Houses under $100,000? (St. Louis, Maplewood, Madison: rental, crime, neighborhood)

[TumbleweedJill]

i’ve heard so much about how affordable St. Louis can be. I see a lot of listings for homes with prices under $100,000. What’s the deal? Are they all tear downs? Are these prices too good to be true? Because I also see other properties at all kinds of price points- $180K, $250K, $600K, etc. What is your take on this?

[Seguinite]

Take a drive around the neighborhood of $100K houses. Sometimes Google street view is enough.

[mjtinmemphis]

Sometimes there are good deals in some areas. Make sure you see the whole picture of crime in the area. Don't go by what people write or say. Get the real facts. Schools also make a huge difference in pricing in St. Louis like other cities.

[flynavyj]

a few years back you could find sub $100k homes in various parts of the St. Louis county, which were safe and close to highways, shopping, retail. I felt we had overpaid for our 1100 SF home in Saint Ann when we purchased it ten years ago for $140k. But when we sold the home 8 years later, we had offers up to $170k. Our home was sitting on a 1/4 acre lot, and was nicely finished with a massive garage, so there was plenty of appeal. Other smaller homes in the same area would routinely sell for $80,000 (likely over $100k now) and livable homes which needed updating could be had for $60k. I can remember almost buying one that showed up for $40k, just because i knew there was money to be made there.

[mojo101]

private equity funds are buying houses as rental property,you could run into competition .
At one time,you can get a house for $40k in Detroit

[RisingAurvandil]

You can still get a decent small house in some outlying counties for about $100k. But not in StL City or County, unless you can accept living in a troubled neighborhood.

About five or six years ago, houses sold in the low 100s near my Maplewood property. Those days are over. You'd be incredibly lucky to find anything under 150k in Maplewood now.

Even near my Madison County property, where houses used to sell for about 75k, almost everything is going over 100k and the well-maintained homes are pushing 150k.

[shiraziman]

There are some well kept secrets. You can find some nice town houses near Westport Plaza area near or even under $100K.