St. Louis Real Estate - Mortgage News - Big Nothing

Filed under: Mortgage News

A Big Nothing! by Chris Scheer, District Manager, Cornerstone Mortgage, O’Fallon, MO

Well the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by another .5% today which makes 1.25% in the last 10 days. What did Wall Street do? They acted excited, but by the end of the day the DOW was down 37 points. The bond market was even less excited and there was almost no movement at all. Why is the big question?

I would love to tell you that I know the answer, but I don’t.

Here is my best guess as to what will happen over the next 30 days. As the heavy money has a chance to digest the Fed comments and view the rest of the economic indicators that are coming out this week they will determine in what direction the market will go. This week will still be a week with potentialy wild movements in both directions for mortgage interest rates. As the market recognizes that the Fed may have to take further action, positions on the bond market will be taken and we will see the 30 year fixed get down to 5.5% or possibly below.

Here are the economic indicators that are coming out this week:

1/30 Gross Domestic Product (Advance) (BEA) 2007 Q4 8:30
1/31 Personal Income (BEA) December 8:30
Construction Put in Place (Census) December 10:00

For more you can go to http://www.economicindicators.gov/

If you have questions or comments about this please contact Chris Scheer at chrisscheer@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by Doug Aegerter   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.30.2008

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch January 25th, 2008

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
January 25^th, 2008
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario. Your questions and comments are welcome! 

The St. Louis Real Estate Market this week continues to show signs of improvement with increases in active listings and homes accepting contracts.  Our pending ratio has climbed to almost 12%.  That’s almost a 1% jump in one week.  In the lower price ranges that move our St. Louis market, we see pending ratios already over 12%.

We are also seeing in the last week or so, the average list prices are going up ever so slightly along with the average selling prices.  The comparison between the average list price to the average selling price over the last six months has remained above 97% in all price ranges.  Even homes that are on the market as long as 120 days are experiencing a list price to sales price percentage remaining above 95% in most price ranges.

OK, So what’s that mean???  That means, Mr. Buyer, that you can’t “steal” that home that’s been on the market for a while. 

Mr. Seller—The market is not as depressed as all the “News Hype” would have you believe. At least not here in St. Louis.  Yes, there are parts of the country that are having major challenges with pricing and attracting buyers, but NOT HERE!!

 Thinking of buying or selling a home? Contact Us for additional information tailored to your specific needs.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch January 25th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson  County Market Watch January 25th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch January 18, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report December 2007

The report begins by breaking the market into 17 distinct price ranges. Then we show current listings and current pending listings which creates a pending ratio, which is helpful on a week to week basis to see if activity is increasing or decreasing in a price category. 

The report also shows the last 6 months of results and compares the data to the same 6 months of the previous year. 

The Market Analysis includes data on: 

Number of Active Listings (Current)
Pending Sales (Going to closing)
Pending Ratio (Active vs.Pending)
Sold (Last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)1
Average List Price
Average Sale Price
Average List to Sales Price %
Days on Market (DOM)
Months worth of Inventory (Based on current pending rate)
Buyers Market: > 7 months of listing inventory

Transitional Market: 5 - 7 months of listing inventory (sometimes called a “balanced” market)

Seller Market: < 5 months of listing inventory

Average % Sale Price/List Price (0-30), (31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (120+)DOM
           
Notice that you’re paying a penalty for over pricing. . .hey. .it’s a fact!!  

The Benchmark Report is produced monthly for:

• Single Family Residence
• Ranch Style
• 1300 - 2000 sq.ft.
• 3 Bedrooms
• 1.5 Bathrooms  

Art Wagner can be reached at art@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.25.2008

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch January 18th, 2008

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
January 18^th, 2008
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario. Your questions and comments are welcome! 

The St. Louis Real Estate market continues to show positive signs this week with an increase in active listings and a small increase in accepted contracts (pending sales).  The pending ratio has dropped just slightly, which is to be expected as more homes are coming on the market a bit faster than they are accepting contracts.  Were potential buyers waiting to see what the Fed would do?? Maybe—and look what they did!! With 30 year fixed rates at around 5.43% now and 15 year fixed rates below 5%, OK buyers—MOVE IT!! 

Sellers-if you were waiting for the right time to put your home on the market-it’s probably NOW—don’t wait for spring-who knows where interest rates will be by April or May.  Sellers on the market now will experience less competition as we still talk to plenty of potential sellers who are waiting for spring.

We recently spoke with a real estate agent in Orlando, Florida and when asked to give us a brief snapshot of the market in Orlando, he described it with this story.  “I’m headed out to list a home this afternoon, which just 18–24 months ago was valued at $700,000.  Today we are listing it for $475,000 and dropping the price $25,000 a WEEK until it sells. How about that??”  He also went on the say that “When Orlando real estate was booming just a couple of years ago, many investors and real estate agents bought all the land and homes they could get their hands on, thinking that the values would continue to sky-rocket. When the bubble burst, they were stuck with huge payments and are now doing anything they can to dump their inventory.” 

Makes our relatively stable real estate market here in St. Louis seem boring, but all I can say is. “I’m glad I don’t live in Orlando”.   

It’s no wonder the media has had a field day with the real estate industry on a national level. 

ANYONE LOOKING FOR A GREAT DEAL IN ORLANDO???  

 Thinking of buying or selling a home? Contact Us for additional information tailored to your specific needs.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch January 18, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson  County Market Watch January 11th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch January 18, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report December 2007

The report begins by breaking the market into 17 distinct price ranges. Then we show current listings and current pending listings which creates a pending ratio, which is helpful on a week to week basis to see if activity is increasing or decreasing in a price category. 

The report also shows the last 6 months of results and compares the data to the same 6 months of the previous year. 

The Market Analysis includes data on: 

Number of Active Listings (Current)
Pending Sales (Going to closing)
Pending Ratio (Active vs.Pending)
Sold (Last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)1
Average List Price
Average Sale Price
Average List to Sales Price %
Days on Market (DOM)
Months worth of Inventory (Based on current pending rate)
Buyers Market: > 7 months of listing inventory

Transitional Market: 5 - 7 months of listing inventory (sometimes called a “balanced” market)

Seller Market: < 5 months of listing inventory

Average % Sale Price/List Price (0-30), (31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (120+)DOM
           
Notice that you’re paying a penalty for over pricing. . .hey. .it’s a fact!!  

The Benchmark Report is produced monthly for:

• Single Family Residence
• Ranch Style
• 1300 - 2000 sq.ft.
• 3 Bedrooms
• 1.5 Bathrooms  

Art Wagner can be reached at art@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.18.2008

St. Louis Real Estate - Mortgage News - Economic Data

Filed under: Mortgage News

How will the economic reporting this week affect the St. Louis Housing Market?
If you haven’t already subscribed to our RSS feed, do so now, and be sure to follow Chris Scheer all this week as he examines the effects of the reports and weights in on Countrywide Mortgage.

“This will be a very busy week in terms of economic data. Tuesday will be the release of December’s Producer Price Index , along with Core PPI, and Retail Sales which gives a glimpse into the state of inflation and whether it is effecting consumer buying. Wednesday’s data will include Consumer Price Index and then Thursday will be the Philadelphia Fed Index, Housing starts, Building Permits, and Jobless Claims.

If that weren’t enough data, the equity market is going into earnings season when many companies report 4th quarter results. Traders will be looking for places to pick up quick profits based on earnings data and are likely to pull money out of bonds to fund these transactions, especially given the rumors that the Fed might ease rates prior to the end of the month FOMC meeting. The fact that the Fed is most likely to lower the Fed Funds rate again by the end of the month will put additional pressure on bonds which is never good for mortgage interest rates.

It seems however, that the never ending news of write-downs from companies such as Citifinancial and Merrill Lynch continue to balance these inflation indicators and keeps money in bonds.

If the upcoming economic data shows inflation concerns, mortgage interest rates are likely to deteriorate given the other factors this week.”

For comments or questions, please contact Chris Scheer at chrisscheer@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by Doug Aegerter   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.14.2008

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch January 11th, 2008

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
January 11^th, 2008
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario. Your questions and comments are welcome! 

 The St. Louis Real Estate Market is finally starting to show some signs of picking up a bit. For the first time in the last four weeks, we are seeing an increase of active listings, an increase in the number of homes accepting contracts (pending) and a decrease in market rejected listings (expired listings). 

This is a sign that the holiday distractions are over, and buyers and sellers both are back to the business of buying and selling.  This is typically the after holiday trend that we see most every year, so we can’t get too excited yet.  Still, it’s great news for buyers and sellers alike to see activity increasing. 

We also see sellers that are entering the market or coming back on the market after the holidays are understanding the market better and pricing their homes realistically within market value.  They are understanding that the market we were in last year is going to continue well into this year, and quite possibly into 2009.  With the interest rates continuing to hover around 6%-6.5%, qualified buyers should find great value in the market.  

Thinking of buying or selling a home? Contact Us for additional information tailored to your specific needs.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch January 11th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson  County Market Watch January 11th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch January 4th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report December 2007

The report begins by breaking the market into 17 distinct price ranges. Then we show current listings and current pending listings which creates a pending ratio, which is helpful on a week to week basis to see if activity is increasing or decreasing in a price category. 

The report also shows the last 6 months of results and compares the data to the same 6 months of the previous year. 

The Market Analysis includes data on: 

Number of Active Listings (Current)
Pending Sales (Going to closing)
Pending Ratio (Active vs.Pending)
Sold (Last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)1
Average List Price
Average Sale Price
Average List to Sales Price %
Days on Market (DOM)
Months worth of Inventory (Based on current pending rate)
Buyers Market: > 7 months of listing inventory

Transitional Market: 5 - 7 months of listing inventory (sometimes called a “balanced” market)

Seller Market: < 5 months of listing inventory

Average % Sale Price/List Price (0-30), (31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (120+)DOM
           
Notice that you’re paying a penalty for over pricing. . .hey. .it’s a fact!!  

The Benchmark Report is produced monthly for:

• Single Family Residence
• Ranch Style
• 1300 - 2000 sq.ft.
• 3 Bedrooms
• 1.5 Bathrooms  

Art Wagner can be reached at art@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   1 Comment »   |   01.11.2008

St. Louis Real Estate - Mortgage News - Falling Rates

Filed under: Mortgage News

Are Rates Falling? by Chris Scheer, Branch Manager, Cornerstone Mortgage, O’Fallon, MO

Well the year has started off with interest rates heading lower, but have they really? With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adding risk based pricing to their delivery fees for all loans delivered after March 1, 2008, see Fannie Mae. Who knows what the rate will be at any given time. Couple that with this announcement; see Adverse Market Delivery Charge.
And the interest rate that I thought we should have is now at least .125% higher and in some cases .375% higher. Even though the price of mortgage backed securities continues to rise and the yield or effective interest rate is falling, the interest rate for most consumers is actually going up or staying the same!

Economic news favored rates falling and currently the trend has been favorable. However this week we have at least 3 Fed Governors speaking at various functions and the minutes from the December Fed meeting will be released. The market watchers will spend far too many hours dissecting the comments from these and we will see the bond market either give up its gains or take on a whole new energy as anticipation of the next Fed meeting begins. Either way, at this point it is going to take a strong push to get the 30 year fixed back down to 5.5% or below. Mostly due to the above mentioned pricing by Fannie and Freddie, but also keep in mind that the secondary departments of the major investment banks are under pressure to be profitable with the REO departments getting killed with all of the foreclosures. Thus when they do their pricing models, expect them to error on the conservative side.

For comments or questions, please contact Chris Scheer at chrisscheer@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by Doug Aegerter   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.10.2008

St. Louis Real Estate - Mortgage News - Cust. Service

Filed under: First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers, For Sellers, Mortgage News, Real Estate News

Customer Service or Lack There Of! by Chris Scheer, Branch Manager, Cornerstone Mortgage, O’Fallon, MO

If you have read my previous posting on Manufactured Housing you may be aware of the challenge that I had getting the appraiser to put the Make, Model, serial number and year manufactured on an appraisal of a Manufactured house. The appraisal form clearly states that this information is needed, yet the appraiser we chose to use could not find the information on the property and thus felt it was not his responsibility to locate it. Over a 2 week period my assistant requested the information be added to the appraisal and each time she was told he didn’t have it or have access to it. Since this was one of my first challenges working with this assistant I let her attempt to handle the situation until it became a crisis. I recognize I should have stepped in sooner, but until you see someone perform under fire you don’t know how good they are.

At the eleventh hour I went to the Internet and found the source of the information within 10 minutes. Prior to doing that I sent an e-mail to the managing partner of the appraisal company that was very direct and to the point, see the following:

“We have a challenge. As you are aware, we have asked the appraiser to supply the Manufacturer’s serial number, name, trade/model and date manufactured for the property on xxxxx road. At this time this is the only item I need to get a clear to close, however, we will not close until we have it. In the appraisers defense, the realtor and her clients went through the entire house tonight and could not find it. However, since there is the HUD certification label #RAD730051 as per his appraisal, this should be the basis to track down the required information. If the realtor manages to find this information then the appraiser looks bad. If we manage to find this information, then the appraiser looks bad. If HUD provides it, he still looks bad, but not as bad. If he finds it, then he gets off the hook. See the challenge? I realize that this is extra work and frustrating for everyone. However we have a client who is trying to purchase a home and helping them achieve their goal is what we do. Feel free to call me if you have any questions or comments.”

I have inserted “the appraiser” and “realtor” where the names were in the correspondence. I received no reply to this e-mail from the appraiser and when I was contacted that day by the appraiser to review the value on another property nothing was mentioned of the e-mail until I brought the situation up. The defense of the appraiser was that no other lender had ever requested this information and he felt it was not his responsibility. I reiterated that the underwriter requested that the appraiser complete this section of the appraisal, therefore at that time it becomes the appraisers responsibility. He continued to contend that since he couldn’t find it then it wasn’t his job to get it. When I explained how easy it was for me to obtain, he asked why I didn’t do that sooner. It became a circle of discussion with me telling him what I expected as the client and him saying that he wouldn’t do it. Later that day I addressed the situation with one of the other principals at the company whom the e-mail was sent to and he defended his partner. Going further to say that we didn’t know what we were doing.

I appreciate a business partner defending his associates, but at the point that you have a client telling you that you screwed up and that what was being requested was not out of the ordinary for our industy. . . this is not the stance to take if you want to keep the relationship. As the lender I have a choice of the appraisers I choose and the stance this company took will keep them from getting any more of my business.

For questions or comments on this post, please contact Chris Scheer at chrisscheer@stlouisrealestatevocie.com

Posted by Doug Aegerter   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.07.2008

St. Louis Real Estate-2008 Begins NOW!

Filed under: First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers, For Sellers, Real Estate News, Relocation Buyer, St. Louis Market Reports, Unrepresented Seller(FSBO)

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch
January 4^th, 2008
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario. Your questions and comments are welcome!

The St. Louis Real Estate market is continuing it’s winter trend of slowing with active listings under 4500, market rejected listings reaching over 4700 and the pending ratio falling again to 11.22%. However, the segment of the market in the $125,000 to $250,000 price range are maintaining pending ratios well above the average. These price ranges also tend to have the bulk of the inventory on the market at this time, as these are the price ranges that tend to keep the St. Louis market moving. There are a few of the higher price ranges that are also experiencing higher than average pending ratios.

We have seen in the last couple of weeks some good buyer activity in the market; we think it is because of unusually good weather, except for one snow day and two days of below freezing temperatures. Also, the roller-coaster ride that interest rates have been on has probably spurred some buyers to lock into a rate and buy now, as opposed to waiting.

Sellers-don’t get discouraged now– stay on the market while some of your competition waits on the sidelines. We still hear from frustrated sellers that they want to wait until the market improves. We tell them that if they are willing and able to wait possibly until 2009, go ahead. We still see all predictions for our real estate market to remain at the levels it is now, with possibly a very small increase in sales volume and home prices. If sellers are waiting for an “improvement” to 2003–05 conditions, it’s not happening anytime soon.

Those sellers waiting for spring will undoubtedly see more buyers in the marketplace, ALONG with an increase in competition (inventory). I guess that’s OK because when spring comes, the home will be priced a bit below market value, it will be in absolute show-room condition and it will be marketed with an unlimited budget. When spring comes, that’s what it will take. We’ll see.

Thinking of buying or selling a home? Contact Us for additional information tailored to your specific needs.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch January 4th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson County Market Watch December 29th, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch January 4th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report December 2007

The report begins by breaking the market into 17 distinct price ranges. Then we show current listings and current pending listings which creates a pending ratio, which is helpful on a week to week basis to see if activity is increasing or decreasing in a price category.

The report also shows the last 6 months of results and compares the data to the same 6 months of the previous year.

The Market Analysis includes data on:

Number of Active Listings (Current)
Pending Sales (Going to closing)
Pending Ratio (Active vs.Pending)
Sold (Last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)1
Average List Price
Average Sale Price
Average List to Sales Price %
Days on Market (DOM)
Months worth of Inventory (Based on current pending rate)
Buyers Market: > 7 months of listing inventory

Transitional Market: 5 - 7 months of listing inventory (sometimes called a “balanced” market)

Seller Market: < 5 months of listing inventory

Average % Sale Price/List Price (0-30), (31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (120+)DOM

Notice that you’re paying a penalty for over pricing. . .hey. .it’s a fact!!

The Benchmark Report is produced monthly for:

• Single Family Residence
• Ranch Style
• 1300 - 2000 sq.ft.
• 3 Bedrooms
• 1.5 Bathrooms

Art Wagner can be reached at art@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.05.2008