According to the latest estimates by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), there are approximately 2 million licensed real estate agents in the United States. Last year, according to the NAR, there were a total of 5.341 million existing homes sold which equates to one agent for every 2.67 homes sold during the year in the U.S. Wow, talk about competition! Granted, not all licensed agents sell residential real estate as many focus us on commercial real estate, including industrial, retail, office, multi-family, and land, and others focus on farms, large tracts of land, recreational property, etc. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of competition in the real estate industry.
As of last month, there are 1,327,880 real estate agents that are members of the National Associaton of REALTORS® (NAR) and, according to a survey done by NAR of its membership, 70% of their members (929,516) list residential real estate brokerage and their primary field of practice.
How to choose a good real estate agent….
One question that is frequently asked by people interested in buying or selling a home is how should they choose a real estate agent? You can find extensive information on how to choose a good agent at AvoidBadAgents.com, but below is a list of questions to consider asking an agent you are considering working with:
Are you a full-time real estate agent?
Are you a REALTOR®?
How long have you been an agent?
What professional designations and industry awards have you received?
How do they communicate?
Do they know technology and does their firm use it for your benefit?
During the first quarter of this year, there were foreclosure filings on 1,948 properties in the St. Louis MSA, which equates to 1 foreclosure filing for every 51 housing units, according to the latest data from ATTOM Data Research. As the table below, which shows data for the 20-largest metro areas in the U.S., shows, this foreclosure rate puts St Louis at number 7 on the list in terms of foreclosure rate.
The median rental vacancy rate for the St Louis metro area during 2018 was 6.8%, according to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. This rate marks the lowest annual median rental vacancy rate for St Louis since the U.S. Census Bureau’s reports which began in 2005.
As the table below shows, the vacancy rate for the 4th quarter of 2018 was 6.6%, down from 6.9% the quarter before and down from 9.2% a year ago.
There were 3,143 home “flips” in the St Louis metro area during 2018, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Research. With 7.4% of homes sold in St Louis being a flip in 2018, this is a decline of 3.7% from a year ago. The peak number of flips in St Louis came in 2005 when there were 4,426 homes flipped.
What is meant by “flipped” home?
ATTOM Data considers any home or condo that was sold during the third quarter of this year in an arms-length sale that had previously had an arms-length sale within the prior 12 months as well as a “flip”. Since homeowners don’t tend to buy a home only to turn around and resell it within a year, when this does occur it is typically the result of an investor buying a property, renovating it, then reselling it.
Jefferson County, with an estimated population of 221,577 during 2018, had 317 foreclosure filings during 2018, giving it the highest rate of foreclosure filings per capita, at 1 foreclosure filing for every 699 in population, of the all the Missouri counties with a population of 50,000 or greater. As the table below shows, the three Missouri counties with the highest foreclosure rate per capita are all located within the St Louis MSA and Boone County, in the Columia MSA, has the lowest foreclosure rate in the State.
Yesterday, I wrote an article about the number of foreclosures in St Louis during 2018 dropping to the lowest number in over 12 years, however, in spite of that good news, St Louis still has the 8th highest rate of foreclosure among the 20 largest metro areas in the U.S.
According to data just released by ATTOM Data Research, as the table below shows, during 2018 St Louis had a foreclosure filing for 1 of every 180 housing units. This rate puts St Louis at the 65th highest rate of the 219 MSA’s in the U.S. with a population of over 200,000 and at the 8th highest rate of the 20 largest MSA’s. Worth noting is St Louis barely made the list of 20 largest MSA’s coming in at 19th largest based upon population.
As evidence of just how much the St Louis housing market has improved since the housing bubble burst a little over a decade ago, as well as a testimony as to the strength of our economy, the number of St Lous homeowners thatlost their homes to foreclosure last year dropped to the lowest level in over 12 years.
As the tables below show, during 2018, 6,882 homeowners in the St Louis metro area received a notice of a foreclosure filing from their lender on their property, a decline of 6% from the prior year when 7,323 homeowners received a foreclosing filing notice. The number of foreclosure filings in St Loius during 2018 was down 68.3% from 2010 when the number of foreclosures in St Louis hit a record high with 21,741 homeowners receiving a foreclosure filing notice.
Early Christmas evening, the commercials began for “after Christmas” sales by anxious retailers that couldn’t even wait until after Christmas to tell everyone what great bargains can be had. Well, the same holds true for residential real estate in terms of bargain prices at this time of year. It’s no secret that the number of homes sold, as well as prices, decline during this time of year, but I don’t know that would-be home buyers realize just how much they can save if they buy a home during this slow season.
As the STL Market Chart (exclusively from MORE, REALTORS) below shows, the median price of homes sold (the red line) dropped to the lowest level of the season in January earlier this year and in February the year before. The number of homes sold (the pink line) always hit its lowest level around the same time. Historically, this happens every year around the same time when the market is good as well as when it is not. As the chart shows, the home prices in November remained the same as October, but the number of home sales dropped significantly and prices will follow no doubt. Worth noting is that in January of this year, home prices hit their seasonal low at $168,444 but then by April, just 3 months later had increased 12.5% to $189,500 and finally peaked in June at $204,900, a 21.6% increase from January’s low.
Mortgage delinquency rates, the precursor to foreclosures, continue to fall as the real estate market continues to perform well. The 30-plus day mortgage delinquency rate for June 2018 fell to 4.3% of all outstanding mortgages down from 4.6% a year ago, according to a report just released by CoreLogic. Frank Nothaft, the Chief Economist for CoreLogic, attributed the good news to “A solid labor market” going on to say that June’s national unemployment rate of 4% was “the lowest for June in 18 years“.
St Louis distressed home sales falling quickly…
With the economy and real estate market doing so well, distressed home sales (short-sales and foreclosures) continue to decline. As our chart below shows, the 12-month trend line for distressed home sales in the 5-County core St Louis market (city of St Louis and the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson, and Franklin) fell to 1,137 sales for the 12-month period ending August 2018. This is a decline of 30% in distressed home sales in St Louis, from a year ago when there were 1,632 distressed home sales during the prior 12-month period.
House flipping, something that has become quite popular among investors over the past few years and has even spawned several reality TV shows, continues to decline in terms of the number of flips. This is certainly not due to a lack of interest but instead a lack of opportunities. Many flipping opportunities are the result of foreclosures and with the mortgage delinquency rates continuing to improve resulting in declining foreclosure rates, the end result is few opportunities for investors to flip homes.
In St Louis, during the 2nd quarter of 2018, there were 835 homes flipped in the St Louis metro area, a decline of 23.0% from the quarter before and a 4.7% decline from a year ago. This is down 32.5% from the peak during the 3rd quarter of 2005 when there were 1,237 homes flipped in St Louis.
The table below shows the 2nd quarter house flipping data for St Louis, from ATTOM Data Services and includes the median size and age of the homes flipped, as well as median time to flip, prices and profits.
As the interest in investing in real estate in St Louis continues to increase, whether to buy, fix and flip or to buy and hold for rental, the number of opportunities to do so continues to decline. The primary source of “deals” for investors is typically “distressed” sales; property that has been foreclosed on and being resold, short sales or property in poor condition needing work. However, as our chart for St Louis MSA below reveals, the number of distressed home sales in St Louis has been steadily declining over the past 5 years.
The chart shows both the number of distressed sales for each month (the pink line) as well as the 12-month trend (green line) and both are on the decline. During the month of July 2018, there were 187 distressed home sales in St Louis, down 14% from 217 the month before and down 31% from last July when there were 272 distressed homes sold. For the 12-month period ended July 31, 2018, there were 2,787 distressed home sales, down 30% from the prior 12-month period when there were 3,965 distressed homes sold in the St Louis MSA.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) just announced that they have filed a formal complaint against Facebook for violating the Federal Fair Housing Act by “allowing landlords and home sellers to use its advertising platform to engage in housing discrimination“.
Some of the ways HUD alleges that Facebook platform violates the Federal Fair Housing Act include:
display housing ads either only to men or women;
not show ads to Facebook users interested in an “assistance dog,” “mobility scooter,” “accessibility” or “deaf culture”;
not show ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in “child care” or “parenting,” or show ads only to users with children above a specified age;
to display/not display ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in a particular place of worship, religion or tenet, such as the “Christian Church,” “Sikhism,” “Hinduism,” or the “Bible.”
not show ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in “Latin America,” “Canada,” “Southeast Asia,” “China,” “Honduras,” or “Somalia.”
draw a red line around zip codes and then not display ads to Facebook users who live in specific zip codes.
You can read the contents of the HUD complaint against Facebook here.
This is an example of why it is imperative that real estate agents, investors, landlords, and home sellers that choose to handle their own home sale know and understand the Federal Fair Housing Act including things that are prohibited under the Act. It never ceases to amaze me how many FSBO’s (for sale by owners) feel they are exempt from all housing laws and regulations just because they are not a real estate agent. I’m surprised as well by how many real estate agents really don’t fully understand it either and think things like what they do on Facebook is different than if done in a classified ad in a newspaper or just because a platform gives you the ability to do something (such as target just one sex) it makes it ok, which it obviously does not.
In any event, when it comes time to buy or sell real estate, I would encourage you to, first off, not try doing it on your own but use an agent, and then select an agent based upon he or she’s experience, qualifications and knowledge. A good starting point is here – “How To Choose A Real Estate Agent“.
During the first quarter of this year, there were 600 home “flips” in St Louis or about 8.6% of the homes sold in St Louis, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Research. This rate of flipped homes is up 5% from the prior quarter, however, is down 7% from a year ago. The decline certainly doesn’t have anything to do with a lack of interest by investors in flipping, it has more to do with a low inventory and declining mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates reducing the opportunities.
What is a “flipped” home?
In the report issued by ATTOM Data Research, any home or condo that was sold during the first quarter of this year in an arms-length sale that had previously had an arms-length sale within the prior 12 months as well, was considered a “flip”. Since homeowners don’t tend to buy a home only to turn around and resell it within a year, when this does occur it is typically the result of an investor buying a property, renovating it, then reselling it.
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The number of St Louis homeowners losing their homes in foreclosure declined to a total of 700 foreclosure actions in the St Louis MSA, according to the latest report from ATTOM Research. Aprils foreclosure rate of 1 in every 1,768 housing units in the St Louis MSA is a decline of 22.82% from the rate a year ago and a decline of 9.68% from the foreclosure rate for March 2018.
As the table below illustrates, of the 15 counties in the St Louis MSA covered, all but three have seen a decline in foreclosure rates from a year ago (and all of those double-digit declines at that) and two-thirds of the counties saw a decline from the month before.
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Just over 1 of every three (34%) homebuyers in 2017 were first-time homebuyers according to the With the growing population of millennials reaching an age where many are buying homes, I expect to see the percentage of first-time homebuyers increase over the next couple of years.
Many first-time homebuyers find the home buying process to be a little intimidating which is largely due to just lacking the experience of having done it before and the knowledge that is gained from the experience. However, with a time spent getting educated on the process, the fears can be calmed and the home buying experience can be a great one for a first-time buyer!
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(the summary is below but you can see the complete report by clicking the link above)
Step 1 Ask a real estate professional if current market conditions make now a good time to buy a home?
The real estate market suffered a blow when the housing bubble burst in 2008 but has now recovered and the talk for the past couple of years has been rising home prices and a shortage of homes for sale. So does this make now a bad time to buy? Step 2 Ask yourself these 3 questions to determine if now is the right time for YOU to buy?
Do you want the responsibility? Home-ownership does bring with it the responsibility to care for it and maintain it (there is no longer a landlord to call to take care of things for you); you are responsible for maintaining insurance coverage on the home, paying property taxes, subdivision association fees and, of course, your house payments on time.
Are you financially ready? DON’T BUY if you have not saved enough money to make a reasonable down-payment, pay closing costs, moving costs, etc., and still have some money left in the bank for “reserves”. Also, make sure your income is adequate to support the house payment you are taking on and if there is any doubt then either don’t buy or buy a lower-priced house, you can always move-up later down the road.
Is your income stable? If you get to this point and feel you are OK and can afford to buy a home, step back and look at the source of your income and consider how solid you think it is. Step 3 Educate yourself on the market, the process and your rights.
Even though you will be using professionals in your home purchase and, particularly if you follow the advice in this report, will select good ones, you still should educate yourself about the process to give you a better understanding as you go through it. Plus, by knowing your rights and how the deal should go, you will notice when something is not right or you are not be treated properly.
Don’t buy before checking out the resources below:
St Louis Real Estate Search -St Louis’ BEST website for searching homes for sale. Updated directly from the MLS every 5 minutes!
St Louis Market Data Live, online, information and data on the St Louis real estate market, including home prices, sales and whether an area is a buyers or sellers market.
Step 4 Pick a REALTOR® to work with you.
If you think the timing is right for you to buy a home, then the next step is to select a REALTOR® to work with you to help guide you through the process and avoid the “landmines” that are out there. Many buyers want to go it alone for a while and there are plenty of websites out there where you can search for homes for sale from now to eternity, you will save yourself a lot of time and aggravation by simply utilizing the services of a professional REALTOR® from the outset.
Step 5 Get pre-approved for a home loan
This step is important for several reasons: One, it confirms to you that you do have the financial resources to buy a house in the price range you are interested in and, two, when you provide the pre-approval letter to the seller with your offer it shows you are not only a serious buyer, but that you should be able to get a loan to buy their house. This gives you a leg-up in your negotiations over a buyer that is not as prepared.
(See The COMPLETE Report by Clicking the Link Below)
The percentage of homeowners with a mortgage in the St Louis MSA that were seriously underwater in the last quarter of 2017 was 13.8%, about half the rate from 4 years earlier, according to data just released by ATTOM Data Solutions. For this report, a homeowner is considered “seriously underwater” when the total of their home mortgage(s) is equal to, or greater than, 125% of their home’s current value.
Also shown on the table below is the percentage of equity-rich homewners in the St Louis MSA. An “equity-rich” homeowner is at the other end of the spectrum from an underwater homeowner with their mortgage total being 50% of less than the current value of their home.
You can click the table below to go to the complete information showing the data for the 5-counties that make up the St Louis core market.
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St Louis MSA Underwater Homeowners & Equity-Rich Homeowners
(Click on the table to be taken to the complete report by county)
Distressed home sales, foreclosures, bank and government-owned homes and short sales, continue to decline in St Louis as the economy and housing market continue to improve. The chart below illustrates this downward trend as, for each monthly data point, it shows the total number of distressed home sales in the 5-county core St Louis market for the prior 12-months. Plotting out the prior 12-month activity is a great way to spot trends and changes in the market. As the chart shows, for the 12-month period ending last month, November 2017, there were 1,484 distressed home sales, down over 34% from December 2015 when there were 2,263 distressed home sales during the prior 12 months.
St Louis 5-County Core Market – Distressed Home Sales- Prior 12-Month Period Monthly For Last 24 Months
(click on chart for live data)
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The real estate market in St Louis continues to improve and grow stronger, evidenced by the declining foreclosure rates being reported by ATTOM Data Solutions. For November 2017, there were 857 foreclosure actions taken on housing units within the St Louis MSA, a decline of 17.52% from the month before and a decline of 6.54% from a year ago.
St Louis MSA Foreclosure Rate – November 2017
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St Louis flipped homes accounted for 6.6% of home sales in the St Louis MSA during the 3rd quarter of 2017, the lowest level since the 3rd quarter of 2016 when flips made up 6.3% of the St Louis home sales. For the purposes of this report, a “flip” was defined as a property that was sold in an arms-length sale for the second time within a 12-month period.
Slow times are good flip times…
As the table below shows, with very few exceptions, for the 17 year period covered in the table, home flips have accounted for a larger percentage of the overall home sales in St Louis during the slow-selling seasons, the 1st and 4th quarters. This makes sense as lenders are more apt to make deals toward the end of the year to get foreclosures off the books before closing out the year.
Opportunities to flip homes in St Louis on the decline…
As our chart below the table shows, the number of distressed home sales (foreclosures, short sales, and bank-owned property) in the St Louis area has steadily declined during the past 2 years as the economy, including the housing market, continues to improve.
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The vacancy rate for rentals in St Louis during the third quarter of this year was 9.8%, significantly lower than the median vacancy rate of 11.5% for that quarter since 2004. The year to date median vacancy rate for 2017, through the first 3 quarters, is 8.1% which is tied with last years rate, the lowest in more than a decade. So it’s a good time to be a landlord in St Louis!
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Rental Vacancy Rates In The St Louis Metro Area – 2015 – 2017
(click table below for complete data going back to 2005 as well as rental rates)
Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau – Copyright 2017 – St Louis Real Estate News – All Rights Reserved[/caption]
Over the past couple of years, as the St Louis real estate market has continued performing well, mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures have continued to decline. Rising home value has also caused the number of “underwater” homeowners, also known as homeowners in a negative-equity position (meaning their mortgage balance exceeds their homes current value) to decline as well. As the table below shows, 5 of the seven St Louis area counties listed saw a decline in the number of underwater properties in the 3rd quarter of this year from a year ago. The largest decline in underwater properties was St Charles with a 35% decline. The two exceptions, the city of St Louis and St Clair County, Il, saw an increase in underwater property of 2% and 14% respectively.
St Louis Underwater (Negative-Equity) Properties – 3rd Quarter 2017
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As of the end of September, in thecity of St Louis, 7,265 of the 104,288 residential properties in the city were vacant, giving the city a vacant property rate of 6.97 percent, the 2nd highest of all the counties in the U.S., according to a newly released report by ATTOM Data Solutions. The number of vacant properties in the city of St Louis increased 4.4% from the same time last year. Baltimore Maryland had the highest vacant property rate at 8.14 percent.
As the table below shows, St Clair County, Illinois was the next St Louis area county on the list coming in at number 11, followed by Madison County, Illinois at #42, St Louis County at #47.
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St Louis Area Vacant Property Rate By County- 3rd Quarter 2017
More Than 100 Zombies In The St Louis Area!
“Zombie” is the name that has been given to vacant property which delinquent mortgages and destined for foreclosure, not but in foreclosure yet. These properties are in a “no man’s land” so to speak, and often become an eyesore and a burden on the neighborhood as well as city located in. As the table below shows (compiled from the ATTOM Data report), St Clair County, IL has the highest number of “Zombies” at 99 and also has the highest Zombie foreclosure rate at 14.39%.
St Louis Area Zombie Foreclosures By County- 3rd Quarter 2017
On a national level, according to a report released by Corelogic, the foreclosure rate is at a 10-year low and, for the most part, mortgage delinquency rates continue to fall as real estate markets around the country continue to improve.
The state of Missouri, as well as it’s two big metro areas, St Louis and Kansas City, are following suit with improvements in mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates.
State of Missouri- Mortgage Delinquency/Foreclosure Rates:
30+ day mortgage delinquency rate improved from 5.3% of all mortgage loans a year ago to 4.5% for July 2017;
90+ day mortgage delinquency rate improved from 2.0% a year ago to 1.5% in July 2017;
Foreclosure rate improved from 0.5% a year ago to just 0.3% in July 2017
St Louis Metro Area- Mortgage Delinquency/Foreclosure Rates:
30+ day mortgage delinquency rate improved from 8.1% of all mortgage loans a year ago to 6.8% for July 2017;
90+ day mortgage delinquency rate improved from 3.7% a year ago to 3.0% in July, 2017;
Foreclosure rate improved from 1.7% a year ago to just 1.2% in July 2017
Kansas City Metro Area- Mortgage Delinquency/Foreclosure Rates:
30+ day mortgage delinquency rate improved from 5.0% of all mortgage loans a year ago to 4.1% for July 2017;
90+ day mortgage delinquency rate improved from 1.9% a year ago to 1.4% in July, 2017;
Foreclosure rate improved from 0.5% a year ago to just 0.3% in July 2017
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Home flipping accounted for 7.3 percent of all the home sales in the St Louis MSA during the 2nd quarter of this year according to a report released today by Attom Data Solutions. This is a decrease of 15% from the prior quarter when 8.6% of the homes sold were flips and is an increase of 10.6% from a year ago when 6.6% of the homes sold in St Louis were flips, according to the report. For the purposes of this report, a “flip” was defined as a property that was sold in an arms-length sale for the second time within a 12-month period.
St Louis house flipping profit margins…
During the second quarter of 2017, the median purchase price of houses that were flipped was $75,000 and the median resale price, 163 days later on average, was $129,900 for a gross profit margin of $54,900. Before you get too excited though, remember this is just the gross margin between the price paid and the price resold at. The actual net profit would be much lower as there would be costs related to the acquisition and sale of the property as well as rehab/repair costs and carrying costs, none of which is available publicly, so we can just talk about gross margins here.
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It’s no secret that here in St Louis we are little slow to embrace new trends or styles and that holds true when it comes to our housing market. I remember when I first entered the real estate business in 1979 although condominiums had become quite popular in many metropolitan areas in the U.S. at the time, since the early 60’s when the popularity began to increase, they weren’t very common here. I remember many early condominium developers in St Louis struggling to make a profit doing condo conversions (where multi-family properties were converted into the condominium form of ownership and units sold individually) as the pool of buyers was very limited. Over time, condominiums have become much more popular in St Louis and we have seen some great developments, both new as well as rehab and conversion of old apartment buildings, warehouses, etc converted into condominiums that were well received by the St Louis market.
One of the questions frequently asked by home buyers weighing their options between purchasing a condominium or a home, is which will be the better investment? Granted, many people that choose to buy a condo are buying it because of the lifestyle most likely than from the investment perspective but, nonetheless, buyers still want to have some assurance that what they are considering doing makes sense.
There are many factors to take into account to determine which would be a better investment, a house or a condo, but for the sake of discussion here I’m focusing on the price per foot each have sold for over the past 5 years. As the chart below illustrates, St Louis home prices as well as St Louis condo prices, have both enjoyed a steady upward trend over the past 5 years. From 2012 through 2014, both condos and homes in St Louis, increased at about the same rate however, in 2015, the tend lines crossed paths and condo prices started increasing at a lessor rate while home prices continued at about the same rate, or maybe a little higher even, than before. Digging into the numbers on the chart a bit (you can click on the chart to go to the “live” version which will reveal all pricing data as you move your mouse over the lines on the chart) we see:
In 2012, homes sold for $88/foot while condos sold for $91/foot
In 2015 both sold for $106/foot, an increase of 20.5% from 2012 for homes and an increase of 16.5% for condos
Thus far in 2017, homes have sold for $117/foot and condos for $113/foot.
Since 2012 St Louis metro home prices have increased 33% while St Louis Metro area condo prices have increased 24%.
Based upon this data, homes have yielded a better return than condos and, of late, the price trend for homes has been somewhat better than condos.
Condos are a lifestyle decision therefore, the lower return may be a secondary consideration. In any event, condos certainly appear to be a safe investment in St Louis even if homes may have a higher potential return on investment in general.
St Louis MSA Condo Prices vs Home Prices – Past 5 Years
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced last week that the Silver State Fair Housing Council, and ERGS, Inc., the owner/manager of four apartment complexes in Reno, Nevada, had reached an agreement to settle four Fair Housing complaints. Silver Lake State Fair Housing Council filed the complaints on September 20, 2016 against ERGS, Inc. alleging ERGS had violated the Federal Fair Housing Act by charging a pet deposit to tenants with service animals.
Under the settlement agreement, ERGS, Inc. must pay $20,500 to the Silver State Fair Housing Council as well as adopt written policies that are consistent with the Fair Housing Act and provide fair housing training for all employees who interact with tenants or applicants.
Under guidelines issued by HUD back in April 2013 it is very clear that, not only must a landlord provide reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities who required assistance animals, they must not treat the assistance animal as a pet and charge a pet deposit.
Disability-related claims are the most common type of Fair Housing complaint filed today, accounting for over 58 percent of the 4,9000 fair housing complaints filed last year.
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On June 2, 2017, in a victory for landlords, St Louis County Circuit Court Judge Gloria Clark Reno declared St Louis County’s landlord license ordinance unconstitutional. The landlord license ordinance was passed by the St Louis County Council, with a surprise vote at the Council meeting on October 18, 2015 while the council members ignored the outcries from many private property rights advocates, including the St Louis Association of REALTORS, who questioned, among other things, the constitutionality of the ordinance. The ordinance went into effect on December 31, 2015 however, as a result of a lawsuit filed by the St Louis Association of REALTORS on December 29, 2015, Judge Reno issued a temporary restraining order on January 7, 2016 prohibiting St Louis County from enforcing the ordinance.
The St Louis County landlord license ordinance, landlords were required to obtain a license annually before renting out property in St Louis County. Many aspects of the ordinance appeared to be unconstitutional and to infringe upon the private property rights of landlords causing many groups to speak out against the ordinance.
The complete order by Judge Reno is below.
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There were 1,814 foreclosure filings on homes in the St Louis metro area during the month of April 2017, an increase of 13.23% from the month before and an increase of 12.25% from April 2016, according to a report just released this morning by ATTOM Data Solutions. As the table below shows, all 7 Missouri Counties included in the report saw an increase in foreclosure activity last month from both the prior month as well as a year ago. Of those, Lincoln County (which has very little foreclosure activity) saw the largest year-over-year as well as month-over-month increase, follow by St Louis County with a 45.37% increase from the month before and Franklin County with a 71.43% increase from a year ago.
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The foreclosure rate in Missouri continues to decline with the foreclosure rate for February 2017 coming in a 0.4 percent, according to a report just released by CoreLogic. The rate for February is down slightly from a year ago when the Missouri foreclosure rate was 0.5 percent. Based upon the mortgage serious delinquency rate (90 days or more) as well as delinquency rate (30 days or more), both lead-indicators or predictors of things to come with regard to foreclosures, the foreclosure rate will continue to decline in the near term. The mortgage delinquency rate for February 2017 was 4.9%, down from 5.1% in February 2016 and the serious delinquency rate was 1.8% during February 2017, down from 2.2% a year ago.
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During the first quarter of 2017, the foreclosure rate in the St Louis metro area was one in every 487 housing units, a decline of 19.59 percent from the quarter before, and a decline of 3.61 percent from a year ago, according to a report released today by Attom Data.
As the table below shows, of the 7 counties in Missouri that are part of the St Louis MSA, 6 saw a decline in foreclosure rate from the quarter before and 5 of the 7 saw a decline from a year ago. The foreclosure rate in St Charles County during the 1st quarter increased 18.64 percent from the 1st quarter of 2016 and Franklin County saw a 43.4 percent increase in the foreclosure rate during the same period.
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Missouri Online Real Estate, Inc. 3636 South Geyer Road - Suite 100, St Louis, MO 63127 314-414-6000 - Licensed Real Estate Broker in Missouri
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