The winter months may be the “slow” season for real estate but there are plenty of areas throughout St Louis where homes are still selling fast! So,where are homes selling the fastest in St Louis? As the table below shows, the 63143 zip code area which is the Maplewood area, is currently the fastest selling neighborhood with an average of just 40 days on the market for current listings. Coming in second, with homes on the market just 1 day longer at 41 days, is the 63126 zip code area, the Crestwood area.
St Louis County Dominates The Fastest Selling Zip Code List-
Seven of the ten fastest-selling zip codes in the St Louis area are in St Louis County, with St Charles County claiming 2 of the remaining zips and the City of St Louis one zip.
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The number of distressed home salesin St Louis has been on the decline while distressed home prices have remained relatively flat. For the purposes herein, a “distressed” home sale includes short sales, foreclosures, bank-owned and government-owned homes. Thus far, as the chart below illustrates, there have been 2,170 distressed home sales in the St Louis 5-County Core market (the City of St Louis and Counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) this year which is a decline of 23% from last year when there were 2,871 distressed homes sold and down 38.4% from 2014when there were 3,533 distressed home sales in St Louis. The median price of distressed homes sold in St Louis has not fluctuated much over the past 3 years however, with the median price of distressed sales in 2014 at $61,750, then decreased to $60,000 in 2015 then went up to $62,500 this year.
As the table below the chart shows, currently there are 394 active listings of distressed homes at a median list price of $64,950 which, based upon current sales trends, is a supply of just under 3 months.
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This past week Boeing Co., one of St Louis’s largest employers (5ht or 6th largest give or take) announced they would be moving 500 jobs to St Louis from Huntington Beach, California as part of it’s Defense, Space & Security business. The jobs they are bring to St. Louis are good jobs and will mean that roughly 500 employees, many with families, will be relocating to St Louis soon which will be a nice little boost to the St Louis housing market. Granted, there were about 20,000 homes sold in St Louis and St Charles County (the two counties that stand to benefit most from the relocated Boeing employees) so 500 home sales is a just a small percentage, but given that the concentration of the buyers will most likely be within a 30 minute commute or so of Boeing, which is only a fraction of both of those counties (and a little part of the city of St Louis), it will have a fairly significant impact on that market.
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The city of St Louis is one of the “Top 17 Single Family Rental Millennial Meccas“, according to a report just released by Attom Data Solutions. As the interactive info graphic below shows, St Louis joins the likes of Baltimore Maryland, Milwaukee Wisconsin and El Paso Texas, along with others, as a place that is ripe for investors to rent homes to millennials. For the report, millennial were defined as people born between 1979 and 1993. According to the report, investors that purchased rental homes in the city of St Louis during the first half of 2016 saw a gross rental yield of 12%, nearly 50% higher than the national average of 8.7%. In addition, millennials make up nearly a third of the population of the city of St Louis (29.3%) and 29.8% of the city is rental property, making for a solid rental market. On the downside, the average wages in the city of St Louis is down 2% from last year.
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There were 293,190 foreclosure filings in the U.S. during the 3rd quarter of 2016, which is a decrease of 10 percent from a year ago, according to a report released today by Attom Data Solutions. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter in which foreclosure activity has decreased on a year-over-year basis and continues the steady downward decline in foreclosure activity we have seen for 6 years and has now finally fallen back to levels we saw prior to the housing bubble.
St Louis Distressed Home Sales Decline
Given the downward trend in foreclosure activity, it is not surprising that distressed home sales in St Louis (foreclosures, REO’s and short-sales) have declined as well. As the chart below shows, over the past 24 months distressed home sales in the St Louis core market (the city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) peaked in April of 2015 with 300 distressed home sales but have trended downwardly since to 165 distressed home sales last month. St Louis distressed home prices have remained fairly constant over the past 24 months. with a median sales price of $61,276 over the 2-year period and a median sold price of $60,550 in September.
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ATTOM Data Solutions just released their 2016 Natural Hazard Housing Risk Report, in which they score counties across the nation on risks posed to housing from natural hazards. As the heat map below illustrates, St Louis County has the highest natural hazard ranking in the St Louis area at 59.8, followed by the City of St Louis at 55.3. Granted, the scale goes all the way to 360, so, in the scheme of things, I guess these scores don’t sound so bad.
The biggest threats…
Not surprising, the biggest threats to St Louis, in terms of natural hazards, come from tornado and hail damage with the threat of both at “very high” for both St Louis County and St Louis City. With all the recent flooding we have seen, I’m a little surprised that for both of those counties, flood risk is shown as “low”. Oh yeah, to put your mind at ease, St Louis is ranked as “very low” for risk of hurricane storm surge or wildfires. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ]
There were 956 foreclosure filings on homes in the St Louis metro area during July 2016, a decline of nearly 20 percent (19.93%) from a year ago, according to a report released by ATTOM Data Solutions. As the table below shows, during July 2016, foreclosure activity decreased from a year ago in 5 of the 7 Missouri counties included in report. Franklin County saw an increase in foreclosure activity of 21.43% and the city of St Louis saw an increase of 9.23% from a year ago.
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The St Louis metro area housing market continues to be a hot seller’s market with 35,703 homes sold during the 12 month period ended June 30, 2016, an increase of nearly 7 percent from the prior 12 month period. The median price of homes sold during the most recent period was $162,500, an increase of over 5 percent from the prior 12 month period. As the table below shows, the price per foot on current homes listed for sale in the St Louis MSA is $118 and there is just over a 3 month supply of homes for sale (click table for current live data).
The St Louis Five-County market, consisting of the city of St Louis and the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin, as the second table shows, is performing very similar to the overall St Louis MSA market.
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After the housing bubble burst in 2008 we saw several years of declining home prices before home prices finally reached bottom in late 2011 and early 2012. Due to the tremendous growth in foreclosure activity, as well as artificially inflated home prices as a result of sub-prime lending, many of St Louis’ lowest priced neighborhoods were hit the hardest. So, now that we have seen a solid real estate market in St Louis for a couple of years, and prices are recovering, how have home prices in these hard hit zips recovered? To determine this I have assembled the data on the first table below, showing the zip codes with the lowest median home prices during the first half of 2012 and then the zip codes with the lowest median home prices during the fist half of 2016. As you can see, while there were a few differences in 2016, the zip codes on the list are largely the same.
The crash also impacted the high price zips too….how have they done since?
Certainly the highest priced areas of St Louis were impacted as well by the crash, but, in most cases, not as bad percentage-wise as the lower priced zips. To examine this, as well as how the prices in these higher-priced neighborhoods have done since, I also assembled the data for the St Louis zip codes with the highest median prices during the first half of 2012 as well as 2016. Once again, most of the zips on the 2012 list remain on the 2016.
Low priced list zip, 63118, has seen home prices increase nearly 250% since the crash and high-priced zip, 63341, over 40%!
In the second table below, I ranked the zips from both the low priced zip code list as well as the high priced zip code list to show those zips where home prices have recovered the most since the bottom. On the low priced list, 5 zips have seen home prices increase by double digits, 3 of which are located in the city of St Louis and 2 in St Louis county. On the high-priced zip list, the highest recovery was in 63341, the Defiance area of St Charles County, then of the next 4 highest increases in prices, 3 zips are in St Louis County and 1 in the City of St Lous. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ]
One of the many benefits to living in the St Louis area has long been the affordability of good homes in nice neighborhoods, but that has even gotten better in the past year in three of the 5 major counties that make up the St Louis market. As the table below shows, in Franklin County, due to lower home prices as well as interest rates, home affordability increased by 9 percent from May 2015 to May 2016. Jefferson County, as well as the city of St Louis, also saw improvements in home affordability during the period however, St Louis County and St Charles County saw affordability slip by about 2%. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ]
There have been 10,070 Homes sold in St Louis this year so far (through May 31, 2016), in the 5-county core St Louis market, an increase of 8.7 percentfrom the same time last year when there were 9,261 homes sold. As the table below shows, this years home sales is outpacing the prior 4 years thus far. The core St Louis market is comprised of the city of St Louis as well as the counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin.
Pending home sales up as well but could show slowing trend…
At the chart below illustrates, year to date pending home sales (homes with contracts on them that have not closed yet) have increased 5 percent from the same time last year. Through the end of May, 2016, there have been 10,953 pending home sales in St Louis up from 10,433 the same time last year. With the closed home sales being up 8.7 percent, but pending home sales up only 5 percent, that would indicate one of two things: either a higher percentage of pending sales are closing and fewer failing along the way, or pending sales, a good leading indicator of the housing market, are slowing meaning we are going to possibly lose of some of the increase in home sales from last year over the coming months.
Declining Inventory Is The Problem…
To answer the question I raised above as to the reason for the slowdown in the rate of pending home sales, I looked at what I suspected to be the problem: inventory. As the chart at the very bottom below shows, while home sales have been on the rise in the 5- county core St Louis real estate market, the inventory of homes for sale has been on the decline. In May 2015, there were 2,540 homes sold in the St Louis 5-county core market and there was a 3 month inventory of homes for sale. Last month, there were 2,735 homes sold and only a 2 month supply of homes for sale. That decline of 33% in the supply of homes for sale is no doubt to blame for the decrease in pending home sales…if there is nothing on the market to buy there won’t be sales, simple as that.
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Foreclosure activityin the St Louis metro area during the month May occurred at a rate of 1 foreclosure action for every 1,267 homes, an increase of 20.3 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 9.75% from a year ago, according to a report just released today by RealtyTrac.
As the table below illustrates, 5 of the seven Missouri counties, and 2 of the eight Illinois counties, saw a decline in foreclosure activity in May from the year before, and 1 Missouri county, and 3 Illinois counties, saw a decline from the month before. Of the fifteen counties reported, only 3 saw a decline in foreclosure activity in May both from the month before, as well as year before, those being the City of St Louis in Missouri and Jersey and Monroe counties in Illinois.
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Homes are selling in St Louis at a brisk rate evidenced by the fact that pending home sales, those listings that are under contract to a buyer but not yet closed, for 2016 through the end of April increased 9.2%from the same time last year. As the chart below illustrates, year to date pending home sales in the St Louis 5-County core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) thus far this year are at a level higher than we have seen in years! Pending home sales in the month of April itself barely outperformed April 2015 by 1/2 of 1%. One of the best ways to get the big picture is to look at pending home sales for the most recent 12 month period and compare that with the prior 12 month period which when we do shows an increase of 9% in pending home sales for the 12 month period ended March 31, 2016.
Data Source: MARIS
City of St Louis only County With Decline in Pending Home Sales:
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There were 2,290 St Louis Existing Homes Sold in April (in the 5-county core market), an increase of 1.0 percentfrom April 2015 when there were 2,265 homes sold. The median home price of homes in the St Louis 5-county core market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Franklin and Jefferson) during April 2016 was $173,850, an increase of 4.4 percent from April 2015 when the median price of existing homes sold was $166,500.
For the combined markets of the City of St Louis and the County of St Louis, there were 1,241 existing single family homes sold during April 2016, an increase of 9.6% from the prior year and the median home price of homes sold during the month was $158,250, an increase of less than 1% from the prior year.
Distressed home sales still account for over 1 of every 10 home sales….
During the month of April in the St Louis core market, there were 243 distressed home sales (foreclosures, short sales, bank-owned property) which is 10.6% of the total home sales during the month. The median sales price of these distressed sales in April 2016 was $51,780, a decline of 1.0% from a year ago when distressed homes sold for a median price of $52,314.
St Louis home prices in April, on non-distressed existing home sales, rose just 1 percent from year ago…
In spite of some recent news reports boasting much bigger increases in home prices (as much as 17%) based upon the data I have compiled, courtesy of MARIS, the REALTOR regional MLS, the increase in home prices is nowhere near that. If we remove distressed home sales from the data, and look at what the “normal” housing market looks like, in April 2016 there were 2,045 homes sold, an increase of 5% from a year ago when there were 1,947 non-distressed single-family home sales in the St Louis 5-county core market. The median price of these home sales in April was $185,000, an increase of 1.0% from a year ago when the median home price for non-distressed single-family home sales in the St Louis 5-county core market was $183,000.
Why a 17% increase in home prices would not be good and 1% is better…
If St Louis home prices had in fact, as reported by some of the media, increased in the past year by as much as 17% that would mean home prices rose about 17 times more than the rate of inflation. As the table below from the US Labor Bureau shows, the St Louis rate of inflation from the 4th quarter of 2014 to the 4th quarter of 2015 was 0% and, the best I can tell, the most recent rate only indicates about a 1% rate of inflation. Therefore, a 1% increase in home prices in the past year, as I have reported above, is consistent with the current rate of inflation and is a good thing for the long term health of the housing market as we don’t want home prices to rise significantly faster than inflation. How do I know this? Well, as the chart below shows, where I have graphed historically, there has definitely been a relationship between home prices and CPI with the two normally rising at a fairly consistent rate with the big exception being in the early 2000’s. As the chart shows, being in early 2000, home prices began rising at a rate higher than the inflation rate eventually reaching the tipping point in the 4th quarter of 2007 when home prices had increased 42% during the prior 7 year period and the rate of inflation only 20%. We all know what happened next, the housing bubble burst and home prices plummeted back to where they should have been. So, during the period that lead to the housing bubble, home prices were, on average, just increasing just a little over double the rate of inflation and look what happened. Now do you see why I say a 17% increase in home prices in the past year would be bad and the actual 1% it was is good?
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St Louis home prices appear to be trending downward a little even though we are in the midst of a fairly robust spring market. This is based upon the current price per foot of active listings for sale compared with what home sales that closed last month, as well as prior 12 months, sold for on a per-foot basis. As the tables below show, the price per foot trend is down in all 6 counties we track, with the biggest downward trends showing in St Louis County and the city of St Louis, both of which have seen the median price per foot of active listings fall below what homes in those counties sold for in the prior 12 months.
Condo prices trending downward as well..
Beneath the table for home prices is a table showing condo price trends which shows St Louis condo prices trending downward as well.
Remember, real estate (and home prices) are very local…
What I have discussed thus far is at the county level, but you must remember real estate is very localand home prices, sales, etc, can vary greatly within the same county. For example, see the chart at the bottom of home price trends by zip code – I have shown it two ways…first where the prices are trending upward and next where they are trending downward. As the tables show, there are several zip codes in the area with definite upward trends in home prices as well as areas going the other direction as well.
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There were 2,869 St Louis Existing Homes Sold in March, an increase of 8.6 percentfrom March 2015 when there were 2,640 homes sold. The median home price of homes in the St Louis 5-county core market during March 2016 was $155,500, an increase of 3.3 percent from March 2015 when the median price of existing homes sold was $150,000.
Pending home sales on the rise from year ago..
At the chart below illustrates, year to date pending home sales (homes with contracts on them that have not closed yet) have increased from the same time last year. Through the end of March, 2016, there have been 5,681 pending home sales in St Louis, an increase of 5.7 percent from the same time last year when there were 5,374 pending home sales year to date.
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St Louis foreclosure activity during the first quarter of this year in the St Louis metro area was at a rate of 1 of every 469 homes, ranking St Louis 99th, in terms of foreclosure rate (a list that is good to be low on), of metropolitan areas in the U.S. with a population in excess of 200,000 people, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. The foreclosure rate in St Louis during the 1st quarter of 2016 declined 10.55 percent from the quarter before and declined 13.67 percent from the first quarter of 2015.
As the table below illustrates, foreclosure activity in all but two of the counties in Missouri that make up the St Louis MSA saw a decline in foreclosure activity from the prior quarter and all, but the city of St Louis, saw a decline from a year ago.
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St. Louis County is entertaining the idea of adding the City of St. Louis to its list of incorporated municipalities. All legal opinions firmly show that the County will absorb NONE of the City’s nancial responsibilities. If this were to happen the City of St. Louis will be no different than municipalities such as Clayton, Ellisville, or Chester eld. It would simply be another city located in St. Louis County. I am an advocate for this move. The City needs to cease County functions and turn them over to the County. Currently, practices and city functions run at inefficient levels.
If the city were to join the St. Louis County roster then we would have about 91 municipalities in the County. It should be noted though that 23 of them have less than 1,000 in population. Why does that make sense for a few blocks of St. Louis County to incorporate? If you ask them, they want to control their neighborhood, perhaps a worthy endeavor. However, we then have 90+ City Administrations for a population of 1.3 million (City and County). Some may suggest that this is very inefficient and a misuse of funds. But how inefficient is it really?
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A recent article by STL Today indicated that home affordability in St Louis had fallen, specifically noting that affordability in St Louis County had fallen below historic “norms”. As is always the case with stats, it depends upon which data you are taking into account and the accuracy of the data. I decided to take a look at the data and see if my data showed the same result as the STL Today article.
Affordability is UP in St Louis county, not DOWN…
As the table below shows, home affordability in St Louis county has actually increasedin the past year, not decreased as reported in the aforementioned article. For the purposes of my analysis, I used home sales data for “non-distressed” sales only, so not including foreclosures or short sales, to get a more accurate picture of the true market.
Affordability has improved in Jefferson County as well but, as the table below shows, has declined in the past year in the city of St Louis, Franklin county and St Charles county. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ]
St Louis Home Sales in February rose to 1,973 sales for the 5-county core St Louis market, an increase of 4.9 percent from January’s 1,880 sales. February home sales (closings) in St Louis, while increasing 3 percent from a year ago, did not increase from January’s sales at the same rate as last year. From January 2015 to February 2015, in St Louis, we saw an increase in home sale closings of over 23 percent which, coming out of the historically slowest closing month of the year (January) and headed to the biggest selling market of the year (spring), we would expect. This year, however, we saw just a 4.9 percent increasein sales (closings) from January to February.
Don’t panic yet, it is still a strong real estate market in St Louis..
Even though this sales data could possibly indicate a cooling in the market and perhaps slower times ahead, I think when we look at the big picture, including other vital data such as inventory of homes for sale, supply, time on market, etc, it shows the reduced increase in home sale rate is probably more of a factor of limited supply than of lack of demand.
Pending home sales show increased rate…
All of the data I’ve talked about thus far is based upon closed home sales, so what has already taken place, so to speak, but for a look ahead we can looking at pendinghome sales, meaning homes with a contract on them from a buyer but still in the process and not yet closed, so, assuming everything goes as planned, a future closing that will reflect in home sales numbers. Beneath the home sale chart below is a chart showing year to date pending home sales (through the end of February) for this year, for the 5-county core St Louis market, as well as for the prior 4 years. The chart shows that year to date St Louis pending home are up about 12 percent from the same time last year which should help get the March home sales numbers up.
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Pending home sales in St Louis fell slightly last month from a year ago for the 5-county core St Louis market (city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin). Through the end of last month, there were 3,182 pending home sales for the area, down slightly from 3,200 during the same period a year ago.
St Louis Home Prices are up…
As the chart beneath the pending home sales chart illustrates, the average list price of homes for sale in the 5-county core St Louis market during January are up significantly from the same time last year. Year to date through last month, the average list price was $247,076, an increase of 8.3 percent from a year ago when the average list price was $228,136.
Homes sold in St Louis in January sold for an average of $192,880, an increase of 4.9% from a year ago when the average sold price was $183,898.
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According to a report just released this morning by RealtyTrac, 6,809, of the 103,855 residential properties in the city of St Louis,are vacant. This vacant property rate of 6.6 percent for the City of St Louis is over four times higher than the national rate of 1.6 percent. As the table below shows, the vacant property rate for the St Louis MSA as a whole is 2.6 percent and St Louis County has the second highest vacancy rate, coming in a 2.6 percent. St Charles County has the lowest vacancy rate at 0.4 percent.
“Abandoned ship” properties…
I’m applying the label of “abandoned ship properties” to those properties that are sinking, or seriously underwater with regard to equity, otherwise known as being in a negative-equity position, and are vacant as well. In this category, are 1,390 properties in St Louis county or, nearly 15 percent (14.8%) of all of the vacant properties in the county. For the MSA as a whole, 9.7% of all vacant properties are “abandoned shop” properties.
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The St Louis real estate market is off to a good start for 2016 with non-distressed home sales during January increasing 30 percent from a year ago. In the St Louis five-county core market, there were nearly 1,700 total homes sold (1,697) during January 2015, up 19.3% from January 2015 where there were 1,423 total sales. Non-distressed sales (private sales only, no foreclosures, REO’s, etc) accounted for 1,430 of the home sales during January 2015, an increase of 30% from January 2015 when there were 1,101 homes sold.
St Louis Home Prices On The Rise…
The median price of homes sold during January 2016 was $149,900, an increase of 11.9% from January 2015 when the median price was $133,900. The median price of non-distress sale homes sold in January 2016 was $165,000, an increase of 6.5% from January 2015 when the median price was $155,00.
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The St Louis real estate and housing market saw a good year last year but, as we are frequently reminded, real estate is very “local” and prices, as well as market conditions, can vary widely even between cities or towns just a mile or two apart. This is clearly illustrated when I look at a report our company produces, based upon home sales data, obtained directly from the St Louis REALTOR® MLS, that shows the median price per foot for homes sold (or currently for sale) throughout the St Louis area. I like price per square foot data as I believe that is one of the more accurate ways of seeing trends in home prices. We compile this data and publish it live, and real-time, online, for each city in St Louis as well as zip code.
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As 2015 quickly comes to an end, we close out what has been one of the better years for the St Louis real estate market in many years! Homes in St Louis sold at a steady pace and St Louis home prices showed solid appreciation! We saw a spring market that brought home buyers racing to new listings often competing with other buyers to see who could make the best offer the quickest, often-times with the final sale price equaling or exceeding the asking price followed by a steady market throughout the summer and into the winter months.
Too much to read? No problem, watch the video below instead!
St Louis Real Estate Market – Recap for 2015:
While the year is not quite yet over, and there will be some additional sales closing in the 4 business days left in the year, I think there is enough data available to tell the story for this year. With that in mind, below is a recap of the St Louis housing market for 2015:
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I have the honor of serving as chairman of the St Louis Industry Forum which consists of leaders of professional and trade associations that are engaged in some aspect of the real estate industry in St Louis (such as REALTORS, Builders, Mortgage Lenders, Bankers, etc) and at our bi-monthly meetings millennial’s are often the topic of conversation with regard to this generations thoughts on home ownership vs. renting, where they want to live and other related matters. It’s no surprise our industry would be so focused on the millennial generation since this group of teens to 30-something year-olds represents the largest generation (and group of future homeowners or tenants) we have seen.
In other articles I have addressed the issue of homeownership by the millennial generation so in this one I am instead going to look atwhere the millennials are moving. I prepared the table below which shows all of the major counties in the MSA’s in Missouri, home affordability in those areas as well as the change in population with regard to the millennial generation as well as their parents generation, the baby boomers.
Millennials are heading to the city of St Louis…
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It’s no secret that home sales slow down this time of year but there are still plenty of neighborhoods where homes are selling quickly. So where are homes selling the fastest in St Louis? As the table below shows, the 63126 zip code area of St Louis county, which consists mainly of the Crestwood area, is where homes are currently selling the fastest at as of today, with active listings of homes for sale having been on the market an average of just 49 days.
Of the 10 fastest selling zip codes in the St Louis area, 7 of them are located within St Louis County, 2 within the city of St Louis and 1 in St Charles County.
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St Louis Home Sales cooled a little in November with 1,519 homes sold during the month (in the 5-county core market) down slightly from a year ago in November when there were 1,531 homes sold. The median home price of homes sold last month in the 5 county market was $165,898, a decline from $170,000 the month before however an increase of 3.7 percent from a year ago when the median home price was $160,000.
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Distressed home sales in St Louis during the month of October 2015 accounted for about 11.6 percent of all home sales during the month, a decline of about 50 percent from a year ago when St Louis distressed home sales accounted for 23 percent of the all home sales, according to the latest data just released by RealtyTrac. Distressed home sales would include foreclosures, REO’s (homes that have been foreclosed upon and now being sold by a bank or other lender) and short sales.
As the table below shows, the St Louis metro area saw a decline in all types of distressed home sales in October from the month before, however some of the counties in the area saw an increase such as the city of St Louis that saw distressed home sales increase from 20.9% in September 2015 to 25.3% in October.
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St Louis Home Sales rose to 2,209 homes sold during September (in the 5-county core market) from 1,992 homes sold in September 2014, an increase of 10.9 percent! September home sales declined 7.3% from the month before which is to be expected due to the seasonality of the market.
St Louis homes prices rose 10.6% from year ago…
Homes sold in the St Louis 5-County core market in September, sold for a median price of $177,000, a 10.6% increase from September 2014 when the median price was $160,000.
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