Total new-home closings: 2,834
Population: 2,806,207
The good: A drop in market share among existing homes for foreclosures and REOs of 10.8% year over year occurred in February 2015.
The bad: Nearly everything is down as of February 2015 for builders—closings, prices, and square footages.
The bottom line: Keeping the ball rolling in this town may require learning to work with smaller prices, smaller homes, and smaller sales numbers.
The new-home market in St. Louis showed drops across the board in February 2015. Closings fell year over year by 59.3%, following a 46.3% decline in January, setting the total new homes sold over a 12-month period ending in February at 560—35 fewer than the same period a year prior. Meanwhile, the percentage of overall closings held by new homes also took a hit, declining from 1.8% to just 0.7% overall, while the average new-home price dropped 39.5% year over year to $227,575 per unit in February. Those prices may show the effects of a decrease in average unit size of 3.2%, to 2,181 square feet in February. Going forward, builders may need to capitalize on smaller sales—both in size, price and total closings.
