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

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!!

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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