Thoughts on St Louis area housing bubble (St. Louis, Eureka: days on market, for sale)

[johnamus]

A little background on myself: Currently own a starter home and am looking to purchase a bigger house in the 275,000-300,000 range, but I do not have my finger on the pulse of the St Louis real estate market and do not know how prices have fared in the last few years during the bubbles peak and burst (or cooling period, for those who deny a burst). I can rent my current house out if necessary so the sale of it is not an issue.

I am looking to purchase a house in the awesome Rockwood School district and am most interested in Eureka and the Legends area subdivision in particular but I have an open mind. I'm not primarily trying to time the market, but I don't want to buy high if I can avoid it, and I am perfectly content sitting on my cheap mortgage for another year if necessary. Does anyone have any thoughts about the recent real estate market trends in the Rockwood areas? Or any projections for the near future. I'd be interested to hear it

[aragx6]

I'd be curious to know where you're living now. Some parts of St. Louis have seen appreciation in the last year, not depreciation.

The area you're looking is very much in demand, but there are a lot of properties on the market at present, so that should give you some buying power. Personally, though I'm no realtor, unless you're talking about far-flung exurbs or up-and-coming St. Louis neighborhoods, I think you'll see little price differential now as compared to last year at this time and compared to next year at this time.

I think it's a pretty great time to buy a house, but whether it's as good a time to sell a house is an entirely different question. A question that depends quite a bit on where in the metro you live now.

[johnamus]

I plan to rent out my current residence while making a 20% down purchase so I am not concerned with the sale of my current house in Dupo Il.

I've noticed a lot of the houses I have been looking have been on the market for > 9 months with price decreases. It could be attributed to overzealous sellers, but I have noticed lengthy Days on Market w/price decreases on a significant amount of the houses in the Rockwood-Eureka area. Perhaps listing prices haven't decreased over the past year, but sales prices surely have.

[aragx6]

A big part of this is because people have completely unacceptable expectations of what their home is worth, and desperate realtors aren't laying down the law to their clients as they ought. Some of the houses are very overpriced, even by 2006-2007 standards.

There are just as many correctly priced homes that have sold in less than 3 or 4 months. Properties aren't moving as quickly as they once were in the Rockwood SD area, but, if priced right, they are moving.

[johnamus]

That could be why I am noticing the lagging properties, since by definition these would be the properties that tend to stay around the market longer. I suppose that houses in good school districts wouldn't be as affected by the downturn since good schools and family sized houses will always be in demand by someone. Do you have a good source to turn to for St Louis / Eureka market trends?

[aragx6]

Actually, yahoo has some nice statistical information.

Eureka, MO Real Estate on Yahoo! Real Estate - Houses for Sale & more

It's not super promising at first glance -- prices fell in October when you look at the year at large, but that's not atypical for late fall. It's also important to note that the economy tanked in October, so people just aren't out there buying houses. That doesn't mean that house prices have fallen because of a bloody October, it just means fewer houses were sold in October versus September. Election years do strange things to real estate all their own.

[johnamus]

Year over year it looks like there has been only a 5k reduction in price while the 2 year graph looks flat. It could be that prices are remaining level while inflation takes over and reduces house values. I have to say that compared to the national graph, Eureka has faired well.

Eureka Real Estate Guide and Home Valuations - Zillow Real Estate