 20 list for year or year increases with a 13 percent increase. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ] There have been many recent articles and reports about the millennial generation and why they are not buying homes at the same rate as earlier generations did at their age. Many point to the burden of student loan debt as a cause of their inability to qualify for a mortgage thereby holding the millennials back from buying a home. However, a new study by TransUnion suggests this may not be the case. 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 → This week FNC, Inc., a large company that provides real estate market information to mortgage lenders across the country, published their FNC Residential Price Index™ report which showed St Louis home prices declined slightly in January from the month before (0.4%) and were also down slightly (0.7%) from a year ago. Continue Reading → Almost half (42%) of the residents in Missouri plan to buy a home within the next five years, according to the recently released BMO Harris Home Buying Report. Buyers surveyed indicated they plan to pay an average of $242,000 for a home when they move and almost half of the potential home buyers have indicated they are willing to get into a bidding war to get the home they want. 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 → Mortgage Delinquencies (borrowers that are 60 days or more late on their house payment) declined in the 4th quarter of 2014 marking the 12th consecutive quarter of declines in the mortgage delinquency rate, according to data just released by TrasnUnion. As the table below shows, the mortgage delinquency rate for the 4th quarter of last year was 3.29%, a decline of 2.1% from the quarter before and a decline of 14.5% from the 4th quarter of 2013. Foreclosures and better borrowers are the reason… Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting at TrasnUnion, said the improvement in mortgage delinquencies Continue Reading → The seriously delinquent mortgage rate (90+ days late) fell to 1.91 percent of all outstanding mortgages in November, the lowest level since December 2008, according to a report just released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). 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. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 Continue Reading → Down payment help is available for 87 percent of the homes in the U.S., according to an analysis completed recently by RealtyTrac and Down Payment Resource. This analysis looked at the geographic location of homes to see if they were within areas where down payment assistance are available to purchasers meeting the qualifications of the program. Continue Reading → Flood zones are land areas identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Each area of land is mapped and labeled into a flood zone. FEMA flood maps include zones that are broken into several areas. Here are the most common flood zone areas that you will see in Missouri: 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 → Yesterday, President Obama announced that he will, by executive order, direct FHA to lower the mortgage insurance premium charged on FHA loans to home buyer from 1.35 percent to .85 percent, lowering home buyer’s house payments by about $900 per year on average. Continue Reading → 
The number of St Louis Homeowners with negative equity (or underwater) during the third quarter of 2014 hit the lowest level since Corelogic began tracking this data in the 3rd quarter of 2009. During the quarter, 8.43% of St Louis homeowners with a mortgage were underwater or in a negative equity position meaning their mortgage balance exceed the current value of their home, according to the latest data from Corelogic. 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 → Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed H.R. 5771, the “Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014”, which had been passed by U.S. House of Representatives on December 3, 2014 and is now headed to President Obama’s desk for his approval. Assuming President Obama signs the act into law, it will be good news for homeowners that sold their homes in a short sale in 2014 or in some other way was forgiven on mortgage debt during this year. The Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 extends the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 through December 31, 2014 and makes it retroactive to January 1, 2014 so there is no gap in coverage from when the last extension expired. Continue Reading → The Mortgage Delinquency Rate, the pre-cursor to, and leading indicator of, foreclosures, which play havoc with home prices, is expected to decline to 3.12 percent by the end of this month and continue to decline next year hitting 2.51 percent by the end of 2015, according to a forecast just released by TransUnion. If mortgage delinquency rates fall as lowest as forecast, it will hit the lowest level since the housing bubble burst. A home mortgage that is 60 days or more delinquent is counted in the mortgage delinquency rate for this report by TransUnion. The report goes on to Continue Reading → In 2010, in an effort to “help responsible homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their property”, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) began a program that allowed lenders to offer refinancing options to underwater borrowers that included a reduction in the principal amount of their mortgage to get it more in line with the current value. This program, called the “FHA Refinance of Borrowers in Negative Equity Positions (Short Refi) Program”, has helped only about 4,000 people or so reduce their loan balances, in spite of the fact that when announced Continue Reading → Today, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) told Fannie May and Freddie Mac to change their policies to allow foreclosed homeowners the opportunity to buy their home back at the property’s fair-market value, just like any other purchaser can. Currently, if a foreclosed homeowner wanted to buy their home back from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac they would be required to pay the entire amount owed on their previous mortgage although a non-related purchaser, not buying the home for the benefit of the former homeowner, only has to pay the current fair market value. “This is a targeted, but important Continue Reading → UPDATE December 17, 2014 – Congress has passed an extension of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 through December 31, 2014 – It is part of a bill that has been sent to President Obama for his approval. This falls short of the two year extension the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), among other groups, was pushing for which would have covered next year as well, but is at least some relief for those affected this year. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 provided relief for homeowners that receive forgiveness on some of their mortgage debt Continue Reading → Yesterday, the Missouri Supreme Court handed down it’s decision in the case “Missouri Bankers Association, Inc., and Jonesburg State Bank v. St. Louis County, Missouri, and Charlie A. Dooley” ruling in favor of the Appellants (Missouri Bankers Association and Jonesburg State Bank) and against the Respondents (St Louis County and Charlie A. Dooley) by reversing an lower courts decision that ruled the Banker’s suit was moot. The original suit was filed after St Louis county enacted its “Mortgage Foreclosure Intervention Code” which, among other things, required mediation prior to a bank or other lender proceeding with a foreclosure on a Continue Reading → Would you like to know how to sell your home for the highest price in the shortest time? If so, perhaps the best place to find the answer is from prior sellers that have been successful in doing just that. This, and much more information gathered from home owners that sold a home in the past year, was just released in the National Association of REALTORS 2014 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. This gives some great insight into what worked for sellers as well as what did not. Highlights from the NAR 2014 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers: Over half of the homeowners in Ferguson are in a negative-equity position meaning their current mortgage loan balance exceeds the current value of their home, according to data from RealtyTrac. According to the latest data available, 51% of the homeowners in Ferguson with a mortgage are seriously underwater on their mortgages with balances that are equal to or higher than 125% of the value of their homes. Another 14% of Ferguson homeowners have mortgage balances of between 90% and 110% of the value of their homes. Ferguson Serious Underwater Rate More Than Double Rate for St Louis MSA… As the Continue Reading → |
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