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St Louis Area New-Home Building Permits Drop In April After Spiking in March

By Dennis Norman, on June 1st, 2010

Dennis Norman

After seeing a spike in permits for new homes in St. Louis in March, with the exception of the City of St. Louis, all the St. Louis metro area counties saw a decline in new home permits in April, some rather steep based upon the latest data reported by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis (HBA).

Existing home sales data and mortgage application data have suggested that the April 30th deadline for the home-buyer tax credit caused an artificial surge in the housing market as buyers raced to beat the deadline to buy a home; Continue Reading →

National Flood Insurance Program Likely to Lapse Again

By Dennis Norman, on May 28th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Talk about the housing market not being able to catch a break….it seems every time something positive happens to give us a little encouragement, something else pops up to give the market another black eye. Here we are less than a month after the home-buyer tax credit deadline has passed and we are seeing reports of home prices dropping again as well as the volume of sales, and now, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is set to expire on May 31st. Of course Congress could extend the program prior to the expiration, but the word Continue Reading →

New Home Buyers At Risk of Losing Fixed-Rate Mortgages Again

By Dennis Norman, on May 27th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Earlier this month I did a post about important legislation in Missouri, specifically HB 2058, which would make badly needed changes to the Missouri Mechanic’s Lien Statute, because if it didn’t pass purchasers of new homes would face hurdles obtaining long-term fixed-rate mortgages as title companies have threatened to stop providing mechanic’s lien coverage.

On May 17th I was happy to update the post with the news that the bill had passed the House and Senate and was just awaiting the signature of Governor Nixon to become effective.

Herein the problem lies…

Word is Governor Nixon Continue Reading →

National Flood Insurance Program Expiring Again; St Louis Interest Rates Drop Again

By Robert Fishel, on May 26th, 2010

The National Flood Insurance Program, known as the NFIP, lapsed March 28 this year and left many pending home sales in limbo.

Congress and President Barack Obama temporarily reinstated the program 18 days later on April 16 as part of a bill that also extended unemployment benefits and Medicare reimbursement for doctors. However, the temporary extension of the NFIP legislation will expire again on May 31.

The stage has now been set for another lapse in funding for the program just weeks before the mandatory June 30 closing deadline for buyers attempting to satisfy the requirements of the federal Continue Reading →

Tax Credit Deadline Spurs New Home Sales in April; Prices Drop

By Dennis Norman, on May 26th, 2010

Dennis Norman

The U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000, a 14.8 percent increase from the revised March rate of 439,000 and is 47.8 percent above a year ago. The inventory of new homes (seasonally adjusted) at the end of April is just 5.0 months a huge decline from just two months ago when it was 9.2 months.

My Mantra

As has been my long-running mantra, I don’t like “seasonally adjusted” numbers and “rate” of sales (nor does Standard & Poors, Continue Reading →

US Home Prices Fall In First Quarter; St Louis Home Prices Rise

By Dennis Norman, on May 25th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Today the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for the first quarter of 2010 was released showing that the U.S. National Home Price Index fell 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010, but remains above it’s level from a year-earlier.

In March, 13 of the 20 MSA’s covered by the Case-Shiller report, as well as both the 10-city and 20-city composites, were down for the month however both the composites as well as 10 of the 20 MSA’s showed year-over-year gains. The report cites the end of the tax incentives and the increasing foreclosure rate as reasons the Continue Reading →

Should You Rent Or Buy A Home?

By Dennis Norman, on May 24th, 2010

New Survey Finds 76 Percent of Consumers now Believe Renting to Be a Better Option Over Homeownership

Advantages Cited Include Flexibility to Move to a Different Location with New Job Opportunities

Dennis Norman

Last month I did a post addressing housing affordability, the cost of renting versus owning a home, and whether the real estate market over the past couple of years was causing the idea of home ownership as the “Great American Dream to “lose some of it’s sizzle?

For this reason I found a survey, conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by the National Apartment Association, Continue Reading →

Existing Home Sales Increase In April As Tax Credits End

By Dennis Norman, on May 24th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Sales increased for second consecutive month-

With the home-buyer tax credits ending April 30th, it’s not surprising that we saw an increase of home sales in March, and now in April, as buyers rushed to buy before the deadline to have a congract of April 30, 2010. According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in the US in April increased 7.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 5.77 million units in April from a revised level of 5.36 million units in March, and increased 22.8 percent from a year Continue Reading →

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 →