Distressed home sales bring down prices in St. Louis

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued yesterday by CoreLogic, home prices in the St. Louis area decreased in August 2010 by 3.53 percent from the year before, over twice the US rate of price decline for the same period of 1.5 percent.  However, distressed home sale prices are to blame and appear to be causing more damage in the St. Louis housing market than on the US housing market on average.

I say this because the data shows if we exclude the distressed sales then home prices in St. Louis only declined 0.28 percent for the same period, so the distressed sales have increased the rate of decline by over 11 times!  On a national level, excluding distressed sales reduces the decline to 0.4 percent, or just over a fourth of the rate with them included.

f distressed sales are excluded then there was a 0.4 percent decrease in home prices from August 2009 to August 2010.

National Highlights as of August 2010

• The top five states with the highest appreciation, including distressed sales, were: Maine (+5.8 percent), New York (+3.7 percent), Connecticut (+2.5 percent), Virginia (+2.4 percent), and South Dakota (+2.1 percent).
• The top five states with the greatest depreciation, including distressed sales, were Idaho (-14.0 percent), Alabama (-10.4 percent), Utah (-7.3 percent), Oregon (-6.3 percent) and Florida (-6.2 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the top five states with the highest appreciation were: New York (+5.0 percent), South Dakota (+4.0 percent), Connecticut (+3.1 percent), North Dakota (+3.0 percent), and Vermont (+2.7 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the top five states with the greatest depreciation were: Idaho (-11.3 percent), Michigan (-7.6 percent), Arizona (-6.5 percent), Nevada (-6.3 percent) and Utah (-4.7 percent).
• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to August 2010) is -28.2 percent. Excluding distressed properties, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period is -19.6 percent.

Please leave this field empty

📬 Stay Ahead of the St Louis Market

Get local real estate updates, trends & insights — as soon as they publish.

Homeowners, buyers, investors & agents rely on us for what really matters in STL real estate.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.