By Dennis Norman, on January 24th, 2019
The St Louis real estate market closed out another good year with 2018 finishing just slightly behind the year before in terms of home sales. Thus far, it looks like 2019 is off to a good start as well although higher interest rates will, no doubt, cause a little tension in the market this year.
Find out more, as well as get information on some of St Louis’s best resources for home buyers and sellers in our just-released market update video.
[xyz-ips snippet=”Market-Update-Video–Inline-Link”]
[xyz-ips snippet=”Market-Update-Video-Package”][xyz-ips snippet=”Seller-Resources—Listing-Targeted”]
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 27th, 2018 Early Christmas evening, the commercials began for “after Christmas” sales by anxious retailers that couldn’t even wait until after Christmas to tell everyone what great bargains can be had. Well, the same holds true for residential real estate in terms of bargain prices at this time of year. It’s no secret that the number of homes sold, as well as prices, decline during this time of year, but I don’t know that would-be home buyers realize just how much they can save if they buy a home during this slow season.
As the STL Market Chart (exclusively from MORE, REALTORS) Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 21st, 2018 In the last week, I’ve seen several reports indicating declining home sales on both a nationwide basis as well as for the St Louis market. The reports vary widely but one local report indicated single family home sales were down 6 percent from a year ago, which, of course, should cause some concern for both agents as well as consumers since a 6 percent decline is significant. However, this is why, for this very reason, MORE, REALTORS® developed their own proprietary software to analyze and report the market data (the same MLS data as the aforementioned report was based upon) Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 17th, 2018 Every year around this time is when many homeowners that have their homes listed for sale discuss with their agent whether they should just take their home or condo off the market as Christmas approaches, then come back on the market after the beginning of the new year. Many homeowners that are thinking of selling contemplate the same thing trying to decide whether to come on the market before the holidays or wait until after.
It is a well-known fact this is a slower time of the year for the St Louis real estate market, but does that mean it’s Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 9th, 2018
The St Louis real estate market is lagging a little behind last year in terms of home sales and the inventory of homes for sale is on the rise. While some of this is, of course, seasonal, perhaps some of it could be related to home prices increasing over the past year or so at a higher rate than the historical “norm” as well as may be reflective of the higher interest rates we are experiencing now versus last year.
While it’s still a seller’s market in some areas of St Louis and in some price ranges, our market Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 7th, 2018
There were 37,721 homes sold in the St Louis metropolitan area during the past 12 months as reported by MORE, REALTORS. Of those, as the chart below illustrates, conventional financing made up the lion’s share of the sales. Conventional mortgages accounted for 18,967 home sales (50.3%), followed by cash transactions with no financing that accounted for 7,109 sales (18.9%), then 6,353 (16.8%) sales with FHA loans, 2,333 (6.2%) with VA loans, and 770 (2.0%) sales financed with USDA financing. The remaining 5.8% of the home sales were financed with one of roughly 30 other lessor popular financing methods.
Search St Louis Homes For Sale Search Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 5th, 2018 It’s no secret that home sales slow down this time of year in St Louis however, there are still plenty of cities in St Louis where homes are selling quickly! As the table below shows, Rock Hill is at the top of our Fastest Selling Cities list with the current supply of homes for sale being on the market for an average of just 29 days. Of the 10 cities on our list, all but one are in St Louis County and, of the 9 in St Louis County, 5 are in North County.
Search St Louis Homes For Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 25th, 2018 The median price of homes sold in Franklin County during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2018, was $150,000 according to the STL Market Report™ from MORE™, REALTORS®. As the STL Market Report™ below shows, this is exactly the same as during the prior 12-month period. During the most recent 12-month period, there were 1,282 homes sold in Franklin County, a decrease of 2.29% from the prior 12-month period. There is currently a 4.13 month supply of homes for sale in Franklin County and listings have been on the market a median time of 98 days.
STL Market Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 24th, 2018 The median price of homes sold in Jefferson County during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2018, was $169,000 according to the STL Market Report™ from MORE™, REALTORS®. As the STL Market Report™ below shows, this is an increase in the median price of homes sold of 2.42% from the prior 12-month period. During the most recent 12-month period, there were 3,407 homes sold in Jefferson County, a decrease of 0.7% from the prior 12-month period. There is currently a 2.78 month supply of homes for sale in Jefferson County and listings have been on the market a median Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2018 The median price of homes sold in St Charles County during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2018, was $230,000 according to the STL Market Report™ from MORE™, REALTORS®. As the STL Market Report™ below shows, this is an increase in the median price of homes sold of 4.55% from the prior 12-month period. During the most recent 12-month period, there were 6,081 homes sold in St Charles County, an increase of 1.11% from the prior 12-month period. There is currently a 2.52 month supply of homes for sale in St Charles County and listings have been on the Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 21st, 2018 The median price of homes sold in St Louis City and County combined during the 12 month period ended October 31, 2018 was $185,000 according to the STL Market Report™ from MORE™, REALTORS®. As the STL Market Report™ below shows, this is an increase in the median price of condos sold of 5.11% from the prior 12-month period. During the most recent 12-month period, there were 16,841 homes sold in St Louis City and County combined, just 6 sales more than the prior 12-month period. There is currently a 2.67 month supply of condos for sale in St Louis City Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 2nd, 2018 I had lunch yesterday with a long-time friend who is a St Louis home-builder who shared with me the continually rising costs of construction he faces. Our conversation was consistent with conversations I’ve had with other builders as well, who cite a variety of things responsible for the ever-increasing costs of new home construction. The areas most often mentioned relate to regulatory and compliance issues, material prices as well as rising labor costs. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the average cost to build a new home has inreased 56% over the past 15 years. According to Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 23rd, 2018 In contrast to reports from around the country of a cooling housing market and even a possible bubble in some markets, the St Louis real estate market continues to hold steady. As our exclusive, STL Market Report for the St Louis 5-County core market below shows, during the past 12-months homes have sold at about the same pace as the prior 12-month period, prices are up a little over 5 percent and the supply, while up, is still at a rather low 3 months.
St Louis 5-County core market home sales and prices
(click on table for Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 14th, 2018 St Louis home sales continue to lag a little behind last year, however, through the end of September, year-to-date St Louis home sales are higher than they were for the ten years prior to last year! In fact, the YTD total home sales of 21,043 for the St Louis 5-County core market, falls just 130 home sales short of the 21,173 homes sold at this time back in the banner year of 2006. For the St Louis area, YTD home sales through September for this year are just 5.8% below the all-time high in 2005 when there were 22,344 homes Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 26th, 2018 Yesterday, the latest S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller (the biggest name in national home price data) home price indices were released for July 2018 (their reports lag behind somewhat). Even though in their press release, S&P stated “Data released today for July 2018 shows that home prices continued their rise across the country over the last 12 months” however, the release went on to say point out, with regard to July’s increase in home prices, that is was “down from 6.2% in the previous month”. This prompted many news outlets to publish articles with headlines about home prices cooling, the market cooling, Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 20th, 2018 St Louis home sales remain consistent but fairly flat with 27,636 homes sold during the past 12 months, just slightly more than the 27,525 homes sold in the prior 12 month period, for the 5-County core St Louis market. As the table below shows, while home sales only increased by 0.40% during the period for the core St Louis market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson, and Franklin) the median price of homes sold during the period increased 5.46% from a median price of $184,900 to $195,00. There is a currently a 2.55 month Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 18th, 2018 Mortgage delinquency rates, the precursor to foreclosures, continue to fall as the real estate market continues to perform well. The 30-plus day mortgage delinquency rate for June 2018 fell to 4.3% of all outstanding mortgages down from 4.6% a year ago, according to a report just released by CoreLogic. Frank Nothaft, the Chief Economist for CoreLogic, attributed the good news to “A solid labor market” going on to say that June’s national unemployment rate of 4% was “the lowest for June in 18 years“.
St Louis distressed home sales falling quickly…
With the economy and real estate market doing so Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 7th, 2018 One question that causes much debate among the real estate community and confusion among home buyers is “should you buy a home directly from the listing agent?”. Many home buyers feel like they will get a better deal buying directly from the listing agent, thinking that it will save the seller some money in the form of commission and that the savings will benefit them, the buyer. This premise is flawed though as it is extremely rare that this would result in any commission savings (for more info see an article I did on the topic a couple of years Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 23rd, 2018 The sale of new homes in the Midwest region of the U.S. is on the rise according to a report just released by the Census Bureau. In July, new homes in the Midwest sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 78,000 homes, an increase of 9.9% from June and an 18.2% increase from July 2017 when the rates were 66,000 homes. Year-to-date this year, though the end of July, there have been 50,000 actual new homes sold in the Midwest region, an increase of 14.2% from the same time last year when there had been 44,000 new homes sold Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 22nd, 2018 As the interest in investing in real estate in St Louis continues to increase, whether to buy, fix and flip or to buy and hold for rental, the number of opportunities to do so continues to decline. The primary source of “deals” for investors is typically “distressed” sales; property that has been foreclosed on and being resold, short sales or property in poor condition needing work. However, as our chart for St Louis MSA below reveals, the number of distressed home sales in St Louis has been steadily declining over the past 5 years.
The chart shows both the number Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 16th, 2018 While St Louis home sales are flat this year the overall market conditions remain good. The low inventory of homes for sale continues to benefit St Louis sellers! Find out more, as well as get information on some of St Louis’s best resources for home buyers and sellers in our just-released market [xyz-ips snippet=”Market-Update-Video–Inline-Link”] update video. [xyz-ips snippet=”Market-Update-Video-Package”] [xyz-ips snippet=”Seller-Resources—Listing-Targeted”]
By Dennis Norman, on August 9th, 2018 Yesterday, I had lunch with a friend in the industry who expressed his concern that the Jefferson County real estate market was cooling off a little and questioned the possibility a market correction. I referenced the article I wrote last week in which I explored the possibility of a market correction in St Louis and, based upon the data we have, came to the conclusion there wasn’t anything to be alarmed about at this time. However, I had looked at the 5 counties that make up the St Louis core market as a whole (which included Jefferson County) but did Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 3rd, 2018 During the month of July, the homes that sold in Maplewood, Missouri took a median time of just 5 days to sell making Maplewood the fastest SOLD city in the St Louis MSA for July 2018! For July, the two fastest selling cities in St Louis took less time to sell than the number 1 city on June’s list (Columbia, IL at 9 days).
Considering the sales that closed in June were from contracts executed during the spring market, we would expect the time to sell to be low, but the time to sell for July’s closings didn’t slip Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 31st, 2018 This morning I watched a video from a firm that reports on the real industry and does so from a blunt, “call it as they see it”, perspective (pretty much my style too) in which they say “market correction indicators continue to roll in” and suggest that, to some extent, the party is over. This report looked at the national real estate market as a whole and specifically looked at the west coast so is not necessarily indicative of what is happening in the St Louis real estate market, however, can often be an early indicator.
As a result, I Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 28th, 2018 On a national level, there have been reports lately of slowing home sales evidenced by both new home sales and existing home sales falling in June, housing affordability issues and the like. Here in St Louis, the real estate market continues to perform well, however, indicators are showing a slight downward trend in St Louis home sales.
As the chart below illustrates, there have been 14,268 homes sold through the end of June in the St Louis metro area, a decline of 4.4% from the same period a year ago when there were 14,925 homes sold in St Louis. The Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 26th, 2018 New homes sold in the Midwest region of the U.S. in June were at a seasonally-adjusted, annual rate of 71,000 homes, according to a report just released by the U.S. Department of Commerce and United States Census Bureau. June’s new home sales activity in the Midwest represents a 13.4% decline from May when new homes in the Midwest sold at an annual rate of 82,000 homes but is a 7.6% increase from June 2017 when the annual rate was 66,000 homes. Last year the rate of new home sales in this region increased every month after June up until December Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 17th, 2018 The St Louis real estate market continues to be an enjoyable one for sellers who benefit from the low inventory of homes for sale and somewhat of a challenge for home buyers who face stiff competition. The lack of inventory of available listings has contributed to St Louis home sales this year falling a little behind last years home sales. Find out more, as well as get information on some of St Louis’s best resources for home buyers and sellers in our just-released market [xyz-ips snippet=”Market-Update-Video–Inline-Link”] update video. [xyz-ips snippet=”Market-Update-Video-Package”] [xyz-ips snippet=”Seller-Resources—Listing-Targeted”]
By Dennis Norman, on July 10th, 2018 Home sales in St Louis declined a little over 2 percent during the most recent 12-month period from the prior period while the median price of homes sold in St Louis rose 4.4%, according to the latest data from MORE, REALTORS.
St Louis home sales are trending downward slightly as well, as illustrated by the chart below. The light green line depicts year to date home sales for the St Louis 5-county core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) and reveals that through June of this year, there have been 13,237 Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 1st, 2018 One of the “buzz words” you hear often in the real estate industry today is “disrupter“. To disrupt, by definition, is to “throw into turmoil or disorder, interrupt the progress of (a movement, meeting, etc) or break or split (something) apart.” With dozens and dozens of new startups, new business models and new practices coming upon the real estate scene over the last handful of years, it seems practically everyone wants to disrupt the real estate industry. Why not? Afterall, there was some $70 Billion (yes, Billion with a “B”) in commissions made by residential real estate agents last year Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on June 29th, 2018 The St Louis real estate market continues to be a strong one and continues to favor sellers in many cases. As the chart below illustrates, the median price per foot that homes sold for in May (green line) shot up in May to $133 from $129 the month before, a 3.1% increase from the month before and an increase of 6.4% from May 2017 when the price per foot was $125. This increase in home prices didn’t seem to affect St Louis home sales, however, as there were 2,922 homes sold in May, an increase of 24.3% from the month Continue Reading →
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