By Dennis Norman, on February 8th, 2014 Frigid Temperatures Put The Chill On St Louis Real Estate Market….
Not to worry though for there is plenty of good news about the St Louis real estate market in spite of the recent decline in home sales…Get this, and much more by only investing about 5 minutes of your time watching our newly published video update below.
Thinking of selling and want to know if your neighborhood is a seller’s market? Contact us and we’ll answer that question for you.
Continue reading “St Louis Home Prices and Sales Market Update VIDEO-February 2014“
By Dennis Norman, on August 2nd, 2013 
Homeowners are feeling pretty optimistic about the housing market and in fact, in a survey conducted by Pulte Homes, almost half (43%) of the move-up buyers indicated they are planning on buying a new home within the next five years. Over three in four (76%) of move-up buyers feel they can sell their current home within years at a price that would permit them to buy a new home.
According to the survey, the need to downsize is a common reason why homeowners decide to purchase a new home. Other reasons given for deciding to buy a new home include: Continue reading “Move-up Buyers Optimistic About The Housing Market & Almost Half Planning to Buy a New Home“
By Dennis Norman, on March 15th, 2013 
St. Louis Real Estate Market Gaining Steam!
The St. Louis Real Estate Market is getting close to becoming a seller’s market in many neighborhoods. The inventory of St Louis homes for sale is down from a year ago while sales are increasing paving the way for what could be a somewhat robust selling market this spring.
Thinking of selling and want to know if your neighborhood is a seller’s market? Contact us and we’ll answer that question for you.
To get the latest St Louis Real Estate Stats and the latest, best and most comprehensive St Louis Real Estate Data, check out our 5-minute video update below for January for the St. Louis Real Estate market. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue reading “St. Louis Real Estate Market Update Video-March 2013“
By Dennis Norman, on February 16th, 2013 The St. Louis Real Estate Market is heating up in many areas and, in fact, some neighborhoods are beginning to take on the appearance of a seller’s market. A decline in the inventory of homes for sale along with some increased demand is helping spark life into many markets…I show the impact on two of these markets in this months video but we can easily show you how your neighborhood is doing as well. Or, if you are trying to decide if not is the time to buy, contact us and we’ll help you answer that question and see specifically what areas are the best for buyers at this time.
To get the latest St. Louis Real Estate Stats and the latest, best and most comprehensive St Louis Real Estate Data, check out our 5-minute video update below for January for the St Louis real estate market. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue reading “St Louis Real Estate Market Update Video for February 2013“
By Dennis Norman, on January 18th, 2013 The St. Louis Real Estate Market is still dealing with the effects of foreclosures and other distressed sales but continues to show some improvement, and even what I would describe as a sustained recovery in some neighborhoods though certainly not all. To get the latest St. Louis Real Estate Stats and the latest, best and most comprehensive St Louis Real Estate Data, check out our 5-minute video update below for January for the St Louis real estate market. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue reading “St Louis Real Estate Market Update Video for January 2013“
By Dennis Norman, on December 11th, 2012 The St. Louis Real Estate Market continues to show some strength and appears to generally be headed toward recovery, albeit a long slow one. To get the latest St. Louis Real Estate Stats and the latest, best and most comprehensive St Louis Real Estate Data, check out our 5-minute video update below for October for the St Louis real estate market. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue reading “St Louis Real Estate Market Update Video for December 2012“
By Dennis Norman, on October 8th, 2012 The St. Louis Real Estate Market is showing signs of strengthening and even recovery in many of the neighborhoods throughout St. Louis. To get the latest St. Louis Real Estate Stats and the latest, best and most comprehensive St Louis Real Estate Data, check out our 5-minute video update below for October for the St Louis real estate market. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue reading “St Louis Real Estate Market Update Video for October 2012“
By Dennis Norman, on September 10th, 2012 St. Louis Home Prices are showing signs of stabilizing and the inventory of homes for sale in St. Louis has declined to the lowest period we’ve seen in a while, both of which are signs of good things to come for the St Louis real estate market. Find out more, and get the latest St Louis real estate stats and market data in my video update below for September on the St Louis real estate market. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue reading “St. Louis Real Estate Market and St Louis Home Prices Update; September 2012“
By Dennis Norman, on August 13th, 2012 The St. Louis Real Estate Market is showing signs of improvement and it appears prices have definitely hit bottom and are going to be heading upward, albeit a slow climb. Below is my video update for August on the St Louis real estate market. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue reading “St. Louis Real Estate Market and Home Prices Update; August 2012“
By Dennis Norman, on July 10th, 2012 Below is a video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that I prepare monthly. In this video I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the month as well as an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue reading “St. Louis Real Estate Market and Home Prices Update; June 2012“
By Dennis Norman, on April 30th, 2012 Radarlogic says, contrary to what other home price indicators suggest (hmm…could they mean Case-Shiller?), home prices strengthened considerably in February…. Unfortunately they also say the strength in the housing market probably won’t last
The latest housing market report by RadarLogic showed home prices in the 25 major metropolitan areas it tracks increased 1.9 percent in February from the month before (in contrast to the Case Shiller home price index which showed home prices fell a little under 1 percent from the month before) however was 3.18 percent lower than a year ago. Continue reading “Report shows strong real estate market in February; says it probably won’t last“
By Dennis Norman, on December 5th, 2011  “We may indeed being seeing the beginning of at least a ‘soft landing’ in housing,” said Michael Feder, President and CEO of Radar Logic.
The latest housing market report by RadarLogic contained said, while trends in home prices remain negative in most major U.S. metropolitan areas, there are indications that market conditions are starting to improve. Continue reading “Is the housing market seeing the beginning of a "soft landing"?“
By Dennis Norman, on October 21st, 2011 Between interest rates falling to record lows and home prices falling back to levels from 8 years ago, the housing market is starting to look like a very attractive investment opportunity.
One of my favorite companies that produce a home price index and monitor the market is RadarLogic and their RPX Composite Price Index. They published some data to illustrate just how attractive housing has become as an investment (granted, they are trying to stir up interest in their new RPX Futures you can invest in, but the data I think supports investing in residential real estate as well.)
Continue reading “Housing is cheap and can be an extremely attractive investment opportunity!“
By Dennis Norman, on September 30th, 2011  Weekly I produce a short video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here.
NEW! You can now subscribe to our ITUNES Podcast Channel to receive our updated market videos via podcast automatically each week! Just click here, then click on “Subscribe Free”.)
Continue reading “St. Louis Real Estate Market and Home Prices Update – September 30, 2011“
By Dennis Norman, on September 23rd, 2011 
Signs point to trouble ahead for the housing market as recent growth in foreclosure filings suggest REO Inventories may balloon in coming months according to the Radar Logic July 2011 Monthly Housing Market Report. On the heels of a couple of upbeat articles I’ve been able to write about the market, I get hit with the glumness of this one….ugh. However, as I have said before, I have a lot of respect for this company and have found their market forecasts to be reasonably accurate, unfortunately. Continue reading “Increased foreclosure activity and potential REO inventory growth point to trouble for real estate market“
By Dennis Norman, on August 31st, 2011 HUD released its U.S. Housing Market Conditions report for the 2nd quarter of 2011 which stated “housing data for the second quarter of 2011 indicate that the recovery in the housing market continues to remain fragile.” This did not come as a surprise, but what I did find a little surprising was the report showed that the market for new homes performed better than that for existing homes. The number of new homes sold rose in the second quarter and the year-over-year median sales price of new homes was up slightly. In contrast, the number of existing homes sold in the second quarter fell and the year-over-year median sales price of existing homes was down. Continue reading “HUD Report says housing market continues to remain fragile“
By Dennis Norman, on August 5th, 2011  Clear Capital just released their housing market report which, based upon data available through and including July 2011, has ranked the 15 best and worst performing housing markets in the U.S. based upon their quarter-over-quarter change in home prices. St. Louis came in number 4 on the list of best performing metros with a 12.5 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in home prices! See all the results below: Continue reading “St Louis ranked 4th best performing real estate market in U.S.“
By Dennis Norman, on July 22nd, 2011
Radarlogic, real estate data and analytics company that frequently disagrees with the National Association of REALTORS® view of the housing market, released their RPX Monthly Housing Market Report for May 2011 yesterday and in it had a scorecard showing how their rather bleak predictions they made at the end of 2010 for the 2011 housing market were holding up. Unfortunately, as you will see below, it seems many of their predictions have been accurate and the housing market is performing as poorly as they expected in many areas. Continue reading “2011 Real Estate Market Performing about as Poorly as Predicted Thus Far“
By Dennis Norman, on May 20th, 2011 UGH…
According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Trulia and RealtyTrac, 54 percent of American adults believe that recovery in the housing market will not happen until 2014 or later. In a previous survey, six months ago, 42 percent of American adults said they thought the market would turn around by 2012 or had already turned around, but now only 23 percent think this will happen. Continue reading “Survey shows over half American adults think housing recovery is years away“
By Dennis Norman, on April 21st, 2011
RPX Composite Home Price Fell to Lowest Level since March 2003 – St. Louis ranks 6th of 25 metros on one year rate of change of home prices.
Radar Logic published it’s Housing Market Report for February showing that it’s “RPX Composite Price”, for the 25 metro areas covered by the index, including St. Louis, fell 0.7 percent from January and 4.3 percent from the year before. St. Louis home prices fell 2.4 percent from January and 4.4 percent from a year ago. Continue reading “February home price index hits eight year low; St Louis is sixth best of the 25 metros“
By Dennis Norman, on April 4th, 2011 Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market is and where it is headed. Continue reading “St Louis Housing Market“
By Dennis Norman, on March 25th, 2011
RPX Composite Home Price Fell to Lowest Level since April 2003
Radar Logic published it’s Housing Market Report for January showing that it’s “RPX Composite Price” fell 3.8 percent from December and 3.4 percent from the year before. Continue reading “January home price index reaches new low“
By Dennis Norman, on March 15th, 2011 HUD just released it’s “2010 Overview of U.S. Housing Market Conditions which gave a recap of the housing market for 2010. I’ve previously reported on most of the data and information that HUD included in the report however I thought this report did a good job of giving a complete and concise look at the market for the year so I wanted to share it. Continue reading “An overview of the 2010 Housing Market“
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 beginning of 2009- while there were seasonal periods of strength sine then, overall the trend has been relatively flat.
- Property sales in the 25 metros covered by the index increased in May by 41 percent from the year before.
- Motivated sales decreased as a percent of total sales on a year-over-year basis but still accounted for 24 percent of home sales (RPX does not include short-sales in this number).
- Since January 2009 sales has increased in the 25 metros covered by 45 percent.
- Only nine of the 25 metros tracked by Radar Logic showed annual price improvement. Only 20 showed month-over-month improvement.
The 25 metro areas that make up the Radar Logic composite index are: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Denver, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington, D.C.
By Dennis Norman, on June 14th, 2010 Dennis Norman
Will the Bears or Bulls prevail in 2010?
As the real estate market is beginning to show signs that we are “bottoming out” and that the down-slide is leveling off the discussion has become what the rest of 2010 holds in store. Some say we are entering a Bull market and expect prices to increase from the depressed levels they have reached citing the greatly increased affordability of homes and record low interest rates; others say we are entering a Bear market and that over-supply in the market, largely a result of record foreclosures, will continue to beat prices down.
Here’s what the “Bulls” say:
- Home prices are at levels significantly lower than their peak levels during the “boom” and affordability is at the lowest level in years.
- Interest rates are at record lows and, while obtaining financing is currently somewhat of a challenge, lenders are expected to ease up on their lending policies and make financing more readily available. The government is already pushing a rule change for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to have them loosen their underwriting guidelines.
- Richard DeKaser, Contributing Economist to The Kiplinger Letter, in a recent article cited three reasons why he felt supported being optimistic, or “Bullish”, on the housing market:
- Affordability – it now takes 18 percent of the typical household income to afford a home, compared with a long-term average of 26 percent.
- Consumer confidence – says that consumers are beginning to take on expensive, long-term commitments.
- Credit conditions will ease up – The Fed Reserve’s April survey of senior loan officers show banks were reporting “essentially no change” in their underwriting standards on mortgages over the past three months. (so I guess since it didn’t get worse that is good)
Here’s what the “Bears” say:
- The recent upward spike in home sales is, for the most part, nothing more than the temporary and artificial market that was created by the government’s home-buyer tax credit program.
- While recent reports have shown that the rate of increase of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures has decreased over the past couple of months, we are still at record levels of both which will continue to flood the market with foreclosures and REO’s.
- Even during the recent uptick in home sales brought on by the expiring tax credits, home prices still dropped in many markets. This shows there is still some uncertainty about home values in the market place, which, coupled with the downward price pressure caused by foreclosures, will continue to put heavy negative pressure on home prices.
- The rate of unemployment is still high and our economy still has many challenges: off the charts spending and debt by the Federal govt, States and Cities struggling to balance budgets not to mention the international issues brought on by lagging economies in Europe and China, Greece’s financial issues and so on.
So what it is, a Bull or a Bear coming our way?
Remember, I’m in the real estate business, I WANT it to be a bull. But….here’s what I see coming…
 Sorry!
By Dennis Norman, on February 18th, 2010 Dennis Norman
When I received the Housing Market Report from Radarlogic, I was happy to see some good news; home prices increased in December from November and a 44 percent increase in the number of homes sold in December versus a year before. Unfortunately those numbers were based upon Radarlogic‘s RPX Composite Price, which tracks home prices in 25 major metropolitan areas (including St. Louis) and when I drilled down to the St. Louis Housing Numbers they were not as encouraging.
 The report shows St. Louis home prices decreased from November to December by 6.9 percent, as opposed to the increase of 0.2 percent for the 25 metro areas combined. Housing transactions in December 2009 in St Louis increased 5.5 percent from a year ago, however this is far less than the 44 percent increase in transactions for the 25 city composite. From November to December St Louis saw a decrease of 54.9 percent in the number of housing transactions, a much larger decline than the 11.0 percent decline for the 25 city composite.
Radarlogic’s report bases it’s home price data on the price per foot homes sell for versus the sales price of the home. I think this is a more “apples to apples” approach and results in more accurate data than looking at median home prices which could be affected by an increase in activity in a particular price range of home. Having said that I still wanted to check their data against data I compiled from the MLS. Here are my findings from MLS data:
- The median price of homes and condos sold in St. Louis in November 2009 was $131,500. For December the median price was $125,000 for a decline of 4.9 percent. Not far off from the 6.9 percent decrease in the Radarlogic report.
- There were 1,011 homes and condos sold in St. Louis in December 2009, a decrease of 2.97 percent from a year ago. The Radarlogic report showed an increase of 5.5 percent so there is some disparity here.
- December 2009’s home and condo sales of 1,011 was a decrease of 33.8 percent from November 2009 sales of 1,527 units. This is a smaller decrease than the 54.9 percent decrease shown in the Radarlogic report.
Overall I think the research I did supports the trend shown in the Radarlogic report for the St. Louis housing market; some softness in prices and a surge of home sales in November from the tax credits.
By Dennis Norman, on October 13th, 2009 Dennis Norman Statistics and reports are flying at us from every direction about the real estate market nowadays. Some reports say we have hit bottom, some even say the housing market has started a recovery others say worse times are ahead. Since I don’t think anyone can really tell us what the future has in store for the housing market I thought now may be a good time to look at history…at least short term history, to see where things stand at this point. Along the way we may see a trend or perhaps even feel like we can hazard a guess as to where things are headed in the short term, at least in the St. Louis housing market.
Since many analysts, including those at the National Association of REALTORS(R) use 2001 as a “base” year frequently for the housing market, I guess because it was a market that proceed the “boom” (or bubble, your pick) and was sort of a “normal” year in terms of market conditions. I figured if it’s good enough for real analysts it’s good enough for me so I have used date for the St Louis real estate and housing market from 2001 in my comparison with where we stand now. Continue reading “The St. Louis Real Estate Market Bubble and Burst; St. Louis County hurt the worst in the area“
By Dennis Norman, on September 21st, 2009 Dennis Norman By: Dennis Norman
Doing what all normal people do at 4:30 am on a Monday, I was scouring the Internet reading real estate news when I ran across an interesting article by Richard Stoyeck titled “Is Real Estate Coming Back Now?”
I’ll cut through the chase and give you Stoyeck’s answer to the question posed in the title of his story; “It will be in our opinion several years before we can get back to a vibrant real estate market.” If you have been reading this blog for a while then you know I have concerns about the housing market as well and don’t see any sort of quick recovery and in fact have questioned some of the recent optimistic headlines about the market. Continue reading “Has the real estate market bottomed out? Is this the recovery? I don’t think so…“
By Dennis Norman, on September 15th, 2009
- Dennis Norman
Before the sub-prime mortgage implosion Karen Weaver warned of the coming crisis. Karen Weaver, the Global Head of Securitization Research for Deutsche Bank, said last month that she expected home prices to continue to drop through the 1st quarter of 2011. She also predicted that nearly half of the homeowners with mortgages would end up being underwater on their mortgages.
Yesterday Ms. Weaver said that in spite of the recent positive news on the housing market that she had not changed her position and is still predicting home prices to fall another 10 percent before finally reaching bottom. Ms. Weaver said “serious delinquencies are still rising rapidly in mortgages, unemployment reached a new cycle high, inventory in most parts of the country is elevated and in some areas affordability is backtracking.” Continue reading “Deutsche Banks’ Weaver says housing market has not hit bottom yet“
By Dennis Norman, on August 21st, 2009 Dennis Norman By: Dennis Norman
The St. Louis housing market is showing some signs of strength with St Louis home sales increasing in July to a seasonally adjusted rate of 21,038 homes, an increase of 6.8 percent from June’s seasonally adjusted rate of 19,691 homes. This increase for the month is very close to the increase in home sales in the U.S. according to the report released today from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in July rose 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.24 million units up from a level of 4.89 million units in June.
However St Louis home sales for July 2009 were the same as July 2008 showing no gain or loss in sales compared with an increase of 5 percent for the year on US home sales according to the National Association of REALTORS report. To read about all the home sales and housing market data from the National Association of REALTORS(R) please click the following link: Home Sales – Existing Home Sales July 2009 Continue reading “St Louis Housing Market has 6.8 percent increase in homes sales in July“
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