Real Estate Market - St Louis Real Estate News

COVID-19 Pandemic Driven Serious Mortgage Delinquencies To Highest Levels Since The Great Recession

By Dennis Norman, on March 4th, 2021

According to a report just released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), titled “Housing insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic“, there are over 2 million homeowners that have fallen behind at least three months on their mortgage payments. This represents a 250% increase from pre-Covid-19 levels and is now at a level we haven’t seen since the height of the Great Recession in 2010.

Homeowners with an FHA mortgage delinquency rates double rate for all loans:

As the chart below shows, homeowners with an FHA mortgage hit a serious mortgage delinquency rate of 10.8% during the 3rd quarter of 2020, Continue Reading →

Seven Of the Ten Fastest-Selling School Districts In St Louis MSA are in Outer Ring Counties

By Dennis Norman, on February 22nd, 2021

As the list below shows, seven of the ten school districts in the St Louis MSA where homes are selling the fastest, are in outer-ring counties, with the remaining three districts being in St Louis County. This list is based upon the average time it took homes to sell that closed in the past 30 days and Wright City R-II District came in at the top of the list with an average of 14 days for homes to sell. St Charles County was home to the largest number of the fastest-selling school districts with 4 followed by St Louis County Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – February 2021

By Dennis Norman, on February 21st, 2021

The St Louis real estate market has started off 2021 strong, but is a change coming? Closings of home sales in January were strong with more sales closing than in January of last year, but with everything going and the uncertainty of the economy will it continue? I address both the current state of the St Louis real estate market, as well as discuss our “leading indicator” data which gives us a glimpse of where the market is headed in the St Louis Real Estate Market Update video you can access below. [xyz-ips snippet=”Market-Update-Video-Package”] [xyz-ips snippet=”Seller-Resources—Listing-Targeted”] Continue Reading →

St Louis’s Most Expensive Home Sale In The Last Two Years

By Dennis Norman, on February 20th, 2021

One of the many benefits to living in St Louis is it’s a very affordable place to live and much easier to be a homeowner than in most other major metro areas. Having said that, we do have areas, such as Ladue, Huntleigh, and Clayton to name a few where we do see home prices that are out of reach for most of the folks living here. One such example is a magnificent 10,000+ square foot Ladue manse that sold earlier this month. At a final sales price of $6,150,000, it is the highest-priced home sale in the REALTOR® MLS Continue Reading →

One-Story Homes in St Louis Outsell Two-Story Homes Nearly 3 to 1

By Dennis Norman, on February 19th, 2021

I would say for pretty much most of the 40-years I’ve been in the real estate business in St Louis, one-story homes have been popular. The trend shifted with new homes however as undeveloped ground became more scarce and demand for larger homes grew, which led to two-story homes gaining in popularity. There are of course other styles, such as 1.5 story homes, 2.5 or 3 story homes, and multi-level homes, but one and two-story are the most plentiful.

One-story homes outsell 2-story homes by nearly 3-1:

As the tables below show, in the St Louis MSA during the past Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Trend For February Down From Last Year

By Dennis Norman, on February 18th, 2021

The St Louis real estate market has slowed a little in February thus far. As the Local Market Trends reports (availably exclusively from MORE, REALTORS® ) show, new contracts written on listings as well as new listings in St Louis 5-County Core market, were down in each of the first two weeks of February both from the prior week as well as from the same period a year ago.

New contracts written (new sales):

As the reports below show, there were 590 new contracts written (new sales) on homes during the 2nd week of February which was 13% fewer contracts Continue Reading →

Home Foreclosure Ban Extended Through End of June – Is this a ticking time bomb?

By Dennis Norman, on February 17th, 2021

President Joe Biden on Tuesday extended the ban on home foreclosures for federally backed mortgages until June 30, 2021. This is the second extension of the ban which was originally set to expire January 31, 2021, but then previously extended by President Biden to March 31, 2021.

Meanwhile, as the chart below shows, serious delinquencies on home mortgages have been on the rise since nearly the beginning of the pandemic almost a year ago. The ban on foreclosures is certainly a welcome relief to those struggling to make their house payments. However, with such a high delinquency rate one has Continue Reading →

St Louis County Home Sales Trend Outpacing New Listings By Larger Margin Then Neighboring Counties

By Dennis Norman, on February 15th, 2021

It’s no secret that listings of homes for sale in St Louis are in short supply and for a while now new sales have outpaced new listings making it a challenge for home buyers. However, over the past couple of months, new sales of homes in St Louis County have outpaced new listings by a greater margin than neighboring counties. As can be compiled from the tables below, new sales of homes in the St Louis 5-County Core market during the last four months outpaced new listings during the same period by 12.7%. For St Louis county, there were 6,095 Continue Reading →

Transparency in the home buying process including buyer’s agent commissions

By Dennis Norman, on February 13th, 2021

In December I wrote about multiple class-action lawsuits filed against the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), as well as some of the largest real estate brokerages, like ReMax and Keller Williams as well as a Department of Justice (DOJ) complaint filed again NAR over issues related to the lack of transparency in the home buying process.

The aforementioned complaints claim, among other things, that there has been an effort by the defendants to force buyers to pay an “inflated” price for a home as a result of the buyer not realizing the seller was forced to offer a commission to Continue Reading →

St Louis Drops To 23rd Highest Homeownership Rate of Major Metros In Q4 2020

By Dennis Norman, on February 4th, 2021

The homeownership rate in the St Louis MSA for the fourth quarter of 2020 was 69.3%, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This is a slight increase from the 4th quarter of the prior year when the homeownership rate in the St Louis MSA was 68.3%. This puts St Louis 23rd on the list of the 75 largest MSA’s in the country in terms of homeownership, down from 17th on the list during the prior quarter.

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Homeownership Rates By MSA – 4th Quarter 2020 Continue Reading →

St Louis MSA Counties In Missouri Outperforming Illinois Counties

By Dennis Norman, on January 29th, 2021

The residential real estate market in counties in the Missouri portion of the St Louis metropolitan area appear to be outperforming the St Louis MSA counties in Illinois, according to the latest New Contracts Report below, exclusively from MORE, REALTORS®. As the report shows, for the most recent week reported, new contracts written on residential listings were up 14% for the St Louis MSA as a whole from the same week a year ago, but most of the increase in sales was in the Missouri portion of the MSA. Overall, in the St Louis MSA, there were 105 more new Continue Reading →

A 1-Month Or Less Supply Of Homes For Sale Exists in 43 St Louis Zip Codes

By Dennis Norman, on January 27th, 2021

For home buyers that have been in the market lately this won’t come as a surprise, but the inventory of homes for sale continues to remain low in St Louis. In fact, in 43 zip code areas in St Louis, there is a 1 month supply or less of homes for sale. As the table below shows, the 10 zip-codes in the St Louis core market with the lowest inventory have about 1/3 of a month’s supply or less. Historically, a 4-6 month supply of homes for sale would be considered “normal”.

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St Louis 5-County Core Market Continue Reading →

St Louis’ Most Expensive School Districts To Buy A Home In

By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2021

It probably won’t come as a surprise that many of St Louis’ best school districts also have some of St Louis’ most expensive home prices. As the list below shows, the Ladue School district has the highest-priced homes with the average price for homes sold in the past 12 months at nearly $900,000. Of the top 10 highest priced school districts, 8 are in St Louis County, one in St Charles County and one in Franklin County.

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES St Louis 5-County Core’s Most Expensive School Districts

Continue Reading →

St Louis Has 5 Municipalities Where Average Sold Home Is Over $1 Million

By Dennis Norman, on January 25th, 2021

One of the benefits to living in St Louis we often hear about is how affordable it is compared with many other metro areas around the country. Granted, one of the things that contribute to the “affordability” is the price of homes but that doesn’t mean we don’t have areas with pricey real estate here. The list below is part of the list showing what the average price homes sold for in every municipality in the St Louis MSA during the past 12 months and reveals the five municipalities where the average home price exceeded $1 Million.

Leading the list Continue Reading →

Top 10 St Louis Area School Districts Where Homes Are Selling the Fastest

By Dennis Norman, on January 20th, 2021

As of this morning, the Hancock Place School District and Bayless School District, both in the South St Louis County area, are tied for the district where homes are selling the fastest. As the Fastest-Selling School Districts in the St Louis MSA list (available exclusively from MORE, REALTORS®) below shows, homes that sold in the past 30 days in those districts took an average of just 17 days to sell. Five of the top 10 districts for fast home sales are located in St Louis County, two are in Jefferson County, one each in St Charles County, Warren County, and Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Trending Upward Aggressively

By Dennis Norman, on January 17th, 2021

Most residential real estate data is published based upon closed deals meaning the transaction is already in the past and it’s activity may not be reflective of the current market. This is why at MORE, REALTORS® we developed our leading indicators report that I shared a few days ago and also why we developed a home sale trends chart. The home sales trend chart, such as the one shown below for the St Louis 5-County Core real estate market, is still based upon closed sales however each monthly data point represents the total of the closed sales in the proceeding Continue Reading →

St Louis Condo Sales Flat In 2020 but Prices Up

By Dennis Norman, on January 15th, 2021

Yesterday, I reported that St Louis area home sales and prices were both up about 8% during 2020 from 2019 so today we’ll take a look at how condominium sales and prices compared during the same period.

As the STL Market Report shows (available exclusively from MORE, REALTORS®), in the 5-County Core St Louis market there were 3,567 condominiums sold during 2020, 10 condominiums less than the 3,577 condominiums sold during 2019. The median price of condos sold in 2020 in this St Louis market was $163,900, an increase of 5.74% from 2019 when the median price was $155,000.

The Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales And Prices Both Up About 8 Percent in 2020 From 2019

By Dennis Norman, on January 14th, 2021

In spite of the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, stay at home orders, a shaky economy and a fair amount of social unrest, 2020 still managed to be a good year for residential real estate! As the STL Market Report shows (available exclusively from MORE, REALTORS®), in the 5-County Core St Louis market there were 28,131 homes sold during 2020, an increase of 8.27% from 2019 when there were just 25,982 homes sold. The median price of homes sold in 2020 in this St Louis market was $232,000, an increase of 7.93% from 2019 when the median price was $214,950.

Continue Reading →

Newly written contracts on homes start off year up 20%

By Dennis Norman, on January 13th, 2021

During the final days of December and the first couple of January, there were 393 new contracts written on homes that were for sale, an increase of 20% over the same period a year ago. As the New Contracts Report below shows (availablle exclusively from MORE, REALTORS®) all 5 counties in the 5-County Core St Louis market saw an increase in new contracts written over the same period a year ago. Franklin County saw the largest increase at 50%.

New Contracts On Homes For Sale

(click on report for live report)

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Continue Reading →

St Louis Existing Condo Sales Down Slightly During Past 12-Months From Prior 12-Months

By Dennis Norman, on December 10th, 2020

As the STL Market ReportTM below shows, there were 3,419 existing condominiums sold in the 12-month period ended November 30, 2020, a decrease of 0.23% from the prior 12-month period. The median price of condos sold during the past 12-months was $159,900, an increase of 5.2% from the prior 12-month period. To make sure the data represents the market as accurately as possible, distressed home sales and new construction were excluded from the data. As the report shows, the current inventory of condos for sale is just 1.2 months.

STL Market Report – St Louis 5-County Area – Condos

Continue Reading →

St Louis Existing Home Sales Up 7 Percent During Past 12-Months From Prior 12-Months In Spite Of Low Inventory

By Dennis Norman, on December 8th, 2020

As the STL Market ReportTM below shows, there were 26,675 existing homes sold in the 12-month period ended November 30, 2020, an increase of 7.13% from the prior 12-month period. The median price of homes sold during the past 12-months was $225,580, an increase of 7.42% from the prior 12-month period. To make sure the data represents the market as accurately as possible, distressed home sales and new construction were excluded from the data. The increase in home sales is almost hard to imagine given how low the inventory of homes for sale has been. As the report shows, the Continue Reading →

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Increase Maximum Loan Amounts

By Dennis Norman, on December 2nd, 2020

Last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)announced that effective January 1s, 2021, the maximum loan amounts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conforming loans will be increased from $510,400 to $548,250. Once a home buyers loan amount exceeds the Fannie and Freddie limits, their loan is considered a “jumbo” loan and typically less attractive terms, so an increase in the Fannie and Freddie limits is definitely helpful to home buyers in higher price ranges.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also increasing the loan limits for loans to purchase multi-family properties as well. The multi-family property limits for 2021 Continue Reading →

Coming Soon To A REALTOR® Near You – Commission Transparency

By Dennis Norman, on December 1st, 2020

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has come under attack over the past few months as a defendant in two class-action lawsuits, Christopher Moehrl v The National Association of REALTORS® and Joshua A. Sitzer and Amy Winger v The National Association of REALTORS® filed in March and April of 2019 respectively, and, most recently, a complaint brought by the Department of Justice, United States v National Association of REALTORS® filed this month. The latter came with a pre-arranged proposed settlement with NAR. I should also mention the two class-action lawsuits have as additional defendants Realogy Holdings Corp (the own and Continue Reading →

New Listings Of St Louis Homes For Sale Trailing Sales Slightly

By Dennis Norman, on November 30th, 2020

Yesterday, I wrote an article titled “St Louis Home Sales – No end in sight?” in which one of my caveats had to do with listing inventory, noting the obvious that no matter how many homebuyers are out there, if there is nothing for them to buy, St Louis home sales will fall. As promised, I did an analysis of new listings and inventory using proprietary software we have developed at MORE, REALTORS to enable our agents to fully comprehend the market and be able to use that knowledge to serve their clients.

The first table below is our leading Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales – No end in sight?

By Dennis Norman, on November 29th, 2020

I think just about everyone that is trying to buy or sell a home in St Louis or even thinking about it, is well aware that we have been in a strong real estate market here in St Louis for some time now. The St Louis real estate market has favored sellers for the past several years largely due to a low supply of homes for sale and continuing demand by home buyers. The question I’m often asked though, especially right now with so much going on in our country right now that could impact the economy (COVID-19 and the Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Trending Downward Last 12-Months- Not So In St Charles and Jefferson County

By Dennis Norman, on August 21st, 2020

Given the impact of COVID-19 on the St Louis real estate market, particularly during the late winter/early spring months as well as a low-inventory market already, it should not come as a surprise that St Louis area home sales have trended downward somewhat during the past 12-months. As our STL Market Report below shows, for the 5-county core St Louis real estate market, there were 26,723 homes sold during the 12-month period ended July 31, 2020, a decline of 0.88% from the prior 12-month period when there were 26,960 homes sold. That very modest decline I think is actually very Continue Reading →

Two Mid-town St Louis City Zip Codes Have Highest Percentage of Equity-Rich Homeowners

By Dennis Norman, on August 7th, 2020

During the second quarter of 2020, 32.3% of the homeowners with a mortgage within the 63110 zip-code, were equity-rich on their mortgage, meaning their mortgage balances were less than 50% of the value of their homes, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Research. As the table below shows, the zip codes of 63112 and 63143 were not far behind 63110, with equity-rich percentages of 31.6% and 30.0% respectively.

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St Louis Equity-Rich Homeowners

(Click on table for the complete list)

Continue Reading →

Over 40 Percent Of Homeowners With Mortgage In 3 North St Louis Zip Codes Are Underwater

By Dennis Norman, on August 6th, 2020

During the second quarter of 2020, 45.5% of the homeowners with a mortgage within the 63115 zip code, were underwater on their mortgage, meaning they were in a negative-equity position, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Research. As the table below shows, the north county zip codes of 63137 and 63136 were not far behind at 45.1% and 41.3%, respectively. Of the 10 St Louis-area zip codes with the highest rate of underwater homeowners, 7 were in St Louis County and 3 in the City of St Louis.

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St Louis Underwater (Negative-Equity) Homeowners By Zip Continue Reading →

Percentage of Underwater Homeowners In St Louis Drops To Lowest Level in Over 7 Years

By Dennis Norman, on August 6th, 2020

During the second quarter of 2020, 9.8% of the homeowners in St Louis with a mortgage, were underwater on their mortgage, meaning they were in a negative-equity position, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Research. As the table below shows, this is the lowest level of St Louis homeowners that are seriously underwater since 2013 when this data was first tracked. In spite of financial difficulties and hardships that people may be suffering as a result of COVID-19, the downward trend of underwater homeowners in St Louis that began during the 3rd quarter of 2019 continues.

[xyz-ips Continue Reading →

St Louis Has 13th Highest Homeownership Rate of Major Metros In 2nd Quarter

By Dennis Norman, on July 28th, 2020

The homeownership rate in the St Louis MSA for the second quarter of this year was 74.0%, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This is an increase from 68.4% for the first quarter and moves St Louis from having the 22nd highest homeownership rate of the 75 largest MSAs in the US to the 13th highest!

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Homeownership Rates By MSA – 2nd Quarter 2020 Continue Reading →