St Louis Real Estate News - Page 35 of 109 - Daily St. Louis real estate news, market analysis, home prices, and mortgage rate updates from local industry professionals.

40 Zip Codes In The St Louis MSA Have 1 Month Or Less Supply Of Homes For Sale

By Dennis Norman, on May 21st, 2020

It’s no wonder home buyers are tripping over themselves and getting into bidding wars to buy a house as the supply of homes for sale is at or near historic lows. As our table below shows, there are currently 40 zip codes in the St Louis MSA with a one-month or less supply of homes for sale (7 of the zips have no homes for sale) and a total of 76 of the 127 (60%) zip codes within the St Louis MSA have a supply of homes for sale of 2 months or less.

This low inventory, along with low-interest Continue Reading →

St Louis New Home Construction Declines In March In 5 Counties But On The Rise In 2

By Dennis Norman, on May 20th, 2020

There were 4,506 building permits issued for new single-family homes in the St Louis area during March, an increase of 4.55% from a year ago when there were 4,310 permits issued, according to the latest data from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri (St Louis HBA). However, the increase in new home construction activity was not shared equally around the St Louis area and, in fact, really only favored St Charles County and Jefferson County.

Of the seven counties reported on by the St Louis HBA, 5 saw a decline in building permits from a year Continue Reading →

More Showings of Listings In St Louis Last Week Than Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on May 16th, 2020

As the St Louis real estate market continues to distance itself from the effects of COVID-19 and the resulting stay at home orders and business shutdowns, I continue to see market activity that is encouraging. For example, as the chart below shows, for the most recent week, reported (through last Thursday) the showing activity on listings in St Louis and surrounding areas were at a level that is 3.9% higher than for the same period last year. This is a huge rebound since showings hit bottom in the middle of the lock-down on April 9th and fell to a level Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – May 2020

By Dennis Norman, on May 14th, 2020

The St Louis real estate market continues to be on the upswing and recovering from the impact of COVID-19. The pandemic did slow the St Louis real estate market down for a while but it appears to be recovering quite quickly. Get all of this and more in this month’s update. Interest rates, the “cherry on top”. In case the market rebound isn’t enough, mortgage interest rates are at near historic lows making now a great time, and an affordable time, to buy a house if you are in a position to do so. [xyz-ips snippet=”Market-Update-Video-Package”] [xyz-ips snippet=”Seller-Resources—Listing-Targeted”] Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Continues To Rebound From The “COVID-19 Effect”

By Dennis Norman, on May 13th, 2020

As the St Louis area slowly moves toward starting to come back to life, so to speak, the St Louis real estate market continues to heat up! After getting a gut punch from the COVID-19 pandemic, which I now refer to as “The COVID-19 effect”, the St Louis market has been steadily making a come back. As the table below shows, the total number of new sales of residential listings last week for the St Louis MSA as a whole was down just 6% from the same time last year, and down just 10% for the 5-County core St Louis Continue Reading →

We’re Back! (Showings that is…)

By Dennis Norman, on May 9th, 2020

I may be jumping the gun just a little, but showing activity on residential listings during the past week is just about back to where it was this time last year when there wasn’t a COVID-19 pandemic! As the chart below illustrates, the weekly average for showings through May 8th is just down a little over 2% from the same time last year and is up 40% from the first week of January this year.

[xyz-ips snippet=”Homes-For-Sale-and-Listings-With-Virtual-Tours”]

Showing Activity For St Louis and Surrounding Market Areas

(click on the chart for a live, interactive chart)

Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales YTD On Pace With Last Year In Spite of COVID-19

By Dennis Norman, on May 8th, 2020

Through the end of April, there have been 7,146 homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core Market, nearly exactly the same as last year when there were 7,153 homes sold. In spite of the challenges caused by Covid-19, including the stay at home orders, over the past 7 weeks, the residential real estate market has managed to fare ok.

The trend is not looking so good though…

One thing to keep in mind is the date I just referenced is somewhat a historical look at the market since we are talking about closings of sales and not new sales. Continue Reading →

St Louis New Listings Down Nearly Double What Sales Are From Last Year

By Dennis Norman, on May 3rd, 2020

Prior to COVID-19, there had already been a shortage of residential listings for sale in many areas and price ranges through St Louis going back a couple of years. However, the problem may be getting worse as we are continuing to see new sales of residential listings in St Louis picking up the pace to the point that they are down just 16% from the same time a year ago but, new listings in the St Louis MSA are down 30% from the same time a year ago.

Since we started with a low inventory and now have the sales Continue Reading →

Lincoln County Has Fastest-Selling Zip Code within the St Louis MSA

By Dennis Norman, on May 2nd, 2020

The average residential listing in the 63362 zip code area in Lincoln County, Missouri has been on the market for just 15 days, making 63362 the fastest-selling zip code within the St Louis MSA at this time. As our table below shows, Lincoln County zips occupy two of the top spots with the 63379 zip code area in a three-way tie for 3rd on the list with listing having an average time on the market of 25 days. So what’s up with Lincoln County? Maybe with all this social-distancing going on people have decided to head to more sparsely populated Continue Reading →

St Louis Area Showings Of Listings On The Rise

By Dennis Norman, on May 1st, 2020

Showings of real estate listings in St Louis fell dramatically after the COVID-19 outbreak and hit levels that were about half of what they were the same time last year during the first half of April. Since hitting the low point on April 12th, showings have, as the chart below shows, increased sharply to the point where they are only down 15% from the same time last year. Given that home buyers are much more open to virtual showings and hesitant to look at a home in person without thoroughly vetting it online, resulting in fewer showings per sale, this Continue Reading →

Homeownership rate for the St Louis MSA is 22nd highest of largest MSAs

By Dennis Norman, on April 29th, 2020

The homeownership rate in the St Louis MSA for the first quarter of this year was 68.4%, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. While this was just a slight increase from the prior quarter, when the St Louis homeownership rate was 68.3%, it was good enough to move St Louis’s homeownership rate from 24th to 22nd on the list of the 75 largest MSAs.

[xyz-ips snippet=”Homes-For-Sale”]

Homeownership Rates By MSA – 1st Quarter 2020

Continue Reading →

Showings of listings in St Louis On The Rise

By Dennis Norman, on April 25th, 2020

Yesterday, I wrote about how St Louis home sales were on the rebound based upon the latest contract data which showed the number of new contracts on listings in the St Louis MSA had declined by just 16% from the same time a year ago. The question is, will that trend continue? Well, a very good, and reliable, leading-indicator of home sales is home showings, and, as the chart below shows, showings of listings in the St Louis MSA has been on the rise over the past two weeks. As of yesterday, showings were down just 17.7% from the same Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales On The Rebound In Spite of COVID-19

By Dennis Norman, on April 24th, 2020

Maybe it’s the gorgeous weather, a more optimistic outlook after receiving stimulus payments or perhaps just being tired of waiting in limbo, but homebuyers have come out strong in St Louis during the past week! St Louis home sales are still not at the levels we would expect at this time of year but, as my table below shows, for the St Louis MSA as a whole, the most recent 7-day period is down just 16% from the same time last year. This is about half the decline I’ve seen when pulling the data as recently as a week ago.

Continue Reading →

Mortgage Interest Rates Expected To Continue Falling Until Hitting 2.9 Percent Next Year

By Dennis Norman, on April 23rd, 2020

Fannie Mae issued their monthly housing forecast for April which includes, among other data, a forecast of what mortgage interest rates will be in the coming months. Last months forecast had projected that mortgage rates would continue to decline moving forward but only to a low of 3.1% before the end of 2021 while the April forecast predicted the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage would fall to 2.9% in the 2nd quarter of 2021 and stay there through the balance of the year.

If you’re able, now’s the time to buy!

While the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Continue Reading →

Showings of St Louis Listings Increase Forty-Two Percent Since Low 8 Days Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 20th, 2020

Showings of listings for sale in the St Louis metro area started to decline on March 10th after COVID-19 hit our area and stay at home orders followed. As the chart below shows, the number of showings, compared to the same period last year, continued to fall until hitting the bottom on April 12th.

By the time showings hit rock bottom, they had declined to a level equal to about 25% fewer showings than during the first week of January this year and nearly 50% fewer showings than the same time last year. However, since hitting bottom on the 12th, Continue Reading →

The COVID-19 Impact On The St Louis Real Estate Market – One Month In

By Dennis Norman, on April 14th, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic (coronavirus) began impacting the St Louis area just a little over a month ago and I’ve been tracking the impact on the St Louis real estate market along the way. From the outset, we have seen a decline in the number of new listings, new sales and physical showings of listings, however, overall the decline has remained fairly constant. New sales of listings for the St Louis area has pretty well hovered around a level equal to about tw0-thirds of the activity we saw at the same time last year.

Now that we are about a month Continue Reading →

The Population Increase of St Louis during past 9 years was less than one-tenth of U.S. population growth

By Dennis Norman, on April 12th, 2020

While we are in the midst of the 2020 census, the U.S. Census Bureau released its population growth estimates for metropolitan statistical areas (MSA’s) in the U.S. which revealed the St Louis MSA saw a population increase of just 0.6% from 2010 through 2019. As the table below shows, the population of the St Louis MSA in 2010 was 2,787,751 and in 2019 it was 2,803,228, an increase of 15,477 people during the 9-year period or 0.6%. Overall, the United States saw a population increase of 6.3% during the same period and the population of MSAs across the country saw Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – April 2020

By Dennis Norman, on April 10th, 2020

The St Louis real estate market is off to a good start for 2020 however, it is getting impacted by COVID-19. This month’s market update video includes market data through the end of March but, even though about 2/3 of March was after COVID-19 began disrupting things here, the effects really cannot be seen yet. A couple of weeks ago I did a Special Report video that was specifically about the impact of coronavirus on the St Louis real estate market, but it won’t be until our May market report that we really see the full impact of it on Continue Reading →

The IRS Extends Time-Frame To Complete Exchanges and Opportunity Zone Rollovers

By Dennis Norman, on April 10th, 2020

Last night, the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance to extend the time permitted to complete a like-kind exchange or rollover into an Opportunity fund. While the actual IRS notice has not been issued yet (I’m guessing it will come out today) and that will contain more specifics, below are highlights of the relief that is being granted to real estate investors by the IRS as a result of COVID-19:

1031 Like-kind exchange – If an investor is in the midst of 1031 exchange and has already sold the property they owned and the 45-day period to identify the replacement property Continue Reading →

St Louis MSA Property Taxes For 2019 Was At Same Effective Rate as 3 Years Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 9th, 2020

The average property tax amount in 2019 for a residential property was $2,840, according to the latest data released from ATTOM Data Research. Based upon the average estimated home value for the St Louis MSA of $211,816, this works out to an effective property tax rate of 1.34% which is slightly less than last year’s effective rate of 1.36% and is the same as the rate of 1.34% in 2016.

St Louis MSA Effective Property Tax Rates – 2016 – 2019

[xyz-ips Continue Reading →

St Charles County Home Sales Down Just 25 Percent From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 8th, 2020

Yesterday, I shared data showing that, in spite of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, new sales of residential listings in the 5-county core St Louis market for the most recent 7-day period that complete data is available for, were down 35% from a year ago. I received requests to break the data down further so I did so by county. As the table below shows, for the 7-day period ended April 2nd, new sales of listings in St Charles County were down just 25% from the prior year. The reason the period ends April 2nd is REALTORS® has 3 business days Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Continue In Spite of COVID-19 Albeit at a lower level

By Dennis Norman, on April 7th, 2020

As the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic continues to keep many of us confined to our homes unless we need to go out for an essential service which, fortunately, the department of Homeland Security includes real estate in the definition, it is, of course, taking its toll on the St Louis real estate market. As would be expected during a time like this, would-be homebuyers who have had their jobs or businesses impacted as a result of COVID-19 have pulled out of the market for now as have some folks who were considering a move purely for convenience or some other reason Continue Reading →

Is Real Estate Essential?

By Dennis Norman, on April 4th, 2020

Need I answer? Given the title of this site and if you have been here before you probably are aware I’ve been in the real estate business ever since graduating high school some 41 years ago, I’m going to guess you know I’m going to say “of course it is”. On a more serious note though, my headline poses the question in light of the current Coronavirus pandemic which has resulted in a stay at home order for several counties in Missouri and, effective tomorrow night at midnight, the entire state of Missouri.

One of the exceptions in all of Continue Reading →

How Mortgage Forbearance Works Under CARES ACT (Video)

By Dennis Norman, on April 3rd, 2020

Yesterday, I shared information about forbearance options available to borrowers with an FHA loan that has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau released a very informative video titled “CARES Act Mortgage Forbearance: What You Need to Know” which is below. This video contains a great explanation of what forbearance is, how it works and how to request it on your mortgage.

[xyz-ips snippet=”Homes-For-Sale”]

Foreclosure Activity Increases in February But Down 12 Percent From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on April 2nd, 2020

The foreclosure rate for the St Louis MSA during February increased 22.55 percent from the prior month but declined 12.0% from February 2019, according to data just released from ATTOM Data Solutions. As the table below shows, only 3 counties in the St Louis metro area saw a decline in foreclosure activity in February from the month before but 10 of the 15 counties reported saw a decline in foreclosure activity from a year ago.

Three counties, Madison in Illinois and St Louis and Lincoln in Missouri, saw a decline in foreclosure activity from both the month before as Continue Reading →

HUD To Allow Homeowners Impacted by COVID-19 To Defer House Payments For Up to a Year

By Dennis Norman, on April 2nd, 2020

As a result of the COVID-19 National Emergency Servicing and Loss Mitigation Program declared by President Trump, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sent a letter yesterday to its loan servicers making them aware of new COVID-19 National Emergency Loss Mitigation Options. HUD told the lenders that the new options for borrowers go into effect immediately but the lender must implement them no later than April 30, 2020.

Highlights of the new forbearance plan:

The Mortgagee (lender) must not deny COVID-19 National Emergency Home Retention Options to Borrowers that experience an adverse impact on their ability to Continue Reading →

Showings Of St Louis Area Listings Trending Upward

By Dennis Norman, on April 1st, 2020

While, rightly so, health concerns remain on the minds of home buyers, sellers, and agents, with safety practices in place, the real estate market in St Louis still has activity. Granted, as you would expect, the activity is at a reduced rate, but there are still people that want, or even need, to buy or sell a home. In fact, the economic downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has put some additional pressure on sellers who have been negatively affected.

One of the things I’ve been watching to track activity in the market are showings of homes. As Continue Reading →

Special Report (Video) – The Impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) on the St Louis Real Estate Market

By Dennis Norman, on March 30th, 2020

I’ve written several articles over the past couple of weeks about the impact the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is having on the St Louis real estate market. Hopefully, it has been of some benefit to people that either already had their homes on the market, were in the market to buy or considering buying or selling. Yesterday, I took all of the most recent information and updates that I think people in those situations will find useful and packed it all into a short, 4-minute, video special report on the impact of COVID-19 on the St Louis Real Estate Market.

You Continue Reading →

Fannie Mae Offers Mortgage Payment Deferral Plans for Eligible Homeowners

By Dennis Norman, on March 29th, 2020

Fannie Mae, the leading source of financing for home mortgages in the U.S. (they purchase home loans from lenders), earlier this week announced some payment deferral plans to help borrowers. Fannie Mae is authorizing it’s loan servicers to provide options to borrowers that have fallen delinquent or are having trouble making their house payments, which is likely a result of the financial impact on them of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While it’s complicated, there are several options that Fannie Mae has made available to loan servicers to offer to borrowers that are struggling. Complete details are in Fannie Mae Lender Letter Continue Reading →

New Listings In St Louis During Past 7 Days Down Just 25 Percent From Year Ago

By Dennis Norman, on March 28th, 2020

St Louis sellers appear to remain pretty confident in the St Louis real estate market in spite of the COVID-19 threat as evidenced by the number of new residential listings that hit the St Louis market in the past 7 days. During the past 7 days, there were 701 new residential listings on the St Louis 5-County Core Market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) this is a decline of just 25% from the same period last year when there were 943 listings. For the St Louis MSA, there were 930 new Continue Reading →