Landlords Get Best Return With Rentals In City Of St Louis

Investors that rental property may find their best returns, relative to the price of the homes they buy, in the City of St Louis, according to some county-level rental data compiled by MORE, REALTORS. As the tables below illustrate, over the past 12 months the median price of homes sold in the City of St Louis was $106.57 per square foot and the median annualized price per foot homes lease for was $11.04 which works out to a gross annual return on investment of 10.4%, the highest of the four St Louis area counties we looked at. Continue Reading →

Franklin County Has Largest Increase In Both Median Home Prices And Sales In Past 12 Months

The median price of homes sold in Franklin County during the most recent 12 months was $146,000, an increase of 9.57% from the prior 12 month period when the median price was $133,250 marking the highest year over year increase of any of the St Louis area counties. Continue Reading →

St Louis Condominium Market Going Strong

The condo market in the St Louis area is doing well with condo’s that sold in the past 12 months selling in a median time of just 27 days in the 5-County St Louis Core market. As the chart below shows, the median price for condo’s sold in the 5-county core market during this period went from $125,000 back in February 2016 to $139,500 in January 2017. There is currently a 3.3 month supply of condominiums for sale in the this market. Continue Reading →

St Charles County Homes With Finished Basements Sell Faster and For More Per Foot

When considering making an improvement to their home, homeowners often look at it from both the enjoyment value it will give them and their family as well as the investment value of what they are doing. Granted, there are few, if any improvements, you can make to a home that will give you a 100% return on investment, meaning that, for every dollar you spend, your homes value will go up by a dollar, but there are certainly some improvements that come closer than others. Continue Reading →

Survey Shows Nearly 70 Percent of Americans Feel Housing Market This Year Will Be Better Than 2016

Most Feel Trump Will Be Good For Housing Market in 2017 The survey also revealed that 52 percent of Americans believe the housing market will do better under the Trump administration. When it comes to the millennial generation, 59 percent of that generation feel the Trump administration will be good for the housing market. Continue Reading →

Home Improvements That Bring The Highest Return On Sale

Where do you get the most bang for your buck when it comes to remodeling or making improvements to your home? Homeowners make many improvements and upgrades to their home simply because they want the added enjoyment or comfort they receive as a result, however, other homeowners, particularly those contemplating a move in the future, also focus on the investment aspect of the improvement. Continue Reading →

Want To Buy A Foreclosure Or Short Sale? Better move quick and pay up!

When I first got in the real estate business in 1979 buying foreclosed property was something pretty well limited to speculators at the time. People like the broker I started with, and what I became a few years later, that bought property for cash, as-is generally to fix up and resell. Foreclosures, and how to buy them, were a mystery at the time, not only to the general public but to many in the real estate business as well. This is what gave us speculators an edge…we knew how to get the information on foreclosures and how the process worked. Ditto for tax sales and sheriff sales and short sales were something that didn’t even exist at the time. Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market 2016 Recap and Outlook for 2017

St Louis home sales during 2016 hit the highest level in years! Home prices rose as well while the inventory of homes for sale remained low during the year. Continue Reading →

Which St Louis Area County Saw Biggest Increase In Home Prices & Sales During 2016?

As I have reported over the past couple of days, the St Louis MSA as well as all of the counties that make up the St Louis, Missouri house market, saw an increase in home sales and prices during 2016 from the year before. But which county fared the best during 2016, seeing the highest increase in the median price of homes sold as well as the biggest increase in the number of homes sold? Well, at the top of the list is… Continue Reading →

St Louis 5-County Core Market Home Prices Increase Over 5 Percent in 2016, Sales Increase Over 8 Percent

During 2016, the median price of homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core Market was $179,000, an increase of 5.29 percent from 2015 when the median home price of homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core Market was $170,000, according to MORE, REALTORS and depicted in the table below. There were a total of 27,231 homes sold in the St Louis metro area during 2016, an increase of 8.1 percent from 2015 when there were 25,191 homes sold. As the chart below the table illustrates, St Louis home prices and sales have been trending upward at a fairly consistent rate over the past two years. Continue Reading →

St Louis Median Home Prices Increase Over 5 Percent in 2016, Sales Increase Over 3 Percent

During 2016, the median price of homes sold in the St Louis MSA was $167,400, an increase of 5.68 percent from 2015 when the median home price of homes sold in the St Louis MSA was $158,400, according to MORE, REALTORS and depicted in the table below. There were a total of 35,571 homes sold in the St Louis metro area during 2016, an increase of 3.3 percent from 2015 when there were 34,434 homes sold. Continue Reading →

Number of Distressed Home Sales In St Louis Declines Nearly Forty Percent In 2016 From Two Years Ago

The number of distressed home sales in St Louis has been on the decline while distressed home prices have remained relatively flat. For the purposes herein, a “distressed” home sale includes short sales, foreclosures, bank-owned and government-owned homes. Thus far, as the chart below illustrates, there have been 2,170 distressed home sales in the St Louis 5-County Core market (the City of St Louis and Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) this year which is a decline of 23% from last year when there were 2,871 distressed homes sold and down 38.4% from 2014 when there were Continue Reading →

St Louis’ Fastest Selling Areas

Fastest selling areas at the end of December? Yes, it happens today, even at the end of December and as we approach what is historically the slowest home-selling month of the year, January. No doubt the low inventory of homes for sale is playing a part in this as well as, perhaps, the recent uptick in interest rates and threat of higher rates in 2017 may be encouraging home buyers to speed up their home search. Continue Reading →

Home Affordability Falls Throughout St Louis Area

Home affordability throughout the St Louis area declined in the fourth quarter of this year from the same time last year according to a report released this morning by Attom Data Solutions. As the table below shows, the affordability of homes in the St Louis area, as well as every major county in Missouri, declined during the current quarter meaning that it now takes a larger percentage of a persons income (based upon average wages for the county) to buy the “typical” home in that county (based upon a median-priced home). Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Prices Increased Over 7 Percent In Past Year and Sales Up Over 8 Percent

St Louis home prices rose 7.22 percent in the past 12 months (through the end of November 2016) compared with with prior 12 months, according to newly released data by MORE, REALTORS. As the tables below show, for the St Louis MSA, the median price of homes sold during the 12 month period ended November 30, 2016 was $169,408. For the prior 12 month period, the median sales price of homes sold in the St Louis MSA was $158,000. Home sales increased in the St Louis Metro Area as well during the period with 36,973 homes being sold in the 12 month period ended November 30, 2016, an increase of 8.57% from the prior 12 month period when there were 34,056 homes sold in the St Louis MSA. Continue Reading →

Ferguson vs Chesterfield – A Tale Of Two Cities

A lot has happened to affect the real estate market where I grew up in the little town of Ferguson in North County over the past decade. First, like the rest of the country, beginning around 2000, Ferguson saw home prices increase at rates outpacing inflation until finally peaking in 2006 which then led to the housing market bubble burst shortly thereafter. Home prices in Ferguson, and everywhere else, then declined over the next few years until hitting bottom around the end of 2011, or beginning of 2012. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Prices – Boom, Bust and Beyond

Home prices in St Louis, like most places in the country, peaked around 2007 at the height of the bubble, then, when the housing bubble burst in 2008, home prices began falling and didn’t hit the post bubble bottom until around late 2011 or early 2012 in most areas. Since hitting bottom, home prices throughout the St Louis area have recovered not only regaining what was lost after the bubble burst, but, in most cases, rising back above the peak levels from the height of the bubble nearly 10 years ago. Continue Reading →

St Louis Cities Where Median Home Prices Have Increased The Most In Past Year

Which cities within the St Louis area have seen the largest increases in the median price of homes sold during the past year? Well, the cities on the top 10 list are pretty diverse both in price range and location and some may surprise you. As the list below shows, the city of Pacific, in Franklin County, is at the top of the list with the median price of homes sold for the 12 month period ended October 31, 2016 coming in at $175,000, a 42.86 percent increase from the prior 12 month period. Continue Reading →

Existing Home Sales In St Louis Increase Six Percent In Past 12 Months!

Yesterday, the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) released their existing home sales data for October 2016 which revealed home sales in the U.S. during that month were at a, seasonally-adjusted, annual, rate of 5.6 million homes, an increase in rate of 2 percent from the month before. We track St Louis home sales data in a little different manner, comparing the most recent 12 month period with the prior 12 month period, so a rolling 12 month average of sorts, and, as the table below shows, home sales in the St Louis MSA for the 12-month period ending October 31, 2016, increased 6.64% from the prior 12 month period and we have branded the St Louis MSA housing market as a “Hot Seller’s Market”. Continue Reading →

St Louis Home Prices Rose Three Percent In Past Year

Home prices in St Louis rose in the past 12 months compared with with prior 12 months, according to newly released data by MORE, REALTORS. As the report below shows, for St Louis City and County, the median price of homes sold during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2016 was $169,900, an increase of 3% from the prior 12 month period when the median sales price of homes sold in the city and county of St Louis was $164,900. Home sales increased as well during the period with 16,233 homes being sold in the 12 month period ended October 31, 2016, an increase of over 7% from the prior 12 month period when there were 15,149 homes sold in the city and county of St Louis. Continue Reading →

Boeing’s Consolidation Will Be Boost To St Louis Real Estate Market

This past week Boeing Co., one of St Louis’s largest employers (5ht or 6th largest give or take) announced they would be moving 500 jobs to St Louis from Huntington Beach, California as part of it’s Defense, Space & Security business. The jobs they are bring to St. Louis are good jobs and will mean that roughly 500 employees, many with families, will be relocating to St Louis soon. Continue Reading →

Ten Neighborhoods In St Louis Where Homes Sell The Fastest

When I last published our list of fastest selling neighborhoods, back in the height of the spring/early summer market in mid June, the city of Shrewsbury was at the top of the list with an average time on market for listings of just 29 days. Well, here we are approaching mid-November, the beginning of the typical seasonal slow down and Shrewsbury is still at the top of the list of fastest selling neighborhoods in St Louis and, to top it off, the average time on market of current listings is 34 days, just 5 days more than back in June! Continue Reading →

St Louis Median Home Prices In October Increase Nearly Eight Percent From Year Ago

The median price of homes sold in the St Louis MSA during the month of October was $165,000, a 7.8 percent increase from the median sold price of $153,1000 from October 2015 in the St Louis MSA. As the chart below shows, Continue Reading →

Distressed Home Sales Fall To Lowest Level In 9 Years

A report recently released by ATTOM Data Solutions revealed shows distressed home sales in the U.S. (foreclosures, short sales and bank-owned real estate) accounted for just 12.9 percent of the home and condo sales in the U.S. during the 3rd quarter of this year which is down from 15 percent during the 2nd quarter and down from 15.9 percent a year before. This is the lowest level for distressed home sales since the 3rd quarter of 2007, according to the report. Continue Reading →

Home Loan Applications Decline As Do Mortgage Interest Rates; St Louis bucks trend

New mortgage applications for a home purchase declined last week 7.0 percent from the prior week, according to a report just released by the Mortgage Banker’s Association (MBA). The MBA’s Market Composite Index, which is how they track the volume of loan applications, fell to it’s lowest level for home loans for a purchase since January 2016. Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate Market Update VIDEO – October 2016

St Louis home sales and prices continue to trend favorably throughout the area. The inventory of homes for sale in the St Louis area has increased over the past month but that is expected given the seasonal slow down in home sales. Even though we are headed toward winter and the slower home selling season it brings, if you live in St Charles County or one of the other areas where the supply of homes for sale is low, you may want to strongly consider going on the market now to take advantage of what is still steady demand with little competition. Continue Reading →

17 Million First-Time Homebuyers Could Hit The Market During Next Five Years

Up to 17 million first-time homebuyers may buy a home during the next five years according to a new study just released by TransUnion. Of these 17 million homebuyers, almost three million are expected to buy next year throughout the U.S. The study reveled some interesting facts about the first-time homebuyer market, as well as the impact of the millennial generation on the market, such as: Continue Reading →

Foreclosure Activity Falls to Pre-Bubble Levels – Distressed Home Sales In St Louis Getting Harder To Find

There were 293,190 foreclosure filings in the U.S. during the 3rd quarter of 2016, which is a decrease of 10 percent from a year ago, according to a report released today by Attom Data Solutions. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter in which foreclosure activity has decreased on a year-over-year basis and continues the steady downward decline in foreclosure activity we have seen for 6 years and has now finally fallen back to levels we saw prior to the housing bubble. Continue Reading →

Check Out St Louis’s $2Mil+ Home Sales From The Past Year

Last month the median price of homes sold in the St Louis MSA was a very-affordable $169,000 however, during past 12 months, homes have sold for as much as over 50 times that amount in St Louis. That’s right, during the past year there was a home that sold for $9,000,000 in St Louis, over 53 times the median St Louis home price. The $9,000,000 St Louis home that was sold was at 2105 South Warson and sold in November of last year for $9,000,000. The next highest home sale was a $4,000,000 one at 760 Kent Road, followed by 2 more Ladue homes. In all, 13 of the 31 homes that sold in St Louis for more than $2,000,000 (based upon MLS data) were in Ladue, 7 were in Clayton (3 of those being condo’s), 3 in Town & Country, 2 in Huntleigh, 2 in Chesterfield, 2 in Creve Coeur and 2 in the Central West End (both were condos at the Private Residences in Chase Park Plaza). Continue Reading →

Finally Others Agree That The Mortgage Interest Deduction Isn’t Critical To The Housing Market

Over the past 5 years or so I have written a few articles on the topic of the mortgage interest deduction (MID) and how, in spite of what many others in the industry say, I didn’t think it was that critical to the housing industry. All the while, the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) (of which I’m proud to be a member, just happen to disagree on this topic) has staunchly supported the MID and warned that if the deduction went away the housing market and home buyers would suffer. NAR published a fact sheet on the topic stating:

Repealing Continue Reading →