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By Shannon Howard

Fifteen years ago, after moving back to St. Louis from out of state, my husband and I never imagined that we’d buy a home in North County. Though we had both grown up here (him in Bel-Ridge, me near Old Jamestown), the idea of making a major purchase in an area that dozens of our friends and family members had fled seemed absurd. But then we started shopping for houses.

Almost immediately, we learned that we could get far more for our money up north. And when we finally decided on a beautiful Victorian house in Ferguson, we did so knowing that a similar home in Kirkwood or Webster Groves would easily cost double or triple what we paid.

Of course, that didn’t matter to our families, who encouraged us to “head west.” But we stayed put, became deeply involved in the Ferguson community, and were fortunate to meet some of the kindest, most generous neighbors anyone could dream of.

At the height of the real estate boom, as prices were skyrocketing and lenders were literally selling mortgages door-to-door in our neighborhood, we could’ve cashed out and made a healthy profit. But again, we decided to stay and eventually became vocal advocates for North County.

I looked around and saw the foreclosure crisis ravaging some of North County’s finest neighborhoods, so I decided to become a realtor and shine a spotlight on our numerous architectural gems. I launched a new blog, STL Homes with Soul, and committed to doing my part to reverse this sobering statistic: Of the ten Missouri zip codes hit hardest by foreclosure, SEVEN were in North County.

My own zip code, 63135, was included in that mix. And to be honest, it is still recovering. Foreclosures have finally started to taper off but property values are still depressed and many owners are reluctant to list their homes, leading to unusually low inventory. The Post-Dispatch’s sensational and highly slanted article, “Suburbia in Crisis,” also didn’t help when it came out last August.

Even so, I see glimmers of hope. For one, prices increased 12% between 2012 and 2013 across all of NoCo. The increase was only 6.64% for homes above $100,000 but we’ve had some very nice sales on the high end recently, including two Spanish Lake river bluff properties that went for around $350,000. That will help to pull our values up overall.

Another positive trend is the interest in homesteading, which is drawing a steady stream of suburban farmers and young families (many who home-school) to our fertile soil. Perhaps some of these folks will take advantage of Ferguson’s equity assurance program, or Florissant’s new homeowner assistance program, which offers $6,000 forgivable loans toward a down payment?

St. Louis County doesn’t have a similar program but that hasn’t stopped buyers from flocking to Old Jamestown, where a recent study showed that residents’ wealth levels are on par with most of St. Charles County and many parts of West County! In other good news, CNN’s Money Magazine just named Florissant the best small city to retire in the US!

So yes, things are definitely looking up! We’re not out of the woods yet but I still believe in the quality and value of North County’s housing stock, and I think our local real estate market will continue to improve!

Shannon Howard is a realtor with Prudential Select’s Northwest office specializing in vintage & unique properties. You can reach her at (314) 359-5927 or showard@discoverstl.com, or visit her blog at STLhomeswithsoul.com.  She previously operated  NOCOstl, a website focused on positive North County news. Named “Best Neighborhood Blog in St. Louis, it had 30,000 readers every month         

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