Things Are Heating Up!

Ok so maybe the temperature in St. Louis today is just about 16 as of the time of this posting, however, the same can not be said about the real estate sales.  Buyers are entering the market early this year. 

Look at this chart for St. Charles.  Almost 50% of all listed properties experienced a recent price reduction and inventory is way down as homes are sold and taken off the market.  This indicates to us a stastical bottom.

Some Factors Why:

1. For three weeks the conventional 30 year fixed-rate mortgage was around 4.75% - That rate hit its bottom and is now trending upward.  The mythical 4.0% rate wasn't to be found.
2. The elections is over, the new President is in office, and people are ready to move forward with their lives.  Many people sat on the sidelines waiting to see how things panned out.  Now they are ready to act.
3. Prices are at their lowest between November and January 31st.  The reason behind this is Sellers are aware that during these months the fewest Buyers are out looking.  To make their home competitive with a small Buyer pool they must lower their price.  As more Buyers come back into the market, more showings will ocurr and Sellers will achieve higher prices.  That means NOW is the best time to get the best price.
4. There is an influx of investors snatching up foreclosures in St. Louis and St. Charles countines.  They smart people know prices are low and will buy now and sell later.  
5. There are plenty of great foreclosure and short sale homes out there that need little to no work but are being sold at a big discount.
6. Thousands of families sat on the sidelines last year thinking it was possible for prices to crater in St. Louis.  That didn't happen so there are plenty of first time and move up buyers looking.

We can say all this because the phones and email information requests at River City Real Estate have NEVER in our history been this high for the month of January.    This translates to what will be our best February ever in terms of volume of closings.  

Yes the market was down last year, yes prices dropped in some places of North County 25%, yes prices dropped in St. Charles County (albeit only about 4%) .  

But this means it's a great time to buy.  And in our estimation, we have finally hit the bottom and are trending up.

Foreclosure and Short Sale List for St. Louis - Week of January 19th, 2009

You'll find below the Foreclosure and Short Sale lists for the week of January 19, 2009

If you'd like more specific or localized data, please email us at foreclosure@RCREonline.com

Also make sure to check out our Foreclosure and Short Sale Buying Tips.

Foreclosure List 1/19/2009

Short Sale List 1/19/2009

Free Real Estate Market Reports

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They are sent to you each week and offer an update on the market as specific as your zip code. You'll never receive any spam, just good quality data.  You can sign up for free for your city or zip code below.

Take a look at one of our sample's here:

River City Real Estate Exec Summary [SF]_MO_SAINT CHARLES_2009!01!09

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Roost - An Amazing New Search Tool

Online real estate search is an evolving game these days.  There are for sale by owner companies, MLSs, brokerages, and indpenedent companies all vying for the homebuyer's attention.

Specifically many of the indpenedent companies have sprouted over the past few years.  They are known mostly as "listing syndication websites" because they take data that brokers give them and push them out.  Trulia, Zillow, even Craigslist are just a few examples.

However, all of them have certain flaws.  The primary item being that an agent or their broker must push their listings out to these sites for them to appear.  The truth is that at the current time very few agents are doing this, and the ones that are probably do because their company has setup a transfer system.  This means that these sites have few listings overall.

This brings up the question, why would someone visit one of these sites if they don't have all the listings?  Homebuyers want to see as many options as possible.

Roost.com was born to fix this problem.  Instead of waiting for agents to send them data, they pull the data from the local MLS by working with local brokers.  This means they have many more listings.

River City Real Estate has been partnered with Roost since almost their launch around a year ago.

Media outlets around the country have taken notice of this innovative system.  The Wall St. Journal, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post have all featured articles recommending Roost's service.  

But it's not just these media companies that have lauded the service.  Families are taking notice as well including one family that moved to St. Louis from Tulsa, OK as part of a relocation.  They found Roost's website and began looking for listings.  Because of Roost's powerful system, they were connected immediately with one of our team members.  The process was so rewarding for them that they chose to avoid using the relocation agent and instead use the team at River City and agent Ronna Ragusa.  

Without Roost's service River City Real Estate wouldn't have had the opportunity to work with them. 

We really appreciate our partnership with Roost and feel their service offers homebuyers around the country the option to find homes with just a few clicks.  So if you're in St. Louis and thinking about moving to an alternative location make sure to check them out!

Short Sale and Foreclosed List

Below please find an updated list of foreclosures and short sales for the St. Louis Metro area as of January 9, 2009.

If you'd like more specific or localized data, please email us at foreclosure@RCREonline.com

Also make sure to check out our Foreclosure and Short Sale Buying Tips.

Foreclosure List 1/9/2009

Short Sale List 1/9/2009