Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
According to the website for the Economic Development Center for St. Charles County, the county was established October 1, 1812. St. Charles County encompasses 561-square-miles of diverse landscape spreading out westward from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
According to the Census Bureau, in 1970 the population of St. Charles county was 92,954. By 2008 the population had grown to 349,307, an increase of over 275% in that 38 year period. During the same period St. Louis County had a modest increase in population of just over 4% growing from 951,671 to 991,830. The city of St. Louis saw a huge decline during the same period with the population dropping from 622,235 people to 354,361, losign over 43% of its population.
Along with the growth in population for St. Charles County came a massive growth of new homes to accomodate the new residents. Like pretty much everywhere else in the country, the St. Charles County real estate market has been impacted negatively as well no doubt. To explore this and find out what is going on in the St. Charles County real estate market I turned to Karen Vennard, the 2009 President of the St. Charles County Association of REALTORS(R).
Karen Vennard, 2009 President, St. Charles County Association of REALTORS
Karen is a broker-associate at Integrity Group, REALTORS(R), LLC,in O’Fallon. She has a bachelor of Science degree in Biology, has earned her GRI designation from the National Association of REALTORS(R), and has been a REALTOR(R) since 1997 specializing in new home sales.
Now for the E-View with Karen:
Dennis – St. Charles County has, in the past, been the fastest growing area in the St. Louis metropolitan area. As a result, it had a large percentage of the areas new homes constructed there. The downturn for most markets in the area began about 2 years ago. When did you see a change in the real estate market in St. Charles County and what was the change?
Karen – I had the opportunity to be in new home sales when sales were booming in St. Charles County. Personally I saw the market for new homes changing as early as 2004. There were a high number of inventory homes and they were taking much longer to sell than previous years.
Dennis – Wow, it sounds like new home sales in St.Charles County may have been a “leading economic indicator”. You said new home sales slowed and inventories were growing in 2004…what ultimately happened to the market and how is the new home market now?
Karen – St. Charles County has seen an exponential drop in new home sales over the past few years, and it has adversely affected that segment of the market. I hope that the worst is over, but it yet remains to be seen. I am still selling new homes and it has been a slow recovery.
I”m going to stop here for today and will pick up with Karen tomorrow where we left off. If you wish to contact Karen with questions about the St. Charles County market, below is her contact info:
Karen Vennard – Office phone – (636) 379-3699, Cell phone (314) 602-1600, email kvennard@charter.net.
To read part two of this series please click here.
To read part three of this series please click here.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.