St Louis Real Estate NewsDaily St. Louis real estate news, market analysis, home prices, and mortgage rate updates from local industry professionals. |
By: Dennis Norman
This morning the US Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued their report on New Residential Construction for August 2009 showing a slight decrease in new home construction activity from July in the US, but an increase in new home construction activity here in the Midwest.
The report shows the following for the Midwest Region:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is launching an initiative to help consumers and the banking industry avoid unnecessary foreclosures and stop foreclosure “rescue” scams that promise false hope to consumers at risk of losing their homes.
This initiative includes outreach, referral services, and an information tool kit. Arming consumers with information will heighten consumers’ awareness of foreclosure “rescue” scams and give them more confidence in knowing they are working with legitimate counselors and servicers to obtain a loan modification that could help them avoid foreclosure.
Dennis Norman
According to a study conducted by First American CoreLogicentitled “How the U.S. Consumer Has Benefited from Mortgage Finance Programs in 2009”, projections are there will be $2.3 billion in mortgages refinanced as a result of the Fed’s “Making Home Affordable” plan. According to the study, the median individual monthly savings was $120.
“ The quantitative easing policies of the Federal Reserve and refinance activity made possible by the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) have allowed more than 2 million consumers to reduce their monthly mortgage debt obligations and put more money in their pockets,” said Mark Fleming Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS®is calling upon its 1.2 million members to urge Congress to extend the home-buyer tax credit into next year.
According to NAR the $8,000 first-time home-buyer tax credit has brought 1.2 million new buyers into the market – 350,000 of whom would not have purchased a home without the credit.
Dennis Norman
Before the sub-prime mortgage implosion Karen Weaver warned of the coming crisis. Karen Weaver, the Global Head of Securitization Research for Deutsche Bank, said last month that she expected home prices to continue to drop through the 1st quarter of 2011. She also predicted that nearly half of the homeowners with mortgages would end up being underwater on their mortgages.
Yesterday Ms. Weaver said that in spite of the recent positive news on the housing market that she had not changed her position and is still predicting home prices to fall another 10 percent before finally reaching Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
Included in the “Making Home Affordable” program from the Obama administration is the “Home Affordable Modification Plan” (HAMP) designed to help 3 to 4 million home owners by modifying their existing loans to help them be more affordable. Last week, Michael S. Barr, the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, testified before a congressional sub-committee on the status of these programs. In his testimony Mr. Barr said that weakness in the US housing market developed over many years and that during this period “inadequate regulation of lending and securitization practices, including lax underwriting standards, helped cause widespread over-leveraging Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Yesterday, on a post I did earlier on rental scams, I received a comment from Dan with RentalScams.org. I visited RentalScams.org and saw their site is a wealth of information to help tenants avoid falling victim to a rental scam. I am going to post one of their helpful posts here today but invite you to visit their site and check out all the useful information they have available. The Property “Owner” Rental Scam
Here is how the scam works.
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Anyone that follows any of my posts on various real estate blogs may well be getting tired of hearing me talk about foreclosure and mortgage delinquency rates. This is no doubt especially true when I am doing it in the context of trying to “chill” the excitement over recent “good” news on the housing market. However, there is good reason for this; these two issues are real problems, including right here in St. Louis, and they are not going away anytime soon.
This was evidenced in a report released today by First American Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending September 4, 2009. The report showed an increase of 17.0 percent in borrowers applying for home mortgages to buy a home from the week before. This marks the largest gain in the index since early April, putting the index at the highest level since the first week of January.
There was a massive increase of over 22 percent from the week before for borrowers refinancing their existing home mortgage making . This the biggest jump in the increase Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
According to a report issued by IHS Global Insight, house prices in the St. Louis area in the second quarter of 2009 are almost 10 percent below their estimated value.
IHS Global Insight, when determining statistically normal house values, considers not only house prices and interest rates, but household incomes, population densities, and any historical premiums or discounts metropolitan areas have exhibited over time.
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Over the past two days I published the first part and second part of my E-View TMwith Wendy Cromer, Vice-President of Marketing for Security Title Insurance Agency, LLC about title insurance, the new laws affecting it and things consumers should know.
Wendy Cromer, Vice-President of Marketing, Security Title Insurance Agency LLC
Today were going to do the final part of our E-View TM with Wendy:
Dennis-Wendy, title insurance seems to be one of those things that is a mystery to most homeowners. Can you please explain what title insurance is and Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Yesterday I published the first part of my E-View TM with Wendy Cromer, Vice-President of Marketing for Security Title Insurance Agency, LLC about title insurance, the new laws affecting it and things consumers should know.
Wendy Cromer, Vice-President of Marketing, Security Title Insurance Agency LLC
Today we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday in our E-View TM:
Dennis-Wendy, here in St. Louis we have “split-closings” which I think are viewed by many in the title insurance industry as a bad thing, and in fact the new laws we discussed yesterday Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS(R) and the St. Louis Association of REALTORS(R) have just released information on the St. Louis real estate market for July. Following are some highlights from the data which is for St Louis city and county.
Sales for July (existing homes-does not include new):
Single family homes – 1446 for the month 48 percent had 3 bedrooms Condos and Coops – 243 for the month 77 percent were 2 bedrooms or less Continue Reading →
Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR
By: Dennis Norman
Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index Report for July showing pending sales in the U.S. were up for the sixth consecutive month, the best streak since NAR began the pending home sale index in 2001.
Here in the Midwest pending home sales for July were not as strong showing a 2.0 percent drop from June, however still 8.1% above a year ago. The only other region that saw a decline in month to month pending home sales in July was the Northeast with a Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
A surge in litigation tied to real estate appraisals, loan modifications and foreclosures contributed to a 54 percent increase in mortgage-related lawsuits, according to the second quarter Mortgage Litigation Report from MortgageDaily.com.
During the second quarter, 125 cases were tracked, jumping from an already active 81 first quarter cases. The second quarter of 2008 had just 42 cases.
Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
By: Charles Hugh Smith:
In February 2007 I suggested a 4% mortgage delinquency rate could trigger a decline in the entire housing market. Since that proved prescient, we should revisit the analytic tool behind that call: the Pareto Principle.
There is a whiff of euphoria in the housing market, a heavily touted confidence that “the bottom is in.” It’s all roaring back–rising sales, multiple bids by anxious buyers, 3.5% down payments, low mortgage rates and the bonus of an $8,000 first-time home buyer credit (a gift from U.S. taxpayers). Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending August 21, 2009. The report showed an increase in borrowers applying for home mortgages of about 1 percent from the week before for borrowers buying homes and an increase of almost 13 percent from the week before for borrowers refinancing their existing home mortgage.
Interest rates inched up a little last week according to the survey.
The average interest rate for 30 year fixed rate mortgages increased to 5.24 percent from 5.15 percent with loan fees increasing Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes here in the Midwest region in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 61,000 units, a 7.6 percent decrease from Junes annual rate of 66,000 units. The U.S. as a whole saw a 9.6 percent increase in new home sales in July over the month before with the Midwest beign the only region not to show an increase for the month.
New home sales in the Midwest for July 2009 lag 4.7 percent behind July 2008 new Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The Missouri Legislature passed several bills this past session affecting real estate or property in Missouri, most of which were signed into law by Governor Nixon and go into effect August 28, 2009. Below is a brief synopsis of the new laws and their purpose based upon the bill summary. (Unless noted different the new law goes into effect August 28, 2009- For the complete bill click on the bill number): Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
According to a report issued by First American CoreLogic national home price declines continue to improve citing that national housing prices fell 7.8 percent in June 2009 compared to June 2008 representing the small est year-over-year decline recorded to date in 2009. This was a 0.7 percent improvement over Mays decline of 8.5% from the prior year. St. Louis did not fare quite as well in the CoreLogic report. The report shows St Louis home prices decreased 11.34% in June, 2009 compared to June 2008 and, opposite the national trend, represented a 1.43% larger decline than Mays Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
All the news lately about the housing market, home sales in particular, has been encouraging and showing signs of stabilization in the real estate market and demonstrating that the real estate market may have seen the worst. Just when you think you may be through the storm though you see another dark cloud lurking in the distance. For the real estate market this dark cloud could very well be mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures.
At the end of this week the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that serious mortgage delinquencies (homeowners that are 90 or Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The St. Louis housing market is showing some signs of strength with St Louis home sales increasing in July to a seasonally adjusted rate of 21,038 homes, an increase of 6.8 percent from June’s seasonally adjusted rate of 19,691 homes. This increase for the month is very close to the increase in home sales in the U.S. according to the report released today from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in July rose 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.24 million units up from a level of 4.89 million units Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
According to Freddie Macs weekly mortgage market survey the interest rate on home mortgages dropped to a new three-month low. The survey shows the interest rate on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage averaging 5.12 percent with 0.7 percent in fees and points this week, down from 5.29 percent last week. Last year at this time, the 30 year interest rate averaged 6.47 percent.
The interest rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.56 percent with 0.7 percent in fees this week, down from 4.68 percent last week. Last year at this time the 15 Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
According to the Housing Market Report that was issued this morning by Radarlogic, home prices increased in June from the previous month in 23 out of the 25 metropolitan areas tracked by their company. St. Louis was among the 23 metros that showed an increase in home prices in June over May.
Overall the composite for all 25 metros showed a 3 percent gain in price from May to June representing one of the largest monthly gains reported by RadarLogic since June 2000. St. Louis home prices increased 2.2 percent over May.
There has been a Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
I came across something today that, while it is very sad there is such a demand for, it is heartwarming to see this need being addressed; helping families that have lost their homes in foreclosure move and store their belongings.
There is a new non-profit organization, FreeMooves, that is offering free moving and storage services to families affected by foreclosure throughout the U.S.
This morning the US Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a their report on New Residential Construction for July 2009 showing a slight increase in new home construction activity from June in the U.S.
For the Midwest region of the U.S. the report showed the following:
Building permits issued for single-family residences in July were at an annual rate of 77,000 which is a 5.5% increase over June, but still 18.9% below July 2008. Continue Reading →
By: Dennis Norman
Lately the news on the real estate market has been a little more optimistic and almost encouraging at times. Most of the news and stats are national or regional and, as I and others have said many, many times, all real estate is local. So what’s going on in the St. Louis market and more specifically, what is selling here?
In putting together stats for this post I included data from the following areas:
St. Louis City St. Louis County St. Charles County Jefferson County Franklin County Continue Reading →
Freddie Mac announced that in the second quarter of 2009, refinancing borrowers overwhelmingly chose fixed-rate loans, regardless of whether their original loan was an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) or fixed. In fact, ninety-nine percent of prime borrowers who originally had a conforming ARM selected a new conforming fixed-rate mortgage when they refinanced.
While 30-year fixed-rate mortgages still tend to be the preferred loan, more borrowers are choosing 15-year fixed-rate loans than before. “When interest rates hit very low levels for fixed-rate mortgages, borrowers often take tis opportunity to lower their interest rate and shorten their loan term,” said Frank Nothaft, vice Continue Reading →
Dennis Norman
According to a report issued by First American CoreLogicmore than 15.2 million U.S. mortgages, or 32.2 percent of all mortgaged properties, are in a negative equity position. In addition, according to the CoreLogic report, there are an additional 2.5 million mortgaged properties that are approaching negative equity. Negative equity and near negative equity mortgages combined account for nearly 38 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage. The numbers for St. Louis are a little better than the U.S. numbers. In St. Louis, 170,871, or 29.50 percent of all properties with a mortgage, are in negative equity. Continue Reading →
By: Dennis Norman
We’ll pick up where we left off after parts one and two of this series about selling a home in this market:
Question- Now for the $64 question, how should a seller properly price their home in this market?
Answer- In today’s market sellers are in fierce competition with one another for buyers. A seller can do everything right in presenting their home from maintenance and upkeep to staging, but if the price is not appropriate buyers will move on quickly. The simple truth is, there is another seller around the corner ready to set their Continue Reading →