Courtesy of The Gellman Team
Realtors in the westernmost stretches of St. Louis County have wailed for months about having more buyers than sellers. “We are seeing the inventory so low, it’s ridiculous,” says Joan Dewey of Coldwell Banker Gundaker. “The listings are just not coming on.”
“There’s a major shortage of great homes,” says Mark Gellman of Coldwell Banker Premier Group. “We’re struggling to figure out why people are still on the fence.” Granted, by the time you read this, they’ll probably have landed. Momentum—and inventory—began building this spring. Appetites started to change, though, while the market lay fallow. “There’s still high demand for villa living,” Dewey says, “but 10 years ago, anybody looking for a villa was 55-plus. Now, we are seeing people in their thirties and forties. Mom and Dad both work, and they don’t want to worry about lawn care; they want to turn the key and enjoy their kids.”
These days, she regularly finds herself explaining the difference between a villa and a condo, which is a little like a Venn diagram: “A condo can also be a villa; it can be a town home, ranch, story-and-a-half. The key is how you take title. Both have a monthly fee that covers grass mowing and snow removal. A condo’s fee is typically higher, and it covers exterior maintenance of your home. With a villa, you own the grounds, and you’d pay to have the roof repaired. But your monthly fee is a lot lower, and let’s face it, how often do you put on a roof?”
The new villa houses at McBride & Son Homes’ Fountain Plaza in Ellisville had just a few lots left at press time. And the company’s villas at Arbor Station in Ballwin had a grand opening this past November. Fischer & Frichtel’s Kendall Bluffs in Chesterfield was lagging in the down market, but it shot up when the market improved. “Then you have your older developments, like Conway Meadows, Woodfield, Terraces, and the Towns, which range from $250,000 up to $500,000,” Dewey says. “Some people are buying the older ones and redoing the inside, and they’re getting more desirable lots, some that back to a lake or woods. That’s practically impossible to get with new construction.”
The few bargains out west are going to those willing to rehab. But in most of West County, the focus is on the new: Pulte Homes’ Reserve at Chesterfield Village, Claymont Development’s Enclaves at Cherry Hills in Wildwood…
Even affluent parts of Wildwood have bargains, says Gellman, who specializes in the area. But the best prices are found among older homes or buildings that need work. “Wildwood’s way less homogeneous, in terms of the houses and subdivisions, than Chesterfield,” he says. “The location and lot configurations aren’t for everybody. There’s a lot of wooded property; some subdivisions require 3 acres per home.” As a result, Wildwood’s numbers differ: Its residents have a higher household income, on average, than Chesterfield’s, but its houses’ average list price dropped a tad between January 2014 and a year prior, while Chesterfield’s rose 18.1 percent.
