Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Missouri > St. Louis
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 01-25-2010, 01:23 PM
 
5 posts, read 21,394 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

Hello,

I am considering moving to St Louis. Being an inner-city resident in OKC I know that I will be living in urban St Louis. I have also noticed, via internet browsing that home prices are lower than what I would have expected.

Does anyone out there have any knowledge about rehabing a house in St Louis. Does the city offer benefits to those wanting to move into the area? If so, what are they?

I have heard something to the effect of the city offers to assist with cost rehabing these homes, if they are in target areas etc. I think St Louis has a lot of beautiful older homes that are diamonds in the rough!

That being said, many of the properties that seem to be overlooked in the City of St Louis would be a VERY hot Commodity in OKC. 40 years ago, OKC in an ignorant attempt at urband renewel, decided to destroy 40% of its older building stock. The older residential buildings typically sell between $120-$180 per square foot.

I would appreciate anyone's thought and imput concerning rehabbing homes and it's cost in St Louis!

Thanks!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 01-25-2010, 01:38 PM
 
1,783 posts, read 3,885,946 times
Reputation: 1387
Two organizations will be of great assistance in your efforts to rehab in the city.

Saint Louis Rehabbers Club

ReVitalize St. Louis

I personally don't know much about rehabbing but it's something I find extremely interesting and I would definitely like to be a part of it someday. If you follow through and move here and do a rehab then you are automatically an extremely awesome person in my book. Please keep us posted on your efforts.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-25-2010, 02:10 PM
 
Location: Clayton, MO
1,521 posts, read 3,596,628 times
Reputation: 441
Boom, you beat me to it.

There are designated historic districs where tax credits are available to help offset the cost of rehabbing. What part of the city are you looking? We welcome you here with open arms!

PS make sure you know what you're getting into.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-25-2010, 04:21 PM
 
Location: Saint Louis City
1,563 posts, read 3,870,771 times
Reputation: 651
St Louis is prime for rehabbing. I have several friends that have rehabbed the houses they are living in. Right now I think you can get the best deals in Fox Park, Benton Park West, Tower Grove East and Old North. You can always find places in other South city neighborhoods, but there is still some housing stock in these areas to be rehabbed for a good price.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-25-2010, 11:41 PM
 
165 posts, read 451,283 times
Reputation: 115
For information on funding sources for home renovation in St. Louis, the groups linked above are a nice start. You could also try contacting Michael Allen of Ecology of Absence - he would probably know all there is to know about available programs. You can find him here: Ecology of Absence

Also, you might not know this but Missouri has one of the most generous historic tax credits in the country. If you rehab a house to historic standards and the house is either historic or is a contributing resource in a historic district, you may receive 25% of your eligible renovation costs back in the form of income tax credits, which you can sell for nearly $.90 on the dollar. This goes a long way toward making a project viable. And if you the house will be income-producing (i.e. a rental house), then you can also apply for an additional 20% tax credit through the federal program. There may be other programs available to you, but I don't know them.

Another person you could ask would be Steve Patterson of Urban Review. Find him here: Urban Review STL He knows a lot about the City and I believe he also moved here from OKC.

One thing about the City is that it owns a lot of vacant houses through the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) that are available for very little money - but you have to have financing in place (or show proof of availability of funds) sufficient to complete a full rehab of the house within 18 months before they'll sell to you. More info (plus a link to LRA for-sale properties) here: City of St. Louis: Real Estate For example, we bought our house from LRA for $1000 and the vacant lot next door for $3200. Now we have a beautiful house in a great neighborhood with a huge yard. Our final cost was a lot more than that small purchase price, of course, but we feel it was worth it. If you're interested in seeing a few pictures of our renovation, DM me and I'll send you a link to our before and after pictures. We have some work to do, but if you decide to move here and renovate a house we'll be happy to tell you all we know about rehabbing here.

And I'd be remiss if I did not share with you this current list of for-sale privately owned homes in Old North St. Louis (click on Dec 09 document on the right hand side of the page): Old North St. Louis Restoration Group | Working to build an Urban Village on the Edge of Downtown St. Louis :: HOMEBUYERS Some of the houses in the linked document are rough and some are finished rehabs, as the prices reflect.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-26-2010, 12:57 AM
 
16,393 posts, read 30,258,017 times
Reputation: 25501
Quote:
Originally Posted by neverontime View Post
Does anyone out there have any knowledge about rehabing a house in St Louis. Does the city offer benefits to those wanting to move into the area? If so, what are they?

I have heard something to the effect of the city offers to assist with cost rehabing these homes, if they are in target areas etc. I think St Louis has a lot of beautiful older homes that are diamonds in the rough!

I would appreciate anyone's thought and imput concerning rehabbing homes and it's cost in St Louis!
Over the years, the city of St. Louis has offered tax abatement on rehab properties. Generally, the best people to contact are the various neighborhood associations.

In my eight years in St. Louis, I have been through several hundred "rehabbed" homes. There are some really OUTSTANDING rehabs in many of the older neighborhoods. However, there are a lot of really POORLY done rehabs done by homeowners some of which do not meet the building codes. If you buy a rehabbed property, make sure that you get a home inspection from a qualified inspector.

As for rehabbing a house, do not underestimate the time, the effort, and the skills that are necessary to do a rehab. There are certain things like hanging drywall and tuckpointing that some people consider "unskilled", where you can really tell the difference between the amateurs and the professionals.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-26-2010, 03:34 PM
 
11 posts, read 56,050 times
Reputation: 15
Many of the properties are overlooked and cheap because the city is mostly a cesspool with pockets of hospitable neighborhoods. Do your research before jumping into anything.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-26-2010, 03:53 PM
 
1,783 posts, read 3,885,946 times
Reputation: 1387
Quote:
Originally Posted by DemetriusHR View Post
Many of the properties are overlooked and cheap because the city is mostly a cesspool with pockets of hospitable neighborhoods. Do your research before jumping into anything.
Nothing like a healthy dose of St. Louis pride to derail an otherwise positive thread . Research is definitely a plus, but don't listen to this guy's comment about the city being mostly a cesspool. I'd say it's the other way around with the city mostly being a hospitable place to live with pockets of cesspool.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-26-2010, 06:05 PM
 
Location: St. Louis City
70 posts, read 228,941 times
Reputation: 56
Quote:
Originally Posted by BoomBoxing View Post
Nothing like a healthy dose of St. Louis pride to derail an otherwise positive thread . Research is definitely a plus, but don't listen to this guy's comment about the city being mostly a cesspool. I'd say it's the other way around with the city mostly being a hospitable place to live with pockets of cesspool.
Agreed. Well said.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-26-2010, 06:11 PM
 
Location: St. Louis City
70 posts, read 228,941 times
Reputation: 56
I'm a relatively new St. Louis City dweller, and also moved here from Oklahoma City. In OKC, I lived just north of downtown in a little neighborhood called heritage hills. Now I'm living in Holly Hills, which is perhaps a bit more modest but seems more urban and has a stronger neighborhood feel. I enjoyed my time in Oklahoma City, but I must say in the past couple years I've really grown to love St. Louis. Welcome!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Missouri > St. Louis
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:00 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top