St Louis Real Estate News - Page 42 of 109 - Daily St. Louis real estate news, market analysis, home prices, and mortgage rate updates from local industry professionals.

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – December 2018 – Months Supply On the Rise

By Dennis Norman, on December 9th, 2018

The St Louis real estate market is lagging a little behind last year in terms of home sales and the inventory of homes for sale is on the rise. While some of this is, of course, seasonal, perhaps some of it could be related to home prices increasing over the past year or so at a higher rate than the historical “norm” as well as may be reflective of the higher interest rates we are experiencing now versus last year.

While it’s still a seller’s market in some areas of St Louis and in some price ranges, Continue Reading →

Nearly 1 In 5 St Louis Home Sales In Past 12-Months Were Cash Deals

By Dennis Norman, on December 7th, 2018

There were 37,721 homes sold in the St Louis metropolitan area during the past 12 months as reported by MORE, REALTORS. Of those, as the chart below illustrates, conventional financing made up the lion’s share of the sales. Conventional mortgages accounted for 18,967 home sales (50.3%), followed by cash transactions with no financing that accounted for 7,109 sales (18.9%), then 6,353 (16.8%) sales with FHA loans, 2,333 (6.2%) with VA loans, and 770 (2.0%) sales financed with USDA financing. The remaining 5.8% of the home sales were financed with one of roughly 30 other lessor popular financing methods.

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The Number of Flipped Houses In St Louis Drops, As Do Profits On Them

By Dennis Norman, on December 6th, 2018

There were 752 home “flips” in the St Louis metro area during the third quarter of this year, representing 6.5% of the homes sold during the period, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Research. This is a decline of 7.4% from the prior quarter and a decline of 2.0% from the same quarter last year.

What is meant by “flipped” home?

ATTOM Data considers any home or condo that was sold during the third quarter of this year in an arms-length sale that had previously had an arms-length sale within the prior 12 months as well as a Continue Reading →

Fastest Selling Cities in St Louis

By Dennis Norman, on December 5th, 2018

It’s no secret that home sales slow down this time of year in St Louis however, there are still plenty of cities in St Louis where homes are selling quickly! As the table below shows, Rock Hill is at the top of our Fastest Selling Cities list with the current supply of homes for sale being on the market for an average of just 29 days. Of the 10 cities on our list, all but one are in St Louis County and, of the 9 in St Louis County, 5 are in North County.

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Strong Economy’s Impact On Housing Market Shows In REALTOR Survey

By Dennis Norman, on November 26th, 2018

The impact of the strong economy the U.S. is currently experiencing can be seen in the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) 2018 Member Profile. In the NAR report when agents were asked about the most important factor limiting potential home-buyer clients from completing a transaction, the answers given in the most recent survey show a strong improvement in economy-related issues from the 2015 survey. For example, below are some highlights from the survey for the most important factor limiting potential buyers in completing a transaction:

Difficulty in obtaining financing dropped from 26% in 2015 to just 12% in 2018 Low Continue Reading →

Median Price of Homes Sold in Franklin County In Past 12 Months Remain Flat And Sales Fall

By Dennis Norman, on November 25th, 2018

The median price of homes sold in Franklin County during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2018, was $150,000 according to the STL Market Report™ from MORE™, REALTORS®. As the STL Market Report™ below shows, this is exactly the same as during the prior 12-month period. During the most recent 12-month period, there were 1,282 homes sold in Franklin County, a decrease of 2.29% from the prior 12-month period. There is currently a 4.13 month supply of homes for sale in Franklin County and listings have been on the market a median time of 98 days.

STL Market Continue Reading →

Median Price of Homes Sold in Jefferson County In Past 12 Months Hits $169,000 – Sales Down Slightly

By Dennis Norman, on November 24th, 2018

The median price of homes sold in Jefferson County during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2018, was $169,000 according to the STL Market Report™ from MORE™, REALTORS®. As the STL Market Report™ below shows, this is an increase in the median price of homes sold of 2.42% from the prior 12-month period. During the most recent 12-month period, there were 3,407 homes sold in Jefferson County, a decrease of 0.7% from the prior 12-month period. There is currently a 2.78 month supply of homes for sale in Jefferson County and listings have been on the market a median Continue Reading →

Median Price of Homes Sold in St Charles County In Past 12 Months Hits $230,000 – Sales Up Slightly

By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2018

The median price of homes sold in St Charles County during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2018, was $230,000 according to the STL Market Report™ from MORE™, REALTORS®. As the STL Market Report™ below shows, this is an increase in the median price of homes sold of 4.55% from the prior 12-month period. During the most recent 12-month period, there were 6,081 homes sold in St Charles County, an increase of 1.11% from the prior 12-month period. There is currently a 2.52 month supply of homes for sale in St Charles County and listings have been on the Continue Reading →

Happy Thanksgiving! How It Began…

By Dennis Norman, on November 22nd, 2018

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 →

Median Price of Homes Sold in St Louis City/County In Past 12 Months Hits $185,000 – Sales Flat

By Dennis Norman, on November 21st, 2018

The median price of homes sold in St Louis City and County combined during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2018 was $185,000 according to the STL Market Report™ from MORE™, REALTORS®. As the STL Market Report™ below shows, this is an increase in the median price of condos sold of 5.11% from the prior 12-month period. During the most recent 12-month period, there were 16,841 homes sold in St Louis City and County combined, just 6 sales more than the prior 12-month period. There is currently a 2.67 month supply of condos for sale in St Louis City Continue Reading →

Mortgage Delinquency Rate Falls To Lowest Level In More Than 12 Years

By Dennis Norman, on November 20th, 2018

The overall mortgage delinquency rate in the U.S. fell in August to the lowest level in over 12 years, according to a report just released by CoreLogic. According to the report, 4.2% of all St Louis home mortgages were 30+ days delinquent in August 2018, a decline of over 14% from a year ago when the rate was 4.9%. During the same period, seriously delinquent mortgages, those that are 90+ days late, in St Louis dropped from 1.8% a year ago to 1.4% in August 2018, according to the report.

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Continue Reading →

Number of Equity-Rich St Louis Homeowners Increases In 3rd Quarter

By Dennis Norman, on November 12th, 2018

According to a report just released by ATTOM Data Solutions, 16.9% of the homeowners in St Louis with a mortgage are “equity-rich”, meaning their loan balance is 50% or less of their home’s estimated value. As the table below illustrates, this is an increase from 15.8% during the 2nd quarter as well as the 1st quarter of this year.

St Louis increase in equity surpassed the U.S. average but fell behind Kansas City and Chicago…

As the table below shows, during the past 2 years, the percentage of equity-rich homeowners in St Louis increased from 16.0% to 16.9%, an increase Continue Reading →

Number of Underwater St Louis Homeowners Falls To Lowest Level Since Last Year

By Dennis Norman, on November 10th, 2018

During the 3rd quarter of this year, 14.4% of the homeowners in St Louis with a mortgage were “seriously underwater”, meaning they owe at least 25 percent more than the estimated value of their home, according to a report just released by ATTOM Data Solutions. This is the lowest rate this year, down from 15.6% in the 2nd quarter and down from 14.7% in the first quarter of 2018. For the last quarter of 2017, St Louis homeowners that were seriously underwater had fallen to 13.8%.

Kansas City and Chicago have fared better over the past 5 years…

As the Continue Reading →

St. Louis’ 10 Fastest Selling Cities In October 2018

By Dennis Norman, on November 3rd, 2018

Not only did the beautiful fall weather of October draw St Louis area families to the popular apple and pumpkin picking festivities at Eckert’s Millstadt Farm, it also brought out home buyers putting Millstadt, IL at the top of our fastest SOLD cities in the St Louis metro area for October. As our table below shows (an exclusive feature of MORE™, REALTORS® feature), homes in Millstadt took just an average of 8 days to sell in October. The next nine cities on the list were all in Missouri with 5 of those in St Louis County, 2 in Jefferson County, Continue Reading →

New Home Prices Have Increased At Higher Rate Than Overall Housing Market Over Past 15 Years

By Dennis Norman, on November 2nd, 2018

I had lunch yesterday with a long-time friend who is a St Louis home-builder who shared with me the continually rising costs of construction he faces. Our conversation was consistent with conversations I’ve had with other builders as well, who cite a variety of things responsible for the ever-increasing costs of new home construction. The areas most often mentioned relate to regulatory and compliance issues, material prices as well as rising labor costs. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the average cost to build a new home has inreased 56% over the past 15 years. According to Continue Reading →

Will Zillow Put Real Estate Agents Out of Business?

By Dennis Norman, on November 1st, 2018

It would be an understatement to say that Zillow® has many real estate agents nervous about their future. It’s not just Zillow® though, it’s Amazon, big banks, and dozens and dozens of new real estate start-ups and changing business models.

A true dysfunctional family…

The most common name that comes up in real estate agent circles when discussing the impact of the internet on the real estate profession topic is Zillow®, and usually in the context of “the enemy“, so to speak. It seems to me the biggest fear among agents about Zillow® is that they want to eliminate real Continue Reading →

Homeownership Rate In U.S. Hits Highest Rate Since 2014

By Dennis Norman, on October 31st, 2018

The homeownership rate in the U.S. hit 64.4 percent during the third quarter of this year, according to data just released from the Census Bureau. This is the highest rate of homeownership in the U.S. since the third quarter of 2014 when the rate was also 64.4%.

As the chart below shows, homeownership rates increased in the Northeast and West regions during the 3rd quarter, from a year ago, but declined slightly in the Midwest and the South.

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES Homeownership Rates By U.S. Region – 3rd Quarter Continue Reading →

Real Estate Agents Are In The Goldilocks Zone – What Does This Mean For Their Future?

By Dennis Norman, on October 30th, 2018

Will technology send real estate agents into near extinction like it did with travel agents and may be doing with taxi-cab drivers today? This is a topic of frequent conversation in our industry, especially with dozens of new, well-funded startups, many with new and different business models, all gunning for a piece of the residential real estate industry.

I don’t like Kool-Aid® and don’t drink it..

Before I start, for the naysayers out there that may think since I’ve spent my entire adult life in real estate that, of course, I’m going to come to the conclusion that real estate Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Holding Steady

By Dennis Norman, on October 23rd, 2018

In contrast to reports from around the country of a cooling housing market and even a possible bubble in some markets, the St Louis real estate market continues to hold steady. As our exclusive, STL Market Report for the St Louis 5-County core market below shows, during the past 12-months homes have sold at about the same pace as the prior 12-month period, prices are up a little over 5 percent and the supply, while up, is still at a rather low 3 months.

St Louis 5-County core market home sales and prices

(click on table for Continue Reading →

Mortgage Bankers Forecast Five-Percent Mortgage Rates Next Year

By Dennis Norman, on October 20th, 2018

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), in their Mortgage Finance Forecast released this week predicted that interest rates on home mortgages will continue to rise this year and will hit 5% early next year. According to the report, the interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is expected to come in at an average of 4.6% for the 3rd quarter, which just ended and then rise to an average of 4.9% during the last quarter of this year. Interest rates are then forecast to hit 5.0% during the 1st quarter of 2019, rise to 5.1% by the second quarter, then Continue Reading →

Are Homes Going To Become ATM’s Again?

By Dennis Norman, on October 18th, 2018

During the housing bubble that peaked around 2006 and then burst in 2008 one of the things that got many homeowners in trouble was using their home’s as ATM’s. They did this by using, in most cases, home-equity loans to take advantage of the equity they had in their homes to give them access to tax-free cash to make improvements on their home, pay for vacations, buy cars, boats, whatever. This was fine until the value of homes began declining which resulted in many of these homeowners becoming “underwater“ meaning they owed more on their homes than they were worth.

Continue Reading →

Homeowner’s Equity Hits Record High

By Dennis Norman, on October 17th, 2018

Homeowner’s equity (the difference between current home value and the total amount of debt against the home) has risen to a record level in the U.S. at $15.189 Trillion as of the 2nd quarter of this year, according to reports from the St Louis Fed Reserve. As the chart below illustrates, this level is even higher than the previous peak in 2006 at the tail-end of the housing bubble when equity was at $13.417 Trillion.

Homeowner’s Equity In Real Estate

(Click on chart for live, interactive chart with current data)

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – October 2018 – Home sales down but higher than 10 years prior to 2017

By Dennis Norman, on October 14th, 2018

St Louis home sales continue to lag a little behind last year, however, through the end of September, year-to-date St Louis home sales are higher than they were for the ten years prior to last year! In fact, the YTD total home sales of 21,043 for the St Louis 5-County core market, falls just 130 home sales short of the 21,173 homes sold at this time back in the banner year of 2006. For the St Louis area, YTD home sales through September for this year are just 5.8% below the all-time high in 2005 when there were 22,344 homes Continue Reading →

Home Affordability In St Louis Drops For All Counties In Third Quarter

By Dennis Norman, on October 4th, 2018

One of the nice things about St Louis has always been that it’s an affordable place to live and an affordable place to own a home. However, as St Louis home prices, and mortgage interest rates, continue to increase, home affordability in St Louis has declined.

As the table below, which is based on data from ATTOM Data Research, shows, all of the counties reported on in the State of Missouri saw home affordability decline during the 3rd quarter with the exception of Jackson County (Kansas City). All of the counties had a decline in home affordability from a year Continue Reading →

Sellers Have Reduced Prices on Nearly Half The Homes Currently For Sale

By Dennis Norman, on October 3rd, 2018

It may still be a seller’s market in many areas of St Louis, but, as our table below shows, nearly half (48%) of the active listings in the St Louis market have had at least one price reduction since coming on the market.

St Louis 5-County Core Market – Active Listing Data

(Click on table for current, live data)

Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search St Louis Upcoming OPEN HOUSES

The faster seller’s make a price adjustment the better…

Continue Reading →

The Most Expensive Homes For Sale In St Louis

By Dennis Norman, on September 30th, 2018

One of the great things about living in St Louis is it is a very affordable place to live, including when it comes to home ownership. Home affordability in St Louis is certainly much better than the coasts but also beats many, if not most, metro areas. Having said that, we do have our share of expensive homes though. For example, there are currently 322 $1,000,000+ homes and condos listed for sale in the St Louis 5-county core market (City of St Louis and Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin). The most expensive St Louis home listed Continue Reading →

Are Homes Prices In St Louis Cooling?

By Dennis Norman, on September 26th, 2018

Yesterday, the latest S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller (the biggest name in national home price data) home price indices were released for July 2018 (their reports lag behind somewhat). Even though in their press release, S&P stated “Data released today for July 2018 shows that home prices continued their rise across the country over the last 12 months” however, the release went on to say point out, with regard to July’s increase in home prices, that is was “down from 6.2% in the previous month”. This prompted many news outlets to publish articles with headlines about home prices cooling, the market cooling, Continue Reading →

New Home Construction Trend In St Louis Flat Overall

By Dennis Norman, on September 21st, 2018

There were 4,642 new home building permits issued for the 7 counties in the St Louis area covered by the St Louis HBA during the 12-month period ended August 31, 2018, just 2 more (0.04%) than the 4,640 that were issued during the prior 12-month period, according to data from the St Louis HBA.

This would indicate that perhaps the new home building market has peaked for the time being which, given that this is the best report for this 12-month period since August 2007 when there were 5,706 permits issued in the prior 12 months, it’s not bad.

St Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Trend Remains Flat While Prices Rise

By Dennis Norman, on September 20th, 2018

St Louis home sales remain consistent but fairly flat with 27,636 homes sold during the past 12 months, just slightly more than the 27,525 homes sold in the prior 12 month period, for the 5-County core St Louis market. As the table below shows, while home sales only increased by 0.40% during the period for the core St Louis market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson, and Franklin) the median price of homes sold during the period increased 5.46% from a median price of $184,900 to $195,00. There is a currently a 2.55 month Continue Reading →

St Charles Makes Money Magazine’s 50 Best Places To Live In America List

By Dennis Norman, on September 19th, 2018

Money Magazine just released its “The Best Places To Live In America” list and St Charles came in at number 32 on the list and was one of only two cities in Missouri to make the list. The other was Lee’s Summit, in the Kansas City area, which came in at number 41 on the list.

In choosing the best cities to live in, Money Magazine looked at cities with populations of at least 50,000 people, then eliminated any place that had either a crime rate more than double the national crime risk rate, a median income of less than Continue Reading →