St. Louis Real Estate-Happy New Year!

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch
December 29th, 2007
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!

St. Louis Real Estate comes to the close of another year. And what a year it’s been watching home prices slide downward and days on market climb into triple digits. Watching the “Mortgage Credit Crisis” unfold was, and still is, one of the major events we all are paying close attention to. Buyers and Sellers this past year have had to adjust to a new set of “rules-of-thumb” when it came to buying and selling a home. Those that adjusted quickly had great success with their buying and selling process; those that took too long to adjust helped contribute to the abundance of inventory of homes that are still available. When all the statistics are in, I think we will still see that 2007 was one of the better years in real estate here in St. Louis.

St. Louis Real Estate in 2008 is predicted to be a better picture with a slight increase in home prices and an increase in sales volume. We have a lot going for us here in St. Louis in the coming year. Just a few of the positives are:

1. Mortgage lenders are sorting out their problems and developing products to help us

move forward into 2008

2. The Fed’s Rate Cut in the last quarter of 2007 should spur more activity within our marketplace.

3. With New Home Builders slowing their production, inventories should start to level off

a bit and in turn help existing-home sales.

4. The Wacovia / A.G. Edwards Merger and the Edward Jones Co. expansion will certainly create some great real estate opportunities in St. Louis.

5. President Bush’s plan to help a portion of the sub-prime borrowers should

help to keep inventories in some price ranges in check.

SO…We’re looking forward to 2008 and all the opportunities a new year presents.

WATCH WHAT HAPPENS— Stay with us through 2008 and see if all the postive predictions come true.

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Thinking of buying or selling a home? Contact Us for additional information tailored to your specific needs.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch December 29th, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate Jefferson County Market Watch December 29th, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch December 22nd, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report November 2007

The report begins by breaking the market into 17 distinct price ranges. Then we show current listings and current pending listings which creates a pending ratio, which is helpful on a week to week basis to see if activity is increasing or decreasing in a price category.

The report also shows the last 6 months of results and compares the data to the same 6 months of the previous year.

The Market Analysis includes data on:

Number of Active Listings (Current)
Pending Sales (Going to closing)
Pending Ratio (Active vs.Pending)
Sold (Last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)1
Average List Price
Average Sale Price
Average List to Sales Price %
Days on Market (DOM)
Months worth of Inventory (Based on current pending rate)
Buyers Market: > 7 months of listing inventory

Transitional Market: 5 - 7 months of listing inventory (sometimes called a “balanced” market)

Seller Market: < 5 months of listing inventory

Average % Sale Price/List Price (0-30), (31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (120+)DOM

Notice that you’re paying a penalty for over pricing. . .hey. .it’s a fact!!

The Benchmark Report is produced monthly for: