Inventory Of Homes For Sale In St Louis Increases Year Over Year For First Time In Nearly Three-Years

The inventory of homes for sale in the St Louis core market area increased to a 1.04 month supply in June 2022, an increase of nearly 12 percent (11.8%) from a year ago when there was a 0.93 month supply.  As our chart below illustrates, this is the first time since August 2019 there has been a year-over-year increase in inventory and then the increase was just 3.1%.  While a double-digit increase is significant, we do need to keep in mind that, at just over a one-month supply of listings for sale is still crazy low!  The median listing supply in St Louis was 3.5 months in 2015, 2.9 in 2016, 2.5 in 2017, 2.4 in 2018, 2.6 in 2019 then dropped to 1.5 months in 2020 and down to a record low 1.2 months in 2021. So, even after this double-digit increase we are still at a level this even low by last year’s record low standards.

St Louis 5-County Core – Year Over Year Percentage Change In Listing Supply

St Louis 5-County Core - Year Over Year Percentage Change In Listing Supply

New Sales Of Listings Are Outpacing New Listings

As any home buyer in the market is well aware no doubt, we have a low inventory of homes for sale in the St Louis MSA.  As the STL Market Report below shows (which is exclusivley available from MORE, REALTORS®) there is currently just a 1.2 month supply of active listings in the St Louis metro area.  It doesn’t look like the situation is improving either as MORE’s Local Home Trends Reports at the bottom show that new contracts in the past two weeks have outpaced new listings during the same period.  There were 2,105 new contracts written for the sale of a home and there were 1,976 new listings of homes for sale.  With the new sales outpacing new listings by a little over 6% it indicates we are not going to see any improvement in the inventory in the near term.

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STL Market Report for the St Louis MSA

(click on report for live report)

STL Market Report for the St Louis MSA

Continue reading “New Sales Of Listings Are Outpacing New Listings

21 Zips In 5-County Core Where Listing Inventory Is More Than Double The Median

If you are in the process of trying to find a home to purchase or have gone through the process in the last couple of years, I don’t need to tell you how low the inventory of homes for sale is.  Currently, in the St Louis 5-County core market, there is less than a one-month supply of homes for sale (0.85 months).

However, within that area, there are 21 zip codes that have a current supply of at least double that, 1.7 months or more.  As the chart below shows, the supply of homes for sale in these zip codes ranges from a high of 9 months in 63115 down to 1.71 months in 63367.  There are a total of 9 zip codes that have a supply greater than triple the median of 0.85 months  (2.55 months+).

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Continue reading “21 Zips In 5-County Core Where Listing Inventory Is More Than Double The Median

40 Zip Codes In The St Louis MSA Have 1 Month Or Less Supply Of Homes For Sale

It’s no wonder home buyers are tripping over themselves and getting into bidding wars to buy a house as the supply of homes for sale is at or near historic lows.  As our table below shows, there are currently 40 zip codes in the St Louis MSA with a one-month or less supply of homes for sale (7 of the zips have no homes for sale) and a total of 76 of the 127 (60%) zip codes within the St Louis MSA have a supply of homes for sale of 2 months or less.

This low inventory, along with low-interest rates and pent-up demand from the COVID-19 induced stay at home orders, is creating a real feeding frenzy of sorts for homebuyers in the St Louis market.  For sellers, this is a dream come true, plenty of demand and little competition!  Granted, this is not true in all areas and all price ranges, but for the most common prices ranges in the more popular areas it is very true.

Sellers should sell now!

If you are someone that has been thinking about selling, I would act on those thoughts now and take advantage of the current low-inventory conditions.  While I don’t know that I agree, there are folks out there predicting that the market is going to get flooded with homes for sale shortly turning the tide on sellers.  For me, I’ll believe that when I see it, but nonetheless, now is definitely a great time to sell.

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Continue reading “40 Zip Codes In The St Louis MSA Have 1 Month Or Less Supply Of Homes For Sale

Inventory of Homes For Sale is 1-Month or Less In Top 10 Sellers Markets In St Louis

The St Louis housing market has been low on inventory of homes for sale in many areas and many price ranges for the past couple of years.  Even as the summer market is down to the last few weeks, we still find the market short on listings in many markets.  With the inventory of homes for sale low, the market definitely favors sellers.

Our firm publishes a list showing the current inventory of homes for sale (in terms of months supply based upon the most recent sales trend) and below I show the top 10 St Louis area zip codes in terms of low inventory.  As the table below shows, the Maryland Heights area (63043 zip) has the lowest inventory with what equates to about a 2 week supply of homes for sale and number 10 on the list, the 63101 zip in the city of St Charles, has just a 1-month supply.

Historically, a 6-month supply of homes for sale has been considered by many in the industry to be a balanced market not favoring buyers or sellers.  Of the 96 zip codes contained in the St Louis 5-County Core market, the list below represents, only 13 of the zip codes (13.5%) have a listing supply of 6 months or more.

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St Louis 5-County Core Market Months Supply Of Active Listings By Zip

(click on table for live data and complete list)

St Louis 5-County Core Market Months Supply Of Active Listings By Zip

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Report Today Says St Louis Housing Inventory Fell 26 Percent In Past Year…Maybe not though…

This morning I noticed the St Louis Business Journal was reporting “In July, the local housing inventory fell to 2.6 months…That marked a 26 percent decrease since the same month last year“.  This report immediately caused me some concern as I didn’t think the inventory was down nearly that much.  Given that I personally spend a ton of time staying on top of local market data and our firm, MORE, REALTORS has even developed its own proprietary software to ensure that our agents and clients have the best and most accurate local housing market data, I would like to think I would know if the inventory had dropped that drastically.

Why data, and the source of it, is so important…

After looking at the reports we have been producing and then digging into the data to double check everything, I found that no, I had not missed anything, and the St Louis housing inventory had not dropped anywhere near 26% from a year ago.   Before I go further, I should mention, I am not bashing the St Louis Business Journal, I like that paper, in fact that is the only St Louis newspaper I have paid any attention to for years and all they are doing is “reporting” the news and information anyway, they are not creating the data.  Also, I’m not criticizing their source of data either, as I’m sure whoever provided the data felt it was painting a true picture as well.

However, the point I do want to make is to say that this is a perfect example of why, if you are a potential home buyer, seller or investor, you really do need to pay attention to the source of your information and market data.  After all, it is data such as this that will help guide you in the decisions you make.  For example, if you are looking for a home to buy in St Charles County and read the article I mentioned and saw there was a 26 percent decline in inventory, you may feel like you better hurry to find a house.  In fact, you may decide you have to lower your expectations of what you want in a home, as well as perhaps pay more than you are comfortable with price-wise, to ensure you don’t miss out.  However, what if you knew instead, as my data below illustrates, that the inventory of homes for sale in St Charles County is in fact just about the same now as it was this time last year?  Would this change your approach?  I think it may.

Remember, all real estate is local…

One of the challenges with housing market data is real estate really is a very “local” thing.  Prices, inventory, etc, can change dramatically, even for similar homes, from city to city, school district to school district and, in some cases, even block to block.  This is why at, MORE, REALTORS, we developed the software we did, and why we spend so much time training and coaching our agents on how to use these tools for the benefit of their clients.  We can produce, accurate and relevant data at any level, for almost any type of housing.

So, what is the story on the St Louis housing inventory?

Below, I have presented several tables and charts to illustrate what I’m talking about, but here is a quick recap of the change in inventory from a year ago:

  • St Louis MSA.   As the first two tables show, the inventory in early August of this year was equal to a 2.67 months supply of homes for sale in the St Louis metro area as a whole (9 counties in Missouri and 8 in Illinois) which is a decline of just 4 one hundreds of a percent (0.04) from the same time last year when there was a 2.71 month supply.
  • St Louis 5-County Core Market. This represents the bulk of the St Louis real estate market in Missouri and is composed of the city of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin.  As the tables show, earlier this month there was a 2.43 month supply and the same time a year ago it was just about the same at 2.41 months.
  • St Louis City and County – It’s unusual for the city not to be part of the surrounding county, so we also report St Louis City and county together.  For this market, it was 2.28 months when reported earlier this month and is just about the same again as a year ago when it was 2.30 months.
  • St Charles County – This County had the biggest decline inventory from a year ago dropping from a 2.08 month supply to a 1.96 month supply, a total decline of 5.7%.
  • Franklin & Lincoln Counties saw slight declines and Jefferson County has actually had an increase of 20% in inventory, climbing to 3.64 months from 3.03 months a year ago.

There you have it.  No matter how you look at it, there is nothing that shows a major decline in the inventory of homes for sale from a year ago but instead, for the most part, things look pretty consistent.

Early August 2017 – Months Supply Of Homes For Sale – St Louis Area Counties

Early August 2017 - Months Supply Of Homes For Sale - St Louis Area Counties

Early August 2018 – Months Supply Of Homes For Sale – St Louis Area Counties

(click on table for live, current table)Early August 2018 - Months Supply Of Homes For Sale - St Louis Area Counties