Can you give me a little bit of information about the St. Louis market

I got asked this question so i thought i would post my reply. 

Can you give me a little bit of information about the St. Louis, MO market as well as some credible sources to back it up as a good market to buy and hold properties?

I love investing in St Louis. I'm will admit that i'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-assholes
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