|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Issue: 1149 Date: 8/30/2012
Become A Fan, Like St. Louis Chinese American News
|
|
Home sales rise in St. Louis
|
|
|
| 請您關注和惠顧聖路易時報的廣告客戶，並向朋友推薦聖路易時報，感謝您的支持！ |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
The St. Louis housing market continued its recovery in July, with existing home sales up 25 percent from a year earlier on the Missouri side of the metro area.
But new home construction dipped 6 percent last month, compared to July of last year.
Last month, 2,276 existing homes were sold, up from 1,823 a year earlier in St. Louis city and county, St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin counties, according to data supplied by the St. Louis Association of Realtors.
Metro East figures were not yet available.
Inventories of unsold homes have been trending down this year, indicating that St. Louis is now less of a buyer's market -- but still far from a seller's market.
A six-month supply of homes for sale is considered a balanced market. As of last month, St. Louis County had a five month supply. The supply was seven months in St. Louis city, six in St. Charles County, nine in Jefferson County and 11 months in Franklin County.
Data on prices were mixed. In St. Louis city and county, July's median price of $134,700 was down 5 percent from a year earlier. But prices were up 8.8 percent in St. Charles County.
Median prices can give a distorted view of price trends, since they do not adjust for the types or neighborhoods of homes sold from one month to the next. The median is the point where half of homes sold for more and half for less.
The data "suggest that we are moving again toward a more normal housing market", said Glenn Vatterott, president of the St. Louis Association of Realtors, which supplied the sales figures.
July's weaker figures for new construction run against this year's trend. In the first seven months of this year, sales of new home building has run 20 percent ahead of last year, according to the Home Builders Association of St. Louis.
Local builders are on track to build about 3,500 homes this year, said Pat Sullivan, the group's executive vice president. But that pales in comparison to the 10,000 to 14,000 built per year before the 2007 housing bust.
Banks have been a "major stumbling block," said Sullivan, with tighter lending standards for both home purchasers and builders compared to before the bust. "We've seen a little bit of easing of that, but banks have been under tremendous scrutiny from regulators," he said.
Builders are banking on pent-up demand, as the population grows faster than the housing supply, he said. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) |
|
|
|
