We Are Weather Driven!

2818 Mount Pleasant

1890 home in historic area south of downtown, hear So. Broadway. 3+ bedrooms, historic feel. Listed at $130,000.

You know, we as humans are not much different from our brother animals. Many animals in these midwestern, northern hemisphere areas, hibernate for the winter. The longer I'm in sales, the more that I notice that we humans do the same things. We come out for a bit around the holidays to purchase the necessary Holiday and Christmas presents and then back into the holes of our homes and work we go...trying not to come out unless necessary...that is, until spring and the trees bloom and the flowers pop and our minds turn to ... all things outdoors.





Real estate is always affected by weather in a buyers market. As soon as we get a good cold spell, or worse, snow or ice, we notice that buyers burrow. But, let a warm day come about and bam! phone ring, people look. Time to buy. Warm weather is tied to our pocket books and hardwired in our brains. Something about warmth makes us want to buy.





The funny thing is that this cold snowy weather also brings about greater bargains from sellers. Not many sellers want to be on the market during the winter months...not now, at least, during a buyers market. So, you can find more bargains out there and more sellers willing to deal this time of year. It's another reason why not to wait...and to buy!





I read a great article in the Broker Agent Professional magazine. It was entitled Why Buy? And here's a quote from it: Buy because the city heat (cold) is just about to make your head explode, and cool lake breezes are better than warm alley breezes any day of the week. Buy because you'll walk a little taller if you live on that street where the maples high overhead reach across the street and shake hands with each other. Above all, buy because you want a better lifestyle for you, for your friends, and for your family, and the purchase you're contemplating allows you to more easily obtain that lifestyle.





If you need fundamentals to buy, realize that interest rates are unbelievably low and inventory is monumentally high. Realize that whether or not the market creates an identifiable bottom, you're not going to know when it does. if you're hoarding cash hoping for market bottom balloons to be released from the pink unicorns soaring in the sky, I hope you have fun swimming and boating in your money vat like a decidedly uncartoonish Scrooge McDuck. Just buy because of the 320 months of summer we're all hoping for out of lie, way too many of them have already been wasted worrying about 5% market swings, and 5% interest rates."





Until next time!

St. Louis by the Zip Codes!

4520 West Pine, Unit 2

Listed at $317,000

2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths

Located in the very heart of the Central West End on a very desirable street, this bright and airy condo unit is very economical with a very stable and wise condo board. Walk everywhere! Two car garage below the unit with a workshop! And a private deck off the living room. A MUST see!

St. Louis is a city of neighborhoods! Every small neighborhood a community in its own strength with its own history and its own flavor. Many and diverse. And that's why all of us here at Sandy Bender, REAL ESTATE enjoy selling and living in the city as much as we do. From the Scrubby Dutch neighborhoods to the Bosnian Bevo Mill Community to the Asian influence on South Grand. All distinct. All fun. All wonderful!

Over the past three or four years, I have been keeping track of St. Louis sales by zip code, since each zip code in the city is different.

Fourteen years ago, when the city was just coming to the end of the then existing Buyers market, home sales slowed during the holiday season and started up again in the spring. Also, during that time period, you couldn't sell a two bedroom, let a one a one bedroom home, for your life! The holiday slow down has come about, I'm wondering if the sales of two or one bedroom homes will follow soon. As soon as the market became a sellers market, all of that changed. Sales zoomed right through the holidays and you couldn't keep a one bedroom on the market, either!

I do a report every two months entitled The Bender Report. The report looks at the St. Louis city area by zip code and focuses on listings, pendings, sales and sale prices. If you would be interested in having this report emailed to you, I'd be happy to do that. Just email me at sandy@sandybender.com and I'll send you a copy.

For now, I'll leave you with two interesting facts:

1. According to the New York Times and their article focusing on Renting vs. Buying in 55 metropolitan area, St. Louis is ranked in an area that it is smarter to Buy at this time than to Rent. Their rule of thumb after looking at rent ratios (the price of a typical home divided by the annual cost of renting that property), is that you should often buy when the ratio is below 15 and rent when the ratio is above 20. If it's between 15 and 20, lean toward renting, unless you find a home you really like and expect to stay there for many years. St. Louis' ratio is 14.6. We have excellent home prices!

2. In the Central West End, which is where our office is located here in St. Louis City, a vibrant urban neighborhood near Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University as well as St. Louis University, home prices in this historic area have dropped by 2% and have gone to about $73 per square foot. The condo market here is very, very strong and is at a 6 month Inventory rate, which indicated a cusp of buyer/seller market, leaning again to a sellers market. The price per square foot of condos here has dropped again to $191 per square foot, but the overall price of condos here has increased by 3%. Our condo market has remained strong and our overall sales market in the 63108 sales market, has remained, for the most part, pretty stable.

It remains a great time to buy!