St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch February 8th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
February 8th, 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 positive signs with more active listings, more homes accepting contracts (pendings) and  consequently our average pending ratio has climbed above 13% for the first time since November 2007. 

Our St. Louis Real Estate Market seems to be keeping ahead of the national trends, however.  Check out Inman News’ article by John Burns untitled, “Real Estate’s February Report Card”.

In his article, John Burns gives an overview of the current National Real Estate Health and talks about our current economic growth, the Leading indicators, Mortgage rates, Consumer behavior and New home Markets.

In his review of Existing or Re-sale home sales he states that nationally, existing home sales have dropped to 4.89 million which represents a 22% decline over the past year.  The declining pending home sales index means that sales are likely to fall further.

He goes on to say that pricing in the re-sale markets have fallen 6.5 percent in the last 12 months according to the National Association of Realtors.

The positive note in this is that the number of homes for sale continues to decline nationally, to 3.9 million homes or about 9.6 months of inventory.  However, the supply of homes for sale still remain above year-ago levels.

The St. Louis Real Estate Market one year ago at this time had 300 fewer homes for sale (active listings) but showed a bit more buying activity with 200 more homes accepting contracts. Our pending ratio was at 19% one year ago; 6% above where we are now.  One year ago today, there were also almost 1000 more mis-priced (expired) listings. 

The point to all this— follow real estate trends through the news media, but when you need timely, accurate LOCAL information, look locally and contact your real estate agent and mortgage lender.

BETTER YET-Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner at The St. Louis Real Estate Voice for up-to-date accurate market information.  

  

 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 February 8th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson  County Market Watch February 8th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch February 1st, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report January 2008

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

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 8:53 am and is filed under Real Estate News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.