2008 August | St Louis Real Estate Voice

Archive for August, 2008

St. Louis Mortgage News - 2008 B Rates

Here we go! by Chris Scheer, Cornerstone Mortgage, O’Fallon MO

It is actually going to happen!
The new rates for the 2008B are as follows:

CAL for Government loans 6.9%

NON CAL for Government loans 6.45%

CAL for Conventional loans 7.3%

NON CAL for Conventional loans 6.85%

The window for reservations will open at 8 am on Monday August 4th. As soon as you have a confirmed reservation you may close loans. All loans in this bond issue will be sold to the new master servicer US Bank. Training with the master servicer will start on Tuesday August 5th in Columbia and on Wednesday August 6th in St. Louis. I will go over the changes to the program in depth at the training but I will state the changes briefly in this email.

Rates
As you can see we will have 4 rates instead of 2 due to the conventional market. Only Fannie Mae’s My Community Mortgage or Freddie Macs Home Possible programs can be used with this bond issue. There will be no charge of 1.25% for LLP and adverse market fee in this issue only. However, there will have to be a $175 servicing fee charged to the borrower for the all CAL loans.

Down payment Assistance
As you can see I have changed the acronym from CAP to CAL. This stands for Cash Assistance Loan and will help differentiate between the two programs. The assistance will still be 3% of the loan amount but it will be in the form of a soft second mortgage that will be forgiven over a 5 year period. The loan will actually diminish 1/60 per month over the 5 year period. The borrower will then be given a 1099 every year for the amount that was forgiven that year and will have to claim that as income on the federal tax return. If the borrower sells or refinances the loan in the first five years the remainder of the amount will have to be paid back. We have been discussing the just-enacted housing stimulus bill with FHA staff and they told us today that the just-enacted housing bill does not impose a 100% CLTV cap on FHA loans. It imposes a 100% LTV cap on the FHA-insured first mortgage and requires the FHA mortgage insurance premium to be counted toward the LTV ratio for purposes of the 100% cap. HUD will continue to allow second liens from state housing agencies that result in CLTVs that exceed 100%.

Chris Scheer

Chris Scheer can be reached at chrisscheer@stlouisrealestatevocie.com

Posted by Doug Aegerter | Read More | Your Comments Are Welcome! | 08.03.2008

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch August 2nd, 2008

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Saint Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
August 2nd, 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 is in our typical “summer slow-down” with quite a few less active listings, less homes accepting contracts and a small increase in expired listings. Our pending ratio has dropped to 14.44% from 15.02% from last week.

This “summer slow-down” is typical in August, with many people taking last minute vacations and getting children ready for school to start in a couple weeks.

We’ve talked to many sellers that have been in the marketplace for the last several months, or more, and are just “taking a break” from the selling process. These sellers have had their share of challenges this summer and are frustrated with the lack of results.

Buyers should take note, as with inventory shrinking and fewer homes to see, we expect to see pricing to continue holding steady. Educated sellers in the marketplace are aware of this and therefore less willing to negitiate major price reductions. This is still a great time to buy, as there are still motivated sellers in the marketplace and interest rates dropped slightly again this past week.

Buyers trying to sort out their financing and mortgage options still have a number of great choices. With conventional lending tightening considerably, buyers should consider FHA, VA, USDA, or Fannie Mae programs. Some of these programs are less restrictive with regards to down payments and credit scores.

Jason Kotar from Kotar & Associates wrote a great article for RISMedia July 31^st, comparing these different loan programs. Read the article HERE. These programs might be the answer for some challenged buyers or the first-time homebuyer.

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 August 2nd, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson County Market Watch July 26th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch August 2nd, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report July 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: