Rentals on the rise

An article in today's post states that demand for rental and multi-family properties is on the rise.

While that may be true, this next statement has me scratching my head:

"Concessions are gradually diminishing, and that is primarily due to the fact that interest rates have increased so substantially," said Ken Aston, partner in charge of Hendricks' Midwest region. [source]

Hmmm... Let's see. Freddie Mac says that last year at this time the average interest rate was 5.77% and this year they have "increased so substantially" to 6.31%.

I'm sure glad it's not October 1981.

An overview of decades of annual sales

Here's an interesting graph. I realize it's based on NEW homes, but it's all relative.

If I was a home seller in this currently slower (normal?) market,

looking at this graph my first thought would be,

"Well at least it isn't January 1982!".

24-Hour Market Watch

Here's your Market Watch

for the St. Louis Metro area

September 27, 2006

Price Reductions All Over The Place!

Click the photos for more details!

24-Hour Market Watch

Here's your Market Watch for

the St. Louis Metro area

September 26, 2006

The prices are falling, the prices are falling!

Existing-home sales in the Midwest rose 0.7 percent in August to a level of 1.44 million, but were 11.1 percent lower than a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $176,000, which is 1.1 percent below August 2005. [source]
Just look at the number of Price Reductions daily!

What a great time to be a buyer!

Mass Transit

An article on STLToday asks the question "Is St. Charles County Ready?" for Metrolink.

What do you think??

Let's go shopping!!

24-Hour Market Watch

Here's your Market Watch
for the St. Louis Metro area

September 22, 2006

Mortgage Rates Down!

Lowest rates in 6 months!

What a great time to buy!

Read about it here!

Zillow 2.0

Zillow.com has revamped it's site & added additional features. The heat map is a pretty cool overview of where the more "pricey" homes are located. Funny compare our heat seeking map in St. Louis and them look up a city like Los Angeles or Miami. We barely have any "red" neighborhoods, where the coastal cities are all red!

It doesn't mean Zillow has won me over though - yet.

They have an added feature where you can go in and change the features of your home if they are incorrect. You can even add features to make you home appear more "value-able".

I'm still not sold on Zillow. The home across the street from me has a "Zillow Value" of $184,000. Funny it's been on the market now for over 3 months in the mid $160k's and still hasn't sold. Not sure how they figured the value in the $180's??

It's still a fun site to play with though.

24-Hour Market Watch

Here's your Market Watch for
the St. Louis Metro area

September 19, 2006

Things that make you go....hmmmm????

Yes, I'm not one to start a political rant, but from this I wake-up to $2.29??

'nuf said!

Controversial "Weed Wall"

Remember back 2 summers ago when St. Charles county and the
City of St. Peters worked together to rebuild Birdie Hills Road?

As I was driving down the newly widened Birdie Hills Road yesterday, I noticed signs of protest.

The Aspen Ridge subdivision has decided to take their disapproval of the maintenance of the wall to another level.

Aspen Ridge was built after the plans for the road had been developed.
A 300-foot retaining wall, up to 24 feet in height, was needed to protect the homes backing up to the expanded Birdie Hills Road.

Here's more:

The residents don't like "The Weed Wall," as reported in this column on Aug. 20. They say it's unsightly and that rain causes mud to wash onto the sidewalk and road. The residents of Aspen Ridge have gone to the county and city to get it fixed.Ortwerth says the wall, built by the county, now belongs to the city. St. Peters City Administrator Bill Charnisky says the wall still belongs to the county, but the city would be willing to take it and maintain it if the county will fix it. [source]

Read the Weed Wall Blog here.

Do you want me to Level with you or Lie to you?

Guess what?!?!?

The market has changed. And it continues to change.

If your home has been sitting on the market for 6 months or more,
there's only one way to get it to sell.

Lower the price!

Any monkey can tell you they can and will sell your house for exactly

what you want to sell it for -- just for the sake of getting your listing.

But do you really want to keep your home spotless for 6 months
thinking that at anytime the right buyer may come along?

Or do you want to move?

Lower the price enough to where you actually GET an offer.

Buyers set the sales price. In this market it has to be low enough
to get them in the door and then make an offer.

It has to be low enough to have the buyers thinking,
"My Gosh! This is a bargain at this price!
We'd better write an offer before someone else does!!"

I'd rather see my clients turn down 10 offers than not get an offer at all.

Price it low!

Now I know you all remember...

... this little real estate situation from 2002. Don't you?

Housing sales dropped, everyone was panicked, and then what happened??

"The extent of the drop seems overdone," said Joel Naroff, president and chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa. "I would not be surprised if home sales rebound, though the days of record sales levels may be behind us." (2002)

Huh??

What's real estate going for these days??

Here's the "What did it sell for?" column from the Post this week:

St. Charley County

Saint Louie County

Here's the story

in the St. Louis Metro

Real Estate Market

September 15, 2006

It's going to be a BEAUTIFUL weekend!

Perfect for buying and selling real estate!

24-Hour Market Watch

Here's the story in the
St. Louis Metro

Real Estate Market

September 13, 2006

What happened to the River?

Whatever happened, it must've been sudden.

They still have sponsored events booked well into September.

Weird.

UPDATE: I found this little blurb on STLToday.com... but what about Trish & Big Jake? :-(

24-Hour Market Watch

Here's the story in the

St. Louis Metro Real Estate Market

September 7, 2006

Don't it Yourself!

This is too good not to share with you all!

Because certain things should be left to professionals, an Orlando Realtor created a website complete with a 12-step program dedicated to people everywhere who just want to save a buck or two and fix it themselves.

Genius!

What goes down, must come up?

Gas prices have taken a nose dive. When I filled up at pump last night, gas was all the way down to $2.29 per gallon. I KNOW!! I had to rub my eyes myself.

Gas prices are down, but what about mortgage rates?

24-Hour Market Watch

Here's the story in the
St. Louis Metro Real Estate Market

September 7, 2006

On The Job Hazards

I logged on to the MLS this past holiday weekend and found this alert:


AGENT ALERT!!!

An individual posing as a buyer has robbed two agents in the last few days. In one case he forced the agent, at gunpoint, to drive to an ATM machine and withdraw money, in the other he stole the agents automobile.The individual has used the name of Roger Pruitt and states that he is from Florida. He is described as an African American man with medium colored skin, medium build, approximately 25 years old with a gold front tooth.If you are contacted by this individual or if you have additional information please contact Detective Venker or Detective Laird, with the Detective Bureau's South Patrol at 314-444-0150.Please be extremely careful.

As a rule, I won't meet any buyers at any property until I have interviewed them and counseled them on the buying process in my office first.

Realtors have to be extremely careful out there. It can be a very vulnerable position we put ourselves in - driving strangers around, meeting them at a property, holding an Open House all alone, etc.

I usually have one of my teenagers with me at my Open Houses to help me out with signs and flyers, or I have my family stop by midway through to check-up on me.

Little pepper-spray cans are also available that attach to your keyring. Most of the agents in our office have these just in case.

It can be a scary world out there if you aren't careful.

24-Hour Market Watch

St. Louis Area
Real Estate Market Watch

September 5, 2006

I hate to say I told you so, but....

(see yesterdays Market Watch)

What did it sell for?

I know you can get this in the Journal & Post-Dispatch, but isn't it more fun coming here???

St. Charles County

St. Louis City & St. Louis County

24-Hour Market Watch

St. Louis Area

Real Estate Market Watch

September 5, 2006

I know you're thinking
"ONLY 18 homes sold in the entire St. Louis Metro???"

It was a holiday. Title companies were closed. I doubt any transactions actually "closed"
in the past 24-hours. It'll pick back up tomorrow.

Just watch!

Shameless Self Promotion

I wonder how much an ad like this would set me back?

Ah well, a Realtor can dream, can't she?

NO LABOR today!

We Mountain Biked today. Honestly, I haven't been mountain biking since I lived in Seattle. That was 10 years and 50 pounds ago! I am severely out of shape, but I still had fun. Until I realized that my heart rate maxed at 184bpm!! YIKES!

We rode the Hamburg Trail which connects to the Katy Trail. We didn't start on the Katy though. We parked off Hwy 94 and hopped right on the Hamburg. We rode around the radioactive disposal cell and then back around.

There are a couple of spots where there used to be towns, but there is nothing there but woods. Actually, it's really sad. They have trail markers and actual pictures of the towns, but you look around and there is no evidence of anything. We did go off the trail once and ran into a fenced-in, overgrown cemetary. Eerie.

Once we headed back, we found the trailhead to the Lost Valley Trail for hiking and mountain bikes.

I haven't been on any MB trails in the area at all, so I really have nothing to compare it to. Kelvin went to MB Camp a few summers ago with the YMCA. They would bus them out to the trails out at Castlewood State Park, so he was a bit more used to this than I was.

Most of the trail (IMO) was begginer friendly, but there were a few spots that were very rocky and trecherous. There was one downhill spot that even Kelvin admitted to being dangerous. Big slippery rocks all the way down. Yes, I walked my bike.

I'm not a big fan of riding next to a cliff that is straight down on a gravel trail. I slipped on gravel once while on my bike as a kid and skinned my fingers - ouch! I'm still a bit gun shy.

There were quite a few people on the trail though. Mostly middle-aged men, which was interesting. We actually passed one couple - which I thought it was awesome that I could actually PASS anyone - ha!

I'll definately go again! I think once I get used to the trail it won't seem so intimidating. And it ain't so bad burning over 1400 calories in 2 1/2 hours (no, Jay, I'm not in training!!)

:-)

24-Hour Market Watch

St. Louis Area Real Estate Market Watch

For your Labor Day Weekend

2006

Sex offenders & housing restrictions

Does this mean that O'Fallon, MO is going to require occupancy permits? How are they going to claim responsibility and track this?

I don't believe this will solve anything.

A fellow RE blogger in Seattle brought up these points in his blog a while ago:

1. Most victims know their attacker and the attacker is not registered.

2. Registries do not differentiate between "Romeo and Juliet" offenses and violent assaults, thus crowding registries with persons no more likely to offend than the average citizen on the street.

3. Registries only have recent offenders listed due to successful ex post facto proceedings. A convicted offender could be living right next door and NOT be required to register under the current law.

4. The worst of the worst do not register. They do not report to probation/parole offices as required. They are known as 'absconders' and they live among us until they are caught again.

What about these worst of the worst? Staying with with friends and moving every few weeks. There is no real way to track these people.

If I have a buyer-client ask me for a list of sex offenders in the neighborhood of where they are considering pruchasing property, I always direct them to the local police department. Sure, there are several websites that claim they have the list online, but your local PD has the most current information possible.