Survey reveals home prices drive first-time home buyers choice of home

dennis-norman-realtorSt. Louis car dealer Bommarito Auto Group’s tag line is “where price sells cars”….well, according to the results of a newly released survey, I think the same is true about the current real estate market…it’s “where price sells homes”.  The number one reason given for choosing the home purchased by first-time home buyers was price, according to the recently released 2011 American Housing Survey (AHS) by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).   Thirty-eight (38) percent of first-time home buyers said price was their key concern, followed by thirty (30) percent who gave proximity to work as their chief concern.

Repeat, or “trade-up” buyers, on the other hand focused more on the homes design and the neighborhood with thirty six (36) percent of trade-up buyers say the design of the home was their primary reason for selecting a particular house and twenty eight (28) percent said it was the looks and design of the community.

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St Louis Makes List of Improving Housing Markets

dennis-norman-realtorThe National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released their “Improving Housing Markets Index” for December and I was happy to see St. Louis as a new addition to the list this month! St. Louis was one of 83 new metro areas added to the improving housing markets list from the prior month bringing the total to 201 metro areas as of this month (7 metros were dropped from the month before.)

To make this list, metros must demonstrate a sustained improvement in home sales, home prices and employment rates, for at least six-consecutive months.  NAHB looks at the growth a metro has had since the “trough” (the lowest point reach during the slump) in each of these areas.  The report shows an increase in St Louis building permits of 3.3 percent from the trough in 06/11, an increase in St Louis home prices of 7.7 percent since the trough in 01/12 and a 2.2 percent increase in St Louis employment since the trough in 12/09. Continue reading “St Louis Makes List of Improving Housing Markets

Home Builders Say New Home Market Improving; Missouri Home Price/Income Ratio Back to Normal

During a presentation today, National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) chief economist, dennis-norman-realtor David Crowe, PhD., said he felt the housing market was recovering, although it was  a “fragile” recovery and cautioned that it could be “affected both directions by the recent election results”. As you have heard me talk about so much, Crowe reminded us that real estate is very local and said that he felt there has been “no consistent national trend for some time” as the recovery has been from “relatively small and disparate” locations for about a year now.  He did go on to say though that there are now enough locations experiencing a recovery that it is now showing in the national numbers.

One of the things Crowe reviewed was the relationship between house prices and income, looking at the historical trend, where things went during the peak and where we are now.  On a national level, the relationship between home prices and income peaked at 150 percent above the historical norm but had now returned to the “norm”.  In Missouri, the home price/income ratio peaked at a little over 130 percent and is now back down to the historical normal as well. Continue reading “Home Builders Say New Home Market Improving; Missouri Home Price/Income Ratio Back to Normal

Helpful homebuyer tax credit video from NAHB

Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

I have done several posts on the homebuyer tax credit and received and answered hundreds of questions about the tax credits on the various blogs I write for. There appears to be a lot of demand for the credits by homebuyers but also appears to be many questions. If you have questions about the homebuyer tax credit I would suggest you check out the comments/questions and answers to a post I did at www.RealEstateConsumerNews.com.

In addition, the National Association of Home Builders has just updated their informative video on the newly extended and expanded tax credit progrm. The video is below. Continue reading “Helpful homebuyer tax credit video from NAHB

Home buyer tax credit update

Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

I have been talking a lot lately about the first-time home buyer tax credit of $8,000 that has stimulated some home buying but is set to expire on November 30th. I have also shared the efforts by organizations such as the National Association of REALTORS, The Mortgage Bankers Associaiton, The National Association of Home Builders and Fix Housing First to urge Congress to extend the home buyer tax credit as well as expand it to include more than just first-time home buyers.

Unfortunately there are some inaccurate reports I’m seeing this morning that indicating the Senate has passed a bill to extend the home-buyer taxcredits, which is not true, yet. However, I am happy to report that progress is being made though! According to an email I just released by the National Association of REALTORS: Continue reading “Home buyer tax credit update