Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch July 12th, 2008

Saint Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
July 12^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 Saint Louis Real Estate Market this week continues to show signs of “buyer hesitation” evidenced by a slight increase in active listings with the pending ratio dropping below 14%.

With buyers hesitating, not knowing where or when home prices will “bottom out”, and some sellers remaining unrealistic with their pricing, we have to ask, “Where are you getting your information from?”

At this point in time, it seems we’re seeing more good news than bad at our local level AND on a national level.

At the local level, our average list prices and average sales prices have held fairly steady for the past several months. Our average listing price has actually inched upward a bit since the end of April. Maybe our housing prices DID HIT BOTTOM between this past February and April and no one noticed.

At the National level, the National Association of Realtors has reported four straight months of rising housing prices. RISMedia.com posted an article on July 11th entitled, “Real Estate Prices Rise for Four Straight Months-Is Anyone Noticing?”

Bankrate.com also reports after their weekly survey of large banks and thrifts ending July 9^th, that mortgage rates have fallen again for the second week. This is the first time since March the 30–year fixed rate has fallen in consecutive weeks. Check out the complete article HERE.

Now, for those of you who need to read some DOOM AND GLOOM, check out this opinion article posted on Inman News by none other than the founder and publisher of Inman News, Bradley Inman. The article is entitled, “Imagine housing wiwthout a secondary market.” The last paragraph of the article puts this whole credit / housing situation into perspective;

“Like so many parts of American culture, the accessibility to unlimited and poorly scrutinized debt helped turn Americans into a sloppy group of consumers, which spawned greedy Wall Streeters, out of control lenders and starry-eyed investors.”

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 July 12th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson County Market Watch July 12th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch July 5th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report June 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, July 13th, 2008 at 9:17 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.