Home Price Appreciation Expected To Be At Historically Normal Rate Over Next Few Years

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Pulsenomics just released the results of it’s most recent Home Price Expectations Survey in which over 100 housing experts were questioned about their expectations for the housing market in the coming years. The report revealed that, overall, the panel predicts home prices from now through 2019 to increase at an annual rate of 3.6% which just so happens to be consistent with the overall historical performance of the market. Continue Reading →

St Louis Cash Home Sales Account For Just Under 1 In 4 Sales In April

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Cash home sales accounted for just under 1 of every 4 (23%) home sales in St Louis during the month of April 2015, a slight decline from a year ago when cash home sales were responsible for 25% of the total home sales. Continue Reading →

Home Mortgages During First Quarter of 2015 Up Seventeen Percent From Year Ago

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A definite confirmation of an improving real estate market is the fact that, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac, loan originations, for the purchase of a home, during the first quarter of 2015 increased 17 percent from a year ago. Additionally, Kansas City, Missouri saw the 4th largest increase from a year ago, of major metro areas, with a 32 percent increase in home loans. St Louis made the top 20 list for year or year increases with a 13 percent increase.

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Student Loans May Not Be Impacting Home Ownership For Millennials As Much As Some Say

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There have been many recent articles and reports about the millennial generation and why they are not buying homes at the same rate as earlier generations did at their age. Many point to the burden of student loan debt as a cause of their inability to qualify for a mortgage thereby holding the millennials back from buying a home. However, a new study by TransUnion suggests this may not be the case. Continue Reading →

St Louis’s Fastest Selling Neighborhoods

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There is no doubt the St Louis real estate market has been HOT thus far this spring and homes are selling well. Personally, four, of the last five listings I’ve taken, sold within the first day of hitting the MLS. Granted, there is a lot that goes into this in terms of pricing, marketing strategy etc., but even with everything done perfectly we weren’t seeing results like this last year Continue Reading →

Baltimore Tops List Of Metros For Highest Returns From Flipping Homes

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Flipping homes accounts for a smaller percentage of home sales today at about 4 percent of total home sales in the U.S., then in the recent past when they accounted for 6 percent of more of the homes being sold (6.8% at the recent peak in 1st quarter 2012), according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →

House Flipping In St Louis During 1st Quarter Drops By Sixty-Nine Percent From Year Ago

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House flipping in St Louis accounted for just 2.4 percent of the home sales in the St Louis metro area during the first quarter of this year, according to data just obtained from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →

Landlord Charged With Discrimination Over Cat

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Paula Anderson, a landlord who owns a two-bedroom home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was charged with discrimination by HUD after HUD’s investigation revealed that there was cause to believe Anderson had violated the Federal Fair Housing act as follows:

As described in paragraphs 7 to 25 above, Respondent Anderson violated 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604(f)(1) and (f)(2) as defined by 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) because she discriminated in the terms, conditions, or privileges of Complainant’s tenancy and made her dwelling unavailable by refusing to allow Complainant to live with her assistance animal and daughter at the subject property when such Continue Reading →

The Hottest Real Estate Markets In America

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Realtor.com just released it’s list of the 20 hottest real estate markets in America and the top two markets are in Texas, with Waco at number one and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at number two. Realtor.com’s rankings were based upon the number of listing views relative to the number of listings on Realtor.com. Continue Reading →

Pending Home Sales Up Five Percent From This Time Last Year

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Pending home sales, the measure of homes with contracts on them but not yet closed, is up five percent on a year to date basis through April of this year compared with the same time last year, for the five-county St Louis core market (St Louis City and the Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin). Through the end of April, there have been 7,434 pending home sales, up from 7,080 at the same time last year but still down from 7,984 at this time in 2013. The chart below shows the past five years and, beneath that, Continue Reading →

Distressed Home Sales In February Fall Back to 2008 Rate

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Distressed home sales (foreclosures, REO’s and short sales) made up 13.5 percent of the home sales in the U.S. in February, 2015, a decline of 18% from a year ago when the rate was 16.5 percent and is a decline of 5.6% from January when the rate was 14.3%, according to a report just released by Corelogic. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales In March Increase Nearly Seventeen Percent From Year Ago

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St Louis home sales, in the 5-county “core” St Louis market, increased 16.9 percent in March from the year before, with 2,589 homes sold in March 2015 up from 2,214 sold in March 2014. As the chart below shows, there was the normal “seasonal” dip during the winter months, but the St Louis real estate market has come out of winter strong!

St Louis home prices on the rise too!

As the chart below also illustrates, the median price of homes sold in St Louis has increased from a year ago as well. The median price of homes sold in Continue Reading →

FHFA Says No To HOA Liens or Super-Priorty Liens Wiping Out Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac Home Loans

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The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a release yesterday stating that while that agency acts as conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, no “property of the Agency shall be subject to levy, attachment, garnishment, foreclosure, or sale without the consent of the Agency.” The release went on to say that ​Title 12 United States Code Section 4617(j)(3) “precludes involuntary extinguishment of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac liens while they are operating in conservatorships and preempts any state law that purports to allow holders of homeownership association (HOA) liens to extinguish a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac lien, Continue Reading →

Twenty Percent Of Homeowners That Did Distressed Sales Expected To Return As Buyer in Coming Decade

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Between 2006 and 2014 nearly 9.3 million homeowners in the U.S. were either foreclosed on, did a deed of lieu of foreclosures, or did a short sale of their home, according to a recent report by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Continue Reading →

New Home Construction In Midwest Shows Mixed Results in March

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New Home Construction in the Midwest showed mixed results in March with a small increase from a year ago in the number of building permits issued but a decline in the number of new homes construction began on or was completed on, according to data released this week by the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. Census Bureau. Continue Reading →

St Louis Foreclosures Rise In March

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Foreclosure activity in St Louis was on the rise in March with the foreclosure rate for the St Louis metro area increasing 14 percent from a year ago and over 64 percent from February, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac. As the chart below shows, foreclosure activity for the larger Missouri counties that are included in the St Louis MSA saw foreclosure actions decline from a year ago with the exception of Franklin County which saw a big increase. Continue Reading →

Former Sara Lee Bakery Group CEO Barry Beracha Lists Ladue Manse For Sale

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This week, the 10,000 square foot Ladue Manse that is the home of Barry H. Beracha and his wife Barbara, came on the market with a price tag of $3,75 million. “Casual elegance” is how the listing describes this 16 room home, with 5 bedrooms, 7 bath rooms and a 1.5 acre lot located at 5 Warson Hills Lane in Ladue.

Mr. Beracha currently serves as a Director for Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. and, prior to retirement, served as Chief Executive Officer of the Sara Lee Bakery Group.

5 Warson Hills, Ladue, Misouri 63124

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Where Are Homes Selling The Quickest In St Louis?

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The St Louis real estate market has definitely heated up and we are seeing as many as 10 or 20 showings on new listings within the first day or two of hitting the market with many of the homes also selling during the first couple of days. Naturally, this is not happening for all homes in all price ranges in all areas, but is certainly happening in some. So where are homes selling the quickest in St Louis? To answer this question, I pulled market data for homes that are currently under contract but have not closed, then looked at how much time they were on the market before selling and have the results below. Continue Reading →

Property Tax Rates In St Louis County Highest In Area – Over Fifty Percent Higher Than Some Neighboring Counties

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Real property tax rates in St Louis County effectively cost homeowners in that county about 1.43 percent of the value of the home which is 57 percent higher than Jefferson and Franklin counties were property taxes cost homeowners about .91 percent of their homes value. Continue Reading →

The Rights Of Missouri Landlords Are About To Be Trampled On Again

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Section 347.057 of the revised statutes of Missouri state “A person who is a member, manager, or both, of a limited liability company is not liable, solely by reason of being a member or manager, or both, under a judgment, decree or order of a court, or in any other manner, for a debt, obligation or liability of the limited liability company, whether arising in contract, tort or otherwise or for the acts or omissions of any other member, manager, agent or employee of the limited liability company.” So, like a corporation, LLC’s provide protection to the individuals, (or other LLC’s, or corporations) that own the LLC from personal liability for business conducted by the LLC. This is not by accident as, without the ability to protect one’s personal assets from liability from business operations, many businesses wouldn’t exist nor would the products and services they provide. For example, perhaps you own stock in a company such as Ford. Would you be willing to buy that stock, and invest in that company, if you were going to be personally named in all the lawsuits brought against Ford? I doubt it. Continue Reading →

Percentage of Underwater Homeowners Increases For First Time In Nearly Three Years

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Seriously underwater homeowners, those people whose mortgage debt is 125 percent or more of their current home’s value, increased to 13.2% of all home loans during the 1st quarter of 2015, marking the first increase in rate from the prior quarter since February 2012, according to a report released this morning from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →

St Louis Pending Home Sales Rise In February

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Pending home sales in St Louis rose in February with 1,710 sales pending in the St Louis 5-county core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), an increase of 17 percent from 1,460 pending home sales the month before, however was a decrease of 11% from February 2014 when there were 1,917 pending home sales in the St Louis 5-county core market. Continue Reading →

Are Home Prices Rising Faster Than Income, Again?

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RealtyTrac published a report earlier this week that prompted an article on Bloomberg Business with a headline of “U.S. Home Prices Are Surging 13 Times Faster Than Wages”. RealtyTrac’s report included a chart (below) showing several metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. where, over a recent two year period, home prices were outpacing wages and that “either wages are going to need to go up or (home) prices are going to need to at least flatten out and wait for wages to catch up”. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Sales Jump Almost 15 Percent From Year Ago

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St Louis home sales jumped in February to 1,633 homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core market (the city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), an increase of almost 15 percent (14.8%) from February 2014 when there were 1,423 homes sold, and an increase of over 22 percent (22.3%) from the month before, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS Continue Reading →

Nearly 1 Out 10 People Said They Wanted to Move But Most Stayed Put

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The U.S. Census Bureau this week released a report titled “Desire to Move and Residential Mobility: 2010-2011” in which some interesting facts were revealed about what makes people want to move, who actually acts upon that desire and how this varies between homeowners and renters. Continue Reading →

St Louis Foreclosures Decline In February

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St Louis foreclosures declined in February for the St Louis MSA with a total of 843 foreclosure actions occurring during the month, a decline of over 22 percent from the month before and a decline of over 10 percent from a year ago, according to data just released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Prices Declined In January…or did they?

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This week FNC, Inc., a large company that provides real estate market information to mortgage lenders across the country, published their FNC Residential Price Index™ report which showed St Louis home prices declined slightly in January from the month before (0.4%) and were also down slightly (0.7%) from a year ago. Continue Reading →

New Home Construction In St Louis Losing Steam

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New home construction in St Louis has begun 2015 with a slower start than one might expect given the spring-like weather St Louis experienced during much of January and the flurry of activity we have seen thus far this year from home buyers. Permits issued in January for new homes in the St Louis Metro Area were down 7.85 percent from a year ago, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. Continue Reading →

Renters Confidence In St Louis Housing Market Sees Highest Increase In The Nation In Past Year

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Renters are feeling more optimistic about the St Louis housing market as well as about the thought of home ownership with 23,721 renters in St Louis saying they are looking to buy a home in the next year, according to a report just released by Zillow. Continue Reading →

Almost Half Of Missouri Residents Expect To Buy A Home In The Next Five Years

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Almost half (42%) of the residents in Missouri plan to buy a home within the next five years, according to the recently released BMO Harris Home Buying Report. Buyers surveyed indicated they plan to pay an average of $242,000 for a home when they move and almost half of the potential home buyers have indicated they are willing to get into a bidding war to get the home they want. Continue Reading →