St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch October 31st, 2009

Real Estate-Market Watch by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
October 31st, 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 some signs of slowing down a bit. Active listings have dropped by about 5 percent, from 4816 last week to 4568 this week. Every price range from $100,000 up to $350,000 has seen decreases in active listings, homes accepting contracts and pending ratios.

At this time last year, however, even with over 400 more active listings, we were showing only 527 homes accepting contracts (pending) against 769 homes pending this year at this time. Our average pending ratio last year at this time was 10.6 percent against a pending ratio of 16.83 percent this year.

You can make the arguement that something has affected the buying atmosphere this year. The First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit comes to mind as the number one reason, and accounts for a large percentage of the increased activity. The other reasons we can think of are…1) move up buyers; the homeowners that sold to First Time Home Buyers had to move somewhere. 2) Historically low interest rates are propelling a lot of buyers to act this year. 3) Buyers this year are realizing the great value for the dollar in the market and taking advantage of it. 4) Sellers and buyers both have become more “market educated” and are more willing to “work a deal out” instead of holding fast to unrealistic expectations held over from the “boom” markets in 2004-2006.

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension- We are hearing now that the Senate is expected to pass the legislation. However, the details have changed somewhat.

According to an article from the Associated Press (Andrew Taylor;10/26/09) and the Wall Street Journal (John D. Mckinnon; 10/27/09), Florida Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson told reporters traveling to Florida with President Obama on Monday that he thought that the extension would be approved, but both senators and representatives are among those who think that there should be some fiscal offset for the cost of the extension. Spending any more money on the stimulus effort also could stir up a hornets’ nest in some circles.

The proposal in the Senate that appears to have the mosst chance of passage would extend the $8000 credit through March 31, then it’s value would drop by $2000 for each of thet subsequent three quarters of 2010. This plan was offered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat.

SO…Stay Tuned, as they say….

We’ll continue to keep you posted on how the Extension of the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit shakes out.

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, November 2nd, 2009 at 6:04 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.