One month ago yesterday, officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown and suddenly Ferguson, the little city where I grew up and began my career in real estate in 1979, became the focus of national news and headlines for days and weeks ahead. Unfortunately, the coverage of the shooting has cast Ferguson in a very negative light and no doubt will hurt the progress the city has made over the past several years to revitalize its city and make it an attractive place to live, work and start a business. This website is about real estate, so while I think this Continue Reading →
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The number of St Louis Foreclosures (bank and government owned) continues to decline resulting in just 335 St Louis Foreclosures being sold during the month of August 2014 in the St Louis Core market, a decline of 44% from August 2013 when there were 598 St Louis Foreclosures sold. What hasn’t changed though is the fact that nearly two-thirds (62%) of the foreclosures sold were cash sales for both periods. For the St Louis real estate market as a whole, cash sales made up for fewer of the home sales in August 2014 with just 22% of all homes being Continue Reading → St Louis home prices have increased 7 percent in the past year for the St Louis core market as a whole, but St Louis home sales have not followed suit and are on track for fewer home sales this year than last. You can find out more about this as well as get other useful information on the St Louis real estate market, including where the SELLERS MARKETS are in St Louis and the GOOD BUYERS MARKETS in our 5-Minute Market Update Video For September 2014 below. Many areas of St Louis have become sellers markets due to increasing demand Continue Reading → In spite of improvements in the St Louis real estate market and many areas becoming Seller’s markets due to low inventory and high demand, there are sill neighborhoods in St Louis where the market favors buyers. The top ten buyer’s markets in St Louis, listed in the table below, are in a variety of locations with two areas within the city of St Louis, and the rest in Jefferson and Franklin county. Absent from the list are buyers markets in St Louis county and St Charles county. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 Continue Reading → Local pediatric physician, Dr. Randall Sterkel who, according to the Childrens Hospital website, is “consistently recognized in “The Best Doctors in America” list”, including the most recent list for 2013, just put his nearly 15,000 square foot (14,776) French Country Style home on the market with an asking price of $5.75 million. According to the St Louis County tax records, Dr. Sterkel’s home, located at 9746 Litzsinger in Ladue, sits on 3.11 acres, had a tax bill of $50,854 for 2013 and indicates the home was purchased by Randall and Stephanie Sterkel on June 7, 2002 from Dan and Doris Continue Reading → I’ll be honest, there was a time, and perhaps not that long ago, when I wouldn’t have thought I would have used “Valley Park” and “Hottest Market in St Louis” in the same sentence but the day may have come! No, I have nothing against Valley Park, it’s just it has struggled in the past with perception issues but it appears it has overcome much of that and people today are seeing the value offered in this west county alternative to higher priced neighboring communities. According to our Market Action Index (see below for the top 10 list) which looks Continue Reading → Flipping property in the St Louis area has paid off for investors over the past year provided they have stayed out of the City of St Louis. “Flipping” or a “Flip” is a term used today to describe when a property is bought and then re-sold within a short time period. In St Louis County, the 3rd quarter of 2013 and the 3rd quarter of 2014, there were 658 properties flipped at an average gross profit of nearly 25 percent (24.56%) , according to a newly released report from RealtyTrac. During the same period there were 203 properties flipped in Continue Reading → St Louis Pending Home Sales slipped in July falling to a total of 2,654 pending home sales for the 5-county core area of the St Louis market, down 7.8 percent from the month before when there were 2,877 pending home sales, according to MORE, REALTORS. Year to date through the end of July, there have been 16,789 St Louis Pending Home Sales, down 4.6 percent from the same time last year when there were 17,603 St Louis Pending Home Sales. On a positive note, pending home sales for the month of July 2014 were slightly higher than they were for Continue Reading → The Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) is often a topic of much debate often around whether or not it truly helps promote home ownership or is just a another tax break for higher income tax payers. The interesting thing is, the best I can tell, when the deduction for interest was first established it actually had nothing to do with promoting home ownership but instead was intended to benefit proprietors and small business owners. Few realize that the deductibility of interest goes back to 1913 when Congress ratified the Sixteenth Amendment to the constitution which gave the government the right to Continue Reading → New home sales in the midwest region of the U.S. slipped in July with new home sales coming in at the seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 52,000 homes, down 8.8% from a rate of 57,000 homes the month before and down 1.9% from July 2013, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Year to date, through July, there have been 36,000 new homes sold (not seasonally adjusted) down 2.7% from the same time last year when there were 37,000 year to date new home sales. On a national level, in July new home sales were at a seasonally-adjusted Continue Reading → St Louis Home Sales were down slightly in July 2014 (2.25%) from a year ago however St Louis home prices increased 3.3% during the same period, according the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS. As the table below shows, St Charles County and Franklin County both saw an increase in home sales in July 2014 from July 2014 while the other 3 counties in the core market saw a decrease in home sales during the same period. Home prices increased in the counties of St Louis, St Charles and Jefferson and declined slightly in the City Continue Reading → Property flipping, which is basically buying a property and then reselling it immediately, or shortly thereafter, is occurring less frequently now in St Louis than it was, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. According to the report, there were 289 houses flipped in the St Louis metro area during the 2nd quarter, down 44% from the first quarter and down 17% from the 2nd quarter of 2013. During the 2nd quarter of this year, 3.3% of all St Louis home sales were “flip” deals which, for the purpose of this report, were homes that were bought, then resold Continue Reading → Today, the owners and operators of the Alger Meadows Apartments in Grand Rapids, Michigan, agreed to pay $550,000 in damages as well as terminate their property manager to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit that was filed against them by the U.S. Department of Justice. With the increasing popularity of rental property as an investment, there are many new investors and landlords getting into the business and they need to realize the importance of being familiar with the laws and regulations that may affect them and their business in order to avoid problems. Even though, according to the press release Continue Reading → The Fannie Mae monthly national housing survey for July 2014 shows 67 percent of those surveyed feel now is a good time to buy a home, down from 70 percent that felt that way the month before and down from 74 percent that responded in July 2013 that it was a good time to buy. Forty-three percent of the respondents feel now is a good time to sell a home, an increase from 40 percent the month before and up from July 2013 when 40% felt it was a good time to sell. Continue Reading → Where are the best buyers markets in St Louis? Can a home buyer still find a great deal in St Louis? These are questions we hear frequently today as the St Louis real estate markets continues to improve and many neighborhoods have a shortage of homes for sale thereby creating a sellers market. Let your heart not be troubled though, there are still some buyers markets in St Louis where the buyer has the upper hand. What makes a neighborhood a buyers market? For the sake of this discussion, I am using our market action index to determine where the Continue Reading → Mortgage interest rates fell to an average of 4.13 percent in July on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, marking the lowest mortgage interest rate we have seen in over a year. The last time mortgage interest rates were this low was back in June of 2013 when the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.07 percent, according to the latest data from Freddie Mac. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ] Search St Louis Homes For Sale HERE Source: Freddie Mac St Louis foreclosure activity was on the decline again in July with a total of 485 foreclosure actions taking place in the St Louis MSA during the month which equates to foreclosure activity on 1 of every 2,573 housing units, according to data released this morning by RealtyTrac. This represents a decline in St Louis foreclosure activity of 19.57% from the month before and a decline of 59.0% from July 2013. As the table below shows, with the exception of Franklin County, all of the major Missouri counties of the St Louis MSA saw a decline in foreclosure activity from Continue Reading → Cash sales accounted for more than 1 in 5 (21.7%) St Louis home sales in July 2014, a slight decrease from a year ago when cash sales accounted for 22.1% of home sales. The median price of these cash home sales in July 2014 was $162,000, 3.3% higher than a year ago when the median price was $156,810. St Louis foreclosures sold during the month of July 2014 were cash sales more than half the time (56.5%), an increase of 7.3% from a year ago when cash sales accounted for 52.7% of St Louis foreclosure sales. The median price of Continue Reading → The largest price gains in home prices over the past year are found in a variety of St Louis area neighborhoods however there is a concentration of them in the 40 corridor from mid-county to west county. In compiling data for this article, I looked at what I feel is the best indicator of home price change, price per square foot, and selected neighborhoods that had at least a 10% increase in home prices during the past 12 months. There are charts below showing the price per foot for the past year for each specific neighborhood as well as our Continue Reading → St Louis home prices have increased in the past year and you can find out by how much, as well as a ton of other useful information on the St Louis real estate market, such as where the HOT SELLERS MARKETS are in St Louis, the GOOD BUYERS MARKETS (down to just 11 neighborhoods this month) and a whole lot more in our 5-Minute Market Update Video For August 2014 below. Many areas of St Louis have become sellers markets due to increasing demand and lack of inventory. If you have considered selling, or perhaps tried and failed in the Continue Reading → Homeowners Insurance is something that most homeowners have, but many don’t necessarily understand all the nuances of their policy or, in the case of policies that may have been originally purchased years ago, may not know that they don’t have sufficient coverage today. If there are problems with the policy or with the company the policy is issued by, the time you find out is typically after a loss is suffered and the homeowner goes through the claim process. Continue Reading → Today, RealtyTrac released a new report which revealed that, as of the 2nd quarter of 2014, affordable housing is on the decline in one-third of the largest counties in the U.S. In compiling the report, the historical average for income to price affordability percentages were analyzed and the results showed that one-third of the counties analyzed now have higher affordability percentages than their historical average now making homes in those counties less affordable now than they have been on average over the past 14 years. On the positive side, no St Louis area counties were on that list Continue Reading → Villa’s are becoming increasingly popular in St Louis evidenced by the increase in online searches by home buyers searching for a Villa. Let’s get to the question that may be going through your mind right now, what is a “Villa”, or more accurately, what type of housing in St Louis is the term “Villa” being applied to? The term “Villa” has to be one of the most misapplied terms used in the housing industry today as it’s origin goes back to Roman times when “Villa” referred a large country estate owned by a wealthy person. Today however, Villa refers more Continue Reading → A new study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reveals for each $1,000 increase in the price of a new home (median-priced new home) forces 206,000 prospective home buyers out of the market. Continue Reading → Missouri, along with it’s affordable home prices, also has the 3rd lowest mortgage closing costs according to data just released today by BankRate. According to the report, in Missouri, the average mortgage closing costs on a $200,000 home loan are $2,387.00, almost 6% less than the national average of $2,539.00. Holden Lewis, senior mortgage analyst at Bankrate, said mortgage closing costs have risen 6 percent in the past year and says “new mortgage regulations are the biggest reasons why closing costs went up“. Texas, at $3,046, had the highest closing costs in the nation, followed by Alaska at $2,897 and Continue Reading → St Louis Condo sales have steadily grown over the past 3 years from 2,216 sales for the 12 month period ended June 30, 2011 to 3,141 sales for the 12 month period ended June 30, 2014, an increase of 41.8% in that 3 year period. I think this is the result of actually two things; one, the recovery of the St Louis housing market which we are in the midst of, as well as greater acceptance of condominiums for a residence by St Louisan’s. During the same period, St Louis home sales, as the chart below illustrates, have increased as Continue Reading → The rental vacancy rate in the U.S. was at 7.5% for the 2nd quarter of 2014, down from 8.3% the quarter before and at the lowest level in 20 years, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. rental vacancy rate has not been this low since the 4th quarter of 1994 when the rate was 7.4%. Here in the Midwest region of the U.S., the rental vacancy rate was 7.5% during the 2nd quarter of 2014, the lowest rate in 16 years! The last time the Midwest Region of the U.S. saw rental vacancy rates Continue Reading → The home ownership rate in the use for the 2nd quarter of 2014 was 64.7 percent, a small decline from 64.8 percent in the previous quarter and the lowest rate of home ownership in the U.S. we have seen since the 2nd quarter of 1995 when the rate was the same, 64.7%, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Here in the Midwest region of the country, the home ownership rate in the 2nd quarter of 2014 was 69.6%, an increase from 69.3% the quarter before. Unlike the U.S. home ownership rate which is the same now Continue Reading → St Louis pending home sales slipped slightly in June with 2,301 pending home sales for the 5-county core St Louis market (St Louis City and the County’s of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), a decline of 2 percent from the Month before when there were 2,350 pending home sales. Pending home sales in St Louis in June were up 5.18% from June of last year, however, year-to-date pending home sales through June 30th of this year is at 11,606, down 7 percent from this time last year when there were 12,476 homes sold during the same period. Below Continue Reading → St Louis County will hold it’s annual sale of tax delinquent property next month on August 25, 2014, beginning at 10:00 am in the County Council Chambers in the County Administration Building in Clayton. To be eligible to bid you must register prior to bidding. Registration will begin at 8:30 am on the tax sale day in the office of the Collector of Revenue in the County Administration Building. A complete list of all properties available for bid, as well as complete instructions on how to participate in the tax sale, can be found online here. For more Continue Reading → |
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