Investing in St. Louis

[Mathuw Chandler]

Saint louis was once one of the greatest cities in America, at one time it had the 3rd highest population. Then after the Automobile Invasion, White Flight, and beginning of the Suburbs all around the time of post WWII there has been mass amounts of population loss and vacant properties. There are many neighborhoods which contain very nice homes which have fallen in to disrepair, Some of these neighborhoods/ areas have came back, some never went down, and some are on the rise.

Places like Lafayette Square, Never really went down because the residents cared for their neighborhoods. Places like soulard turned to blight and was then gentrified and now boasts high property values.

St. Louis has many neighborhoods which i believe to be up and coming and great areas to invest in for StLousians. Neighborhoods all along Cherokee St. In general are great. They are very old homes and the Cherokee street itself has a strong regional draw, there are many stores and businesses opening up along Cherokee street, including lots of entertainment. Neighborhoods such as Gravois Park, Marina Villa, Benton Park, and Benton Park West are ones which i believe to be good for investing in. If you drive around these neighborhoods you will see lots of activity and progress. Driving around benton park this week i saw at least 9 dumpsters in front of homes. That means at least 9 properties are being cleaned out and renovated.

Another great area in St Louis which i see as to be up and coming is Old North St Louis (ONSTL), this is the neighborhood title not the general area. Yes north stl itself is seen as crime ridden and may or may not have a large influence on outsiders thought of stl as being a dangerous place. But the neighborhood ONSTL is located on the north side, but is also up and coming, compared to other neighborhoods surrounding it has lower crime index and has a lot of investing going on. A new shopping center/pedestrian mall is going up, lots of investing in property is happening, and a new food co op has gone in. Most of the action in ONSTL is grass roots, from the ground up approach with effort mainly from the residents.

Over all these areas are on the move, and progressing. Big things are happening for STL. Please if you have any input reply and tell me what you thin.

[Peter MacKercher]

I love investing in St Louis. I'm will admitthati'm a little biased because I live here and invest here. Be careful with who you work with, lots of people in town are looking to take an out of state investor for a ride. St. Louis City can be a different world block by block. So go with a realtor that you trust . I would stay out of noth st louis city its a different world up there on par with East St Louis the rate of returns look sexy but they're hard to achieve with high turn over. I tryed North St Louis City and crash and burned. North county can be good but I prefer south st louis where you can get good returns and rent to good people. I have a management company but we are only taking clients that have property in South St Louis. Typical construction of south city is brick about 3 layer deep with hard wood floors these house were built to last. Most have flat roof but that nothing to shy away from. In the county it can range from brick to stick built with siding with regular pitched roofs. The rental market is very strong and one of the few places that you can buy a home have a mortgage and still make money.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/21/st-louis-reasons-to-love_n_4993763.html http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2013/10/19/10-reasons-why-st-louis-is-actually-great-and-were-total-******** http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/2012/03/st-louis-among-top-cities-for-real.html?page=all http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/what-s-outlook-st-louis-real-estate-market