Real Estate Market - St Louis Real Estate News

2011 Real Estate Market Expected to Show Some Improvement

By Dennis Norman, on December 21st, 2010

Ah, it is so much fun to be able to write something positive about the real estate market!

According to an economic outlook report just issued by Fannie Mae, our country’s economy should “kick into higher gear” by the second quarter of 2011. This positive outlook is the result of improvements in consumer spending, consumer confidence, increased demand for goods and services and falling unemployment claims.

For 2011, Fannie Mae, in their December 2010 forecast, is forecasting growth of 3.4 percent which is an improvement from the 2.9 percent growth in 2011 they previously forecast. The big caveat is that Continue Reading →

Foreclosures on the rise in November however mortgage delinquences decline

By Dennis Norman, on December 20th, 2010

A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, is somewhat encouraging as it shows the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (not including foreclosures) for October was 9.02 percent which is a decrease of almost 3 percent from October’s rate of 9.29 percent.

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Remodeling report shows which projects bring most return

By Dennis Norman, on December 17th, 2010

The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) published its’ “Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report” for this year and in it rated exterior replacement projects among the most cost-effective home improvement projects. This reinforces something most REALTORS will tell you which is that a homes curb appeal plays a significant role in the sale of the home.

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Twenty-three percent increase in price reductions by home sellers

By Dennis Norman, on December 16th, 2010

A new report release by Trulia reveals that, in December, the number of listings with at least one price cut grew to 27 percent which is a 23 percent increase from December 2009 when 22 percent of the listings had at least one price cut. In terms of the size of the price cut, that has remained about the same at 11 percent.

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Online Mortgage Qualifier; St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Robert Fishel, on December 14th, 2010

The first step in buying a house is determining your budget.

This calculator steps you through the process of finding out how much you can borrow. Fill in the entry fields and click on the “View Report” button to see a complete amortization schedule of your mortgage payments:

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Survey shows consumers don’t comparison shop for mortgages

By Dennis Norman, on December 14th, 2010

A survey conducted by Harris Interactive, for Lending Tree, shows that consumers do not comparison shop when it comes to their home mortgage, instead borrowers often “lock in” their first home loan offer. The survey shows 96 percent of consumers compare prices when shopping for anything, but nearly 40 percent obtain just one home loan quote. An interesting comparison given was when shopping for a home computer, consumers check out and research an average of 3.1 models before making a purchase. This probably helps explain why, according to the survey, only 28 percent of borrowers stated they were “very confident” Continue Reading →

Homeowner Negative Equity Declines for Third Straight Quarter

By Dennis Norman, on December 13th, 2010

A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows negative equity declined in third quarter of 2010 for residential properties, marking the third-consecutive quarterly decline. The CoreLogic reports that 10.8 million, or 22.5 percent, of all residential properties with mortgages were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2010, down from 11.0 million and 23 percent in the second quarter. While the decline is good news, the bad news is that the report states the decline is “due primarily to foreclosures of severely negative equity properties rather than an increase in home values.”

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Zillow Report: U.S. Homes Set to Lose $1.7 Trillion in Value During 2010

By Dennis Norman, on December 9th, 2010

Report by Zillow estimates that U.S. Homes have now lost $9 Tillion in value since Market Peak

U.S. homes are expected to lose more than $1.7 trillion in value during 2010, which is 63 percent more than the $1 trillion lost in 2009, according to a report released by Zillow.com. That brings the total value lost since the market peaked in June 2006 to $9 trillion.

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Cash-In Refis; St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Robert Fishel, on December 8th, 2010

CASH-IN REFIS…

Over the past years, many of Americans pulled money out their homes through “cash-out” refis. Today, many of my clients are bringing cash into their refinance transactions. Money is flowing in the opposite direction.

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St Louis Area Single Family Building Permits Up over 12 Percent

By Dennis Norman, on December 8th, 2010

According to information released by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri (HBA), building permit activity in the St. Louis area through October of this year, is up over 12 percent from the same time last year.

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Survey shows Americans not expecting housing market recovery until after 2012

By Dennis Norman, on December 7th, 2010

Today, Trulia and RealtyTrac released the latest result of their ongoing survey tracking the attitude of homebuyers toward foreclosed homes. The most recent survey, conducted in early November by Harris Interactive, showed that Americans are still concerned about the health of the housing market with 58 percent of adults survey expecting a housing recovery to take at least another two years.

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Survey Results are in – Sixty One percent think a home is a good investment

By Dennis Norman, on December 3rd, 2010

For those that frequent this site you have probably noticed (and perhaps even participated in) an informal survey we were running on the site. For about the past four months we have asked the question: “Is a home a good long-term investment?” and the results are in:

61 percent of the respondents said Yes 39 percent of the respondents said No

So there you have it….In spite of the real estate recession, which has been with us for too long now, about 3 out of 5 people still look at a home as a good long-term investment.

For what it’s Continue Reading →

Pending home sales increase over 10 percent in October; Mortgage Interest Deduction vital to Recovery

By Dennis Norman, on December 2nd, 2010

Dennis Norman

The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for October shows an increase of 10.4 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 20.5 percent decrease from a year ago.

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Buyers of distressed properties in third quarter reaped largest discount in five years

By Dennis Norman, on December 2nd, 2010

According to a report released by RealtyTrac, foreclosure homes accounted for 25 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the third quarter of 2010 and that the average sales price of properties that sold while in some stage of foreclosure was more than 32 percent below the average sales price of properties not in the foreclosure process — up from a 26 percent discount in the previous quarter and a 29 percent discount in the third quarter of 2009.

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Freddie Mac Suspends Evictions Over Holidays; St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Robert Fishel, on December 1st, 2010

Freddie Mac announced today it has ordered all evictions involving foreclosed occupied single family and 2-4 unit properties that had Freddie Mac mortgages to be suspended from December 20, 2010 to January 3, 2011.

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St Louis Foreclosure rate up 25 percent from a year ago

By Dennis Norman, on November 30th, 2010

A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in September of 1.57 percent, and increase of over 25 percent (25.6%) from a year ago, and an increase of a little over 3 percent from the month before. The national foreclosure rate in September was 3.29 percent, a slight increase from 3.20 percent the month before.

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Home prices decline in third quarter

By Dennis Norman, on November 30th, 2010

Dennis Norman

This morning S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for the third quarter or this year was released showing home prices declined 2.0 percent in the third quarter after having risen 4.7 percent in the second quarter.

Nationally, home prices are 1.5 percent below where they were a year ago. In September, 18 of the 20 metro areas covered by the report had declines in the home price index.

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Mortgage Fraud Case Activity Drops

By Dennis Norman, on November 29th, 2010

After surging in the second quarter, mortgage fraud case activity sank in the third quarter based on the Third Quarter 2010 Mortgage Fraud Index from Mortgage Daily. The Mortgage Fraud Index came in at 1007 during the third quarter – falling 41 percent from the second quarter. The index hasn’t been this low since the first quarter 2008, when it was just 713.

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New home sales fall in October; Down 30 percent from year before

By Dennis Norman, on November 26th, 2010

Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for October 2010 showing a decrease of 8.1 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 28.5 percent from a year ago.

The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for October was 283,000 homes, a 8.1 percent decrease from Septbmer’s rate of 308,000 homes. The supply of new homes on the market increase from an adjusted 7.9 month supply in September to a 8.6 month supply in October. The median new home price decreased for the month to $194,900 from $226,300 the Continue Reading →

Additional payment paydown calculator and St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Robert Fishel, on November 24th, 2010

How much interest can you save by increasing your mortgage payment? Check out the link below and the financial calculator will help you determine your savings. Click the “View Report” button to see a complete amortization payment schedule, and how much you can save on your mortgage!

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Existing home sales drops in October; down over 25 percent from year ago

By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2010

Today’s existing home sales report from theNational Association of REALTORS(R) shows existing home sales in October were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.43 million units which is a decrease of 2.2 percent from September and is a decline of 25.9 percent from a year ago.

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Mortgage loan delinquencies have largest quarterly decline in four years

By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2010

On the heels of the post I just did on shadow inventory, it is good to see a positive report on mortgage delinquencies! According to a report issued by TransUnion, mortgage loan delinquencies in the third quarter of this year declined 3.45 percent to 6.44 percent, marking the largest quarterly decline since the fourth quarter of 2006.

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Report suggests distressed sales will hurt housing market for some time to come

By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2010

A report released today by CoreLogic shows that, while the overall inventory of homes for sale has remained the same in the past year at 4.2 million new and existing homes for sale as of August, the number of homes in “shadow inventory” has grown from 6.1 million a year before to 6.3 million as of August, 2010.

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REALTORS’ Say Jobs and Access to Credit Needed for Housing Recovery

By Dennis Norman, on November 19th, 2010

According the to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), the largest obstacles to the recovery of the housing market are job creation and the availability of credit. At their board meeting last week, NAR approved a credit polity to urge the mortgage lending industry to “reassess and amend their policies so more qualified home buyers can become home owners.”

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Rental housing market weathering storm; more tenants former homeowners

By Dennis Norman, on November 18th, 2010

According to a survey just released by Transunion, Landlord’s and Property managers appear to be making it through the Great Recession and are seeing improvement in the market from their perspective. In fact, seven out of 10 property managers said their rental properties have no vacancies, an increase of almost 17 percent from a year ago. Only 39 percent of respondents said they’re having difficulty finding residents in today’s economic climate. Additionally, more than 3 out of 4 respondents (76 percent) said rental prices have either remained the same or increased since last year.

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Mortgage Loans 101 and St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Robert Fishel, on November 17th, 2010

Obtaining a mortgage to buy a home, or to refinance an existing mortgage, can sometimes be a little intimidating to borrowers, but it needn’t be. Granted, this is something the typical person only does every few years at most and regulations continually change the process, but that’s where lenders such as myself come in to the picture, to provide you the info you need and to guide you through the process.

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October New Home Construction: Permits Up, Starts Down

By Dennis Norman, on November 17th, 2010

The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a their report on New Residential Construction for October 2010 showing a slight increase in single-family home building permits and a small decrease in new home starts compared to the month before.

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Sellers reduce home prices as they struggle to compete with distressed home sales

By Dennis Norman, on November 17th, 2010

Price Reductions Surpass Highest Historical Levels in 15 U.S. Cities, Remain Flat Nationwide

According to a report released this morning by Trulia.com, 27 percent of the homes for sale in November have experienced at least one price cut. Following four-consecutive months of increases, this rate has now flattened out nationwide. However, locally the story is different as 15 major cities hit an all-time high for price reductions in November.

“Price reduction increases in many large U.S. cities can be attributed to the basic principle of supply and demand –– on that score, buyers clearly have the advantage this Continue Reading →

Initial report shows mortgage delinquencies leveled off in October; foreclosure inventory increased

By Dennis Norman, on November 17th, 2010

A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, is somewhat encouraging as it shows the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (not including foreclosures) for October was 9.29 percent and, while that is a terribly high rate, it is just barely higher than Septembers’ rate of 9.27 percent. Mortgage delinquencies are a “leading indicator” of foreclosures, so perhaps that means we are getting close to the foreclosure activity leveling off.

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Mortgage Bankers Cautions Against Cutting Back Mortgage Interest Deduction

By Dennis Norman, on November 15th, 2010

Last week the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (the group that is supposed to figure out how to rescue our country out of the financial quicksand it’s in) issued a draft proposal of a plan the committee says “will make America better off tomorrow than it is today”.

In addition to such enlightening statements such as “America cannot be great if we go broke” the report outlines a plan that makes five basic recommendations:

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