Give your mortgage an annual once over; St Louis Mortgage Interest Rate Update

By , on October 19th, 2012

If the last time you looked at your mortgage was when you closed on your loan, it’s time to take it out for an annual once over. New loan programs and opportunities to leverage your home equity can bring you lower mortgage payments and new investment opportunities. Continue Reading →

All signs point to increasing demand for housing

By , on October 8th, 2012

The inforgraphics below from BankForeclosuresSale.com do a great job of illustrating the boom and bust of the housing market as well as show the relationship, and impact, of home prices, inflation and income on the housing market. The good news is, it appears the worst is over and, according to Simon Campbell, a Senior Business Analyst with BankForeclosuresSale.com, “all signs point to increasing demand for housing.” (Can I have an Amen please?).

Should you buy or rent a home in St. Louis?

By , on August 2nd, 2012

Assuming you plan to stay put for 3 years or more, buying a home is a better financial decision than renting a home, according to a new report by Zillow. To arrive at this conclusion, Zillow analyzed the “breakeven horizon” in more than 200 metropolitan areas and 7,500 U.S. cities to determine how many years it would take owning a home before it becomes more advantageous than renting the same home from a financial perspective. In more than 75 percent of those metros analyzed, within about 3 years a homeowner would break-even on owning a home versus renting a home. Continue Reading →

St Louis makes list of 100 best places to invest in rental property

By , on March 16th, 2012

St Louis made the list of the “Best 100 U.S. Markets to Invest in Rental Property“, developed by HomeVestors and Local Market Monitor, coming in right in the middle at number 50. Las Vegas was in the number 1 slot and California was the star of the show with 12 metros on the list

“There are good opportunities for investors in every one of the top 100 markets,” said HomeVestors’ co-president, David Hicks. “But investors would be wise to take into account other dynamics for the ideal timing to enter the market.” Hicks sites job growth as a key indicator Continue Reading →

Existing home sales on the rise in August; on pace to beat last year

By , on September 21st, 2011

St. Louis home sales in August were up 20.7 percent from a year ago according to today’s home sales for major metropolitan report from the National Association of REALTORS®. St. Louis’ increase in home sales topped the increase nationally which was 18.6 percent from a year ago. St. Louis home pricesin August came in at a median of $132,700, down 1.6 percent from a year ago. Nationally, median home prices were down 5.1 percent from a year ago.

For More St. Louis Market Data – Click Here

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The best places to invest in rental property

By , on September 13th, 2011

Las Vegas, Nevada is the best place in America to buy at rental property at this time according to the newly released “HomeVestors-Local Market Monitor Best Markets to Invest in Rental Property” report. St. Louis came in at number 50 and Kansas City at number 37.

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Housing and Economic Forecasts Point to Rising Activity and Flat Home Prices

By , on May 13th, 2011

Speaking yesterday at a forum at a meeting of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), several industry “experts” had reasonably optimistic opinions of the housing market and expect home sales to continue on an uptrend through 2012.

Among the experts at the forum was, of course, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for NAR, who said he felt existing home sales would improve gradually, but unevenly. “If we just hold at the first-quarter sales pace of 5.1 million (home sales), sales this year would rise 4 percent, but the remainder of the year looks better,” Yun said. “We expect 5.3 million Continue Reading →

Making Appraisers the Scapegoat

By , on December 28th, 2010

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

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

Pending Home Sales Increase in August; Still down 20 percent from year ago

By , on October 4th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Pending home sales rise for 2nd consecutive month in August –

The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for August shows an increase of 4.3 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), which is 20.1 percent below a year ago.

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Housing Recovery ‘Setback’ According to Fannie Mae Report

By , on March 18th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to the Economics and Mortgage Market Analysis report just published by Fannie Mae, the weather was the culprit for the slow-down in home sales at the beginning of this year however, we did not get the boost they were anticipating from the extension of the tax credits. “Unfortunately, despite the high hopes associated with the extended and expanded homebuyer tax credit, housing activity appears to have faced a setback that went beyond the impact of adverse weather conditions. ” On a somewhat positive note, the analysts state they view the housing setback “to be a Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate – St Louis Mortgage Rates still low; higher rates coming though?

By , on March 10th, 2010

Last Friday’s suprisingly strong payroll figures likely reinforced for many investors that the next time the Fed makes a change to their monetary policy strategy-it will likely to raise short-term interest rates. The actual date of such an event may be months away-but an increasing number of “stronger than expected” economic reports are making it difficult for mortgage interest rates to move lower. A growing number of business economists believe the U.S. central bank’s policy’s are too stimulative and expect the Federal Reserve to raise benchmark interest rates within six months. The Fed has said continued high rates of Continue Reading →

St Louis housing prices projected to drop 1 percent in next 12 months

By , on October 19th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Veros Real Estate Solutions released their quarterly report projecting how the housing market is going to perform in the next 12 months in major metropolitan areas of the U.S. The bad news for St. Louis is, we didn’t make the list of top 5 metros in terms of expected housing price performance. The good news is we didn’t make the list of the 5 worst markets either.

The top-performing metros are projected to have housing prices appreciate 5 percent over the next 12 months and the worst peforming metro are expected to see Continue Reading →

Home prices down 30 percent since peak in 2005 and trend is downward

By , on September 28th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

I came across an interesting chart that I want to share. The chart below, courtesy of Chart of the Day, shows median home prices in the U.S. since 1970 (adjusted for inflation). As you can see from the chart, home prices trended upward from 1970 until peaking in the late 70’s (right around 1979 when I got into real estate, great timing on my part!) and then began dropping until the mid 80’s when prices began a rather rocky and unsteady climb upward.

As the chart illustrates, median home prices really started increasing, and Continue Reading →

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