Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch September 26th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
September 26th, 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 Saint Louis Real Estate Market this week continues to see buyers actively shopping for their first new home.  We are also seeing good activity from “move-up” buyers looking for their next home.  Some of these “move-up” buyers have recently sold, or are in the process of selling, their current residence to a First Time Home Buyer, and now need to find a another home.  

Homes accepting contracts (pending) are increasing somewhat each week, driving our average pending ratio up to 16.32% this week.  Pending ratios continue to be well above the 20 percent mark in our lower price ranges.

We continue to hear about the possible extension of the $8000.00 First Time Home-buyers Tax Credit going into next year.  With nothing cast in stone, and Congress debating Health Care Reform, it’s still uncertain whether anything will get done about the tax credit. 

A recent survey conducted by Zillow and Harris Interactiveasked first time home-buyers how an extension to the tax credit would impact their decision to buy a home.  18 percent said it would be a primary influence, 25 percent said it would be a significant influence and 27 percent said it would have some impact.  31 percent said it would have no impact at all on their buying decision.  RisMedia.com has the complete article, where the statistics above were obtained from.  Read the complete article, entitled, “The Possible Impact and Real Cost of Extending the First-Time Home-buyer Tax Credit”  HERE.   This extension could cost the Federal Government  15 Billion dollars. 

ALL HOMEOWNERS- Don’t forget the Residential Energy Property Credit.  The What?? 

This is a tax credit available to all homeowners through December 31, 2010 who improve their homes through energy efficient upgrades, such as windows, insulation, roofing, doors, heating and ventilating and AC systems, tankless water heaters, solar power, wind turbines, etc.

Once again, RisMedia.com has a great article detailing more specifics on this tax credit available to ALL homeowners.  Read the full article, “Plenty of Stimulus Money Available for Energy Improvements” HERE.

 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!   |   09.28.2009

Waxman-Markey and St. Louis Real Estate

Filed under: Opinion, Real Estate News

Waxman-Markey. . . it’s that Cap and Trade thingy!

Waxman-Markey’s intended or unintended consequences, will bring the Real Estate recovery to it’s knees.

“That bill contains 397 new regulations. One of them would affect almost everyone who buys or sells a home. If Waxman-Markey becomes law, homes for sale that qualify as “federally related transactions” — which is almost all of them — would be required to undergo an environmental inspection.”  read more - Politico

How’s that Hope and Change thing working out for you?

I would love to hear from you!

Posted by Doug Aegerter   |   Read More   |   2 Comments »   |   09.24.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch September 19th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
September 19th, 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 increases across the board with more active listings, more homes accepting contracts and pending ratios up from last week.   Driving these increases are primarily the lower price ranges where a lot of first time homebuyers are moving full steam, as their window to qualify for the $8000 dollar tax credit is closing, and not too slowly now.

We still hear and see rumblings in the news about the tax credit being extended into next year, but nothing solid yet.  The outlook seems to be a bit better, as more “experts” are saying that the tax credit will probably be extended, but at the same level, and hopefully to all buyers next year.  We’ll see if they’re right.

In the meantime, our advice to all buyers trying to get those keys before November 30th is that you better have an accepted contract no later than the middle of October.  Lenders, Title Companies, Real Estate Offices and any other businesses that compliment real estate are going to busier than a one-armed paper hanger from now until the end of November.  Plus, don’t forget at the end of November, there is a four day holiday-THANKSGIVING- that everyone must schedule around. 

I know how busy we, and other real estate agents are now, and will be at the end of November; I certainly wouldn’t want to be a loan underwriter or processor at a title company.   Those folks will be able to teach a stress management class when this is over. 

 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!   |   09.21.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch September 12th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
September 12th, 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 slight increase in active listings and and increase in homes accepting contracts and sold.  This activity has pushed the pending ratio up three quarters of a point to 15.27 percent.

Activity in the lower price ranges still accounts for the majority of our sales, as first time homebuyers scramble to beat the deadline of November 30th.  November 30th is the last day a buyer will be able to close on a home and still qualify for the $8000.00 tax credit.

If you are keeping up with the news, nationally and locally, you have undoubtedly heard that there is plenty of lobbying at all levels for the government to extend the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit into next year.  Some proponents are lobbying to increase the amount to $15,000 and include any homebuyer, not just the first time buyers.

When  Congress come back to work they will have plenty on their plate to deal with; remember Health Care?; so it’s uncertain if the homebuyers tax credit will receive the attention it certainly is due. 

While extending the tax credit would be beneficial for buyers, sellers and all of the Realtors nation-wide, it could present more problems and issues down the road.  With the national debt at an historic high,  a tax credit extension would certainly affect our debt. 

Personally, I’m for extending the tax credit, at the $8000.00 dollar level, and maybe allow any buyer to use it.  I would extend it at least until the end of June next year,  hoping to help keep the momentum going through the winter months and into the spring.  I’m afraid that if the tax credit expires November 30th this year, our activity will plummet back to where it was a year or two ago during our winter months. 

All statistics we run show that the great first time homebuyer activity, fueled by the tax credit has helped keep our activity on a par with the past couple years and has not significantly increased it.

Tell us what you think-Should the First Time Homebuyer’s Tax Credit be Extended in it’s same form, or changed to include any buyer and increased to $15,000??

Email us with your opinions and we will give you an over-view of your collective wisdom and insight in the coming weeks.

 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!   |   09.14.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch September 5th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
September 5th, 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 activity in the lower price ranges, from $100,000 up to $250,000.  St. Louis County pending ratios are anywhere from 16 percent up to 21 percent in these price ranges. 

It’s worthy to note that in St. Charles County, the same price ranges are exhibiting pending ratios from 12.7 percent up to a high of 36.5 percent. 

With a little less than 3 months left before the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit of $8000.00 expires,  buyer activity is great.  We are seeing more and more homes in these lower price ranges receiving multiple offers and buyers competing for the really good homes. 

This should be good news for sellers in these lower price ranges, as long as their home is priced within market value, in top condition and marketed properly.  This doesn’t mean that sellers can “name their price”, as changes in lender requirements and reformed appraisal guidelines will keep a seller within the realm of reality and market conditions for their neighborhood and area.

From all of us at The St. Louis Real Estate Voice, we wish you and your family a very happy Labor Day Weekend.

 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!   |   09.07.2009