St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch January 24th, 2009

Saint Louis Real Estate-Peeking Into The Future by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
January 24th, 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!

St. Louis Real Estate-Peeking Into The Future for our local market will probably look a lot like 2008, but with home prices and values still declining a bit into the second quarter of this year. I know that’s not the best news you’ve heard, but that seems to be the consensus when we look at our current market statistics and read forecasts from Home Builder’s Associations, Mortgage Bankers and read reports with a “grain of salt” from economic advisors in Washington.

Even thought our local market has been fairly stable for the past 12-18 months, we see that stability continuing and not moving up or down too much in the next 6-12 months.

Our foreclosure activity in St. Louis still remains at about 8-10 percent of our sales volume, but it still has an impact on pricing and values. This is espcially true in neighborhoods that are seeing more than a couple homes in their area in foreclosure. The negative impact this has on the neighborhood or area effects everyone, as lower property values impact appraisals for re-finance and new purchases. It also means less money for municipalities, who will have less money to spend on education and other necessary services. Ralph Roberts, a consumer advocate and spokesperson for the Federal Loan Modification Law Center in Sterling Michigan posted a great article on RisMedia.com recently that puts this into perspective. Read his article HERE

The National Association of Home Builder’s forecast predicts builders selling only 420,000 homes this year. They expect the low point of sales activity to hit during the first quarter of 2009. Residential Construction is forecast to hit bottom in the second quarter of 2009 to a level of just 620,000 starts for over-all housing and a meager 430,000 starts for single family homes.

The good news is that even with interest rates rebounding to a three week high, rates are still at record lows and very affordable. As of this writing, a 30 year fixed mortgage is 5.59 percent up from 5.28 percent a week ago. These low rates, coupled with first-time homebuyer credit, FHA availability and grant money still available, we are seeing more first time home-buyers in the market.

We should all consider ourselves lucky to live in the Mid-West. Read another article I found on RisMedia.com about one Southern California family’s home “adventures”. This article describes a scenario you could find almost anywhere in California now. Read it HERE

Oh, By the way, meet Lydia, the young lady in the picture above. This is my grand-daughter, who always wants to know, “what are you doing Grandpa?” when she sees me in my office at home. I tell her that I am “Battling the Wind Mills” to help keep St. Louis Real Estate moving forward and upward. On a future post, you’ll meet my grandson, Isaiah, who will undoubtedly want equal press coverage.

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!!

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Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner for more information and a FREE Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your home or your neighborhood.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 8:49 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.