St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch September 6th, 2008

Saint Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
September 6th, 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 begins September with fewer active listings and our average pending ratio at 12.29 percent.  Our six month survey of closed transactions ( solds) continues to inch upward due to the numbers of homes that accepted contracts a few months ago and are finally at the closing table. 

Our six month survey of market rejected (expired) listings is also increasing as sellers are coming off the market for various reasons; school starts, frustration with the selling process, or not wanting to sell during the upcoming holidays. WHAT!! Yes, sellers are looking forward enough to realize that being on the market now could mean over the holidays also. 

With sellers coming off the market and would-be buyers still sitting on the fence, it appears that our inventory has increased by our average 8.1 months of inventory.  Actually, inventory is still going down, evidenced by less active listings.  Compared to last year in the same six month time frame, in 2008 we are well below 2007 levels of homes sold by almost 1400 homes. 

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprises Oversight (OFHEO) just recently released their report of home price changes by state comparing the second quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2008.  Once again, Missouri and the St. Louis area is showing a pricing increase over second quarter 2007 of .9 percent.  WHOOPIE!  A point nine percent increase may not look like much, but it is further evidence that the St. Louis area and Missouri as a whole really is ahead of the doom and gloom national averages. You can check out the complete report, if you wish by clicking on: www.OFHEO.gov.      

One of our biggest challenges as real estate consultants in St. Louis is helping buyers and sellers understand the REAL market conditions in St. Louis.  

AND…if you weren’t aware of it, mortgage rates dropped again for the third straight week based on Bankrate.com’s weekly survey of the largest lending institutions across the country.  Check it out at www.Bankrate.com.  

This is a great time to buy OR sell a home in St. Louis.   

ARE YOU thinking of buying or selling a home?  Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner for more information and a FREE Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your home or your neighborhood.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch September 6, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson  County Market Watch September 6th, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch August 30, 2008

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report August 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 (Closed transactions last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)
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, September 7th, 2008 at 6:21 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.