St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch February 28th, 2009

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
February 28th, 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 shows a small dip in active listings, but an increase in homes accepting contracts (pending), thus bumping our pending ratio up to 12.89 percent. The majority of this buyer activity continues to be in the price ranges that move our local market; $100,000 up to $300,000.

We continue to talk to more first time homebuyers in the market who are spurred on by the first time home buyer credit and low interest rates. Many of them though, still believe that the first step is to look for a house.

The FIRST step in this market needs to be a discussion with a lender to determine purchase power. Most offers to purchase a home these days in our market are requiring a pre-approval letter or proof of funds to accompany any offer to purchase. This is especially true if you are looking to buy a foreclosure or a short sale property.

With so much news centering around foreclosures and short sales, many first time homebuers are led to believe that this is the way to get their “deal of a lifetime.” Perhaps it is, but many homebuyers are unaware that in our market, that deal of a lifetime most of the time is being sold As-Is, where the owner, or bank if it’s an REO, will not participate in any inspections, repairs, etc… This means that the prospective buyer is responsible for any and all inspections, repairs, etc.. to the home. This also includes any inspections that would be required or desired BEFORE the sale of the home closes.

Foreclosures and Short Sale properties can be a great deal, but buyers need to be aware of the costs and different time frames that accompany these transactions. You may spend more money out of pocket for inspections, etc.. and these transactions typically will take longer to complete. It’s not unusual for a foreclosure or short sale transaction to take 3 to 5 months to complete.

The other major difference we are seeing in our market is that many foreclosures and short sales in the lower price ranges usually are in need of repairs, or some kind of “fixing up” to make them move in ready. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you are aware that you may have to pick up a paint brush or hammer, or be able to call a contractor to do some work for you.

If your “deal of a lifetime” is a home priced well below market value, you should probably be ready to do some work. If you are looking for move in ready, be prepared to pay a fair market value for that property.

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.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 9:01 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.