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 Sale Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 25th, 2019 Wishing you and your family and loved ones a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!
“And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:6-7
By Dennis Norman, on December 24th, 2019 The home sales trend was, as our chart below illustrates, on the decline in St Charles County since summer last year but then, in October reversed course. Now, for the second-consecutive month, the St Charles County home sales trend is on the rise possibly confirming that September 2019 was the bottom, with 5,761 homes sold in the 12-month period ending in September. For the 12-month period ended November 30, 2019, there were 5,814 homes sold or just under 1% more than when sales hit the bottom in September. The period ended in November saw just 23 more homes sold then Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 22nd, 2019 Most home buyers and sellers understand the seasonality of the residential real estate market with spring being the “hot” market and winter being a slow one. This often leads to many sellers with homes that have not sold, opting to take them off the market until after the holidays with the plan to come back when the market gets better. Is this a good plan though? As a seller are you missing out on selling your home by taking your home off the market at a time when there is so little competition and at a time that the buyers Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 16th, 2019 The foreclosure rate for the St Louis MSA during October decreased 6.0 percent from the month and was down 4.2% from November 2018, according to data just released from ATTOM Data Solutions. As the table below shows, there were, like last month, some mixed results. For example, St Charles County saw a 20% increase in foreclosures from the month before while the City of St Louis saw a 27% decrease from the month before. The U.S. as a whole saw a bigger decline in foreclosure activity than the St Louis MSA did.
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St Louis MSA Foreclosures – November Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 12th, 2019 There were 762 homes “flipped” in the St Louis metro area during the third quarter of 2019, or 6.3% of the total number of homes sold in the St Louis metro area during the quarter, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Solutions. This is a decline of 15% from the prior quarter as well as a 5% decrease from the prior year. As our table below shows, on a national level, house flipping accounted for just 5.4% of the homes sold during the 3rd quarter of this year, which is a 9% decrease from the quarter before and Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 11th, 2019 The home sales trend in St Charles County peaked in April 2017 with 6,118 homes sold in the 12-month period ended April 30, 2017. Since then, the home sales trend fell to closer to the 6,000 home mark until hitting a near peak again in August 2018 with 6,111 homes sold in the 12 month period ending that month. After that, the home sales trend in St Charles County has fairly consistently trended downward until hitting bottom in September with 5,759 homes sold in the 12-month period ended September 30, 2019, nearly a 6% fall in home sales from the Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 10th, 2019 The good news just keeps coming for the residential real estate industry! The most recent is from a report just released by CoreLogic showing the mortgage delinquency rate in the U.S. was at 3.8%, the lowest rate in at least 20 years! In addition, not one state in the country had an increase in overall delinquency rates in September.
Foreclosure Inventory Reaches Low as well…
The foreclosure inventory rate for September was 0.4%, another 20+ year low!
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES
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Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 9th, 2019 Between low, low-interest rates and the seasonally low home prices, there is no better time to buy a home! Just like every year, home prices are declining and will continue to decline over the next few weeks until they hit their “winter bottom” and then start the climb back to spring prices. All the while, mortgage interest rates remain low, giving you more buying power than a year ago, even at the higher home prices! Find out more, as well as get information on some of St Louis’s best resources for home buyers and sellers in our just-released market update Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 4th, 2019 New home construction in St. Louis during October held at about the same trend as September with 4,289 new home permits issued for the 12-month period ended October 31, 2019, a decline of 8.04% from a year ago when there were 4,664 permits issued, according to the latest data from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri. This is about the same as September when the 12-month trend was down 8.05% from the prior 12-month period.
As the table below shows, 4 of the 7 counties covered in the report saw a decline in new home permits Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 2nd, 2019 Are you one of those people like me that didn’t go out and fight the crowds on Black Friday in search of deals and instead waited until today to catch the Cyber Monday deals online from the comfort of your home or office? Or perhaps you were out Friday shopping and now you are back at it online? In any event, don’t forget that Cyber Monday deals come 7 days a week this time of the year in real estate! That’s right! Like I discussed here on Black Friday, some of the best deals of the year on St Louis Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 29th, 2019 As you get ready to head to the stores today for all those Black Friday bargains, perhaps you should jump on St Louis Real Estate Search and find a few houses to look at as well? Well, if you have been thinking about buying a home, you would do well to buy now rather than wait for spring. As the table below shows, based upon data just released from ATTOM Data Solutions, people in Missouri that buy homes in October, November or December get the best deals of the year! This may account for the fact that there were 25% Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 28th, 2019
Thanksgiving began in the U.S. in 1789 after the issuance of the proclamation below made by President George Washington and was initially a harvest festival. Thanksgiving did not actually become a federal holiday in the U.S. until 1864 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it “as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator, and Ruler of the Universe.”.
Thanksgiving Proclamation By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 22nd, 2019 Annually, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) does a massive survey of people that purchased and sold a home in the prior year to gather information about them and their transaction. This is done using a 125 question survey that was sent to nearly 160,000 people, in randomly sampled geographic areas, that purchased or sold a home in the prior year. The results are published by NAR in their “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers“. From this publication, some great information is obtained (in my humble opinion, the best and most accurate information available) about home buyers and sellers as Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 20th, 2019 As the table below shows, from MORE, REALTORS® exclusive STL Market Report, the overall St Louis MSA housing market has a current supply of homes for sale equal to just a little over two-and-a-half months making it very much favor sellers. The St Louis 5-County Core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) have, as the second table shows, an even lower supply of homes for sale with a 2.32 month supply.
However, as the list at the bottom shows, there are some municipalities within the St Louis area that are buyers Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 19th, 2019 In August, the overall mortgage delinquency rate (30 or more days past due) was 3.7% for the U.S. which is a 0.2 percentage point decline from a year ago and is the lowest overall delinquency rate in 14-years, according to date just released by CoreLogic. The delinquency rate for August of 3.7% marks the lowest delinquency rate during the month of August in 20 years. The serious delinquency rate (120+ days late) decline of 1.2% a year ago to just 1.0% in August 2019, nearly a record low. The Foreclosure Rate fell in August 2019 to 0.4% from 0.5% a Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 14th, 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 until hitting 26,852 homes sold in the 12-month period ended August 31, 2019. However, for the two months since this low, St Louis home sales have trended upward slightly, reaching 26,888 homes sold in the 12-month period ended October 31, 2019.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES St Louis 5-County Core Market Home Sales Trend – Past 5 Years
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 14th, 2019 The foreclosure rate for the St Louis MSA during October increased 11.3 percent from the month before however, it was still nearly 25 percent (24.5%) lower than October 2018, according to data just released from ATTOM Data Solutions. As the table below shows, there were some real mixed results this month. For example, St Charles County saw a 150% increase in foreclosures from the month before increasing from 10 in September to 25 in October but is down over 60% from October 2018. The city of St Louis is the only county of significant size in the St Louis MSA Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 12th, 2019 Yesterday, the board of directors for the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) approved a new policy dubbed the “Clear Cooperation Policy” which goes into effect January 1, 2020, and Multiple Listing Service’s (MLS) have until May 1, 2020, to adopt and implement.
While the vote by the board of directors, 729 in favor of it to 70 opposed, may not reflect it, there is a lot of controversy about this policy among real estate agents and brokers that are members of NAR. The two main changes this new policy bring about are that agents would be mandated to put, for Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 11th, 2019 The St Louis real estate market trends remain steady and consistent! The St Louis home sales and price trends give me an optimistic outlook for next year. Low-interest rates continue to offset some of the cost of the increases in home prices that have occurred. Find out more, as well as get information on some of St Louis’s best resources for home buyers and sellers in our just-released market update video.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 9th, 2019 During the third quarter of 2019, 10.5% 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.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES St Louis Underwater (Negative-Equity) Homeowners – 2013-2019
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 8th, 2019 As of the end of the third quarter of this year, 18.2% of the homeowners in St Louis were “equity-rich”, meaning their mortgage total is less than 50% of their homes’ current value, according to the latest data available from ATTOM Data Research. As the table below shows, this is the highest rate of equity-rich homeowners in St Louis since ATTOM began tracking this data in 2013.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Equity-Rich St Louis Homeowners – 3rd Quarter 2019
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 3rd, 2019 Thanks to a strong economy and low-interest rates, the actual cost of a home today in St Louis is lower than it was a year ago, in spite of the fact that the median price of homes sold in St Louis has increased by 5.64% in the past year. Most people buying a typical home in St Louis finance nearly all of the purchase price, therefore, the cost of financing plays a significant role in the true cost of a home. Buyers decide what they can afford (as do lenders) based upon the house payment, not the price of the Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 2nd, 2019 The St Louis MSA homeowner vacancy rate during the 3rd quarter of this year was 1.8%, an increase from 0.3% the prior quarter and the highest rate since the 4th quarter of 2016 when the rate was 3.0%, according to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The median vacancy rate for 2019 though, at 0.5%, is still at a record low.
The homeowner vacancy rate represents the percentage of total listings of homes for sale that are vacant.
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St Louis Homeowner Vacancy Rates – 2016 – Present
(click on table for complete data Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 1st, 2019 The St Louis MSA rental vacancy rate during the 3rd quarter of this year was 10.6%, an increase from 7.6% the prior quarter and the highest rate since the 1st quarter of 2016 when the rate was 12.2%, according to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Last year, the median rental vacancy rate for the St Louis MSA for the year was 6.8%, a 13 year low.
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St Louis Rental Vacancy Rates – 2016 – Present
(click on table for complete data from 2005 – Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 30th, 2019 During the 3rd quarter of this year, the homeownership rate for the St Louis MSA was 69.5% giving St Louis the 13th highest homeownership rate of the 75 largest MSA’s in the country, according to the latest date from the U.S. Census Bureau. St Louis continues to improve in the homeownership rankings, moving from 26th in the 1st quarter, to 21st in the 2nd quarter and now to the 13th highest homeownership rate in the U.S.!
As the table below shows, the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota MSA had the highest homeownership rate during the quarter at 76.7% and for the 3rd quarter Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 28th, 2019 Homes in the 63304 Zip Code area of St Charles Cunty sold faster in the past 30 days than in any other zip code in St Charles County, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS®. Homes that closed in the past 30 days in 63304 took an average time of just 23 days to sell.
As the list below shows, the 63776 and 63368 zip code areas weren’t far behind. The slowest-selling St Charles County zip code in the past 30 days was the 63367 zip code area where th average time to sell a home was more Continue Reading →
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