St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch June 14th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
June 14^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 doesn’t look much different than last week-relatively flat. We see a few more active listings, homes sold and the pending ratio increasing slightly.  At an average 6.4 months of inventory, we are still very much in a buyer’s market. 

Buying activity has slowed a bit, possibly due to the increase in interest rates from an average of 6.08 percent to 6.29 percent this week, according to Bankrate.com.  We have also seen a drop in refinance applications due to the increased interest rate. 

So…when is this housing market going to improve??  Most forecasts predicted the first half of 2008 to be sluggish with the second half of 2008 to gradually improve. We’ve seen the first half of the year, and so far the predictions were right-SLUGGISH.  As for the second half of the year, well, that’s to be seen.  Most experts agree that a “gradual improvement” usually means several years, not several months. 

Bankrate.com has a great article entitiled “When Will Your Housing Market Recover?” explaining how this works and how to do your own homework in your area and the indicators to look for and a bit about how to analyze them.  Check it out HERE.

  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 a FREE Comparative Market Analysis and additional information tailored to your specific needs.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch June 14th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson  County  Market Watch June 7th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch June 14th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report May 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, June 15th, 2008 at 9:32 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.