St Louis Real Estate News

Housing Market Outlook and Forecast

Dennis Norman — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:01:13 +0000

Dennis Norman

This week I attended an event at the St. Louis Association of REALTORS® in which Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of REALTORS® was the featured speaker and gave his take on the housing market as well as his housing market outlook.

Dr. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist NAR

“Stimulus Had to End”

Echoing [...] Related posts:

St. Louis Foreclosures Increase in June

Dennis Norman — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:48:25 +0000

Dennis Norman

A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in June of 1.48 percent up slightly from May’s rate of 1.46 percent and an increase of 28.7 percent from the year prior when the rate was 1.15 percent.

The national foreclosure rate for June remains over twice [...] Related posts:

Fannie Mae Tightens Rules; St. Louis Mortgage Watch

Robert Fishel — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:56:35 +0000

Fannie Mae Rolls out New Loan Quality Initiative (LQI) Program – Tightens underwriting requirements and aims to reduce borrower fraud.

These rules could derail some closings for buyers who rack up purchases or even take out new store credit cards before their home sales have closed.

Part of the LQI [...] Related posts:

Case-Shiller; Housing market not in any form of sustained recovery

Dennis Norman — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:41:54 +0000

Dennis Norman

This morning S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for May was released showing that the annual growth rates in 15 of the 20 Metro Area’s their reports cover improved in May compared to April 2010. The 10-city composite is up 5.4 percent from the year before and the 20-city composite is up 4.6 percent from [...] Related posts:

Is a home a good investment?

Dennis Norman — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:02:33 +0000

Dennis Norman

Asking this question now is about like asking a newly divorced person their thoughts on marriage….nonetheless in challenging times many of us reflect upon our past investment decisions, investment philosophy, etc and see what can be learned from our past to help us in the future.

Is the American Love Affair with Home [...] Related posts:

New Home Sales Increase 23 percent to Second-Worst Rate on Record

Dennis Norman — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:32:34 +0000

Dennis Norman

Yes, the headline is correct….New home sales in June were up 23 percent from May, but unfortunately the revised May annual new home sales rate of 267,000 was the lowest rate of sale on record therefore even after a 23.6 percent increase it only brought June up to 330,000 new homes, a rate [...] Related posts:

Best Real Estate Markets in the U.S? Nine of Ten Zips are in California

Dennis Norman — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:08:13 +0000

Dennis Norman

Multiple Offers and Homes Selling for prices ABOVE list price? Is this a reprint of a post from 2005?

Nope. Believe it or not, this is exactly what was in a report released this morning by Zip Realty. The report is based upon home sales activity in the second [...] Related posts:

Home Prices Are Not Recovering

Dennis Norman — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:06:42 +0000

Dennis Norman

Home sales activity was up in May, but the mix of sales shifted toward less-expensive properties in many cities throughout the U.S. according to the May 2010 Radarlogic Housing Market Report. In addition, the report states that while their home price composite index for the 25 metro areas covered did increase in May [...] Related posts:

Closing of Tax Credit Induced Home Purchases Prop-Up Market in June; St Louis Tops In Price Gain Among Metros

Dennis Norman — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:56:00 +0000

Dennis Norman

Last month I said that I expected to see some elevated numbers in the existing home sales report for May and June since this report would reflect the actual closing of the home purchases from buyers that raced to buy before the April 30th home-buyer tax credit deadline. Even though Congress has [...] Related posts:

De-Mystifying Credit Scores; Update on St. Louis Rates

Robert Fishel — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:08:30 +0000

WHAT IS A CREDIT SCORE?

Simply stated, credit scores area statistically-based tool to assess the future performance of a borrower.

Scores are derived from the history of a borrower as it is reported to the credit repositories from any creditor. Credit scores are a proven indicator of [...] Related posts: