St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch May 17th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
May 17th, 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 is exhibiting more signs of improvement as active listings are increasing and accepted contracts increasing. These events have pushed the pending ratios up in most price ranges, with the average pending ratio better than 2 percent higher than two weeks ago. We are also seeing the average listing price inching upward a bit-another good sign. We’ll see if the average sales price inches up along with it in the months that follow.

For the most part, our inventory still remains in that “Transitional” area of 5–7 months. This is all great news for sellers in the marketplace, as sales are stronger and pricing seems to be getting better.

BUYERS-you better watch our market carefully the rest of the year, as your “golden opportunity” for your deal of a life-time may be slipping away. With current inventory levels and with sales strengthening, you have more competition for less inventory than you had a couple of months ago.

If the current forecast from Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, is accurate you will see pricing start to inch upward in the second half of this year and continue into the next several years. Mr. Yun is forecasting home prices in the “Middle America” cities that have been relatively stable to increase 20 percent to 30 percent in the next five years. Based on statistics, St. Louis falls into that “relatively stable” area. Read the complete article at RISMedia.com.

For some great information regarding the real estate market and a really cool home-value calculator, check out the report just released by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) at http://www.ofheo.gov/.

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 May 17th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson County Market Watch April 3rd, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch May 17th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report April 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 Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 9:43 am and is filed under St. Louis Market Reports. 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.

2 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Has there been a lot of pending listings going back to active, lately, due to how hard it is to get a mortgage now?

Even to get pre-approved, lately, I heard that people are being asked to bring everything: asset information, etc.

Comment by al — May 19, 2008 #
Alan,

Thanks for your comment/question. Actually, we don’t track that kind of data, and we have not heard of any instances where this has happened. That’s not to say that it hasn’t, but probably not enough for anyone to get excited about it. You would probably be more apt to see a “Contingent” listing returning to the market due to a buyer’s inability to get a loan.

When a listing goes “Pending” that usually means that all the “hurdles” that a buyer needs to clear have been cleared and they are just waiting for the closing date. We don’t take a listing “pending” until the buyer has completed all inspections, given us a satisfactory inspection notice and has complied with the “loan committment” date per the sale contract and furnished us and our seller with proof from their lender that the loan will be made to the buyer.

Until the above scenario has happened, we display our listing as “Contingent” in the MLS.

I’m not sure that all real estate professionals use “Contingent” and “Pending” exactly in that way, so it is difficult, if not impossible to track.

Not to mention the fact that there are many more ways a home “under contract” can end up back on the market, ie… problems with inspections, title issues, seller remorse and buyer remorse to name a few.

AND..Yes, getting pre-approved these days is a bit more difficult, as lenders are requiring more documentation and proof of financial responsibility.
I guess they are finally going back to the “basics” of lending.

Guess what–if lenders had been this cautious right after 9-11, and the years following, WE WOULDN’T BE IN THIS MESS!! That’s just my thought, but it is shared with a lot of the so-called experts in this industry and the lending industry.

Thanks again for your comment,

Keep reading the blog-stay in touch.

Best Regards,

Art Wagner, at The St. Louis Real Estate Voice.

Comment by Art Wagner — May 19, 2008 #