St. Louis City Stakes Claim as Hottest Housing Market in the Metro

The Post-Dispatch recently offered a brief, but insightful look at housing prices in the St. Louis region. While judging housing markets from a snapshot in time can be notoriously misleading at worst, and overly simplistic at best, the latest measures show something incredible. Falling and rising home prices nearly track the City of St. Louis / St. Louis County line. However, it's the City that shows strength in the housing market.

According to Zillow.com, eleven of 14 Zip Codes measured in the city show year-over-year price increases of 7.58% on average. Just three show a decrease, and two of those are less than one half a percentage point. The numbers constrast sharply with the inner ring suburbs. Seventeen of 19 Zip Codes measured in the county show year-over-year price decreases of 9.9% on average. Just two show increases, and they come in at +0.8% and +0.2%