St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch May 30th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
May 30th, 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 seems to have hit a plateau this week, with our active listings, accepted contracts and pending ratios near last week’s levels.  Buyer activity continues to be strong, as we are seeing more and more homes in the under $300,000 ranges recieving multiple offers and accepting contracts quickly. 

Even some of the higher price ranges are moving a bit more, with some pending ratios above 15 percent. 

For those buyers shopping  for a loan, and homeowners who are looking to re-finance in this historically low interest rate market, take note. 

That great credit score of 680 or 720 may not get the job done anymore these days.  With the mortgage lending landscape changing almost weekly, buyers and re-finance candidates should be prepared for more conservative requirements and possibly some higher costs.  Bankrate.com has a great article outlining some of the different situations and how to prepare yourself to avoid any surprises when you talk to your lender. Read the article, “Good Credit Score Not Good Enough Anymore”  HERE.

 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!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   05.31.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch May 23rd, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
May 23rd, 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 spotlights the St. Charles County Market Watch report. 

If you thought homes were “flying off the shelf” in St. Louis County, check out the St. Charles Market Watch Report!  In the price ranges of $100,000 to $200,000,  pending ratios are above 25 percent, and look at the $100,000 to $124,999 range–53.4 percent.  What’s happening??

These price ranges typically move the St.  Charles market, just like they do in St. Louis County, however, these price ranges are also being call “First-Time Homebuyer” price ranges this year.  Anybody who thinks that the $8000.00 First Time Homebuyer tax credit isn’t working needs to have these statistics shoved in their face.

Now, look at the months of inventory in these price ranges, or our absorption rate, as some realtors call it.  Looks like we have a small seller’s market within our larger buyers market. 

Whoa! Hold on Mr. Seller-just because these price ranges are moving quickly doesn’t mean you can get crazy with pricing or not have your home in “show condition”. 

Buyers, and especially a lot of First Time Homebuyers where husband and wife are working their tails off the afford a home are still looking for homes in as close to perfect condition as they can find.  With both spouses working, they do not have time to work on a house too. 

 The home also MUST be priced within market value,  as buyers are much more aware of the market and the values in it.  Real Estate agents, also are better informed and price savvy than they have ever been.  Thanks be to the Internet, Realtor Web Sites, and Web Sites like this one, where current market information is readily available to anyone that knows where to look.  

Since we see most First Time Homebuyers working with Real Estate Agents, aggressive sellers still won’t be able to sell their homes if they are priced above market value.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND….

 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!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   05.24.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch May 16th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
May 16th, 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 still shows great buyer and seller activity.  Our pending ratio is up to 16.8 percent, with more active listings coming on the market and more homes accepting contracts this week.

The price ranges that typically keep our local market moving; from $100,000 to $300,000 continue with the highest amount of activity, with pending ratios very near and above 20 percent.   We see inventory in these price ranges at anywhere from 4.2 months to 6 months. 

For buyers in these price ranges that still think there is a lot of inventory out there, beware.  We are seeing homes that are priced correctly and in “show” condition are getting multiple offers, with buyers bidding against each other for these “prime” homes.

First Time Homebuyers-if you haven’t started looking yet, GET BUSY!  Get with your lender for a pre-approval letter and start looking now, as the $8000.00 tax credit expires December 1st.  With inventory as low as it is now, you don’t want to see somebody else get that home you’ve had your eye on.

 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!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   05.17.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch May 9th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
May 9th, 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 is showing increases in active listings, homes accepting contracts and our pending ratio is up to 16.3 percent.

These are all good signs of buyer and seller activity. We continue to talk to buyers in the marketplace who are still looking for their “deal of a century”.  The misconception that a lot of these “bargain hunters” has is that they will be able to find an awesome home, in move-in condition at bargain basement pricing. 

In our local market, what we are finding is that homes that are priced at “give-away” pricing most of the time are in need of updating, minor and/or major repairs or renovation.  As most buyers we talk to don’t have the time, or money or patience to make repairs, etc… they end up frustrated by the whole process. 

The homes in our market that are move-in ready are going to be priced at market value, or slightly below, thus a fair price and good value for your dollar.

Buyers are also looking for move-in ready foreclosures and short sale properties at huge discounts, which again, due to lenders stricter requirements and closer scrutiny when dealing with these properties, pricing is not at a 25-35 percent discount, as many buyers believe. 

Buyers in our local market have basically two choices; one, get a once in a life-time deal and be ready to do some work, or two, find a great move-in ready home and accept the fact that you will pay around market value for that home.

All that being said, there are instances where buyers have found an awesome, move-in ready home at bargain-basement pricing, but these are few and far between in our market. 

Want Proof?  Take a close look at our Market Watch Report which is published weekly.  Look at the Average Sales price to List Price column and you will see that in all price ranges we are still above 97 and 98 percent.  All these statistics that we publish include any foreclosures and short sales  in the marketplace.

 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!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   05.10.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch May 2nd, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports, Uncategorized

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
May 2nd, 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 with great buyer and seller activity.  Active listings, homes accepting contracts and our pending ratios are all fairly consistent with last week’s levels.  We still continue to see a slight increase in homes being sold, and in some price ranges, we are actually seeing selling prices slighty above the averages from this same time period last year.  

This year we are beginning to see more buyers competing for a listing as buyers are becoming aware that inventory levels really are lower than last year at this time.  Our total listings this week are at 4806 compared to last years total of 5633.   

Check out our CHART showing a comparison of the past six months this year, compared to the past six months last year showing the increases / decreases of list prices and sales prices and average days on market in each price range. 

 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!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   05.03.2009