St Louis Real Estate News - Page 95 of 111 - Daily St. Louis real estate news, market analysis, home prices, and mortgage rate updates from local industry professionals.

Has The Rate of Home Ownership Dropped to an All-Time Low?

By Dennis Norman, on December 31st, 2010

As 2010 quickly comes to an end I sat here early this morning pondering the real estate market and reading reports on the housing industry. One thing that caught my attention was an article titled “The Mortgage Interest Deduction and Negative Equity” by Ted Gayer, the co-director of economic studies at the Brookings Institute (and occasional contributor to this blog). Ted’s article made some interesting points related to the mortgage interest deduction, negative equity and home-ownership rates in the U.S.

In his article Ted states “It seems semantically incorrect to call someone who owes more on an asset than it’s Continue Reading →

Pending home sales rise in November

By Dennis Norman, on December 30th, 2010

Dennis Norman

The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for November shows an increase of 3.5 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 5.0 percent decrease from a year ago.

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Co-Signing for your childs loan; St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Dennis Norman, on December 30th, 2010

As your kids grow up, you support them through their bumps and bruises, pay for their braces, school and much, much more.

Over the past few years, I have run into the issue of young adults not being able to qualify for a mortgage without a parent’s help. So, the big question is: should you offer to co-sign on your child’s loan? Your kid may need something more than your money…

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Home Prices: The Coming ‘Double Dip’

By Dennis Norman, on December 29th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Yesterday the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for October was released and was filled with bad news on the housing market. The report revealed that home prices decreased in all 20 metro areas covered by the report from their September levels and only four of the metro’s showed a year-over-year price gain in October.Furthermore, six metros – Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Portland (OR), Seattle and Tampa – hit their lowest levels since home prices started to fall in 2006 and 2007.

This news comes at a time when we have seen a couple of bits of positive news on Continue Reading →

Making Appraisers the Scapegoat

By Dennis Norman, on December 28th, 2010

It seems we always need to find someone to blame for our problems…

When it comes to the meltdown in the housing market that has taken place over the past three years there has been no lack of finger pointing by many inside and outside the industry as to factors that either caused or contributed to the collapse of the housing market. Sub-prime lending, Wall Street, mortgage fraud, the mortgage industry, banks, community reinvestment act, real estate brokers and agents, fannie mae, freddie mac, federal government over-regulation, federal government under-regulation, appraisers, unemployment, the economy in general, “flipping”, sellers, buyers and Continue Reading →

Justice Department Settles Disability Discrimination Case Against Property Management Company for $1.25 Million

By News Desk, on December 27th, 2010

The Justice Department today announced a $1.25 million agreement with Warren Properties Inc., Warren Village (Mobile) Limited Partnership and Frank R. Warren to settle allegations that the defendants violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing to grant a tenant’s requests for a reasonable accommodation. This settlement is the largest ever obtained by the department in an individual housing discrimination case.

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Merry Christmas!

By Dennis Norman, on December 25th, 2010

New home sales and prices increase in November

By Dennis Norman, on December 23rd, 2010

Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for November 2010 showing an increase of 5.50 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 21.2 percent from a year ago.

The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for November was 290,000 homes, a 5.5 percent increase from October’s revised rate of 275,000 homes. The supply of new homes on the market decreased from an adjusted 8.8 month supply in October to a 8.2 month supply in November. The median new home price increased for the month to $213,000 from $197,200 Continue Reading →

MHDC’s Cash Assistance Loan; St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Robert Fishel, on December 23rd, 2010

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 completely forgivable after five years of continuous occupancy. New, Constant Funding means MHDC will have the monies available for the borrowers regardless of bond issuance.

For more information about this program, go to http://www.box.net/shared/s2x9zriz1g or www.MHDC.com .

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Mortgage Defaults Increase In November

By Dennis Norman, on December 23rd, 2010

A report released this week by Standard & Poor’s and Experian showed an increase in monthly default rates on first mortgages to 3.05 percent and an increase in default rates on second mortgages to 1.80 percent. The increase in default rates for first mortgages is the first increase since December 2009. The good news is that even though the rate in November increased, it is still down 34.84 percent from a year ago at the same time.

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Existing home sales increase in November; Down almost 28 percent from a year ago

By Dennis Norman, on December 22nd, 2010

Today’s existing home sales report from theNational Association of REALTORS(R) shows existing home sales in November were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.68 million units which is an increase of 5.6 percent from October and is a decline of 27.9 percent from a year ago.

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Study shows immigrants could be key to future housing market

By Dennis Norman, on December 22nd, 2010

Great Desire to Own a Home by Growing Ethnic and Immigrant Populations Could Drive Future of the Housing Market

Fannie Mae just released a report which included a study on “Renting and Owning Behaviors by Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration Status and Economics of Owning and Renting Through the Cycle and Across Geographies” in which was shown that “all racial and ethnic groups polled, as well as immigrants, strongly aspire to own a home, despite current disparities in homeownership rates for these groups.“

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2011 Real Estate Market Expected to Show Some Improvement

By Dennis Norman, on December 21st, 2010

Ah, it is so much fun to be able to write something positive about the real estate market!

According to an economic outlook report just issued by Fannie Mae, our country’s economy should “kick into higher gear” by the second quarter of 2011. This positive outlook is the result of improvements in consumer spending, consumer confidence, increased demand for goods and services and falling unemployment claims.

For 2011, Fannie Mae, in their December 2010 forecast, is forecasting growth of 3.4 percent which is an improvement from the 2.9 percent growth in 2011 they previously forecast. The big caveat is that Continue Reading →

Foreclosures on the rise in November however mortgage delinquences decline

By Dennis Norman, on December 20th, 2010

A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, is somewhat encouraging as it shows the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (not including foreclosures) for October was 9.02 percent which is a decrease of almost 3 percent from October’s rate of 9.29 percent.

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Freddie Mac Extends Foreclosure Protection for Service Members Through 2011

By Dennis Norman, on December 20th, 2010

Freddie Mac, one of the nation’s largest investors in conforming, conventional mortgages, announced it will delay initiating foreclosure for at least nine months for financially troubled service members who are released from active duty through the end of 2011 and have Freddie Mac-owned mortgages.

“Our military make sacrifices every day to protect our homes and families,” said Anthony Renzi, Executive Vice President of Single Family Portfolio Management at Freddie Mac. “This small act will protect financially troubled service members when they return from active duty by giving them more time to work with their lender to stay in their home.”

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Remodeling report shows which projects bring most return

By Dennis Norman, on December 17th, 2010

The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) published its’ “Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report” for this year and in it rated exterior replacement projects among the most cost-effective home improvement projects. This reinforces something most REALTORS will tell you which is that a homes curb appeal plays a significant role in the sale of the home.

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Twenty-three percent increase in price reductions by home sellers

By Dennis Norman, on December 16th, 2010

A new report release by Trulia reveals that, in December, the number of listings with at least one price cut grew to 27 percent which is a 23 percent increase from December 2009 when 22 percent of the listings had at least one price cut. In terms of the size of the price cut, that has remained about the same at 11 percent.

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Online Mortgage Qualifier; St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Robert Fishel, on December 14th, 2010

The first step in buying a house is determining your budget.

This calculator steps you through the process of finding out how much you can borrow. Fill in the entry fields and click on the “View Report” button to see a complete amortization schedule of your mortgage payments:

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Survey shows consumers don’t comparison shop for mortgages

By Dennis Norman, on December 14th, 2010

A survey conducted by Harris Interactive, for Lending Tree, shows that consumers do not comparison shop when it comes to their home mortgage, instead borrowers often “lock in” their first home loan offer. The survey shows 96 percent of consumers compare prices when shopping for anything, but nearly 40 percent obtain just one home loan quote. An interesting comparison given was when shopping for a home computer, consumers check out and research an average of 3.1 models before making a purchase. This probably helps explain why, according to the survey, only 28 percent of borrowers stated they were “very confident” Continue Reading →

Homeowner Negative Equity Declines for Third Straight Quarter

By Dennis Norman, on December 13th, 2010

A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows negative equity declined in third quarter of 2010 for residential properties, marking the third-consecutive quarterly decline. The CoreLogic reports that 10.8 million, or 22.5 percent, of all residential properties with mortgages were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2010, down from 11.0 million and 23 percent in the second quarter. While the decline is good news, the bad news is that the report states the decline is “due primarily to foreclosures of severely negative equity properties rather than an increase in home values.”

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Reverse Mortgages: Advantages and Disadvantages

By Bob, on December 13th, 2010

I have been hearing a lot of talk about Reverse Mortgages (aka Lifetime Mortgages) lately so I decided I wanted to find out a little bit more about them. Upon first hearing about them, I thought that they were a terrible idea, but after finding out a little bit more, I can now at least see some of the potential advantages to having one. Either way, I am not a mortgage expert and most of what is included in the article was what I found during a couple hours of research about them – so if you see anything that Continue Reading →

Are Reverse Mortgages Safe for Seniors?

By Dennis Norman, on December 10th, 2010

Ah, the reverse mortgage battle continues…Consumers Union says their risky and dangerous; RetireSafe, a grassroots organization that advocates on behalf of seniors says they provide financial independence to Seniors…so who’s right?

First off, I have to say that I personally feel reverse mortgages offer an excellent opportunity for seniors to live a better life, or get them through a tough financial period, by tapping the equity in their homes. I have written before about a friend of mine, Tom Carter, who has helped dozens of seniors over the years with reverse mortgages. Having said that, obviously, like almost Continue Reading →

Former Employee of Florida Property Management Company Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud

By News Desk, on December 10th, 2010

A former residential sales manager at a Florida property management company pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with housing repair contracts for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Justice announced this week.

Benjamin K. Graves, formerly a residential sales manager at West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla., to wire fraud. According to the one-count felony charge filed on Nov. 12, 2010, in the Middle District of Florida, Ocwen managed foreclosed properties under contract with the VA, which guaranteed qualifying residential mortgages for Continue Reading →

Zillow Report: U.S. Homes Set to Lose $1.7 Trillion in Value During 2010

By Dennis Norman, on December 9th, 2010

Report by Zillow estimates that U.S. Homes have now lost $9 Tillion in value since Market Peak

U.S. homes are expected to lose more than $1.7 trillion in value during 2010, which is 63 percent more than the $1 trillion lost in 2009, according to a report released by Zillow.com. That brings the total value lost since the market peaked in June 2006 to $9 trillion.

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Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Prime Lending to Resolve Allegations of Lending Discrimination

By News Desk, on December 9th, 2010

Settlement Provides $2 Million to African-American Borrowers Who Paid Higher Interest Rates

PrimeLending, a national mortgage lender with 168 offices in 32 states at the end of 2009, has agreed to pay $2 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against African-American borrowers between 2006 and 2009.

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Cash-In Refis; St. Louis Mortgage Rate Update

By Robert Fishel, on December 8th, 2010

CASH-IN REFIS…

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.

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St Louis Area Single Family Building Permits Up over 12 Percent

By Dennis Norman, on December 8th, 2010

According to information released by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri (HBA), building permit activity in the St. Louis area through October of this year, is up over 12 percent from the same time last year.

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Survey shows Americans not expecting housing market recovery until after 2012

By Dennis Norman, on December 7th, 2010

Today, Trulia and RealtyTrac released the latest result of their ongoing survey tracking the attitude of homebuyers toward foreclosed homes. The most recent survey, conducted in early November by Harris Interactive, showed that Americans are still concerned about the health of the housing market with 58 percent of adults survey expecting a housing recovery to take at least another two years.

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Survey Results are in – Sixty One percent think a home is a good investment

By Dennis Norman, on December 3rd, 2010

For those that frequent this site you have probably noticed (and perhaps even participated in) an informal survey we were running on the site. For about the past four months we have asked the question: “Is a home a good long-term investment?” and the results are in:

61 percent of the respondents said Yes 39 percent of the respondents said No

So there you have it….In spite of the real estate recession, which has been with us for too long now, about 3 out of 5 people still look at a home as a good long-term investment.

For what it’s Continue Reading →

Pending home sales increase over 10 percent in October; Mortgage Interest Deduction vital to Recovery

By Dennis Norman, on December 2nd, 2010

Dennis Norman

The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for October shows an increase of 10.4 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 20.5 percent decrease from a year ago.

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