St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch August 1st, 2009

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
August 1st, 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….WAIT A MINUTE!….

IS THIS REALLY the first of August already?? Hard to believe, for me, what with a pile of mulch still in my driveway, a yard only half re-landscaped, and my list of summer “honey-do’s” is still a mile long. My good intentions better get moving in the next two months or so! (I hope my wife isn’t on our RSS feed!)

Ok, back to Real Estate; our market this week seems to have slowed a bit with activity, due to last minute vacations, getting kids ready for school, and all the other last minute things you are supposed to do in August before school starts.

The part of our activity that hasn’t seemed to slow down so far is the First Time Homebuyer activity. With December approaching, these buyers are well aware that they must stay in the marketplace and find a home soon, since from the time they get an accepted contract on their home, it could take 30-45 days to close their transaction. So..if you back up from December first, that means that you will need to find your home by mid to late October at the latest.

Sure, you can still find a home in November, but you had better have all your “ducks” in a row before you write that contract; such as a solid pre-approval letter from your lender, enough cash in the bank to cover closing costs (you will still need something, even if the seller helps you out), and all your financial information, tax records, pay stubs, etc… ready to go in case your lender needs more info once your mortgage application and contract are submitted to their underwriting department.

Plan ahead, and you can certainly close on your home in less than 30 days, provided your lender can cooperate (better be a local lender!) and the seller can close in less than 30 days.

Sellers-read the above again and know that if you are still waiting to put your home on the market-do it now! Deadlines for buyers and a free gift of $8000 dollars, which is expected to disappear after December first, are great motivations for a lot of buyers in the market right now.

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, August 2nd, 2009 at 7:52 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.