Real estate agents should be on the lookout for a phishing scam disguised as a real estate lead from Realtor.com. A phishing scam involves sending emails that look to be from a real, reputable company, but are not, in order to get the recipient to reveal personal information , such as credit card numbers, email passwords, etc so the scammer can use the information for some fraudulent purpose. Over the past couple of years real estate agents have been a specific target of these scammers. Real estate agents are targeted in an effort to obtain the agents email password so the scammer can then send a phony email to the agents clients tricking them into wiring money to the fraudsters account rather than the title company for a closing. Continue Reading →
During the first quarter of 2017, the foreclosure rate in the St Louis metro area was one in every 487 housing units, a decline of 19.59 percent from the quarter before, and a decline of 3.61 percent from a year ago, according to a report released today by Attom Data. Continue Reading →
The St Louis real estate market has been a fast-selling seller’s market in many areas for what seems like a long time now. Currently, the fastest selling city within the St Louis area is Warson Woods where homes for sale there have been on the market just an average of 7 days, followed by Valley Park at 16 days. As the table below, with the 15 fastest selling neighborhoods, shows, the “slowest” fastest-selling neighborhood on the list, Webster Groves, is at 49 days for the average time current listings have been for sale there. Continue Reading →
It seems almost crazy to even throw out the idea of an adjustment in St Louis home prices or, perhaps even, any sort of slow down in the rate of home price appreciation given that the inventory of homes for sale is so low in so many parts of the St Louis area, however, maybe it’s something to look at. Continue Reading →
There just aren’t enough homes for sale in many price ranges! This month, like many months before, you will see that all five counties in the St Louis core market (city of St Louis and the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) all have less than a 6 month supply of homes for sale (a few less than half of that), so it remains a sellers market in many areas! While the market is doing well, you will notice the trend over the past 24 months, as I describe in the video is down a little in terms of number of homes sales which is due simply the lack of homes available for sale. There doesn’t appear to be a shortage of buyers at this point, just a shortage of sellers. Continue Reading →
The St Louis real estate market continues to be strong and, thanks for a low inventory of homes for sale in many areas, competitive. Accurately priced homes in popular neighborhoods often sell within a day or two of coming on the market. Listings in the fastest selling cities in St Louis spend an average of less than 30 days on the market. As the table below shows, the fastest selling city currently is Glendale (which has spent a lot of time at the top of this list over the last few months) with an average of just 23 days on the market for current listings, followed by Valley Park with an average listing time of 26 days. Continue Reading →
Last year was a good year for the St Louis real estate market and, thus far, 2017 is off to a pretty good start in St Louis as well! As the chart and tables below illustrates, home prices in the St Louis area have been trending upward over the past couple of years and sales are holding pretty steady. Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
All five counties in the St Louis core St Louis market are still “seller’s markets” all with under 6 months supply of homes for sale. The best sellers markets in town have a one month, or less, supply of homes for sale making this a great time to sell a home in spite of the fact it’s mid-December.
Want to know more? If so, then check out our just-released, 5-minute, video market update below which will go into more detail and give you a quick overview of St Louis home prices, where the sellers markets are, the buyers markets Continue Reading →
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 →
The supply of homes for sale in St Louis continues to decline in spite of entering the “slow season”. As revealed in our market update video for November, the supply of active listings throughout the St Louis area remains low and, in 4 out of 5 of the “core-market” counties, has decreased since last month. Contrary to popular opinion that spring is the best time to sell your home, if you are located in one of the areas with a very low supply you may very well want to take a hard look at selling now while the opportunity is there. Continue Reading →
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 →
The rental vacancy rate in the St Louis MSA the U.S. during the third quarter of this year rose to 9.5 percent from 5.5 percent the prior quarter, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is worth noting though that the 5.5 percent vacancy rate seen during 2nd quarter was the lowest quarterly vacancy rate for the St Louis MSA in well over a decade and 9.5 percent for the 3rd quarter of 2016 is still much lower than the 13.9 percent vacancy rate we saw for St Louis during the 3rd quarter of last year. Continue Reading →
The homeownership rate in the St Louis MSA rose to 67.2 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2016, up from 66.2 percent during the prior quarter but still not far from the 4th quarter 2015 rate of 65.2 percent, the lowest homeownership rate in well over a decade. As the table below shows, which is based upon data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the St Louis homeownership rate peaked this year at 67.9 percent during the first quarter. I believe the best way to see the trend in this data is to look at the 12 month rolling average, so we the seasonality of the data does not affect it. As the table below illustrates, the current 12-month rolling average of the St Louis homeownership rate is at 66.6%, the lowest rate in well over a decade. Continue Reading →
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 →
On October 10th (well, technically October 11th since the final vote was not taken until reportedly 1:00 am) the city of Florissant dealt it’s latest blow to landlords and tenants clearly, in my humble opinion, sending a message that they (Florissant) want neither within their city limits. Continue Reading →
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 →
The inventory of homes for sale is creeping up, but still low! In this month’s video you will see that the St Louis real estate market remains strong as we close out the summer selling season and head into fall. The inventory of homes for sale has risen slightly, which is to be expected this time of year, but, overall, the market still favors sellers. Continue Reading →
The St Louis real estate market is still going strong! As the video below illustrates, the St Louis real estate market continues to do well as we head into the end of summer. The inventory of homes for sale remains low in most areas, which is good news for seller who face less competition and pricing pressure often resulting in multiple offers and quick sales. From a home buyers perspective it may not be as fun as buyers find themselves often competing and frequently losing out to other buyers that either got their first or offered more. Let your heart Continue Reading →
After the housing bubble burst in 2008 we saw several years of declining home prices before home prices finally reached bottom in late 2011 and early 2012. Due to the tremendous growth in foreclosure activity, as well as artificially inflated home prices as a result of sub-prime lending, many of St Louis’ lowest priced neighborhoods were hit the hardest. So, now that we have seen a solid real estate market in St Louis for a couple of years, and prices are recovering, how have home prices in these hard hit zips recovered? To determine this I have assembled the data Continue Reading →
There were 4,935 foreclosure filings on homes in the St Louis metro area during the first six months of 2016, a decline of 27.1% from the second half of 2015 when there were 6,770 foreclosure filings and down 9.75% from the first half of 2015 when there were 5,468 filings, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
The inventory of homes for sale in St Louis remains low making it a great time to be a home seller! Home sales and prices are up in the St Louis area although we are beginning to see home prices rescind slightly as we near the end of the summer market and prices historically soften a little. Continue Reading →
One of the many benefits to living in the St Louis area has long been the affordability of good homes in nice neighborhoods, but that has even gotten better in the past year in three of the 5 major counties that make up the St Louis market. As the table below shows, in Franklin County, due to lower home prices as well as interest rates, home affordability increased by 9 percent from May 2015 to May 2016. Continue Reading →
There have been 10,070 Homes sold in St Louis this year so far (through May 31, 2016), in the 5-county core St Louis market, an increase of 8.7 percent from the same time last year when there were 9,261 homes sold. As the table below shows, this years home sales is outpacing the prior 4 years thus far. The core St Louis market is comprised of the city of St Louis as well as the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin.
Pending home sales up as well but could show slowing trend…
At the chart below illustrates, Continue Reading →
Home sales continue at a brisk pace and the inventory of homes for sale remains low in all five counties that make up the core St Louis market with St Charles county having the lowest inventory with just a 1.9 month supply of homes for sale. Continue Reading →
If you want to buy a home today you have to be quick, especially in some neighborhoods where the demand is so high and inventory so low that many of the homes sell within a day or two of hitting the market. There are many ways to determine what are the hot neighborhoods in St Louis, but for the purposes of this article, I’m going to look at the average days on market of active listings to determine which cities in the St Louis where homes are selling the fastest. Continue Reading →
This legislative session, the Missouri State Legislature passed HB. 1862, which modifies provisions relating to the existing landlord-tenant law in Missouri, specifically, it repeals sections 534.350, 534.360, 535.030, 535.110, 535.160 and 535.300 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri and replaces them with five new sections as described in the bill. Continue Reading →
There are a variety of down payment assistance providers in the St Louis area where a qualifying home buyer can obtain assistance with their downpayment to buy a home. According to a report just released today by RealtyTrac, the average amount of down payment assistance covers the typical down payment on a median priced home in 4 out of five of the St Louis Counties that make up the core market, with St Charles County being the only exception. As the table below shows, in St Charles County the average down payment assistance of $5,000 falls short of the typical downpayment on a median priced home of $6,150 but still covers most of it. In the other 4 counties the down payment is more than covered. Continue Reading →