By Dennis Norman, on February 14th, 2016
For those that have been reading my articles for a while, you know I am not a Pollyanna when it comes to the real estate market, opting instead to tell it like it is, even when the news is not so encouraging. For that reason, as well as the data behind my opinion, I think my suggestion that now is a good time to buy a home in St Louis should be considered to be a credible opinion from an industry insider. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 10th, 2016
The St Louis real estate market performed well in January and 2016 is off to a good start! 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 and much more! If you are considering buying or selling a home, or are an investor or just a homeowner wanting to keep up on the market, you don’t want to miss this! Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 8th, 2016
The St Louis real estate market is off to a good start for 2016 with non-distressed home sales during January increasing 30 percent from a year ago. In the St Louis five-county core market, there were nearly 1,700 total homes sold (1,697) during January 2015, up 19.3% from January 2015 where there were 1,423 total sales. Non-distressed sales (private sales only, no foreclosures, REO’s, etc) accounted for 1,430 of the home sales during January 2015, an increase of 30% from January 2015 when there were 1,101 homes sold. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on February 3rd, 2016
The St Louis real estate and housing market saw a good year last year but, as we are frequently reminded, real estate is very “local” and prices, as well as market conditions, can vary widely even between cities or towns just a mile or two apart. This is clearly illustrated when I look at a report our company produces, based upon home sales data, obtained directly from the St Louis REALTOR® MLS, that shows the median price per foot for homes sold (or currently for sale) throughout the St Louis area. I like price per square foot data as I believe that is one of the more accurate ways of seeing trends in home prices. We compile this data and publish it live, and real-time, online, for each city in St Louis as well as zip code. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2016
Last year was a pretty good year for the St Louis real estate market with many areas of St Louis seeing an increase in the number of homes sold from the prior year and most of the St Louis area seeing home price appreciation. Many neighborhoods in St Louis saw some new record high home prices so I thought I would take a look at some popular St Louis neighborhoods and the most expensive homes sold in them during 2015. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 19th, 2016
The St Louis real estate market performed well in 2015 and, by all indications, 2016 should be an even better year for the St Louis real estate market! Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 15th, 2016
During 2015, a total of 10,391 housing units, or 1 out of 118 units, in the St Louis MSA had a foreclosure filing, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. This is an increase of 38.29% in foreclosure activity from 2014. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 1st, 2016
As 2015 comes to an end and we welcome everything 2016 has in store for us, we say goodbye to one of the better real estate markets St Louis has seen in a while but eagerly await what, by most indications, appears to be an even better year for St Louis real estate, 2016! Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 29th, 2015
As 2015 quickly comes to an end, we close out what has been one of the better years for the St Louis real estate market in many years! Homes in St Louis sold at a brisk pace and St Louis home prices showed solid appreciation! We saw a spring market that brought home buyers racing to new listings often competing with other buyers to see who could make the best offer the quickest, often-times with the final sale price equaling or exceeding the asking price followed by a steady market throughout the summer and into the winter months. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 28th, 2015
I have the honor of serving as chairman of the St Louis Industry Forum which consists of leaders of professional and trade associations that are engaged in some aspect of the real estate industry in St Louis (such as REALTORS, Builders, Mortgage Lenders, Bankers, etc) and at our bi-monthly meetings millennial’s are often the topic of conversation with regard to this generations thoughts on home ownership vs. renting, where they want to live and other related matters. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 15th, 2015
As 2015 quickly nears the end, the St Louis real estate market continues to perform well (no doubt fueled, in part, by the unusually warm weather we are having) with year-to-date home sales through the end of November up nearly 9 percent from the same time last year and St Louis home prices up almost 4 percent from the same time last year. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 11th, 2015
St Louis Foreclosure activity increased in November to 1 foreclosure activity on 1 of every 1,086 housing units in the St Louis MSA, a decrease of 8.06 percent from the month before but an increase of 62.59 percent from November 2014, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 3rd, 2015
Distressed home sales in St Louis during the month of October 2015 accounted for about 11.6 percent of all home sales during the month, a decline of about 50 percent from a year ago when St Louis distressed home sales accounted for 23 percent of the all home sales, according to the latest data just released by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 1st, 2015
Homeownership in the U.S. is down 7.58% in the past 10 years, according to the latest information available from the U.S. Census Bureau. The St Louis homeownership rate for the 3rd quarter of 2015 was the lowest rate for the 3rd quarter of any year in over 10 years. In addition, as our table below showings, the 12 month rolling average St Louis homeownership rate at the end of the 3rd quarter was at 69.9%, the lowest rate in well over a decade. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 25th, 2015
The St Louis Real estate market remains fairly strong however, winter is coming! St Louis home sales in 2015 continue to outpace the year before however, as draw nearer and nearer to winter and the inevitable slowdown in the real estate market that comes along with the cold weather, we are seeing St Louis home prices trending downward and the supply of homes for sale trending upward. Currently, 4 of the 5 counties in the St Louis core market still have a median supply of homes for sale of less than 6 months, which is good, but it’s on the rise. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 16th, 2015
Foreclosure activity, after an extended downward trend, has trended upward lately in the St Louis metro area and October was no exception seeing an increase of over 13 percent (13.17%) in activity from the month before and, on a 12-month rolling average, an increase of almost 30 percent (29.85%) from a year ago, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 5th, 2015
Nearly one in every 4 home sales in St Louis (23.9%) during the 3rd quarter of 2015 were financing with an FHA loan, according to data just released by RealtyTrac. This is a slight decrease from the quarter before when 24.3% of the homes sold were financed with an FHA loan, but is an increase of 30% from a year ago when FHA financing was used on just 17.45 of the homes purchased in St Louis. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 4th, 2015
Distressed Home Sales accounted for just 13 percent of St Louis home sales thus far in 2015, a decline of 37.6 percent from two years ago when over 1 in every 5 (20.83%) St Louis home sales was a short sale or foreclosure. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 30th, 2015
In St Louis Nearly One In Every Home Sales Is A Condo – As the table below shows, during 2015 nearly one of every 8 (12.22%) home sales in St Louis has been a condominium, exactly the same as last year, and higher than the 11.61% rate on the national level shown in the second table below. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 19th, 2015
The St Louis Real estate market continues to out perform last year! However, as we head into winter, home prices in all five primary counties of the St Louis market are trending downward somewhat. However, as I’ve said so many times, real estate is very local so, as I would expect, some local markets are out performing others and home prices are trending upward.
So, if you are a homeowner, how do you know if now is a good time to sell? Well, if the supply of homes for sale in your market is low now could be a Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 12th, 2015
If you live in Crestwood, Glendale, Warson Woods or Rock Hill and have considered selling your home, now is the time! With less than a 2 month supply of homes for sale, these four St Louis communities are definitely seller’s markets and now would be the time to list your home for sale. In addition to those 4 areas, as the list below reveals, there are 17 other St Louis neighborhoods that are also very attractive seller’s markets, each with less than a 3 month supply of homes currently listed for sale. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 9th, 2015
No, in spite of the fact this is October, this article is not about Halloween nor the zombies associated with it, instead, it’s about vacant homes that have delinquent mortgages but have not yet been foreclosed upon yet, which the industry has applied the term of “zombie” to. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 8th, 2015
Since the real estate market bubble burst in 2008, the number of foreclosed homes that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has had to manage and sell to investors and new home owners has increased significantly, averaging around 100,000 homes sold per year and hitting a peak of 111,416 HUD homes sold during fiscal year 2013. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 7th, 2015
Where are the buyers markets in St Louis? You cannot determine the health of a real estate market with just one piece of data, however, a good indicator of a potential buyers market would be areas with a high supply of homes for supply. Note that I said supply and not number. This is important, as some areas, such as Chesterfield for example, may have what seems like a large number of homes currently for sale, but given the size of the market and number of sales, it could still well be a sellers market. The supply of homes for sale on the other hand, takes into account the number of active listings as well as the rate of home sales and then determines how many months it would take to “sell out” of homes on the market if no new listings came on the market. A supply of around 4 -5 months has historically been pretty typical. The list below, which is from our real-time data that you won’t find anywhere else and is always up to date, shows the cities within St Louis with the highest supply of homes for sale based upon the current sales rate thus indicating a slow market with too much supply and very possible some good buying opportunities. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 30th, 2015
St Louis home prices have made a strong recovery since bottoming out in 2011 as a result of the housing market bubble bursting in 2008. In fact, for the 5-county St Louis area I often focus on (the city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) home prices have increased 27 percent to a median price of $168,313 after hitting a post-bubble low of $132,500 in 2011. In fact, as my chart below shows, the median 5-county home price for 2015 has topped the peak price of $160,000 at the height of the market in 2007 by over 5 percent. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 29th, 2015
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that they had reached an agreement with Eagle Bank and Trust Company to resolve allegations that “Eagle Bank and Trust Company (Eagle Bank) engaged in a pattern or practice of “redlining” predominantly African-American neighborhoods in and around St. Louis.” “Redlining” is defined by the DOJ as “the discriminatory practice by banks or other financial institutions to deny or avoid providing credit services to a consumer because of the racial demographics of the neighborhood in which the consumer lives.” Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 27th, 2015
If you live in Missouri you are probably aware of the fact that, within our state, is the New Madrid fault, a 150-mile long fault that covers portions of five states, including the New Madrid are of Missouri. The New Madrid fault zone was the location of three (or some say four) of the largest earthquakes ever recorded on this continent, reaching a magnitude as high as 7.0 – 7.5. These massive earthquakes occurred at the end of 1811 and beginning of 1812. What you may not know, is the impact an earthquake in New Madrid may have on your Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 24th, 2015
St Louis distressed home sales share of the St Louis real estate market continues to decline minimizing the negative effect on home prices caused by distressed home sales. In August, distressed home sales, primarily consisting of foreclosures and REO’s (bank owned properties) at this point as short sales have fallen to the point to be statistically insignificant, accounted for just 6 percent of the overall home sales in the St Louis metro area, according to a report just released this morning by RealtyTrac. This is a decline of over 50 percent (56.3%) from a year ago when distressed home sales accounted for 13.7 percent of total home sales in St Louis. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 23rd, 2015
The St Louis Real Estate market is still doing well! However, some cities, like Valley Park for example, that were strong sellers markets not that long ago have now become more of a buyer’s market and other cities have flipped the other direction. To find out which neighborhoods are buyers markets, which are sellers markets, what home prices are doing and a whole lot more, check out our newly released 5-minute, market video update for September 2015, below. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 17th, 2015
St Louis Foreclosures in August decreased slightly from the month before (1.51%) however increased over 140% from August 2014, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac. According to the report, there were 1,176 foreclosure filings in the St Louis metro area in August 2015 which equates to 1 in every 1,043 housing units in the metro area. Continue Reading →
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