2021 St Louis Home Market Review

Posted by Gary Hoeferkamp on February 15, 2022

As you can imagine, 2021 was another wild year in home sales! Our MLS stats showed a 12% home price increase, far and above any appreciation rates I can recall in the St Louis market. 2020 MLS stats said 8% increase (revised up from 7%), so quite a bit higher in 2021.

Forget 4 seasons in home sales, we have gone to 2 - hot and very hot. January 2021 was 'hot', then subfreezing weather for 2 straight weeks in Feb briefly cooled the market, then the 'very hot' faucet turned on March 1st. I was running into 10-18 competing offers. Great when you're the seller, not so much as a buyer. I muscled 3 buyers thru in the spring, plus 6 sellers. Very hot continued over the summer, when I had 3 successful buyers and 2 quick sellers, with offer numbers tapering down a bit. The fall settled down to more manageable 2-4 offer situations, where I was able to get 4 buyers in, while enjoying 4 sellers, a busy Oct-Nov stretch. Phone calls slowed only the week or two around Thanksgiving and Christmas - thank you! - with steady business mid Dec and into this Jan. The last 2 weeks have gone back to Very Hot! Buyers are out en masse - not enough inventory. If you plan to sell this year, contact me now to get things going!

For the year 2021, I sold 22 homes - 8 in Manchester, 3 in Wildwood, the rest from Benton Park to Eureka, Chesterfield, Ballwin, Creve Coeur, Fenton and Affton. Only 1 sale of the 22 fell thru, and that re-sold for a higher price. 9 of my 12 listed homes sold the first weekend.

The 2021 STL metro averages were: $308,100 average sale price, which was 100.3% of list price; 27 ave days-on-market (DOM), which can be misleading as the median DOM is only seven; inventory was ave 1.2 months supply, extremely low.

Breaking down the metro submarkets, North County once again lead the pack (lead 3 of last 4 years in % increase) with 18% price appreciation to average $142,200 price (region's lowest ave price) and dropped to 1 month inventory, the 3rd lowest of 7 submarkets, and 3rd lowest DOM of 25. Three other areas came in between 13.4% and 12.9% price jumps - West County, St Charles and Central Corridor, the 3 highest priced areas of the metro, ranging from $320k ave in St Chas with the lowest DOM of 18, the 2nd lowest inventory just under 1 month, and the highest ave sale price over list price at 102%; to $443k ave in West County with DOM, supply and SP/LP all in the middle; to $514k ave in the Central Corridor (roughly Clayton to 270, 44 to Page) with 2nd highest DOM of 35, tied for lowest SP/LP at 100.0% (still pretty darn good!), and 1.36 months inventory in the middle. There has been much more competition for the big homes last year, more than I have ever seen, causing this segment to push prices up so much.

Jefferson County was just below average with price jump of 11.3%, ave price of $237k, 29 DOM, 101.2% SP/LP, and tied with the city for highest inventory at 1.6 months (still pretty darn low!). South County followed with "only" 9.4% price increase to $248k, while having the lowest inventory of .8 months, 2nd highest SP/LP of 101.3%, and 2nd lowest DOM of 23, which does not all add up. If homes are selling faster, for more over list, with the least supply, why is there a relatively low appreciation rate? Seems like listing prices are too low in South County! St Louis City, while beating West County and C. Corridor in 2020 and 2019, backed off in 2021 to 8% price increase to $225k, plus having the highest DOM of 38, 1.6 months supply, and lowest SP/LP of 100.0%. While there are certainly many hot areas of the city with prices increasing quickly, some other areas struggle to attract buyers, which could make some good opportunities.

To summarize, 2021 was the best year for homesellers in over 30 years in STL, although the most difficult for buyers. Once you get into a home though, you can enjoy the ultra-low mortgage rates, price appreciation, and overall benefits of homeownership. More upside for buyers is that we are in a major metro with many top amenities and good quality-of-life for a lower average price. Go ahead, check other major metro home prices and cost of living and see how we compare.

Here is my seller tip for 2022: Get your contractors lined up early, and be prepared to pay substantially more. Have your service and repair receipts handy to show the buyers. With labor and supply shortages, home repair and improvement costs are jumping quickly, and you have to wait longer. This puts a crimp in getting repairs done between contract inspections and closing. Also, do not wait til contract time to order code inspections. All violations should be cleared by market debut to aid in buyer negotiation and avoiding contractor delays. Buyers - this are partly why sellers LOVE getting an offer where they do not have to do any repairs, even if you reserve the right to inspect and terminate.