St. Louis City – August Market Report

by Karen Goodman on September 3, 2008

Not surprisingly, the arrival of school has marked a decrease in homes sales (both under contract and closed depending on the area).

A few interesting things to note:

Central West End – fewer homes are under contract, but available inventory has not dropped
South City – the number of under contract homes are lower, plus available inventory has climbed to the highest rate since I started tracking data in Nov. 2007. Not a good sign for the area!
Tower Grove/Shaw – both under contract and sold properties are down, while available inventory has not dropped
Soulard/Lafayette/Benton Park – the oddity of the group. Inventory was down, under contract home numbers are slightly down, but closed sales went up. The biggest item of note is that the % of sale price to list price is over 101%! Of course, if a number seems like it couldn’t be right, there usually is a story behind. it. In this case, there is a new construction home in Lafayette Square that was listed for $659,000. It closed for 150% of sale price at $988,490. I hope this buyer doesn’t have to sell anytime soon! If you take out that one listing, the average sale price to list price drops to 94.32% – which is lower than the last few months.

St. Louis City is made up of a number of neighborhoods, and my reports are based on a map defined search which may not exactly coincide with official boundaries. Take a look at the links for maps that show my boundaries for the Central West End, South City, Tower Grove/Shaw Garden and Soulard/Lafayette Square/Benton Park.

The data is based on residential sales which doesn’t include the majority of condos and is taken from MARIS. It is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Active and under contract data is based on September 3, 2008.

Central West End	August 08	July 08
# of Active properties:	103	105
# of Under Contract properties:	15	22
# of Sold properties:	10	11
Avg Active list price:	$555,477	$570,439
Avg Sold price:	$523,240	$402,648
Avg days on market Active properties:	117	110
Avg days on market Sold:	173	201
Avg Sold $/List $:	93.03%	95.74%
Hi/Low Sold price:	$1,227,000/$180,000	$903,000/$80,000

South City	August 08	July 08
# of Active properties:	567	534
# of Under Contract properties:	109	145
# of Sold properties:	97	98
Avg Active list price:	$141,811	$143,048
Avg Sold price:	$128,448	$145,628
Avg days on market Active properties:	80	85
Avg days on market Sold:	70	73
Avg Sold $/List $:	96.51%	96.98%
Hi/Low Sold price:	$325,000/$19,900	$385,000/$24,900

Tower Grove Park/Shaw Garden	August 08	July 08
# of Active properties:	141	141
# of Under Contract properties:	22	34
# of Sold properties:	24	30
Avg Active list price:	$184,035	$189,343
Avg Sold price:	$154,491	$157,647
Avg days on market Active properties:	101	107
Avg days on market Sold:	127	80
Avg Sold $/List $:	92.76%	96.38%
Hi/Low Sold price:	$465,000/$19,400	$745,000/$30,000

Soulard/Lafayette Square/Benton Park	August 08	July 08
# of Active properties:	165	193
# of Under Contract properties:	29	33
# of Sold properties:	19	14
Avg Active list price:	$260,481	$249,937
Avg Sold price:	$284,313	$200,085
Avg days on market Active properties:	158	149
Avg days on market Sold:	135	85
Avg Sold $/List $:	101.19%	95.75%
Hi/Low Sold price:	$988,490/$18,000	$300,000/$106,438