What area are houses selling fastest/slowest (Kansas City, St. Louis: foreclosed, landscaping)

[KCLucymom]

When we get to St. Louis at the end of July we will have only 10 days to pick a home and put a contract on it.

Can anyone tell me what areas in the west and/or south that the houses sell quickly and where they are sitting on the market for a long time?

What about the Illinois side? Where do they go fast and where do the sit for a long time?

Thanks!

[aragx6]

There's only two areas I know specifically about.

A close friend's family lives in Des Peres near Manchester Rd and houses there in the past 6 months have consistently sold within a week of listing.

Houses in St. Peters where my family lives at Harvester and the new 364 are a bit trickier. If they are priced correctly they sell just fine, but several houses in the area that are overpriced have sat for a long time.

We had neighbors who moved into their house about 3 years ago. They undertook renovations to a home that didn't need them and then got laid off in the middle. They were trying to sell their house for more than they paid for it and it was in shambles. They had undertaken some sort of do-it-yourself landscaping project and bags of this or that sat on their front lawn the entire time they were selling. Needless to say it sat on the market... and then it sat for more... and then they foreclosed. A nice family picked it up for a song, redid it and now I'm sure it would sell in a heart beat.

[KCLucymom]

Wow. That is pretty impressive if houses are selling that quickly!! We were on the market for 7 months in Kansas City and told that we were lucky we sold. That was with pricing our house $15,000 below the appraised value. There is a huge abundance of houses just sitting in KC right now. I was kinda hopin St. Louis would be the same way so that we could get a good deal. Maybe the bad housing market isn't all over the US like the media would like us to believe.
Linda

[RickMG]

I don't know of any areas where you can say homes are selling fast on the whole. It always depends on supply and demand. Right now, the supply is pretty good in all areas so homes are on the market, on average, longer now. If one sells fast, it most likely, was priced right from the start, and a lot of luck. True, an area that has a lot of room to build, as well as a lot of unfinished new subdivisions, such as the St. Charles County area does now, could have a lot to do with homes lasting longer on the market. But again, that's because there is a lot of supply. If you're a buyer looking to be in the home a long time, that is also the environment that could get you the best buy. I wouldn't worry about where they are selling quickly or not, I'd tell your realtor what you're looking for in a home, and most likely you'll be able to find what you're looking for in the ten days.