St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch January 3rd, 2009

Saint Louis Real Estate Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
January 3rd, 2009
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 show stable activity. With the Holidays all around us this past week and a half, our active listing numbers and homes accepting contracts have dropped a bit, but that’s to be expected. Our pending ratio, however, has risen slightly, proving that there is still buyer activity in the market.

As we start this new year, we expect to see buyer and seller activity increase in the next couple months, driven hopefully by the continued low interest rates and the great values to be had in the market at this time.

This year, we also expect to see our fair share of homes falling into short sale positions and foreclosures. Fortunately, lending institutions are doing a better job of helping people in these tough situations.

If you are one of those homeowners who may be headed for mortgage troubles, your first step is TALK TO YOUR LENDER. We know it’s an embarrassing situation to admit, but if it helps, you are not alone by any means. There are plenty of homeowners in the St. Louis area that need some form of help with their mortgage. Talking to your lender is the fist and most important step. The second step may be to talk to a real estate professional for advice and consult regarding your situation. They can outline the steps in the short sale and foreclosure procedures so you are well educated as you proceed.

Also…if you are RENTING a home, a friend of ours has a tip for you; one that they learned the hard way. Make absolutely sure that your landlord is paying the mortgage on the home you are renting. Ask them to furnish proof to you each month. Our friend has fallen victim to a landlord that was taking their rent money and not paying the mortgage. Our friends now have two choices; move out of the house, as it has been bought by the bank (foreclosed) , or try to buy the home as a bank owned property (REO). We are helping them try to buy the house, but buying from the bank is much different than buying from an individual homeowner.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS AND FOR SALE BY OWNERS- Are your listings and / or home sitting on the market too long?? 120 days or more?? We have a program designed to get your listing or FSBO home sold. Real Estate Agents get paid their commission in full. Contact us for more info.

WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW that is challenged with their mortgage payments OR needs to sell for less than their home is worth?? WE CAN HELP!!

WHO DO YOU KNOW that’s 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.

Fill out the form below to view the Market Report.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2009 at 12:03 am and is filed under St. Louis Market Reports, Uncategorized. 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.