By Dennis Norman, on August 14th, 2015
I often find myself very surprised to hear how a consumer chose the real estate agent they hired to represent them and hear things such as “I work with him…”, “She is a friend of….”, “He is my cousin…” etc. When I hear these responses several things come to mind: Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 9th, 2015
One year ago today, the small city of Ferguson gained international attention after Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an incident which spurred weeks of violence and property destruction in Ferguson. This delivered a blow to the Ferguson real estate market which was still struggling to recover from the housing bubble burst in 2008 which had severely impacted the area. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 6th, 2015
St Louis property flipping activity rose during the 2nd quarter of this year 6.2 percent from the first quarter, however was down 44.3 percent from a year ago, according to information just released by RealtyTrac. During the 2nd quarter of this year, 3.2 percent of all home sales were “flips”, meaning they were purchased and then resold in an arms-length sale within 12 months. The average gross profit on the flipped property was $39,181 down for $50,870 a year ago. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 4th, 2015
I often talk about the effect the quality of a public school district has on home prices so decided to take a look at a few of the larger (and many of the top ranked) districts to see how home price appreciation has been during the past year. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 3rd, 2015
St Louis pending home sales in July slowed from to 2,332 sales from 2,602 sales the month before in the 5-county core St Louis market, but were still up 2 percent from July 2014 when there were 2,287 pending sales. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 24th, 2015
New home sales in the midwest slipped in June to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 56,000 homes, a decline of 11.1 percent from the month before when sales were at a rate of 63,000 homes, according to a report just released by the U.S. Commerce Department. Even though new home sales cooled off in June, the pace for June was still 5.7 percent higher than June 2014 when new home sales came in at a rate of 53,000 homes. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 23rd, 2015
Foreclosure Sales In St Louis (the 5-county core market) in June 2015 totaled 374 sales, a decline of 4.3 percent from June 2014 where there were 391 foreclosure sales. The median price of the homes sold in June 2015 was 60,150, and increase of 7.2 percent from a year ago when the median price was $56,100. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 22nd, 2015
St Louis Home sales, for the 5-county core market, in June totaled 3,542 sales, an increase of 15.4 percent from June 2014 when there were 3,068 homes sold. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 21st, 2015
The St Louis real estate market, like the weather, is HOT! Many of our listings are selling the first day and then for full price or above! Naturally though, this is not true for all areas of St Louis nor all prices ranges. Find where the hot seller’s markets, as well as cold buyer’s markets are in St Louis in our newly released, 5-minute, market video update for July 2015, below.
If you have considered selling your home, or perhaps tried and failed in the past year or so, now is the time to consider it again. Give us a Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 2nd, 2015
St Louis bank and government owned home sales are down as banks and government enterprises such as Fannie Mae, FHA, VA and Freddie Mac whittle down their inventory of foreclosed homes while, at the same time, new mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure rates continue to decline. While this is Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 30th, 2015
St Louis pending home sales in May hit the highest level we have seen in years with 2,558 pending homes sales during the month in the 5-county core market*, an increase of 8.9% from May 2014 when there were 2,348 pending home sales. Year to date this year, through the end of May, there have been 12,595 pending home sales, an increase of 7.8% from the same time last year. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 26th, 2015
St Louis area homes are already affordable based upon the relationship between the median home price and median income for the area, but can become even more affordable when home buyers take advantage of down payment assistance programs that are available throughout the area. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 24th, 2015
Further proof of just how “local” real estate is and how important it is for home buyers and sellers to have accurate, targeted, local data is the fact that today the St Louis Business Journal reported “home sales increased 17.9 percent year to date in the St. Louis metropolitan area, more than twice the national rate of 8.4 percent” which would if you are looking to buy a home, say in the City of St Louis, may influence your decision thinking it’s a hot selling area. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 29th, 2015
The pending home sales index, published by the National Association of REALTORS® ,based upon the number of homes that went under contract but have not yet closed yet, hit 112.4 in April, a 3.4% increase from March and a 14% increase from a year ago marking the largest annual increase in almost 3 years (since September 2012) and the highest level for the index since hitting 112.5 in May 2006 during the height of the boom. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 28th, 2015
The city of St Louis came in at the top of list of RealtyTrac’s “Top Buyer’s Markets”, just released this morning. For the report, RealtyTrac analyzed average sales prices and estimated market values at time of sale for homes and condos sold in April in 315 U.S. counties to come up with a list of the Top Seller’s Markets and the Top Buyer’s Markets. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 26th, 2015
New home sales here in the midwest region of the U.S. occurred in April at an adjusted annual rate of 78,000 homes, an increase of 36.8 percent from the month before when new home sales activity was at the rate of 57,000 homes per year and an increase of 20 percent from April 2014 when new homes were selling at the rate of 65,000 homes a year, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 14th, 2015
Cash home sales accounted for just under 1 of every 4 (23%) home sales in St Louis during the month of April 2015, a slight decline from a year ago when cash home sales were responsible for 25% of the total home sales. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 7th, 2015
Flipping homes accounts for a smaller percentage of home sales today at about 4 percent of total home sales in the U.S., then in the recent past when they accounted for 6 percent of more of the homes being sold (6.8% at the recent peak in 1st quarter 2012), according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 6th, 2015
House flipping in St Louis accounted for just 2.4 percent of the home sales in the St Louis metro area during the first quarter of this year, according to data just obtained from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on May 1st, 2015
Pending home sales, the measure of homes with contracts on them but not yet closed, is up five percent on a year to date basis through April of this year compared with the same time last year, for the five-county St Louis core market (St Louis City and the Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin). Through the end of April, there have been 7,434 pending home sales, up from 7,080 at the same time last year but still down from 7,984 at this time in 2013. The chart below shows the past five years and, beneath that, Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 29th, 2015
Distressed home sales (foreclosures, REO’s and short sales) made up 13.5 percent of the home sales in the U.S. in February, 2015, a decline of 18% from a year ago when the rate was 16.5 percent and is a decline of 5.6% from January when the rate was 14.3%, according to a report just released by Corelogic. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 24th, 2015
St Louis home sales, in the 5-county “core” St Louis market, increased 16.9 percent in March from the year before, with 2,589 homes sold in March 2015 up from 2,214 sold in March 2014. As the chart below shows, there was the normal “seasonal” dip during the winter months, but the St Louis real estate market has come out of winter strong!
St Louis home prices on the rise too!
As the chart below also illustrates, the median price of homes sold in St Louis has increased from a year ago as well. The median price of homes sold in Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on April 21st, 2015
Between 2006 and 2014 nearly 9.3 million homeowners in the U.S. were either foreclosed on, did a deed of lieu of foreclosures, or did a short sale of their home, according to a recent report by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 30th, 2015
Pending home sales in St Louis rose in February with 1,710 sales pending in the St Louis 5-county core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), an increase of 17 percent from 1,460 pending home sales the month before, however was a decrease of 11% from February 2014 when there were 1,917 pending home sales in the St Louis 5-county core market. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 24th, 2015
St Louis home sales jumped in February to 1,633 homes sold in the St Louis 5-County Core market (the city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin), an increase of almost 15 percent (14.8%) from February 2014 when there were 1,423 homes sold, and an increase of over 22 percent (22.3%) from the month before, according to the latest data available from MORE, REALTORS Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 19th, 2015
This week FNC, Inc., a large company that provides real estate market information to mortgage lenders across the country, published their FNC Residential Price Index™ report which showed St Louis home prices declined slightly in January from the month before (0.4%) and were also down slightly (0.7%) from a year ago. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 10th, 2015
If you are like a lot of people and see St Louis foreclosures, or REO’s (real estate owned by banks and other lending institutions as a result of foreclosure) as a good opportunity to buy a residence for yourself or as an investment either for rental or for “flipping”, you best have cash and be prepared to “buck up” if you want to succeed! I say this because cash buyers continue to dominate the REO and foreclosure market with 61% of all REO and Foreclosure sales this year in St Louis being cash sales thus far. As the table below shows, while the number of foreclosure sales has declined this year from last year at the same time, the percentage of them going to cash buyers has not. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on March 6th, 2015
Reminenscent of the “good ole” days in the real estate biz, homes in St Louis are selling quickly, often within a day or two of hitting the market and frequently at full price or close to it! Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 27th, 2015
Two zip codes in St Louis made RealtyTrac’s list of “Zips with the highest gross returns (from flipping property)” for 4th quarter, 2014. The 63139 zip code, which includes the Dog Town area of St Louis, came in number 2 on the list with an average gross return on investment of 163.9% and the 63116 zip code, which includes Tower Grove South, Holly Hills, Dutchtown South and Bevo, came in 9th on the list with an average gross return on investment of 127.7%. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 25th, 2015
The St Louis real estate market is definitely recovering from the housing bubble burst that sent it into a tail spin about six years ago. With the recovery, home sales have increased, although at a slower pace in 2014 than the year before, and St Louis home prices have increased but, in spite of this, are St Louis home prices too low? Continue Reading →
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