St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch August 8th, 2009

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
August 8th, 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 continues this week with great activity. The lower price ranges that first time homebuyers typically shop, show an increase in active listings and pending ratios between 16 percent and 18 percent. Buyer activity in these price ranges continues to be strong.

Last week, we mentioned that lending requirements have changed recently and that “quick closings” are a thing of the past.

Our partners at Gorman and Gorman Home Loans have provided us with some information to pass on to all our readers to help you better understand these changes:

1. Historically, homebuyers and sellers would agree on a closing date, and then service providers -including lenders- would work as best they could toward meeting that date. Going forward on all loan applications taken from July 30th on, purchase contracts can still be written with a specific closing date in mind, but all parties need to take into account that the earliest a home purchase transaction can close is 7 business days after the homebuyer is issued their initial mortgage disclosures from the lender, which is 3 business days after a loan application is received or taken.

2. The only fee that can be collected by the lender at application is the credit report fee. The fee for appraisal cannot be collected until 3 days after the initial Truth In Lending Disclosure is received. Historically, upfront fees could be collected at the time of loan application.

3. The homebuyer must be provided with a copy of his or her appraisal a minimum of 3 business days prior to closing.

4. An increase of more than .125% in the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) from the initial Truth In Lending Disclosures requires the disclosure to be revised and re-issued to the homebuyer. They must receive a revised TIL disclosure at least 7 business days before closing, providing the homebuyer with the time required to determine if they are comfortable with their loan choice. There are a number of things that can impact the homebuyer’s APR, but these are the four big ones: 1.) Change in Loan Amount. 2.) Change in closing date. 3.) Change in closing costs. 4.) Locking an Interest Rate.

Everyone involved in a real estate transaction needs to be aware of these changes, as it will impact how a contract is written, inspection times and deadlines, when a financing rate is locked, and the closing date.

Gorman and Gorman Home Loans also provides us with The Home Buyer’s Scouting Report, which is an awesome tool for anyone selling or buying a home to keep an eye on the market in your neighborhood and find a new home. It’s the number ONE home finding service on the Internet. Interested in checking it out ? Click the link on the right sidebar of our BlogSite. Oh, and did I mention-IT”S FREE.

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 Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 9:37 am 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.