Sunday, January 01, 2006

Another Year for Loft Data

New Lofts in St. Louis
Happy New Year!!!

Conveniently, I did some searches the other day to get an idea of what the loft market has been like in the past few years. There have been several out of town clients that have been asking me lots of questions about the market lately.

Its always nice to be able to just point to the market information instead of talking about it. So here are the past 5 years of loft sales (taken from the local Multiple Listing Service).


Year--#Sold----$/Sq Ft----Ave.Days on Market----Ave.Price
2005-----121----------$156-----------------209-----------------$256,678
2004------84----------$141-----------------233-----------------$187,976
2003------53----------$135-----------------170-----------------$214,890
2002------25----------$121-----------------248-----------------$186,674
2001------19----------$104-----------------194-----------------$233,908

Keep in mind that these averages in some cases reflect the buildings that were released and priced on the MLS for those years. Some developers only use the MLS to list one unit, sort of as a 'teaser' listing to attract people to the building for a complete tour. About 50% of our loft sales have taken place outside of the MLS.

Regardless of the case, the averages indicate a nice steady period of growth and appreciation and not the insane type of markup that is more indicative of a "boom and bust" cycle.

Again, Happy New Year!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mention out of town clients. Are these people considering moving to StL or are they just looking to invest, speculate, or even just to flip properties?

Chris Grus said...

All of the above. I don't know of anyone we have worked with that are just trying to flip a property, but who knows?

Most of our out of town buyers really want a primary or secondary residence as well as a great investment. St. Louis lofts are a fantastic place to live and invest.