St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch May 24th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
May 24th, 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 hold steady without any major ups or downs. Our active listings have increased a bit, along with the number of homes accepting contracts which drives our pending ratio up to 17.46 percent. With an average of 5.7 months of inventory, we are definitely in that “transitional” range, and a bit closer to a seller’s market.

Sellers-don’t get too excited, because we are still in a definite buyer’s market. This is evidenced by looking at the “average list price” of homes on the St. Louis County Market Watch Report. Over the last 5–8 weeks, the average list price has been increasing slightly, while the “average sales price” has only fluctuated about $1000.00 one way or the other. We think list prices are heading a bit higher because, one, springtime seems to bring increases. Good weather plus more buyers (competition, as the seller sees it) does not necessarily mean a higher sales price. Two, our slight reduction in inventory over the last six months means less to choose from, which in turn will tend to drive prices up a bit.

Buyer’s in the market now are still being reminded by almost everyone that they are still in control, as it is still a buyer’s market. It may still be a buyer’s market, but with inventory shrinking a bit, and listing prices inching up, buyers will be looking harder for their “Great Buy”. Evidenced by the “average sales price” in the Market Watch, buyers seem to be well-informed regarding the buying process in this unique market we are dealing with over the last eighteen to twenty-four months. It seems like irregardless of the list price increases, buyers are still able to negotiate back down to a lower sales price for their new home.

Robert Sheridan, who writes for RISMedia.com, a great real estate information publication on the Web, has a great article which helps put the current situation with the home buying and selling process and our current mortgage situation into a pretty simple perspective.

He basically states that the surprise these days isn’t the doom and gloom from all the “experts”. The surprise is that the people closest to the situation, who should have known better are still being surprised. He goes on to say that the sooner the people in and around the real estate industry face facts, the sooner we can break this market “standstill” and move forward.

Haven’t heard this current market called a “standstill” yet??? Read his article HERE, it’s a lot of what we have been telling clients and our readers for some time.

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 24th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson County Market Watch May 24th, 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 25th, 2008 at 3:03 pm 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.