The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for August shows a decrease of 1.2 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 7.7 percent increase from a year ago. This is the second consecutive month the index has decreased from the month before and, while the year over year numbers are still better, this month’s year over year increase was only half of what last months was. Continue Reading →
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This morning, Freddie Mac released the results of it’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey revealing that the interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.01 percent, which is an all-time record low and the interest rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.28 percent, also an all-time record low! Continue Reading → A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows that the current residential “shadow” inventory as of July 2011 declined slightly from 1.7 million units in April to 1.6 million units, and was down from 1.9 million units a year ago. This current shadow inventory represents a 5 month supply. CoreLogic includes in it’s shadow inventory numbers properties that are either 90+ days delinquent on mortgages, in some stage of foreclosure, or an REO but not presently for sale in an MLS. 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 National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) President, Ron Phipps, wrote a letter to Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury Department and Edward DeMarco, Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency with suggestions on how to improve the Real Estate Owned (REO) asset disposition programs for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA. NAR, like many other housing related associations and organizations, submitted letters in response to the government’s request for information on how to deal with the REO problem. 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. 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 Continue Reading → Dennis Norman The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for July shows, after two consecutive months of increases, a decrease of 1.3 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 14.4 percent increase from a year ago (last month’s index was up 19.8 percent from the year before). Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in July were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.67 million units which is a decrease of 3.5 percent from the month before, an increase of 21.0 percent from a year ago and is the lowest rate of home sales since November 2010 when it was 4.64 million. Last week, The Washington Post published an article by Kenneth Harney which said “if you take mortgage interest tax deductions, the next 100 days could have significant financial implications for you, thanks to Congress’s new federal debt ceiling plan……the compromise legislation created an unusual mechanism — an evenly split, 12-member bipartisan supercommittee — that could call for major cutbacks on real estate write-offs by Thanksgiving.” The question is, would doing away with the mortgage interest deduction put the final nail in the coffin for the housing industry? Read on to hear two opposing opinions on the topic. A report released by CoreLogic shows U.S. home prices increased in June 2011 by 0.7 percent from the month before, marking the third consecutive month-over-month increase. However, U.S. home prices in June 2011 decreased 6.8 percent from the year before. If we take the distressed sales (foreclosures, REO’s and short-sales) then year-over-year home prices declined by 1.1 percent in June 2011 from June 2010. RealtyTrac released their Midyear 2011 Metro foreclosure report showing that foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis in 178 out of the nation’s largest 211 metropolitan areas which is some much needed good news! Dennis Norman The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for June shows an increase of 2.4 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a whopping 19.8 percent increase from a year ago. This is the second month in a row that the index increased on a year-over-year basis. Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in June were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.77 million units which is a decrease of 0.8 percent from the month before, a decrease of 8.8 percent from a year ago and is the lowest rate of home sales since November 2010 when it was 4.64 million. Would you like to buy one of those foreclosure or REO bargains, but don’t have the cash to have the necessary work done? There’s a new rehab loan program in St. Louis that will help homeowners do just this! This program allows buyers to buy Bank Owned or Foreclosed Property (let’s call them “distressed homes”) and also borrow funds for the rehabilitation of these properties. Applying for a mortgage loan can be a nerve-wracking experience,” says Ruth E. Battle, Senior Vice President of Paramount Mortgage Co. “Even after completing all the paperwork and complying with document requests; the lender rejects the loan. Why does this happen?” Consumers should know their “no.” Battle says some of the “basic reasons loans are denied include insufficient income, poor credit, inadequate assets and low appraised value.” Over the last few years, rejection reasons have become much more complicated. The reason a consumer can be told “no” may have “more to do with the lender than the consumer.” Dennis Norman The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for May shows an increase of 8.2 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 13.4 percent increase from a year ago. This is the first time since April 2010 that the index increased on a year-over-year basis, and had the largest monthly gain since last November when the index rose 10.6 percent. In Britain… I am not a “misery loves company” guy, nor a “grass on the other side is always greener” guy, but in this case, it’s good to know the grass is greener in the U.S., at least as it relates to the housing market. Granted, I may be getting a little desperate for some good news, but a study I saw on the housing market in Britain by Zoopla.co.uk got my attention when I saw that 80 percent of the 4.32 million homes bought in Britain since 2006 are now worth less than the buyer paid. My first Continue Reading → Last week I got to hear a presentation by Brendan Lowney of Economic Advisors, aptly titled “Groping Toward a Housing Recovery“, which I think is a perfect way of describing our current housing market, so perfect, I borrowed it for the title of this article. Mr. Lowney began his presentation with a very sobering statement, saying “it’s really hard to overestimate the severity of the downturn that we’re in. This is much worse than anything we saw in the ’70s or the early ’80s, if people remember, and it’s really akin in many ways to the Great Depression, and within Continue Reading → Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in May were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.81 million units which is a decrease of 3.8 percent from the month before and is a decrease of 15.3 percent from a year ago and is the lowest rate of home sales since November 2010 when it was 4.64 million. St. Louis existing-home sales in April were down 30.1 percent from a year ago, after the prior month’s sales were down 20.3 percent from the year prior. This disturbing trend points to a decrease in the number of home sales in St. Louis in 2011 from 2010, even though industry experts are predicting an increase in U.S. existing home sales this year over last. 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 → Pending home sales increase in March; prediction is for an increase in existing home sales this yearDennis Norman The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for March shows an increase of 5.1 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 11.4 percent decrease from a year ago. This is the third-consecutive month over month increase for the pending home sales index. Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in March were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 5.1 million units which is an increase of 3.7 percent from the month before and is a decrease of 6.3 percent from a year ago. The 800 pound gorilla in the room has finally lost some weight! RealtyTrac released their foreclosure report for the first quarter of 2011 which shows foreclosure filings were reported on 681,153 U.S. properties during the quarter, a 15 percent decrease from the previous quarter and a 27 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2010. St. Louis did not see as big of a decrease but still the numbers are looking better! St. Louis had 5,023 properties with foreclosure filings during the first quarter 2011 which works out to one in every 248 St. Louis properties and represents a Continue Reading → Forty three years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which included Title VIII, the Fair Housing Act which, as described on HUD’s website, “prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and handicap (disability).“ More than half a million vacation homes were purchased last year, fueled by low real estate prices, attractive mortgage rates and the potential for price appreciation according to research done by the National Association of REALTORS for HomeAway. Dennis Norman The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for February shows an increase of 2.1 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 8.2 percent decrease from a year ago. There were some wide swings regionally in this months statistics as the Northeast region had a 10.9 percent decline from the prior month and the West had a 7.0 percent increase. Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows mixed signals for the St. Louis Real Estate market as our rate of existing home sales is down 8.6 percent from a year ago, significantly higher than the 2.8 decline for home sales nationwide, however, on a positive note, St. Louis home prices were up 8.2 percent in February from a year ago, the highest increase of the 20 major metro markets covered by the report and much better than the 5.2 percent DECREASE in home prices for the U.S. as a whole! The St. Louis County Assessor today released the preliminary real property values as a result of this being a reassessment year. Pursuant to state law, the assessor is to look at what the fair market value of real property was on January 1, 2011 and then use this as the value for property tax purposes for the coming two years. |
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