By Dennis Norman, on April 24th, 2013  The housing market continues to show signs that a recovery is underway with today’s report from LPS showing that mortgage delinquencies in March 2013 fell 3.13 percent from the month before and were down 3.03 percent from a year ago, according to a report just released by LPS. The foreclosure inventory rate fell slightly (0.41 percent) from the month before but was down almost 20 percent (19.61)from a year ago.
Almost all the data on the housing market, including the St Louis housing market, has been encouraging lately and pointing toward signs that a recovery is underway. Woo hoo!
Continue reading “Mortgage Delinquencies and Foreclosures Continue To Decline“
By Dennis Norman, on April 16th, 2013 St Louis Residential Construction Gets Boost From Apartment Construction
St Louis residential construction activity is on the rise with building permits increasing by almost 75 percent in the past year in the immediate St Louis area. As the table below shows, the largest increase in residential building permits came in multi-families with a 154 percent increase in permits in the area in the past year. During the same period, single family permits in St Louis were up just over 50 percent. Continue reading “St Louis Residential Construction On The Rise“
 Tyler Frank,
Paramount Mortgage
NMLS ID 942420 Home Prices Nationwide Shooting Up Faster Than Anyone Thought Possible Not Long Ago
The US housing market has broken out of a deep slump, and prices are shooting up faster than anyone thought possible a year ago.
Prices of existing homes rose 10% in February nationally from a year ago. What is causing this increase?
 Continue reading “Home Prices Set To Rise, Thanks To The Fed“
By Dennis Norman, on April 11th, 2013 
St Louis Foreclosures on 4,252 Properties During 1st Quarter 2013
St Louis Foreclosures declined 11.96 percent during the first quarter of 2013 from a year ago, according to a newly released report by RealtyTrac. According to the report, 4,252 properties in St Louis received a foreclosure filing (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) during the first quarter of 2013 which is a decline of 9.88 percent from the 4th quarter of 2012 and a 11.96 decline from the 1st quarter of 2012. Continue reading “St Louis Foreclosures Down Almost 12 Percent From Year Ago“
By Dennis Norman, on March 28th, 2013 St Louis Foreclosures Are On The Decline
The inventory of St Louis foreclosures in February was down 0.5 percent from February 2012, according to a report from Corelogic. The decline is modest, but is still good news for our St. Louis market. There were 10,733 St Louis foreclosures completed in the 12 month period ending February 2013, the 12th highest number of the major metro areas in the U.S. covered by the Corelogic report, as shown in the table below.
 Continue reading “St Louis Foreclosures Down Slightly From Year Ago“
By Dennis Norman, on March 27th, 2013 Barely over 3 month supply of homes for sale in St Louis
Home sales in the U.S. fell slightly in February from the month before, according to the National Association of REALTORS’ pending home sales index. The index slid to 104.8* in February from 105.2 in January however was still 8.4 percent higher than a year ago and at the second highest level in nearly three-year. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR, said “limited inventory is holding back the market in many areas” and that “only new home construction can genuinely help relieve the inventory shortage…”
As the chart below shows, the number of homes for sale in St Louis has declined almost 9 percent (8.9) in the past year, from 14,596 homes for sale in St Louis (St Louis MSA) in February 2012 to 13,260 homes for sale in St Louis in February 2013. During the same period the absorption rate in St Louis (homes sold or taken off the market) has increased slightly from 4,322 homes in February 2012 to 4,370 homes in February 2013. At the current absorption rate there is just over a three-month supply of homes for sale in St Louis. So, if you have thought about selling, now may be the time! For current home prices and market conditions in your area, Click Here. Continue reading “Inventory of Homes For Sale In St Louis Down Over 8 Percent“
By Dennis Norman, on March 14th, 2013  What to do if you are facing foreclosure and losing your home.
If you are not able to make the payments on your home and are afraid you are going to lose your homje in foreclosure, there is free help available to you right here in St. Louis through HUD-approved counseling agencies that can provide you with information and assistance to avoid foreclosure. The agencies can also determine if you may be eligible for a special loan modification or refinance through the Federal Government’s “Making Home Affordable” plan which may help you keep your home by reducing your payments. These are not-for profit agencies that do NOT charge you but are funded, in part, by HUD. To find an agency closest to you, see the list below. Continue reading “Free Foreclosure Avoidance Help Is Available In St Louis“
By Dennis Norman, on March 7th, 2013  St. Louis had 8 different companies that purchased 10 or more foreclosures in the St Louis area during 2012, according to the “Bulk Foreclosure Buyer” report that was just released by RealtyTrac. At the top of the list was Hfr Capital Assets LLC, with 24 purchases. Greg Daney appears to be a principal in this company and is also the CEO of loanSum.com, a local hard money lender, so my guess is most of these “purchases” were actually the result of his company foreclosing on loans his company made that the borrowers defaulted on.
Second on the list, with 19 purchases, is FB Realty LLC which appears to be a similar situation. This company is, I believe, owned by Frontenac Bank and it’s purchases were the result of the bank foreclosing on loans gone bad. Tied for second, and perhaps the first actual investor buying foreclosures as an investment, is Lewis Mitchell Company, owned by my old friend Lewis Bernstein, that also purchased 19 foreclosures during the year.
Continue reading “St Louis’ Biggest Foreclosure Buyers“
By Dennis Norman, on March 6th, 2013  If you are a homeowner then it is probably good that St. Louis did not make the list of best markets for buying short sales, but if you are a buyer hoping to get a good deal on a home then it may be a disappointment not to see St. Louis on the list. While we do have plenty of short sale opportunities here in St. Louis, our city did not make RealtyTrac’s list of the top 15 markets in the U.S. for buying short sales, but the top 15 are listed in the chart below:
Continue reading “Where Are The Best Short Sale Deals?“
By Dennis Norman, on February 28th, 2013  Almost one of every five (19.9 percent) St. Louis home sales in 2012 was a distressed sale, about 5 percent more than 2011 and 2.65 percent fewer than in 2010, according to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac. During 2012 there we 8,932 foreclosure sales in St. Louis at an average price of $93,699 or a discount of almost 40 percent (39.66 percent) compared to non-distressed home sales.
By Dennis Norman, on February 27th, 2013 The St. Louis foreclosure rate declined in December 2012 to 1.29 percent of outstanding home loans, a 25 percent drop from a year ago when the foreclosure rate was 1.72 percent, according to a newly released report from Corelogic. In addition, the St. Louis mortgage delinquency rate for December was 4.39 percent, down 12.5 percent from the year before when 5.02 percent of the outstanding St. Louis home loans were 90 days or more delinquent. See the chart below for foreclosure rate by zip code in the St. Louis area.
Continue reading “St Louis Foreclosure and Mortgage Delinquency Rates Down from a year ago“
By Dennis Norman, on February 25th, 2013
More than half (52 percent) of current renters said they anticipate buying a home in the next five years, according to a survey conducted by ORC International. Tenants with children under 13 are most likely to buy a home with 69 percent of them responding that they anticipate becoming a homeowner in the next five years followed by single family tenants in general, with 60 percent of those tenants anticipating buying a home and just 44 percent of apartment renters planning on buying a home within five years.
Top three reasons tenants don’t want to own a home: Continue reading “More than half of current renters plan to be homeowners within 5 years“
By Dennis Norman, on February 21st, 2013 First off, no I have not lost my mind, I can actually support the idea that there may be somewhat of a housing shortage soon but, as the headline implies, I don’t necessarily think it’s going to happen in St. Louis, unfortunately. However, its’ a distinct possibility in many markets throughout the U.S. particularly those with population growth and an increasing supply of jobs.
When the real estate market crashed, back in 2007-2008, there was an oversupply of homes on the market including a large inventory of new homes. However, as the chart below shows, new home construction came to a screeching halt, with production dropping to about one-third of the 1.5 million new homes per year the prior few years had averaged. Continue reading “Coming soon to a town near you…..a housing shortage?“
By Dennis Norman, on February 15th, 2013 The real estate market is definitely heating up in many cities throughout the U.S. as well in many areas of St. Louis. A decreasing inventory of homes for sale, and even a shortage of homes for sale in many areas, along with increased confidence from consumers in the real estate market, has driven many cities from a “buyers market” to a “sellers market”. Zillow released a list of the top 10 cities that are becoming sellers markets based upon the sales to list price ratio and time to sell and MORE, REALTORS1, released their list of the top 10 cities becoming sellers markets based upon their Market Action Index®, an index that looks at supply and demand of housing. While there are some differences between the lists, both lists put San Francisco as the number one market for becoming a sellers market (at the time of this writing…the MORE list is real time so it will change with the market). St. Louis, as a whole, did not make the list, but we have neighborhoods and areas here that are definitely a sellers market and, in fact, have a market action index higher than the top cities on the list. If you are thinking of selling, and want to know if you home is in a sellers market, click here and I’ll let you know. Continue reading “Real Estate Becoming a Seller’s Market In Many Areas“
By Dennis Norman, on February 14th, 2013 Foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) were reported on 1,430 properties in St. Louis in January, an increase of 6.64 percent from the month before and a decrease of 7.62 percent from a year ago, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac. While the decline is good, the St Louis foreclosure rate is not falling as much as the U.S. foreclosure rate, which is down 28 percent from a year ago.
Continue reading “St Louis Foreclosure Rate Increases in January but down from year ago“
By Dennis Norman, on February 14th, 2013  Apartments and their residents in Missouri contribute $11.6 billion to the Missouri economy and support 276,000 jobs, according to a report by The National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) and the National Apartment Association (NAA). The report says there are 409,198 residents living in 271,500 apartment homes in Missouri with spending power of $4.6 billion.
 Source: weareapartments.org
By Dennis Norman, on February 8th, 2013 Missourians have received more than $112 million of mortgage relief as a result of the National Mortgage Settlement reached a year ago with the nations largest lenders, according to Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster. Koster, along with Attorney General’s from other states, sent a letter to Congress last November urging them to extend a measure that was due to expire at the end of 2012 that would provide tax relief for some people receiving mortgage relief in the form of principal reduction and short sales. January 1, 2013, Congress passed the extension as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Continue reading “Mortgage relief received in 2012 may not be taxable“
By Dennis Norman, on February 5th, 2013 Over 35 percent (35.1) of tenants were previously homeowners, according to a survey by Apartments.com conducted in the 4th quarter of 2012. This is a fairly significant increase from a year ago when 33.6 percent of tenants reported they were previously homeowners. The most common reasons given for the change from homeowner to tenant were affordability and the flexibility in location. While it was just 5th on the list, it is worth noting that the loss of a home due to foreclosure or divorce increased nearly 90 percent in the past year as a reason for converting from homeowner to renter.
Top Five Reasons Why Previous Homeowners Now Rent: Continue reading “Number of homeowners becoming tenants on the rise“
By Dennis Norman, on February 3rd, 2013 There are fewer people losing their homes in foreclosure today than there were during the peak of the foreclosure crisis after the real estate market crash, however we still have a long way to go until we will see a “normal” number of foreclosures. According to a report released today by Corelogic, there were 767,000 homes foreclosed on in the U.S. during 2012, down almost 11 percent from the total for 2011, so a definite improvement, however, this is still three-times the “normal” number of foreclosures before the real estate market crash. From the period of 2000 – 2006, there were an average of 252,000 homes foreclosed on per year.
Continue reading “Foreclosures decline in the U.S. in 2012 but still three times higher than before the crash“
By Dennis Norman, on January 29th, 2013 The St. Louis foreclosure rate in November 2012 was 1.27 percent of all outstanding home mortgages, a decrease of 26.6 percent from a year before when the rate was 1.73 percent, according to a report just released by Corelogic. Foreclosure rates in St. Louis were well above the national foreclosure rate for November 2012 of 2.97 percent. In addition, mortgage delinquency rates declined in November 2012 as well falling to 4.39 percent of all mortgage loans (90 days + delinquent), down from 5.00 percent in November 2011.
By Robert Fishel, on January 23rd, 2013  As part of the fiscal cliff deal, Congress extended the cancellation of mortgage debt relief provision for 1 year, through the end of 2013.
It seems there is little focus on the importance of this law, it is crucial to foreclosure mitigation efforts such as principal forgiveness and short sales.
Normally, when a lender forgives all or a portion of a borrower’s debt, U.S. law decrees that the forgiven amount is considered taxable income to the borrower. This “forgiveness” is also known as Cancellation of Debt (COD) Income. COD must be included in a taxpayer’s gross income. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act allows homeowners who received principal reductions or other forms of debt forgiveness not to pay taxes on the amount forgiven.
Consult your tax adviser to determine whether the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act is relevant to your particular situation.
 Continue reading “Cancellation of Debt; St Louis Mortgage Interest Rate Update“
By Dennis Norman, on January 17th, 2013  During 2012, 18,242 St Louis homeowners received a foreclosure notice, or were in some stage of the foreclosure process, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. This means 2012 came to an end with 12.02 percent more foreclosures than the year before however there were over 16 percent fewer St. Louis foreclosures than in 2010 when foreclosure activity peaked.
On a national level, foreclosure activity in 2012 declined 3 percent from 2011 and was down 36 percent from the peak in 2010.
By Dennis Norman, on January 16th, 2013 A report released today by Radarlogic suggests that the housing market is not really recovering as much as it may appear, particularly with regard to home prices. The report says that, the 9.2 percent increase they saw in their home price index for the 12 month period ended November 30, 2012 was the result of a “significant shift in the composition of home sales and overstates the appreciation in individual properties.” The report goes on to say if motivated sales (REO’s, foreclosures, short-sales) are removed from the data, then the “real” increase in home prices was just over half of what their index showed.
I took a look at the St Louis market to see if it was following suit or not. What I found was, when looking at the same period as the Radarlogic report, the median home price in the five county “core” St Louis market went from $122,000 in November 2011 to $130,000 in November 2012, an increase of 6.5 percent. However, when I remove the distressed sales from the stats, the median home sales price in November 2011 was $160,000 and November 2012 $161,000 for an increase of just over one-half of one percent. My research supports Radarlogic’s notion that home prices are not really rising as much as they appear but instead appear to be higher as the result of fewer distressed sales which sell at significant discounts.
By Dennis Norman, on January 14th, 2013 The foreclosure inventory in the U.S. dropped to 3.51 percent in November, a decline of 2.84 percent from the month before, according to the November Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services. This trend may not continue though as, during the same period, the mortgage delinquency rate (the precursor to foreclosures) increased 1.2 percent from the month before and has increased 3.7 percent since August. Continue reading “Foreclosure Inventory On The Decline But Trend May Be Short-Lived“
By Dennis Norman, on January 7th, 2013 If you have tried to buy a rental property lately in St. Louis then you have discovered you are not alone and the competition for good rental property is quite intense. The reason is simple, experienced investors as well as new ones see real estate as a safe investment and, in many ways, a much better alternative to other investments. Part of the reason for this is the demand for rental housing, brought on as a result of many former homeowners that have been forced, or have chosen, to rent instead of own and “would-be” homeowners that are unable to meet tougher requirements for mortgages thereby forced to remain tenants. According to information just released by the Bipartisan Policy Center, the demand for rental housing is not going to subside anytime soon as five to six million new renter households are expected to form in the next ten years alone.
Continue reading “Demand for rental property likely to increase over next two decades“
By Dennis Norman, on January 2nd, 2013
Shadow Inventory (properties with seriously delinquent mortgages, are in foreclosure or owned by lenders (REO) but not currently listed on the MLS) are a leading indicator of future foreclosure rates so it is good to see that the shadow inventory in the U.S. in October fell to 2.3 million units, a decline of 12.3 percent from a year ago, according to a report from CoreLogic.
Other highlights from the report include:
Continue reading “Shadow Inventory In October Down Over 12 Percent from Year Ago“
By Dennis Norman, on December 21st, 2012
Lately we have seen several reports on the housing market that show the housing market is improving and may even be headed toward a recovery however some experts, including Cliff Rossi, Tyser Teaching Fellow and executive-in-residence for the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, say it may be premature to call this a “real recovery.” Rossi is not entirely negative on the housing market and does admit that home prices are stabilizing and inventories are declining, however he has concerns as a result of the “fiscal cliff”, regulatory reform and tightness of credit. Continue reading “Is it premature to say the housing market is in recovery?“
By Dennis Norman, on December 13th, 2012 There were 1,880 St Louis homeowners that received a foreclosure notice, or were in some stage of the foreclosure process, in November, according to a report from RealtyTrac. This is a 9.37 percent increase from October and is a an increase of over ten (10.52) percent from October 2011. For the state of Missouri, foreclosure activity was up in November 2.8 percent from October and was down 7.64 percent from a year ago.
By Dennis Norman, on December 6th, 2012 There were 1,891 foreclosure sales in St. Louis during the third quarter of 2012, according to a report from RealtyTrac. This is a 46 percent increase from 2nd quarter and a 16 percent increase from the third quarter of 2011. A little under one in five St Louis homes (17.21 percent) that sold during the third quarter of 2012 were foreclosures. The average price St Louis foreclosures sold during third quarter was $102,041 and represented a discount of 37.07 percent from non-foreclosure home sales, according to the report.
By Dennis Norman, on November 27th, 2012 In October 7.03 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were delinquent on their loan payments, this is a decline of almost 5 percent from the month before and 7.19 percent less than the year before, according to Lenders Processing Services’ First Watch report. Foreclosure pre-sales (borrowers somewhere in the foreclosure process but have not yet lost their homes) declined 6.77 percent from the month before and was down 15.99 percent from a year ago. LPS does not break out data specific to St. Louis but recent data from RealtyTrac showed that St Louis foreclosure activity increased over 10 percent in October from the month before and was up over 7 percent from a year ago, so St Louis may be lagging behind the national trend in terms of improvement in foreclosure rates.
Continue reading “Mortgage Delinquencies and Foreclosures Decline in U.S.; St Louis may be lagging behind“
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