St Louis Real Estate News - Page 99 of 110 - Daily St. Louis real estate news, market analysis, home prices, and mortgage rate updates from local industry professionals.

Missouri REALTORS Face Setback but Vow to Keep Fighting Double Taxation

By Dennis Norman, on August 3rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Previously I have written about an effort supported by the Missouri Association of REALTORS (MAR) to protect Missouri homeowners from facing double taxation through a real estate transfer tax by backing an effort to amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit such a tax. Unfortunately, after Missouri citizens supported this initiative in overwhelming numbers, the effort was dealt a blow today when effort by the Missouri Secretary of State’s office announced its conclusion that the Vote “YES” To Stop Double Taxation amendment did not receive enough signatures of registered voters to qualify for the ballot.

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Pending Home Sales Hit a new Record-Low in June

By Dennis Norman, on August 3rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

NAR Pending Home Sales Index at Lowest Level Since Index Began in 2001

At dropping 30 percent in May as a result of the rush to buy a home before the April 30th tax credit deadline, the National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for June shows a further decline of 2.6 percent in the index in June (seasonally adjusted) which is 18.6 percent below June 2009. While the decrease in home sales was expected, I’m a little surprised we are running so far behind last year (which, might I remind you, wasn’t that great of Continue Reading →

Gulf Oil spill could cost coastal homeowners up to $3 Billion in home values

By Dennis Norman, on August 2nd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Report looks at impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil spill on Florida Coastal home values

According to a report released this morning by CoreLogic the impact of the BP DeepWater Horizon oil spill on home values in the coastal area’s along the Gulf coast is expected to range from $648 million over one year to as much as $3 billion over five years. This estimate is for the communities that are already impacted by the spill, if the unlikely worst-case scenario occurs and the spill reaches down to the area of the Florida Keys Continue Reading →

St. Louis Ranked 27th in 2009 For Mortgage Fraud Reports

By Dennis Norman, on July 30th, 2010

Dennis Norman

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, released their 2009 Mortgage Loan Fraud (MLF) study which found the number of mortgage fraud suspicious activity reports (SAR’s) filed in 2009 grew 4 percent compared to 2008.

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Foreclosure and Mortgage Delinquency Rates Stabilizing

By Dennis Norman, on July 30th, 2010

Dennis Norman

A report published by Lender Processing Services (LPS) analyzing homeowner’s performance on their mortgages as of June 2010 shows some encouraging news; there are signs that the foreclosure and mortgage delinquency rates are stabilizing, albeit at very elevated levels.

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Housing Market Outlook and Forecast

By Dennis Norman, on July 29th, 2010

Dennis Norman

This week I attended an event at the St. Louis Association of REALTORS® in which Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of REALTORS® was the featured speaker and gave his take on the housing market as well as his housing market outlook.

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St. Louis Foreclosures Increase in June

By Dennis Norman, on July 28th, 2010

Dennis Norman

A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in June of 1.48 percent up slightly from May’s rate of 1.46 percent and an increase of 28.7 percent from the year prior when the rate was 1.15 percent.

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Fannie Mae Tightens Rules; St. Louis Mortgage Watch

By Robert Fishel, on July 28th, 2010

Fannie Mae Rolls out New Loan Quality Initiative (LQI) Program – Tightens underwriting requirements and aims to reduce borrower fraud.

These rules could derail some closings for buyers who rack up purchases or even take out new store credit cards before their home sales have closed.

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Case-Shiller; Housing market not in any form of sustained recovery

By Dennis Norman, on July 27th, 2010

Dennis Norman

This morning S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for May was released showing that the annual growth rates in 15 of the 20 Metro Area’s their reports cover improved in May compared to April 2010. The 10-city composite is up 5.4 percent from the year before and the 20-city composite is up 4.6 percent from the year before.

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Is a home a good investment?

By Dennis Norman, on July 26th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Asking this question now is about like asking a newly divorced person their thoughts on marriage….nonetheless in challenging times many of us reflect upon our past investment decisions, investment philosophy, etc and see what can be learned from our past to help us in the future.

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New Home Sales Increase 23 percent to Second-Worst Rate on Record

By Dennis Norman, on July 26th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Yes, the headline is correct….New home sales in June were up 23 percent from May, but unfortunately the revised May annual new home sales rate of 267,000 was the lowest rate of sale on record therefore even after a 23.6 percent increase it only brought June up to 330,000 new homes, a rate that is now the second lowest new home sales rate on record. June’s new home sales rate is 16.7 percent below a year ago.

There is some good news in the report; the inventory of new homes (seasonally adjusted) at the end of Continue Reading →

Best Real Estate Markets in the U.S? Nine of Ten Zips are in California

By Dennis Norman, on July 23rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Multiple Offers and Homes Selling for prices ABOVE list price? Is this a reprint of a post from 2005?

Nope. Believe it or not, this is exactly what was in a report released this morning by Zip Realty. The report is based upon home sales activity in the second quarter of this year and says that, despite slowdowns in home sales across the country, California is still the nation’s hottest spot for home buying activity.

California was home to 91 out of the country’s 100 “hottest” zip codes in terms of home sales during the quarter. Continue Reading →

Home Prices Are Not Recovering

By Dennis Norman, on July 23rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Home sales activity was up in May, but the mix of sales shifted toward less-expensive properties in many cities throughout the U.S. according to the May 2010 Radarlogic Housing Market Report. In addition, the report states that while their home price composite index for the 25 metro areas covered did increase in May by 2.1 percent on a year-over-year basis, the “gains were not large enough to be described as a recovery” and “there was more evidence of weakness in the market than strength.”

Highlights from the report include:

Home prices have remained stagnant since the Continue Reading →

Closing of Tax Credit Induced Home Purchases Prop-Up Market in June; St Louis Tops In Price Gain Among Metros

By Dennis Norman, on July 22nd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Last month I said that I expected to see some elevated numbers in the existing home sales report for May and June since this report would reflect the actual closing of the home purchases from buyers that raced to buy before the April 30th home-buyer tax credit deadline. Even though Congress has extended the deadline to close on these purchases until August 31st, the majority of the tax-credit induced sales will have closed by June 30th and therefore be reflected in today’s report which I would say has happened.

Today’s existing home sales report from theNational Association Continue Reading →

De-Mystifying Credit Scores; Update on St. Louis Rates

By Robert Fishel, on July 21st, 2010

WHAT IS A CREDIT SCORE?

Simply stated, credit scores area statistically-based tool to assess the future performance of a borrower.

Scores are derived from the history of a borrower as it is reported to the credit repositories from any creditor. Credit scores are a proven indicator of the likelihood to repay a loan or credit obligation. The lower the score; the more risk from a borrower to repay a loan, on time and in full. Scores range from 400 to 850. This process was started by Fair, Isaac and Co., which is why credit scores are also called Continue Reading →

Mortgage Default Rates Improve In June

By Dennis Norman, on July 20th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Finally, some good news!

This morning Standard & Poor’s released their S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Index for June showing that first-mortgage default rates declined 5 percent from the month before and were down 45.2 percent from a year ago.

I have been saying for a while, we are not going to see any sort of sustainable recovery of the housing market until we see mortgage delinquency and default rates decline thereby bringing down the foreclosure rate and ultimately easing the downward pricing pressure on the housing market caused by foreclosures. Maybe, just maybe, this is the Continue Reading →

New Home Building Permits and Starts Down In June

By Dennis Norman, on July 20th, 2010

The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a their report on New Residential Construction for June 2010 showing a decrease in building permits and a decrease in new home starts from May.

The report shows the following:

Building permits issued for single-family residences in June were at an annual rate of 421,000 which is 3.4 percent below the revised May rate of 4216,000 and a decrease of 6.7 percent from a year ago when the rate was 451,000. Housing starts for single-family residences in June were at an annual rate of 454,000 Continue Reading →

St. Louis Area Property To Be Sold At Tax Sales

By Dennis Norman, on July 19th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Next month St. Louis County and St. Charles County will hold their annual collector’s real property tax sale. The City of St. Louis holds their property tax sale on five separate dates beginning in May and running through October.

The general perception among many people is that at these sales property is sold for back-taxes owed, which is not entirely accurate. Under tax sales the property owner may in fact lose ownership of their property to the purchaser at the tax sale but, in St. Charles and St. Louis County, not until after a “redemption” period Continue Reading →

Financial Reform Bill Kills HVCC; Helps Appraisers

By Dennis Norman, on July 16th, 2010

Dennis Norman

07/17/10-Correction – This past week Congress passed H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which is the most comprehensive reform to the banking industry since the Great Depression. The bill now awaits President Obamas signature which is expected to happen in the coming week.

This is a very comprehensive bill and I’m not sure even the Congressmen that passed it know everything that is in it, so I’m certainly not going to even pretend to know that much about the bill, but the one thing I do know is the Home Valuation Code Continue Reading →

Mortgage Fraud Trend Down; Still $14 Billion in 2009 Losses

By Dennis Norman, on July 16th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Missouri one of 32 States Identified as “Low” risk of mortgage fraud

According to the 2010 Mortgage Fraud Trends Report released by CoreLogic this week, fraud risk in the mortgage industry has declined by 25 percent since it peaked in the third quarter of 2007. Even though the trend is down it is still estimated that there were $14 billion in fraud losses experienced in 2009 alone.

CoreLogics’ fraud index can drill down to show states, cities and even streets that have the highest mortgage fraud risk. Highlights of the report:

Overall mortgage fraud risk has Continue Reading →

One in 78 Housing Units In U.S. In Foreclosure In First Half of 2010

By Dennis Norman, on July 15th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac there were 1,961,894 foreclosure filings in the first six months of 2010 on 1,654,634 housing units in the U.S. This reflects a 5 percent decrease from foreclosure activity for the prior 6 month period but is an 8 percent increase from the same period of 2009. What is just a sickening statistic in the report is that, during the first six months of 2010, 1.28 percent of all housing units in the U.S., or one in 78, received at least one foreclosure filing during that period.

For Continue Reading →

Questions Home-buyers should ask their lender; Update on St. Louis Rates

By Robert Fishel, on July 14th, 2010

The mortgage industry has underwent some dramatic changes in the past year as has the regulations and rules the industry must comply with. Lender’s are barely able to keep up with everything new so it’s not surprising home-buyers have many questions when it comes to obtaining a mortgage to buy a home. Therefore, I thought I would take this opportunity to provide a list of questions that a home-buyer should ask their lender that I think will be helpful. Oh, and since I am a loan officer in St. Louis, I did take the liberty of giving my Continue Reading →

One in Four Sellers Have Reduced Their Prices

By Dennis Norman, on July 14th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report released by Trulia.com, 24 percent of the homes for sale as of July 1, 2010 have experienced at least one price cut. This is a 9 percent increase from the prior month. The average discount for price-reduced homes continues to hold at 10 percent off of the original listing price.

Western U.S. Leads with Price Reduction Increases

For the first six months of this year, cities in the Western U.S. saw a reduction in their price declines, however for this month those same cities have experienced some of the largest surges Continue Reading →

St. Louis Home Prices Increase

By Dennis Norman, on July 13th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued today by CoreLogic, their home price index shows home prices in the U.S. increased in May, marking the fourth-consecutive month there was a year-over-year increase in home prices. U.S. home prices in May 2010 increased by 2.9 percent over May 2009.

St. Louis home prices did better than the U.S. average, increasing by 3.49 percent in May 2010 compared with May 2009.

No doubt some of the good news was the result of buyers rushing to buy a home before the April 30th deadline to receive tax credits. This will affect Continue Reading →

Homeowners Should Think Twice if Considering a ‘Strategic Default’

By Dennis Norman, on July 12th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Last month I wrote about a new policy implemented by Fannie Mae that would “lock-out” borrowers from getting a Fannie-Mae insured loan for 7 years if they did a “strategic default” or otherwise did not act in good faith and were foreclosed upon. In a nut shell, the borrower that Fannie Mae is targeting here is the borrower that has the financial ability to make their payments, accept a loan modification or other “work-out” from Fannie Mae but instead chooses just to walk away from their home and letting the lender foreclose.

In addition to locking Continue Reading →

‘Shadow’ Foreclosure Inventory is the 800 lb Gorilla

By Dennis Norman, on July 9th, 2010

Dennis Norman

For way too long I’ve been writing about record, or near- record, levels of foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies. My ongoing concern about this, in terms of the housing market, is that I just don’t see how we are going to have a sustainable recovery of the housing market while we have 1 in 8 homeowners with a mortgage in the U.S. currently either delinquent on their mortgage or in some stage of the foreclosure process.

Lately there has appeared to be some leveling off of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure growth is at a slowing rate, both Continue Reading →

Foreign Purchases of US Residential Real Estate Nearly Doubles

By Dennis Norman, on July 8th, 2010

Dennis Norman

I may be getting desperate to find something good to write about with regard to the Housing Market, but nonetheless I found some good news today! According to a report titled “Foreign Investment in U.S. Real Estate” that was released recently by the National Association of REALTORS®, investment in residential real estate in the U.S. by foreigners shot up by almost 80% for the 12-month period ending April 2010 from the 12 month period ending April 2009.

For the 12 month period ending April 2010 foreign purchases of residential real estate in the U.S. totaled $64 Continue Reading →

Tax Credits and Flood Insurance Extended; St Louis Interest Rates Near Historic Lows

By Robert Fishel, on July 7th, 2010

After a close brush with a deadline that could have impacted tens of thousands of home buyers, Congress passed an extension of the Home buyer Tax Credit closing deadline.

The extension is included in the Home Buyer Assistance and Improvement Act and will prevent as many as 180,000 home buyers from losing their eligibility for the tax credit. These borrowers had home purchase contracts pending as of April 30 and had until June 30 to close on their purchases to claim the federal tax credit; with this extension, these households now have until September 30 to close and still Continue Reading →

Mortgage Delinquencies Increase In May; 1 in 8 Borrowers At Risk of Losing Home

By Dennis Norman, on July 6th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Homeowners’ mortgage delinquency rates increased in May 2.3 percent from April rising to 9.2 percent of all mortgages being delinquent. This information comes from a report issued by LPS Applied Analytics, one of the largest mortgage servicers in the U.S.

According to the report there are, as of May 31, 2010, 7.3 million home mortgages currently in some stage of delinquency. After seeing a couple of months of improvement there was a turn for the worse in May of the “deterioration ratio”, the reltionship between the number of loans going to a “worse” status for every Continue Reading →

More On The Housing Boom and Bust; Cause and Effect

By Dennis Norman, on July 5th, 2010

Dennis Norman

While there has been much discussion about the causes and effects of the Housing Boom as well as the Bust (including by yours truly in prior posts) I don’t think we need to refrain from continuing to examine this part of history that is affecting millions of people across the country. Perhaps we can learn some lessons from this that will help us avoid another such collapse of the housing market in the future.

My topic today actually has a silver lining of sorts. The topic is debt and how so many homeowners across the country Continue Reading →