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

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

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch August 29th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
August 29th, 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 past several weeks we have been touting the benefits to First Time Homebuyers and why they should get out there and buy now.  Whether you are a first time homebuyer, a repeat buyer, a second home buyer or a seller in this market, there are incentives for you too.

If you are buying; Obviously, the $8000.00 First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit is there, at least until November 30th.  But, if you are a repeat buyer, second home buyer, or relocation buyer, there are other incentives and tax advantages to you, such as:

1. Decuctions for Private Mortgage Insurance ( PMI) premiums, 2. Points paid in connection with obtaining a loan, depending on the amount of the down payment. 3.  Mortgage interest. 4. Relocation expenses; moving expenses for you and your family. ( Certain qualifying criteria must be met).

If you are selling a home,  you won’t have to pay taxes on the profit up to $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for joint filers. 

If you are staying in your current home, there are some new incentives for you to improve your home this year.  The Recovery Act gives homeowners an incentive to make improvements and energy efficient upgrades with tax credits of up to 30% for improvements like doors, windows, HVAC, water heaters, roofing and insulation. Solar and wind energy systems are also included.

Taxpayers whose home was foreclosed on between 2007 and 2012 may be able to exclude the mortgage debt that was forgiven in connection with the foreclosure.

We’re not tax experts, so you will need to check with your accountant to determine exactly what fits into your personal situation, but these are certainly some great incentives if you are in the real estate market in any way. 

 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!   |   08.29.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch August 22, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
August 22nd, 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 has not showed any signs of slowing down.  August usually slows a bit due to hot weather and the beginning of a new school year.  This year, we have not seen a typical St. Louis August, or for that matter, we haven’t seen a typical St. Louis summer this year.  Our summer weather this year is more reminiscent of Wisconsin, Michigan or even Minnesota summers. 

This is great house-hunting weather and has definitely contributed to our real estate activity.  First Time Homebuyers have also done more than their part to help keep activity high. 

We should take note, though, that this activity by no means is a sign of great recovery for real estate.  Our local pricing and days on market have still remained fairly stable for the last eighteen to twenty four months, compared to most other parts of the country. 

Every source we talk to, listen to and read have all forecast another 12 months or more before we see any noticable improvement.  The only way we are going to see any improvement in our real estate market is for employment to improve throughout the country and here locally too.

People without jobs don’t have money and people without money don’t buy real estate, let alone anything else.  And we are far from being out of the woods with foreclosures and other distressed property sales. 

RisMedia.com has a great article posted regarding the foreclosure situation across the country.  The article talks about California and Florida as examples, but also gives some alarming country-wide statistics.  Read the article  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!   |   08.23.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch August 15th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports, Uncategorized

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest, Sunset Hills, Mo.
August 15th, 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 still has first time homebuyers scrambling to find and buy their first home as the November 30th deadline to close looms near.  With Lender disclosure requirements re-vamped and FHA loan funding giant, Taylor, Bean & Whittaker ceasing to do business last week, challenges for first time homebuyers and others seem to be mounting. 

We mentioned last week that “quick closings” are a thing of the past and now many lenders are finding themselves having to establish new relationships with other FHA approved funding sources.  All this means is that timing is even more important for buyers who need to close by November 30, 2oo9 to hit the $8000.00 tax credit deadline.

 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!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   08.16.2009

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

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

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!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   08.10.2009