By Dennis Norman, on August 11th, 2011
Finally some good news for the St. Louis Real Estate Market! This morning RealtyTrac released their foreclosure activity report for the St. Louis metro area for July 2011 showing that foreclosure activity in the St. Louis metro area in July was down 8.77 percent from the month before and down a whopping 35.46 percent from a year ago!
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By Robert Fishel, on August 10th, 2011
Credit Scores have and always be a hot topic in any economy. Recently, Jim Gallagher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch wrote an article regarding consumers that “fork over $1 billion a year to the credit agencies and credit monitoring services to obtain their credit scores.” But the scores they get probably aren’t the ones a lender will use to judge their credit worthiness.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 10th, 2011
This morning, Trans Union released a report showing the national mortgage delinquency rate (the rate of borrowers 60 or more days past due) decreased for the sixth consecutive quarter, dropping to 5.82% at the end of the second quarter in 2011 which is a 5.98 percent from the prior quarter, the largest quarterly decrease in 2 years.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 8th, 2011
A report by MortgageDaily.com shows that 20 percent fewer borrowers obtained a home loan in the second quarter of 2011 than in the first quarter. The report also shows that Wells Fargo again this quarter originated more home loans than any other lender in the U.S.
Originations Rank Q2 2011 Q1 2011 Q2 2010 1 Wells Wells Wells 2 BofA BofA BofA 3 Chase Chase Chase 4 Ally Citi Ally 5 Citi PHH Citi Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 5th, 2011
Clear Capital just released their housing market report which, based upon data available through and including July 2011, has ranked the 15 best and worst performing housing markets in the U.S. based upon their quarter-over-quarter change in home prices. St. Louis came in number 4 on the list of best performing metros with a 12.5 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in home prices! See all the results below:
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By Dennis Norman, on August 5th, 2011
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) 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, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 4th, 2011
A report released by CoreLogic shows U.S. home prices increased in June 2011 by 0.7 percent from the month before, marking the third consecutive month-over-month increase. However, U.S. home prices in June 2011 decreased 6.8 percent from the year before. If we take the distressed sales (foreclosures, REO’s and short-sales) then year-over-year home prices declined by 1.1 percent in June 2011 from June 2010.
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By Robert Fishel, on August 4th, 2011
Over the past years, many of Americans pulled money out their homes through “cash-out” refis. Today, many of my clients are bringing cash into their refinance transactions. Money is flowing in the opposite direction.
You might consider bringing cash to close your refinance to:
1. Lower your mortgage rate: If your LTV is close to the 80% Loan to Value (LTV) threshold, then bringing money to the table to push your LTV below 80% can get the borrower a better rate.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 1st, 2011
RealtyTrac released their Midyear 2011 Metro foreclosure report showing that foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis in 178 out of the nation’s largest 211 metropolitan areas which is some much needed good news!
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By Dennis Norman, on July 29th, 2011
Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for June shows an increase of 2.4 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a whopping 19.8 percent increase from a year ago. This is the second month in a row that the index increased on a year-over-year basis.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 29th, 2011
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) 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, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
By Robert Fishel, on July 28th, 2011
One Additional Mortgage Payment a Year
There’s a simple trick to significantly reduce the length of your mortgage and save you thousands of dollars. The trick is to make one extra mortgage payment a year and apply that payment toward your loan’s principal.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 26th, 2011
Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for June 2011 showing a decrease of 1.0 percent from the month before, and an increase of 1.6 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for June was 312,000 homes, down from 315,000 the month before and is a rate that if we finish 2011 at will make 2011 new home sales the lowest since the Commerce Department began keeping track of sales in 1963.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 26th, 2011
Dennis Norman
This morning, the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for May was released showing US home prices increased for the second consecutive month with average home prices in the U.S. being about the same as they were in the summer of 2003. The report shows their 20-city composite home price index increased by 1.0 percent from the month before and declined by 4.5 percent from a year ago. and the 10-city composite home price index increased by 1.1 percent from the month before and was down 3.6 percent from the year before.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 25th, 2011
A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, shows mortgage delinquencies increased 2.4 percent in June from the month before and decreased 14.7 percent from the year before. According to the report, the U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate declined 0.2 percent from the month before but increased 12.8 percent from the year before.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 22nd, 2011
Radarlogic, real estate data and analytics company that frequently disagrees with the National Association of REALTORS® view of the housing market, released their RPX Monthly Housing Market Report for May 2011 yesterday and in it had a scorecard showing how their rather bleak predictions they made at the end of 2010 for the 2011 housing market were holding up. Unfortunately, as you will see below, it seems many of their predictions have been accurate and the housing market is performing as poorly as they expected in many areas.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 22nd, 2011
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) 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, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 21st, 2011
As we watch the values of our homes drop, we would expect to see our county assessor’s valuations drop as well, resulting in lower property taxes. However, that is not the case in many counties as homeowners find their homes being valued higher by assessor’s than the market value is. Well, according to a survey conducted by FindLaw.com, one in four homeowners are doing something about it and challenging the assessed value of their homes. The good news? According to the responses, the majority who did so say they were successful in lowering their tax bills!
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By Robert Fishel, on July 21st, 2011
Over the last few months, I have had a few inquiries from parents of college-bound children about investment properties. The combination of low home prices, low interest rates, and a large inventory of foreclosure and short-sale homes have made buying much more attractive for parents of college-bound children.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 20th, 2011
Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in June were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.77 million units which is a decrease of 0.8 percent from the month before, a decrease of 8.8 percent from a year ago and is the lowest rate of home sales since November 2010 when it was 4.64 million.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 19th, 2011
The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued their report on New Residential Construction for June 2011 showing a very slight increase in single-family home building permits from the month before (0.2 percent), and a 9.4 percent increase in new home starts compared to the month before.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 18th, 2011
A report just released by Zillow.com shows that current home sellers who purchased their homes “after the bubble” (2007 or after) are overpricing their homes by more than sellers that bought during the bubble (2002-2006) or before the bubble (pre-2002). According to the report, current sellers that bought post-bubble are overpricing their homes by an average of 14.1 percent, compared with sellers that bought during the bubble that are overpricing their homes by an average of 9.3 percent and the sellers that purchased pre-bubble are overpricing by 11.6 percent. Hmm, notice a theme? On average, ALL sellers are overpricing their Continue Reading →
By News Desk, on July 15th, 2011
KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former real estate agent and a former loan officer are among five co-defendants who have pleaded guilty in federal court to their roles in an $11 million mortgage fraud scheme that involved upscale homes in Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs, Liberty, Parkville, and elsewhere.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 15th, 2011
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) 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, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 14th, 2011
RealtyTrac released their Midyear 2011 foreclosure report this morning showing a total of 1,170,402 U.S. properties received foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled foreclosures and bank REO’s) in the first six months of 2011, a 25 percent decrease from the prior six months and a 29 percent decrease from the first half of 2010.
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By Robert Fishel, on July 14th, 2011
The home-buying process can be a little intimidating for not only first-time home-buyers but also repeat home-buyers. Here is a basic outline of the home-buying process as well as recommendations of how to approach each task which I hope will help you with this process:
Get pre-qualified for a loan: talk with your mortgage banker.
Determine your “mortgage goals.” What are your expectations? If everything falls into place, what mortgage payment “range” you would be comfortable with? Review your credit history and sources of income. How much money are you willing to commit to buying a home; do you have Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 13th, 2011
Typically from early spring until late summer is a busy season for the real estate market with increased home sales as people try to make their move without fighting winter and in time to have their kids in place before the new school year. Now, thanks to a report by Intersections, Inc., a company that provides address monitoring and credit monitoring services, I realize that it is also a season of increased identify theft. They say the risk of identity theft during a move is a result of personally identifiable information being shuffled around from one home to the next Continue Reading →
By Bob Sargent, on July 12th, 2011
Would you like to buy one of those foreclosure or REO bargains, but don’t have the cash to have the necessary work done? There’s a new rehab loan program in St. Louis that will help homeowners do just this! This program allows buyers to buy Bank Owned or Foreclosed Property (let’s call them “distressed homes”) and also borrow funds for the rehabilitation of these properties.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 11th, 2011
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced last week, the launch of the Emergency Homeowner’s Loan Program (EHLP) to help homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure. This program is available in 27 states and is available to homeowners who have experienced a reduction in income due to:
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By Dennis Norman, on July 8th, 2011
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) 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, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
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