By Dennis Norman, on January 27th, 2012
Weekly I produce a short video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2012
Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for December 2011 showing a decrease of 2.2 percent from the month before, and a decrease of 7.3 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for December was 307,000 homes, down from an adjusted rate of 314,000 homes the month before. This is the first month new home sales have declined in four months and unfortunately ends the year with the lowest number of new homes sold since the Commerce Department began keeping track of sales in 1963.
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By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2012
St. Louis foreclosure activity in the third quarter of 2011 declined 15.51 percent from the quarter before and 10.12 percent from the year before, according to RealtyTrac’s foreclosure market report that was just released. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2012
Foreclosure Price 34 Percent Below Average Price of Non-Foreclosures RealtyTrac, today released its third-quarter 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report, which shows that sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the third quarter of 2011, down from 22 percent of all sales in the second quarter and down from 30 percent of all sales in the third quarter of 2010. Continue Reading →
By News Desk, on January 24th, 2012
Based on what we’ve heard, the settlement between major banks and states’ Attorneys General (AGs), the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Justice would represent an important step forward in addressing foreclosure abuses. The settlement would include key reforms to clean up unfair mortgage servicing practices. It would also provide an important template for ways banks can use principal reduction to reduce unnecessary foreclosures and put the country back on a path to economic recovery. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 23rd, 2012
Realtor.com, which claims to have more traffic on it’s website than any other real estate website in the world, released their report for December showing how 146 metro areas in the U.S. stack up in terms of popularity for home searches. St. Louis did not make the top 10, but did come in at a respectable 19 however. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 20th, 2012
St Louis Real Estate Market weekly update by St Louis REALTOR, Dennis Norman, broker-officer of MORE, REALTORS. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 20th, 2012
St Louis home sales in December increased 2.3 percent from the month before and were up 3.3 percent from a year ago. The increase in St Louis home sales follows suit with the trend in U.S. home sales as reported today by the National Association of REALTORS® which shows existing home sales in December were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.61 million units, an increase of 5.0 percent from the month before and an increase of 3.6 percent from a year ago. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 19th, 2012
Shortly after finishing my video recap of the 2011 St Louis Real Estate Market I began analyzing our market data and giving thought to the 2012 St. Louis Real Estate market. The end result? The MORE St Louis Market 2012 Forecast. For a link to my 15 minute video as well as a downloadable report, please submit your name and email address here and you will receive it immediately.
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By Dennis Norman, on January 19th, 2012
The last couple of months I have said that, “unless something changes dramatically, 2011 will hit a new record low of new home starts. Unfortunately, nothing dramatic happened, and 2011 has ended with only 428,600 new home starts setting a new record low and significantly below the prior all-time low of 445,200 starts in 2009. Continue Reading →
By Robert Fishel, on January 18th, 2012
What income is required to qualify for a mortgage? That largely depends on your monthly debt payments and the current interest rate. This calculator collects these important variables and determines your required income to qualify for your desired mortgage amount.(click here)
Mortgage interest rates have fallen this year to historical lows and with them so have the costs of home ownership. Regardless of a borrower’s loan amount, bargain-basement interest rates have brought a home buyer’s monthly mortgage payment down to levels never seen in history.
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By Dennis Norman, on January 17th, 2012
I just finished producing a video recapping the 2011 St. Louis Real Estate Market which includes, charts, graphs and facts about what took place in the St. Louis Real Estate market last year as well as where it ended up at year end.
This is a compliment to the weekly market update videos I produce that you can check out on our YouTube Channel, our facebook page or now you can subscribe to our ITUNES Podcast Channel to receive our updated market videos via podcast automatically each week! Just click here, then click on “Subscribe Free”.)
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By Dennis Norman, on January 17th, 2012
Mortgage delinquencies in December increased to 2.24 percent of all mortgages, a slight increase from the month before when delinquencies were at 2.22 percent but a decrease of over 25 percent from a year ago when the rate was 3.01 percent. The mortgage delinquency rate is something I pay close attention to because it is the “leading indicator” of foreclosures and foreclosures and REO’s are one of the major hurdles to a recovery in the housing market. Declining delinquency rates are our first clue that the housing market is headed to a recovery. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 12th, 2012
St. Louis foreclosure activity in 2011 declined 25.22 percent from the year before according to RealtyTrac’s foreclosure market report for 2011 that was just released.
As the chart below depicts, of the seventeen counties in the St. Louis metro area, all but five saw a decrease in foreclosure activity from the year before, and ten of the 17 saw a decrease from 2009.
To find foreclosures in your area click here.
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By Dennis Norman, on January 11th, 2012
First-time home buyers receive a forgivable 3% cash assistance loan for down payment and closing costs. The Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC) provides a competitive interest rate on a safe 30-year fixed rate 1st mortgage. Your 3% advance loan is treated as a 2nd mortgage and is completely forgivable after five years of continuous occupancy. MHDC will have the monies available for the borrowers regardless of bond issuance through Constant Funding. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 9th, 2012
A report released this morning by CoreLogic, one of the nations leading providers of property information shows that St Louis home prices fell in November 4.7 percent from the year before and declined by 3.8 percent from the month before. In November, the decline of home prices in St. Louis outpaced U.S. home prices which were down 4.3 percent from a year ago and 1.4 percent from the month before. Continue Reading →
By Robert Fishel, on January 4th, 2012
The National Association of Realtors’ research staff recently released its comprehensive annual report: Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers for 2011. Market researcher, Paul C. Bishop, Ph. D., Vice President and Jessica Lautz, Manager of Consumer Survey Research state that they’ve identified “trends that have not been seen in the last 10 years,” which will affect the housing market as we enter 2012. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 30th, 2011
Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS), showing average fixed mortgage rates finishing the year near their all-time historic lows. Thirty-year fixed rate mortgages averaged 3.95 percent and have been at or below 4.0 percent for the past nine consecutive weeks keeping homebuyer affordability at a near all-time high. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 29th, 2011
The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for November shows an increase of 7.3 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 5.9 percent increase from a year ago. This is the second consecutive month that the index has increased and marks the highest level the index has achieved since April 2010 when it was at 111.5. Continue Reading →
By Robert Fishel, on December 28th, 2011
The characteristics of home buyers has changed fairly significantly in just the two past years according to the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. In 2009, first-time home-buyers, encourage by tax credits, made up 47 percent of the market and in 2011 made up only 37 percent of the market. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 28th, 2011
While losing $700 Billion in value in U.S. homes in a year sounds horrible, the good news is, if we end this year around this number the total loss in home values for 2011 will be smaller than the prior four years! This information is from the newly released Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, which also predicts that nine metro areas will see gains in home values this year once the final numbers are in! With all this “good” news, we have to ask ourselves…is the worst of the real estate market crash over? I think the answer is yes, at least when it comes to the housing market. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 27th, 2011
This morning, the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for October was released showing US home prices decreased from the month before as well as the year before. The 10-city and 20-city composites fell by 1.1 percent and 1.2 percent respectively and the home price indexes were down 3.0 percent and 3.4 percent respectively from the year before. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 21st, 2011
The last couple of months I have said that, “unless something changes dramatically, 2011 will hit a new record low of new home starts. Well, the actual numbers this year will still most likely be a record low, but at least the rate of new home starts for November has now inched above the record low New home starts in November were up 2.3 percent from the prior month with the seasonally adjusted annual rate inching its way up to 447,000 homes, just slightly above the all-time low of 445,200 new home starts in 2009. Continue Reading →
By Robert Fishel, on December 21st, 2011
An extraordinary 18 percent of Realtors have experienced contract failures in the last few months according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This is double the levels of a year earlier. One of the top reasons that cause these contract cancellations is credit issues. In many cases, understanding how the credit system works would help buyers avoid problems. Utilizing a mortgage banker early in the home buying process can help educate buyers about activities that improve their credit score, such as paying bills on time. They can also learn what actions to avoid, including taking on new sources of debt like buying a car or getting a new credit card before applying for a mortgage. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 19th, 2011
The U.S. mortgage loan delinquency rate was 8.15 percent of all home loans in November, up 2.7 percent from the month before and down 9.6 percent from a year ago, according to the “First-Look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data. The foreclosure rate, on the other hand, was 4.16 percent in November, a 3.0 percent decrease from the month before and a 2.0 percent increase from a year ago. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 16th, 2011
St Louis Real Estate Market weekly update by St Louis REALTOR, Dennis Norman, broker-officer of MORE, REALTORS. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 15th, 2011
This morning Freddie Mac released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) which showed average 30-year fixed-rate mortgages matched an all time record low of 3.94 percent, and there was an all-time record low rate for 15-year fixed rate mortgages.
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By Dennis Norman, on December 15th, 2011
St. Louis foreclosure activity increased during November by 6 percent from the prior month and decreased by 18 percent from October 2010, according to RealtyTrac’s foreclosure market report that was just released. Continue Reading →
By Robert Fishel, on December 14th, 2011
Members of the armed forces who have generally served for two years in peace time, or 90 days during conflict are eligible for a guaranteed VA home loan. Members of the National Guard or Reserves who have served for six years are eligible. Widows of veterans are eligible if the veteran died in a service-related incident. There are special circumstances for some veterans regarding eligibility. A Certificate of Eligibility and DD214 are required. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 13th, 2011
Today CNBC reported that the National Association of REALTORS, the country’s leading source of existing home sales data, will be revising their home sales numbers from 2007 through October of this year downward because of “double counting, indicating a much weaker housing market than previously thought”. Continue Reading →
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