By Dennis Norman, on February 27th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 27th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 26th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 26th, 2020 Buying a new home can be a great experience but it can also be a daunting one as well. For homeowners that have previously only purchased an existing home, they will quickly find the process is much different. From the number of decisions that must be made, change orders and other financial surprises along the way, it can be a little overwhelming for a buyer. Particularly one that went into the process ill prepared or without proper representation by a buyers agent that is experienced in new construction.
What you need to know BEFORE buying a new home…
For more Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 25th, 2020 The new home construction trend in St. Louis during January slowed just a bit with a total of 4,426 new home permits being issued for the 12-month period ended January 31, 2020, a slight decline of about 1% from a year ago when there were 4,447 permits issued, according to the latest data from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri.
As the table below shows, 5 of the 7 counties covered in the report saw a decline in new home permits from a year ago. Two of the three counties with the most new home activity, Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 25th, 2020 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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By Dennis Norman, on February 24th, 2020 Thanks to a booming economy and strong housing market, distressed home sales in the St Louis Metro Area declined by nearly 25 percent (23.42%) in the 12-month period ended January 31, 2020 from the prior 12-month period. As our exclusive, STL Market Report below shows, there were 1,887 distressed home sales (foreclosures, REO’s and short sales)in the most recent 12-month period compared with 2,464 in the prior 12-month period. The median home price of the distressed homes sold declined 1.79% during the same period, from a median price of $56,000 in the prior period to $55,000 in the most recent Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 23rd, 2020 Let me begin with this is not a political statement and the purpose of this site is not about politics but about real estate. Having said that, this morning I came across the plans for the housing market that Bernie Sanders is proposing if he is elected President which I had not seen before. Upon reviewing his plan (it is on his official site) I realized that while many of the components of it sound good (like “End homelessness and ensure fair housing for all”) many of his promises in this area sound like things that would negatively impact investors Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 21st, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 20th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 19th, 2020 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.
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 14th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 12th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 11th, 2020 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!
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 9th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 6th, 2020 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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By Dennis Norman, on February 4th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on February 3rd, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on January 30th, 2020 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)
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 24th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on January 20th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on January 17th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on January 16th, 2020 Foreclosure rates and mortgage delinquency rates have steadily declined over the past couple of years as the housing market, as well as the overall economy, have both continued to improve and thrive. Nonetheless, foreclosures still take place and during 2019 the St Louis MSA had the 8th highest foreclosure rate of the 20 largest MSAs, according to the latest data released by Attom Data Solutions.
As the table below shows, during 2019, in the St Louis MSA there was 1 foreclosure action for every 232 housing units. Philadelphia, PA, had the highest foreclosure rate of the 20-largest MSAs with one Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 7th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on January 6th, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on January 1st, 2020 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 →
By Dennis Norman, on December 28th, 2019 The maximum loan amount for an FHA-Insured home loan on January 1, 2020, will increase from $314.827 to $331,760 for a single-family home purchased in the St Louis metro area. FHA insured home loans have lower credit standards than a typical conventional loan, require a downpayment of just 3.5% and allow all of the purchasers closing costs to be paid by the seller (up to a limit) thereby extending the opportunity of homeownership to a wider audience.
Below are all of the FHA Mortgage Limits for the St Louis MSA for 2020:
One-Family dwellings – $331,760 Two-Family dwellings – $424,800 Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 28th, 2019 Buying a home for veterans will get a little easier come January 1, 2020, especially those veterans moving up to a more expensive home, as a result of the Blue Water Navy Veterans Act of 2019 signed into law by President Trump in June 2019. The primary focus of the Act was to provide disability benefits to veterans who served in Vietnam, it also made significant changes to the VA Home Loan benefit available to all veterans. The VA home loan changes go into effect on January 1, 2020. Below are highlights of the changes to the VA home loan Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 27th, 2019 Homes in the Lincoln County zip code of 63362 sold the fastest in the past 30-days with an average time to sell of just 40 days, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS®.
As the list below shows, 4 of the remaining 10 fastest-sold zips in the St Louis MSA were in St Charles County, 3 in St Louis County, 1 in Franklin County and 1 in St Clair County, IL.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Fastest SOLD Zip Codes In The St Louis MSA In Past 30 Days Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 26th, 2019 After peaking in May 2018 with 27,829 homes sold in the prior 12-months, the St Louis home sales trend has trended downward to 26,830 homes sold in the 12-month period ended November 30, 2019. This marks the lowest home sales trend for the St Louis 5-County core market in over three years.
In spite of this statistical fact, it should be noted that the difference in home sales for the 12-month period ended November 30, 2019, from the same period a year ago, is just under 3%, so it is a pretty modest decline.
Search St Louis Homes For Continue Reading →
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