St Louis Real Estate News - Page 101 of 109 - Daily St. Louis real estate news, market analysis, home prices, and mortgage rate updates from local industry professionals.

Six Charged with Wire Fraud Based on $20 Million Mortgage Fraud Scheme

By Dennis Norman, on May 23rd, 2010

A 10-count indictment has been unsealed charging six individuals with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Karen P. Hewitt. The defendants are charged with submitting false and fraudulent mortgage loan applications and related documents to banks and other lending institutions, thereby inducing the institutions to make approximately 36 loans totaling approximately $20,800,000.

The defendants charged with participating in the conspiracy are: Brian Andrew La Porte; Daniel John Schuetz; Michael Wayne Wickware; Roxanne Yvette Hempstead; Darryl Anthony Wallace, aka Darryl Anthony White; and Terrence Smith, aka Terry Lee Smith. The indictment alleges that the defendants devised Continue Reading →

Ponzi Scheme and Mortgage Fraud Mastermind Sentenced to 15 Years, Eight Months

By Dennis Norman, on May 22nd, 2010

The founder and head of Chicago Development and Planning was sentenced yesterday to 15 years and eight months in prison, and ordered to pay more than $9 million in restitution for wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering, U.S. Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

Patricia Morgen pleaded guilty on Dec. 16, 2009. According to the plea agreement, she admitted creating a scheme to solicit investors for a company called Chicago Development and Planning, with the promise of substantial guaranteed return profit payments. Morgen falsely promised investors that their funds would be used to purchase real property to be rented or Continue Reading →

Mortgage Default Rate Improves In April

By Dennis Norman, on May 20th, 2010

Dennis Norman

I know it looks like I’m doing my second post today on the same topic, but I’m really not……my post earlier today was about the rate of mortgage delinquency, which can be defined as homeowners that are late, to varying degrees, on their house payments. This post is about mortgage default rates, which is homeowners that are over 90 days late on mortgage payments, have filed bankruptcy, are in foreclosure or on whom the lender has written off part or all of the balance of the loan. In other words these are the borrowers Continue Reading →

Not Out Of The Woods Yet; Mortgage Delinquences and Foreclosures On The Rise

By Dennis Norman, on May 20th, 2010

1st Quarter Delinquencies; Up? Down? He said – She Said…

If you frequent this site, then you may recall that a little over a week ago (May 10th to be exact) I wrote a post that said the delinquency rate for homeowners mortgages had dropped in the first quarter of this year, the first drop since 2006. Now the post title says delinquencies have increased, so what gives?

Well, for one thing, different sources of information. The “good” delinquency report came from TransUnion and they get their data by doing a “random sampling” of their database of 27 million Continue Reading →

St Louis Mortgage Interest Rates Remain Low; FHA To Make Changes

By Robert Fishel, on May 19th, 2010

It’s all about Europe debt crisis…

Trading action in the mortgage markets have been and continue to be influenced by the ongoing concern over Europe’s debt crisis. This uncertainty has overshadowed a growing amount of data flow from our own economy that is signaling or own recovery. This uncertainty continues to drive capital into dollar denominated assets. The FHA To Reduce Allowable Seller Concessions this Summer/ Is the Housing Market Recovering for Real…

The percentage sellers can take from the sales price of a home to fund closing costs is being cut from 6% to 3%. According to an announcement Continue Reading →

Property Owner Gets Jail Time over Yard Art

By Dennis Norman, on May 18th, 2010

First Amendment Versus Ballwin City Hall

Dennis Norman

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This morning I saw an article on STL Today about a retired art teacher that was sentenced to 20 days in jail after he refused to make changes to art he has displayed in his front yard that “court and city officials have deemed dangerous.”

Continue Reading →

Congress Considering New Tax Burdens on Real Estate

By Dennis Norman, on May 17th, 2010

Dennis Norman

As the real estate market and industry continues to struggle to try to pull out of the dumps, another blow could come soon from Congress in the form of new tax burdens on real estate.

Congress is proposing that all owners of rental properties be required to complete and file 1099 forms for all service providers that have performed work on their properties, such as electricians, handymen, landscapers, etc. If passed, this would require all landlords, even the smallest of which, to go through additional expense and burden (or face penalties themselves from the IRS) to Continue Reading →

Not All Home Improvements Lead to Higher Value

By Dennis Norman, on May 14th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Homeowners looking to upgrade or sell their home this spring should realize that not all remodeling and renovation projects will yield a full return on their investment, the president of the Appraisal Institute said today.

“When it comes to home improvement projects, especially in today’s economy, not every renovation or remodeling effort will pay off when the owner sells their home,” said Appraisal Institute President Leslie Sellers, MAI, SRA. “Consumers need to be aware that cost does not necessarily equal value.”

For consumers looking to upgrade and possibly sell their houses this spring, Sellers has put together Continue Reading →

Can You Obtain a Home Loan If you Did a Short Sale or Deed-in-Lieu?

By Dennis Norman, on May 13th, 2010

Dennis Norman

In an effort to “support overall market stability and reinforce the importance of borrowers working with their lenders when they have difficulty paying their mortgages”, Fannie Mae has eased their policies with regard to the eligibility of borrowers to obtain a new mortgage loan after having a short-sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The “waiting period” that someone must wait before getting a new mortgage after a short-sale or deed-in-lieu has been shortened in certain situations.

Changes to the Waiting Period After a Short-Sale or Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure:

Deed-In-Lieu of Foreclosure Current waiting period – 4 years Continue Reading →

First Quarter Home Sales Up From a Year Ago in many Metro Areas Including St. Louis

By Dennis Norman, on May 12th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued by the National Association of REALTORS, a growing number of metropolitan areas are experiencing price gains from a year ago, while most states have seen healthy gains in home sales from the first quarter of 2009.

Here in St. Louis, the median home price for first quarter was $116,100, a 15.1 percent increase from a year ago when the median price was $100,900, however an 8.4 percent decrease from the 4th quarter of 2009 when the median home price for the St. Louis area was $126,800. State-wide, the median home price Continue Reading →

St Louis Interest Rates Remain Low In Spite of Fed Pull Out

By Robert Fishel, on May 12th, 2010

A few months ago, it was widely believed that the Fed’s massive purchase of mortgage backed securities was keeping long-term interest rates artificially low in order to stimulate the economy. It’s been six weeks since the Fed stopped buying mortgage backed securities, and there is no sign that that the end of the purchase program has caused mortgage rates to rise by any meaningful amount.

Given the uncertainty of the monetary crisis in Europe and the mystery of a stock market crash and rebound, markets continue to be very volatile with large swings from day to day– this should continue Continue Reading →

Slight Decline In Number of Underwater Homeowners

By Dennis Norman, on May 11th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report released by CoreLogic, there were 11.2 million homeowners that were in a negative equity, or “underwater“, position on their mortgages as of the end of the first quarter of this year. This number is equal to 24 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage in the U.S., which is the same percentage as the prior quarter, however the actual number of underwater borrowers was down slightly from 11.3 million borrowers that were underwater in the prior quarter. In addition, there are an additional 2.3 million borrowers that have less than five percent Continue Reading →

No More Fixed-Rate Loans On New Homes If Missouri Lawmakers Don’t Act Quickly

By Dennis Norman, on May 11th, 2010

Dennis Norman

UPDATE – May 17, 2010 – THANKS TO MISSOURI LAWMAKERS (and the efforts of the Missouri Association of REALTORS and St. Louis Home Builders Association, readers of this post that responded, and others) THE MECHANICS LIEN LAW PASSED! ASSUMING THE GOVERNOR SIGNS IT INTO LAW FINANCING ON NEW HOMES AS WE KNOW IT HAS BEEN PRESERVED!

This week, which is the last week of the legislative session in Jefferson City, the Missouri Senate will probably take up debate on HB 2058, which is a bill that makes needed changes to the Mechanic’s Lien Statute in Missouri Continue Reading →

Mortgage Delinquencies Fall in 1st Quarter; First Decline Since 2006

By Dennis Norman, on May 10th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Consistent with the report on mortgage delinquencies from LPS that I wrote about last week, today TransUnion released it’s report on mortgage delinquencies showing they fell 1.74 percent in the first quarter of this year, which is the first quarterly decline since 2006. This is good news, however, not to rain on the parade, but we do need to remember that the 4th quarter of 2009 had a record-setting mortgage delinquency rate so to have the rate for the following quarter drop simply means, if you want to do the glass half-empty thing, this quarter didn’t Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Report

By Dennis Norman, on May 7th, 2010

Dennis Norman

The St. Louis real estate market picked up a little steam in the first quarter of this year with an increase in the number of homes sold over the prior quarter, a reduction in the months-supply of homes for sale and a sharp increasing in pending sales. The homebuyer tax credit with it’s deadline to enter into contract to buy a home of April 30th helped fuel the increase in pending sales no doubt, but hopefully that wasn’t the only impetus.

Here’s a county by county look at the St. Louis real estate market for the first Continue Reading →

Fewer Homeowners Falling Delinquent; More Delinquent Borrowers Bringing Payments Current

By Dennis Norman, on May 6th, 2010

Dennis Norman

A report published by Lender Processing Services (LPS) analyzing homeowner’s performance on their mortgages as of March 2010 shows that, while foreclosure and mortgage delinquency rates are still near record levels, the pace may be slowing with fewer new loans becoming delinquent and an increase in the number of people bringing their loans current.

Fewer Borrowers Are Going From Current To Delinquent –

The dark blue line on the chart below represents the number of “new” delinquencies for each period, and as you can see, the number dropped sharply in March for people that moved Continue Reading →

St. Louis Foreclosures and Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Record Levels in March

By Dennis Norman, on May 6th, 2010

Dennis Norman

A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in March of 1.49 percent up slightly from February’s rate of 1.44 percent and an increase of 39.3 percent from the year prior when the rate was 1.07 percent.

The national foreclosure rate for March remains over twice the rate of St. Louis at 3.23 percent and was an increase of 73.9 percent from a year ago when the national foreclosure rate was 2.32 percent.

No End In Site

Unfortunately, I don’t think we are going to see much, if Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate News – World’s Financial Crisis May Help Keep Mortgage Rates Low

By Robert Fishel, on May 5th, 2010

Constantly changing headlines involving the European financial crisis (Greece, possibly Portugal) along with the uncertainty of the stock market should make dollar denominated assets, i.e. Treasuries, Mortgage Backed Securities etc. appealing.

These issues should be enough to limit or prevent mortgage rates from moving higher in the near future.

St. Louis Mortgage Interest Rates – May 5, 2010 *

30-year fixed-rate mortgage 4.875% no points 15-year fixed-rate mortgage 4.375% no points 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage 3.625% no points FHA/VA 30-year fixed rate mortgage 5.125% Jumbo 5/1 ARM 4.125% no points Jumbo 15 year fixed rate mortgage 4.625%

For more Continue Reading →

Pending Home Sales Continue On The Rise In March

By Dennis Norman, on May 4th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for March showing an increase of 5.3 percent in the index from February (seasonally adjusted) and a whopping 21.1 percent increase from March 2009. This follows an 8.3 percent increase in February so it is definitely creating a nice trend that makes me somewhat optimistic. We should remember though, in March and April we are expecting to see home sales spike as buyers rush to buy before the April 30th deadline to have a home under contract to qualify for the homebuyer tax credit.

Continue Reading →

Missouri REALTORS Make Progress Fighting Double Taxation

By Dennis Norman, on May 3rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Last October I wrote about an effort by the Missouri Association of REALTORS (MAR) to protect Missouri homeowners from facing double taxation through a real estate transfer tax by backing an effort to amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit such a tax. To get the issue on November’s ballot, petitions with signatures from a requisite number of Missouri voters needed to be submitted to the Secretary of State by yesterday.

Today, the Vote YES to Stop Double Taxation Committee, announced that on Sunday it turned in petitions, signed by “tens of thousands of registered voters”, to the Continue Reading →

Home Prices and Interest Rates May Offset Loss of Tax Credits

By Dennis Norman, on May 3rd, 2010

61 Percent of Those Looking for or Considering Buying a Home Had No Plans to Use the Tax Credit

Dennis Norman

According to a survey from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, the majority of people looking for, or considering buying, a home had no plans to take advantage of the First-Time or Move-Up/Repeat Home Buyer Tax Credits.

The survey, which was conducted online during the last week of February 2010, was designed to identify factors affecting today’s home buying decisions. Respondents were people from across the country who were searching for a new home, saving up to Continue Reading →

Champion Bank Closed by the Missouri Division of Finance

By News Desk, on April 30th, 2010

Champion Bank, in Creve Coeur, was closed today by the Missouri Division of Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with BankLiberty, Liberty, Missouri, to assume all of the deposits of Champion Bank.

Continue Reading →

St. Louis County Offering Property Owner Advocates to Help Appeal Property Assessment

By Dennis Norman, on April 30th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Although 2010 is a non-reassessment year, property owners in St. Louis County who disagree with the Assessor’s opinion of the value of their property, have the option to exercise their right to appeal that valuation to the St. Louis County Board of Equalization.

Missouri state law requires the Assessor to determine a property’s fair market value as of January 1 of the reassessment year, which is every odd numbered year, such as 2009 and 2011. Since values are established for a two-year time period, appellants need to be aware that the market conditions of January 1, 2009 Continue Reading →

Foreclosures Still On The Rise – Some Improvement in Hardest Hit Areas Though

By Dennis Norman, on April 29th, 2010

RealtyTrac® released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for the first quarter of 2010, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 932,234 U.S. properties during the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 16 percent from the first quarter of 2009 (which, I should remind you, was up 24 percent from the first quarter of 2008).

According to the report, the 20 metro areas with the highest rates of foreclosures were still contained to four states:

California – 10 of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates Florida – 7 of the top Continue Reading →

Homeownership Rate in U.S. Hits 10 Year Low

By Dennis Norman, on April 29th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued by the U.S. Census Bureau earlier this week, the percentage of Americans that own a home in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2010 dropped to 67.1 percent, the lowest rate of homeownership since the same quarter of 2000. The homeownership rate for 4th quarter 2009 was 67.2 percent, the low for 2009.

REGIONAL HOMEOWNERSHIP:

The Midwest Region has the highest rate of homeownership, as of the 1st quarter of 2010, at 70.9 percent with the South region not far behind at 69.2 percent. The Northeast homeownership rate was 64.4 Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate – Interest Rates Hold Steady, Home Buyers Race To Get Tax Credit

By Robert Fishel, on April 28th, 2010

Realtors, home buyers and sellers are rushing to complete sales agreements before the tax credit for home purchases expires this week; home buyers must have a deal by April 30 and close by June 30 to qualify for a tax break up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers and $6,500 for those moving to a different residence. The Treasury Department and the real estate industry have termed the program a success, helping people buy homes. However, many tax experts say it has been singularly cost-ineffective: most of the $12.6 billion in credits through end of February was collected by Continue Reading →

Case-Shiller Report Has Some Good News On Housing Market; Not Out of The Woods Yet Though

By Dennis Norman, on April 27th, 2010

Dennis Norman

This morning the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for February was released showing that, for the first time since December, 2006, the annual rates of change for their two composite home-price indices were positive. The 10-City Composite is up 1.4 percent from a year before and the 20-City Composite is up 0.6 percent from the same time last year. Unfortunately, 11 of the 20 cities included in the 20-City Composite had declines from the prior year, meaning that this positive bit of news is not “market-wide” but is the result of some metros with stronger markets.

Continue Reading →

Mortgage Fraud Continues to Climb – Midwest Leads the Way

By Dennis Norman, on April 27th, 2010

Incidents of Mortgage Fraud Increase 7 Percent from 2008 to 2009 – Florida, New York and California Top List of States with Highest Mortgage Fraud and Misrepresentation Rates

Dennis Norman

Reported incidents of mortgage fraud and misrepresentation by professionals in the mortgage industry in the U.S. are continuing to climb and increased by 7 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a new report released today by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, a LexisNexis® service. While the pace has slowed since the 2007-2008 increase of 26 percent, the continued increase is believed to be attributed to better Continue Reading →

CEO of the Duncan Group In St Louis Pleads Guilty in Multi-Million Dollar Ponzi Scheme

By News Desk, on April 26th, 2010

The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that Aaron Duncan, the former CEO and owner of The Duncan Group, has pleaded guilty to fraud charges involving a $3.9 million investment scheme.

According to court documents, Duncan represented that The Duncan Group was involved in real estate investments, including buying, rehabilitating, and selling residential real estate. Duncan solicited investors in Missouri and around the United States to participate in his real estate projects through The Duncan Group by making false representations regarding the security of investments and the rates of returns promised. Bank records revealed that Duncan operated The Duncan Group Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Price Index Increased 1.5 Percent In February From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 26th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Report Cautions That Shadow Inventory and End of Tax Credit Program May Result in Further Declines – Predicts a 3.01 Percent Home Price Decline in St. Louis In Next 12 Months. A report released today by First American CoreLogic shows that national home prices increased 0.3 percent in February 2010 compared to February 2009 and the home price index for St. Louis increased 1.50 percent in February 2010 compared to February 2009

On a month-over-month basis, the national average home price index fell by 2.0 percent in February 2010 compared to January 2010, which was Continue Reading →