St. Louis by the Zip Codes!

4520 West Pine, Unit 2

Listed at $317,000

2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths

Located in the very heart of the Central West End on a very desirable street, this bright and airy condo unit is very economical with a very stable and wise condo board. Walk everywhere! Two car garage below the unit with a workshop! And a private deck off the living room. A MUST see!

St. Louis is a city of neighborhoods! Every small neighborhood a community in its own strength with its own history and its own flavor. Many and diverse. And that's why all of us here at Sandy Bender, REAL ESTATE enjoy selling and living in the city as much as we do. From the Scrubby Dutch neighborhoods to the Bosnian Bevo Mill Community to the Asian influence on South Grand. All distinct. All fun. All wonderful!

Over the past three or four years, I have been keeping track of St. Louis sales by zip code, since each zip code in the city is different.

Fourteen years ago, when the city was just coming to the end of the then existing Buyers market, home sales slowed during the holiday season and started up again in the spring. Also, during that time period, you couldn't sell a two bedroom, let a one a one bedroom home, for your life! The holiday slow down has come about, I'm wondering if the sales of two or one bedroom homes will follow soon. As soon as the market became a sellers market, all of that changed. Sales zoomed right through the holidays and you couldn't keep a one bedroom on the market, either!

I do a report every two months entitled The Bender Report. The report looks at the St. Louis city area by zip code and focuses on listings, pendings, sales and sale prices. If you would be interested in having this report emailed to you, I'd be happy to do that. Just email me at sandy@sandybender.com and I'll send you a copy.

For now, I'll leave you with two interesting facts:

1. According to the New York Times and their article focusing on Renting vs. Buying in 55 metropolitan area, St. Louis is ranked in an area that it is smarter to Buy at this time than to Rent. Their rule of thumb after looking at rent ratios (the price of a typical home divided by the annual cost of renting that property), is that you should often buy when the ratio is below 15 and rent when the ratio is above 20. If it's between 15 and 20, lean toward renting, unless you find a home you really like and expect to stay there for many years. St. Louis' ratio is 14.6. We have excellent home prices!

2. In the Central West End, which is where our office is located here in St. Louis City, a vibrant urban neighborhood near Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University as well as St. Louis University, home prices in this historic area have dropped by 2% and have gone to about $73 per square foot. The condo market here is very, very strong and is at a 6 month Inventory rate, which indicated a cusp of buyer/seller market, leaning again to a sellers market. The price per square foot of condos here has dropped again to $191 per square foot, but the overall price of condos here has increased by 3%. Our condo market has remained strong and our overall sales market in the 63108 sales market, has remained, for the most part, pretty stable.

It remains a great time to buy!