ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis residential real estate market has had its sales volume tick up in recent weeks — and even exceed totals from the same period a year ago — following a steep decline in sales this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, amid the closed sales growth, the region continues to grapple with drastically low inventory despite an increasing number of new listings in July.
Statistics from the St. Louis Realtors trade group showed that the region finished July with the highest number of closed sales in a month so far this year. There were 2,182 closed home sales, up 8% from the year ago period. That marks the largest year over year monthly increase in 2020 and the first time since March that closed sales were up over the same period last year.
The sales growth has continued into August, according to data from Zillow, which shows that newly pending sales were up 19.1% year over year for the week ending Aug. 15.
“The summer has been very busy. Where typically and historically August is a slower month, we have not seen that this year,” said Krista Hartmann, a real estate agent with the Kirsta Hartmann Home Team of RE/MAX Results.
The resurgent summer market comes after the St. Louis housing sector endured significant declines in sales and listings just a few months ago as the pandemic spread. Closed home sales in April and May, the months of the year that typically cover the busy spring selling season, were down 14.8% and 26.9% year over year, respectively.
Despite the sales uptick, however, the region continues to grapple with limited housing stock, a persistent issue St. Louis has encountered for several years and that has intensified during the pandemic. In July, the total inventory of homes available for sale was down 29.3% year over year. St. Louis’ housing inventory totaled 3,581 single-family homes in July, down from 5,067 from in July 2019 and 6,242 in July 2018.
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