As the chart below from Showingtime illustrates, showings on real estate listings in Missouri were down nearly one-third (32.6%) from the same time last year. However, as the chart depicts, for the 7 day period ending yesterday, March 22nd, the number of showings were nearly 20 percent (19.6%) higher than during the first week of January this year. Last year at this time, showings were up over 77 percent from the first week in January, so, as expected, we are seeing a decline in showings but, at this point, are still at a rate better than back in January.
As I mentioned in my article yesterday about the effect of the coronavirus on the St Louis real estate market, for those homebuyers in a position to buy a home, there will be some good opportunities presented. Apparently, there are buyers out there that perhaps feel the same way or, they at least are not uncomfortable with buying now as, in the past 7 days, 1,670 listings in MARIS, the regional MLS that serves the St Louis area as well as some additional areas outside the metro area, went under contract. When pulling data from our database for this, I Continue Reading →
Yesterday, Michael D. Burton, Presiding Judge of the Circuity Court of St Louis County, signed an order that, until further notice, directed the St Louis County Sheriff’s office to “refrain from executing any writs of restitution (eviction of a tenant), writs of replevin, writs of attachment, writs of partition and any other writs of execution that require them to come into direct contact with the general public..”. In addition, putting a stop to evictions of tenants in St Louis County this order stops the additional actions listed as well but preventing evictions is probably the most significant part of the Continue Reading →
While we deal with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic practicing social-distancing, shutting down events, public gatherings and the like, we are still trying to go on with our lives at the same time. A big challenge to this is the unknown; not knowing how bad things will get, how long we may have to live like this, etc. Fortunately, for those of us in Missouri, at the time I’m writing this, we have just 41 confirmed cases putting Missouri at number 40 of the 50 states in terms of the number of cases. Granted, once more people are tested, our position Continue Reading →
The St Louis real estate market is off to a great start for 2020! Home sales year to date has outpaced sales from the same time a year ago and everything points to 2020 being a good year for real estate! The $64 question is, however, what effect the Coronavirus may have on the market. Only time will tell, but my thoughts are that while there will no doubt be some negative impact on the St Louis housing market as a result of Coronavirus (COVID-19) its impact will be much less than what we have seen of late in the Continue Reading →
Mortgage interest rates hit a record low this week with an average interest rate of 3.29% on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. As the chart below shows, interest rates came close to this level at the end of 2012 but then quickly shot up to over 4.5% shortly after.
Now is the time to buy or at least refinance!
Anyone that has been thinking of buying a home should, if able, shift into high geat and find one now to take advantage of the low rates and the increased buying power that Continue Reading →
For quite a while now we have enjoyed the positive effects on the real estate market from low mortgage rates but it looks like it’s going to get even better! Yesterday’s announcement by the Fed of the emergency step of lowering the benchmark U.S. interest rate by one-half of one percent, in an effort to offset the negative effect tot eh financial markets from the coronavirus will likely lead to even lower mortgage interest rates.
What’s the connection between the federal funds rate and mortgage interest rates? This is something often asked not only by homebuyers but is even within Continue Reading →
It may still be winter, which most people know is the “slow-season” for real estate, however, there are still plenty of areas in St Louis where homes are selling fast! Below is the list of the fastest-selling zip codes (only available from MORE, REALTORS on their St Louis Real Estate Search® site, which reveals the 63144 zip code in St Louis county as the fastest-selling zip with an average time of just 21 days on the market for active listings. The second zip on the list, and just a day behind the average for the Brentwood area of 63144, si Continue Reading →
Home sales in St Louis have trended upward over the past 3 years with 25,450 homes sold during 2017 (non-distressed sales only), 25,804 during 2018 and 25,962 homes during 2019. As the chart below shows, the days on market (time to sell a home) was 19 days in 2017, declined to 17 days in 2018 and then jumped sharply to 32 days during 2019. The bottom chart shows data for the past 12-months and, as it reveals, the time to sell a home has continued to upward during 2020 thus far with the time in January rising to 47 days.
Of the 4,531 residential properties located within the 63113 zip code in the City of St Louis, over 18 percent of them are vacant (824), according to a report just released today by Attom Data Solutions. As the table below shows, six of the ten zip codes in the St Louis MSA with the highest rate of vacant property are located within the City of St Louis and the remaining 4 in St Louis County.
Nine of the 10 zip codes with the highest rate of vacancy have double-digit vacancy rates. Franklin County has the most zip codes with no Continue Reading →
During the 4th quarter of 2019 the homeownership rate in the U.S. hit 65.1%, the highest level since the 4th quarter of 2013 when the rate was 65.2%, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Homeownership by Race and Ethnicity:
As the table below shows, according to the Census Bureau data, homeownership by race and ethnicity was as follows:
White, Non-Hispanic – 73.7% – the highest level in 8 years. Black – 44.0% – the highest level in 7 years. Hispanic (of any race) – 48.1% – the highest level in just under 2 years. Home Continue Reading →
Nearly ten years ago I first wrote about the owner of a property in Ballwin that was sentenced to 20 days in jail after he had refused to make changes to the art displayed in his yard that officials for the city of Ballwin had deemed to be dangerous. The property owner, Lewis Greenberg, had decorated his home and filled his yard with a variety of items he referred to as “art” that was to make a statement about the Holocaust.
After hearing of this back in May 2010, I decided to check out his home at 977 Morena Court, Continue Reading →
There were 35,702 homes sold in the St Louis metro area in the 12-month period ended January 31, 2020, an increase of nearly 2 percent (1.97%) from the prior 12-month period when there were 35,013 homes sold. As MORE, RELATORS exclusive STL Market Report below shows, the median price of homes sold in St Louis during the most recent period was $195,000, an increase of 4 percent from the prior 12-month period.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Home Sales St Louis MSA – Past 12 Months vs Prior 12 Months
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Over the past couple of months, I have written a couple of articles about a new policy approved by the National Association of REALTORS® in November 2019 known as the “Clear Cooperation Policy”. While I’m not sure how closely consumers are watching, or if they even care at all about the policy at this point, REALTORS® have definitely been following the policy and have been pretty vocal about their thoughts on the policy, both for and against.
Before I go on, I should disclose that I currently serve as Chairman of the Board for MARIS (Mid-America Regional Information Systems) which Continue Reading →
Opportunity Zones were created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that President Donald J. Trump signed into law on December 22, 2017. Opportunity zones were established to help communities that are economically-distressed and work by promoting private investment and development through the use of tax incentives. There are a total of 8.760 designated Qualified Opportunity Zones in the U.S. and there are 140 Opportunity Zones in Missouri.
Opportunity zones appear to have had a positive impact on the housing market in several opportunity zones in the St Louis area. According to data just released by ATTOM Date Solutions, Continue Reading →
It’s been over six years since the shooting of Michael Brown brought riots to the streets of Ferguson and national attention on the small north county municipality. The end result was quite devastating to businesses and the community as a whole and many predicted Ferguson’s demise.
One year later, I did an analysis of the impact on the housing market in an article on St Louis Real Estate News in which I revealed market data showing that while the results were somewhat mixed, the housing market in Ferguson didn’t really appear to have been too negatively impacted at the time.
As you may have noticed, I’ve been pretty optimistic about the outlook for the real estate market this year however, that is not always the case as I call it like I see it. The reason for my optimism is based upon what a true data geek like myself would base it upon, data! So, what’s the data that has me believing 2020 will be a good year for the housing market in St Louis and beyond? Several things:
As I have been reporting here for the past couple of years now, mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates have continued to Continue Reading →
The St Louis real estate market is off to a good start for 2020! The home sales trends going into this year are encouraging and, coupled with the strong economy we are in, has me very confident that 2020 is going to be a great year for the St Louis real estate market! MORE buying power! In addition, long term mortgage interest rates just dropped again giving buyers more buying power! See the example in my video of just how much less a home will cost you today payment-wise than 14 months ago, even after appreciation has pushed prices up. Continue Reading →
The St Louis home sales trend jumped in December when sales for the prior 12-months broke through the 27,000 mark to 27,149. The trend continued into January of this year, as there were 27,159 homes sold in the 12-month period ended January 31, 2020. This is a good start for 2020 and is a great leading indicator of how the market is going to do this year. Add lower mortgage interest rates to this (the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 3.45% last week) and the strongest economy in decades and we have a recipe for a great housing market!
There were 70,000 new homes sold in the Midwest Region of the United States during 2019, a decline of 7.2% from 2018 when there were 76,000 new homes sold, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
As the table below shows, there were 40,000 new homes for sale in the Mideast at the end of 2019, which translates into roughly a 7 month supply of new homes for sale.
New Homes Sold In Midwest – 2018-2019
(in thousands)
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis New Homes For Sale Continue Reading →
During the fourth quarter of 2019, 10.2% 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. This continues the trend that began in the price quarter with the then lowest rate at 10.5%.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES St Louis Underwater (Negative-Equity) Homeowners
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Homes that sold in the 63048 zip code in the last 30 days were on the market an average of just 30 days before selling, making this the fastest sold zip code in the St Louis MSA. The 63048 zip code area in Jefferson County includes the cities of Pevely, Festus and Herculaneum.
Five of the top ten zip codes were in St Louis County, two in Jefferson County and one in the Counties of St Charles, St Louis City and Madison, Il.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES St Louis Zip Continue Reading →
Throughout 2019 St Louis home sales were running slightly behind the prior year and looked like that is how the year would end but, thanks to a strong finish, St Louis home sales for 2019 ended up being slightly higher than the year before. As the report below shows, the 5-county core St Louis real estate market (without distressed sales) ended 2019 with 25,946 home sales, up 0.71% from the year before when there we 25,674 homes sold. The median price of homes sold during 2019 (non-distressed) was $215,000, an increase fo 4.88% from the year before when the median Continue Reading →
During the 4th quarter of this year, the homeownership rate for the St Louis MSA was 68.3%, a slight decline from the month before, but St Louis ended the year with an average homeownership rate of 68.1%, the highest end of year average in 4 years!
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES St Louis MSA Homeownership Rate – Past 5 Years
(Click on the table below for St Louis homeownership rates by quarter from 2005-present)
I’ll concede the fact that not everyone is as much of a data geek as I am and, in fact, a more accurate statement would probably be that most people are not, including the majority of home buyers and sellers. Sure, home buyers and sellers are interested in home prices and what the potential value of the home is they are looking to buy or sell, but most leave the real data analysis to their agent. After all, part of being a professional real estate agent is knowing the market as well as knowing how to research the market and Continue Reading →
Today, as we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who is best known as a leader in the Civil Rights movement, I wanted to look at how his efforts also ultimately resulted in the Fair Housing Act, which sought to end discrimination in housing.
Through the efforts of the civil rights movement, Dr. King and others were able to get the attention of our nation resulting in President John F. Kennedy, in a nationally televised address on June 6, 1963, urging the nation to ” take action toward guaranteeing equal treatment of every American regardless of race.” Continue Reading →
The St Louis real estate market had a strong finish in 2019! One of the many great things for the St Louis housing market about a strong finish in 2019 is that 2020 begins strongly as well! January will be a key month in terms of whether the trend will continue or whether December’s uptick was an isolated event. Another encouraging thing about the real estate market is that long term mortgage interest rates remain low! See in the video just how powerful this is! How a house today will actually cost you less than a little over a year Continue Reading →
There were 3,637 condos sold in the St Louis 5-County Core market during 2019, a decline of 2.28% from 2018 when there were 3,722 condos sold. As I reported yesterday, 2019 St Louis home sales were down 1.18% in 2019, just over half of the rate of decline of condo sales.
As the STL Market Report below shows (available exclusively through MORE, REALTORS), the median price of condos sold during 2019 was $155,000, an increase of 4.15% from the year before. In contrast, home prices increased by 5.85% during the same period.
Going into 2020, the inventory of homes for Continue Reading →
There were 27,076 homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core market during 2019, a decline of 1.18% from 2018 when there were 27,399 homes sold. As the STL Market Report below shows (available exclusively through MORE, REALTORS), the median price of homes sold during 2019 was $208,000, an increase of 5.85% from the year before.
Going into 2020, the inventory of homes for sale remains low and favors sellers. Currently, the supply of homes for sale is just over 2 months.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES STL Market Report For Continue Reading →
The outlook for the St Louis real estate market for the new year looks pretty good. Watch for the release of our St Louis Housing Market Forecast for 2020 coming out in the next few days to get some insight into this year’s real estate market here in St Louis.
Happy New Year!
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Continue Reading →