St. Louis Housing Report ~ 2010 Homes Sales by Price Range (Part 3)

Don’t miss the beginning of this Series:

Part 1 – St. Louis Sales Trends from 2001-2010
Part 2 – How Many Homes and Condos Failed to Sell?

For the last 2 years, I have reported that the majority of buyers were choosing lower priced homes and there was little demand in  higher price ranges.

Even with daily bad economic news, people continued to buy homes throughout 2008 and 2009. However, buyers concerned about the economy clearly made conservative spending choices. Homes appropriate for first time buyers and investors made up a big portion of the sales in the last 2 years.

2010 Home Sales by Price Range:

Take a look below to see how single family home sales for the 3 major counties that make up the St. Louis region did in 2010. The charts below include residential sales that closed between in 2010 and were listed in the MLS. The data is obtained through MARIS and deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Is the Market Getting Better or Worse?

It depends on your price range and your county.

Compare the 2010 charts above to sales in 2009.

Highlights:

There isn’t much of a demand in any of the counties for high priced homes. The vast majority of homes that sold were priced below $300,000. However, there are big differences between the trends in St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County.

All of the numbers are almost the exact same as in 2009, and I’ve noted the ones that showed a 3% or more change since last year.

• St. Louis City:
  • more homes sold under $100,000 than in any other price range (52%)
  • 87% of sales were priced under $200,000
  • 95% were priced under $300,000
• St. Louis County:
  • more homes sold under $100,000 than in any other price range (36%)
  • 66% of sales were priced under $200,000 (compared to 70% in 2009)
  • 82% of the homes sold under $300,000 (compared to 85% in 2009)
• St. Charles County:
  • 7% of sales were under $100,000 (dramatically lower than both other counties)
  • 60% of sales were priced under $200,000 (compared to 63% in 2009)
  • 87% of the homes sold under $300,000 (compared to 90% in 2009)

Even though there is a minuscule trend in St. Louis County and St. Charles County towards higher priced homes selling, the shift is barely noticeable. Given that the average sale price increased in St. Louis City & County in 2010 but there wasn’t an significant increase in the number of homes selling in the higher price ranges, it suggests that the bigger shift is within some of the price ranges away from the low end of the ranges.

If you are trying to sell a home that is priced over $300,000, less than 1 in 10 home buyers are looking in your price range. When you break it down by county, there just aren’t many buyers.

Let’s say you are trying to sell a house priced in the $600,000s in St. Louis County. About 2% of St. Louis County home buyers might be interested with only 1% of the region’s home buyers in the correct price range. With only 212 St. Louis County buyers closing on a home in this price point in the last 12 months…or 18 per month for all of St. Louis County, you can’t afford to overprice your home and miss out on the few buyers that are out there.

What does all this mean?

If you are trying to sell a home and it is priced above or below the average sale prices for your county, there just aren’t a lot of buyers. You need to consider pricing your home aggressively if you hope to get it sold. If you don’t need to move, it might be smarter to stay put for a year or two until sales pick up in your price range.

If you are trying to buy a home, don’t be surprised if you end up competing with other buyers if you are looking at the same price range as the majority of buyers. If you are in a position to purchase a higher priced home, you should be able to find a great deal.

Part 4 – 2010 Condo Sales by Price Range

Possibly Related Posts:

1. Housing Market Trends and the Economy
2. Who is Eligible for the New Housing Tax Credit?
3. St. Louis City Condo Sales Slow Down
4. Housing Inventory has been Dropping – A Good Sign for the Real Estate Market

Tagged as: Market Report Update