I get excited about all my SOLDS, but this one was a major accomplishment. 1411 Hebert is the first full renovation to sell in Old North St. Louis for market value. Of course I would like to believe it was the incredible marketing and fierce sales tactics of the agent but the house really sold itself. It truly was one of the most original and thoughtful renovations that I have seen. In fact for the duration of the listing, it was one of the most popular houses Circa had. Additionally it had no less than FOUR written offers. In the end there was one contract accepted as well as one back up offer. The folks in the back up position went so far as to offer to buy the first offer position by giving the people in first position $5000 and refunding any costs they incurred while under contract. That was a first for me. Hats off to the former owners who put so much of themselves into the renovation! And congrats to the new owners who are so looking forward to becoming an integral part of the ONSL community!

HOPE (Home Ownership Purchase Enhancement) will help some qualified Missouri families pay their real estate taxes in 2010.

MHDC is allocating $15 million towards the HOPE program. Qualified Missouri families that purchase a home in 2010 are eligible for a HOPE incentive equaling the amount of the 2009 real estate tax bill associated with the property they purchased, up to a maximum of $1,250. Additionally, homebuyers who are approved for the real estate property tax HOPE incentive may also be eligible to receive an additional amount if they bought a qualified, newly-constructed, energy-efficient home or bought an existing home and remodeled or purchased items such as Energy Star^® appliances to make the home more energy efficient. The maximum combined total of the HOPE property tax incentive and the HOPE energy-efficiency incentive is $1,750.

To be eligible home buyers must purchase in 2010 with a contract having been executed no earlier than January 1, 2010. The $15 million is available on a first come first serve basis and does not have to be paid back as long as the homeowner lives in the property a full year after receiving the funds. To qualify buyers must meet certain income guidelines and purchase in target districts.

View a list of properties available in census tract 1241.

View a list of properties available for sale in census tract 1224.

View a list of properties in census tract 1164 that are currently for sale.

View a list of properties in census tract 1193 that are currently available for sale.

Here is a link to the FAQ’s regarding the HOPE program.

All map files can be found on the MHDC website.

I recently read Farm City: The Education of An Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. Ammmaaaaazing! Check out the New York Times Book Review. In sum, the memoir is about a woman who begins by doing some squat gardening on a vacant lot in “the ghetto” next to her apartment. Ultimately she ends up raising her own food and making charcuterie of her pigs, Big Boy and Little Girl. The book spans several years and takes place in Oakland CA. Entertaining and educational, it discusses food security and the importance of knowing where your food comes from.

Of course the memoir got me thinking about community gardens and the possibilities of vacant lots in St. Louis. The food security movement is taking hold here and St. Louis has many resources for urban farms and community gardens. Below are just a few pictures from around my neighborhood.

Tower Grove East has a prolific community garden. I know it doesn’t look like much now, but in the Spring Summer and Fall this is one of the most beautiful corners in the neighborhood. Want to live here?

The same goes for Fox Park Farm. Located at the corner of Russell and California, this space is glorious when in bloom and there always seems to be someone from the neighborhood out there working. Check these home sale listings if you want to know more about housing in the Fox Park neighborhood.

City Seeds is another enterprise altogether. It’s mission is to foster self-sufficiency in addicted and chronically mentally ill homeless; increase production and distribution of locally grown fresh food for low-income residents, and provide nutrition and food preparation/preservation programs.

As I mentioned above, there are ample opportunities to farm in the city. But there might just be one more coming soon. Check out the photo below. This is a vacant lot at the corner of Minnesota and Arsenal across from the old Bavarian Inn. It is currently owned by a notable St. Louis developer, who taking a cue from the benevolent lot owner in Carpenter’s book, has offered to let neighborhood folks start planting. This blog post is in fact a bit of a fishing expedition to see if there are people out there who would be interested in the opportunity to take on a raised bed or two. There would be no charge to garden, you would be welcome to all your own produce and the owner is even considering providing the raised beds.

Please let me know what you think…..

City Garden Montessori is in its second year as a St Louis City Charter School and is now accepting applications for next year’s kindergarten enrollment. Applications are due February 12th. Please contact Christie Huck at 314-664-7646 for more information

Recently one of my past clients invited me to visit City Garden Montessori. She has been a St Louis City resident and advocate for a long time, but had been sending her oldest son to a private school in Clayton. Last year they moved into the Shaw neighborhood and made a very fortunate discovery: City Garden Montessori. Since enrolling her son in the St. Louis City Charter school, she has been really excited by the experience and has been thrilled with the changes she has seen in her son. The Montessori Method of self direction and active engagement has done wonders for her highly gifted and very active 6 year old.

The school is located at the corner of Spring and Russell in the Shaw neighborhood. There are four classrooms in total including the pre-school program. (Pre-school is tuition based and serves ages two and half-five). The charter school includes one kindergarten class (age 5) and two elementary classes which in traditional Montessori fashion are mixed ages similar to the traditional grades of 1-3. Each classroom has two teachers. EACH CLASS HAS TWO TEACHERS!

When I visited one of the elementary rooms I saw lots of independent study, a math presentation and a lot of reading. In addition to academics the children have work tasks which include cleaning chores, animal duty or volunteering at a community soup kitchen. Additionally there is no shortage of parent volunteers. Some parents have organized a gardening committee as evidence by the raised beds and composting stations outside.

To learn more about Montessori Education in general click here.

To learn more about Montessori Education in St. Louis click here.

From the City Garden website:
City Garden Montessori Charter School is a tuition-free, public elementary school, serving the Botanical Heights, Forest Park Southeast Shaw, and portions of the Southwest Garden and Tiffany neighborhoods in the City of St. Louis.

Don’t live in the identified boundaries? click here
There are ample opportunities to move into the area with homes ranging from the low 100s to the 600s
If you are interested in the school but don’t live in the area, call anyway. If there are open spots in the kindergarten, they will consider children who live outside of the identified area.

Whew! Been a long time since I updated the blog. I have to admit I slacked off in December as I was winding down from a very busy and productive year. I thought January would be the opportune time to start blogging a new, but the phone hasn’t really stopped ringing and it looks like I am going to be busy with some wonderfully diverse new listings.

So as I am easing back into it, let me just start with a few sneak peeks at some coming soon properties.

Tower Grove East

29xx Minnesota: 3 beds/1.5 baths and 1 car brick garage. If you love wood work then you will love this house! All system updates were done about 5 years ago along with the roof. Extra insulation in the attic keeps this home particularly warm and the fully fenced backyard with brick patio is an oasis! Wood floors throughout and custom School House fixtures complete the package. $159,900

Shaw

40xx Shenandoah: 2beds plus office/1.5 baths and 2 car-garage-port. With approximately 1700 SQ FT of living space and full basement. First floor has woodfloors with living room, dining room and large kitchen. Upstairs has 2 large bedrooms punctuate by a huge office $174,500.

Gravois Park:

36xx Michigan: 3 beds/1 bath and 1 car garage. The first floor of this 1.5 story Craftsman is perfect for entertaining with a circular flow and hardwood floors. Upstairs there are three large bedrooms and 1 full bath. The closets are a nice surprise. The wide front porch is inviting and the two story enclosed rear porch adds a mud room and office to this home. $85,000

Everyone always wants to know if they should list their home (or keep it listed) during the holidays. There are a couple answers to that question. YES, because homes do sell in the months of December and January. NO, because traffic tends to slow down and there aren’t as many buyers out looking. NO, because it’s a hectic time of year and it’s too difficult to ship-shape for showings. YES, because there are people who MUST buy and if your house isn’t listed then those buyers won’t see it. NO, because it’s already been on the market for 6 months and there haven’t been any takers yet. YES, because there’s typically less inventory and less to choose from so your chances might actually be better.

In the end (like everything in else in the real estate world) the answer will be different for each house and each special set of circumstances. But here is a little data from the MLS about past sales during the holidays. I mapped a section of St. Louis City: South of 40, curving around River Des Peres, then back up the Mississippi to downtown.

Here’s what I looked for: Any house that sold in the month of December or January that was listed between 100K-300K

December 2004: 138 SOLD   January 2005: 75 SOLD
December 2005: 150 SOLD  January 2006: 107 SOLD
December 2006: 142 SOLD  January 2007: 80 SOLD
December 2007: 113 SOLD  January 2008: 66 SOLD
December 2008: 57 SOLD   January 2009: 32 SOLD

The idea here is that if a home closed in December chances are the buyers walked through sometime in November or early December. If the home closed in January, chances are the buyers came through in December or early January. So, based on past data from the MLS, it looks like there is a decline in viewing traffic during the month of December. But based on the number of solds in January, there are indeed people out there shopping for a home in December.

Happy Holidays!

The League of American Bicyclists has announced its Fall 2009 Bicycle Friendly Communities which includes St. Louis. Indeed we are specifically mentioned in their press release. In addition to that Missouri as a whole has moved up to 17th in the overall state rankings.

St. Louis, Mo., for example, is one of the 70 largest cities surveyed in the ACS and a new BFC. The community nearly doubled their number of bicycle commuters from 2000 to 2008. The city has completed several noteworthy projects within the past year, including 53 new miles of on-street additions to the bikeway system, a $10 million investment, and an expansion of bicycling education offerings for children and adults. “St. Louis like cities across the country, is making smart investments in building a welcoming community for biking that will inevitably lead to more, healthier and sustainable transportation options and increased recreational opportunities.” stated Bill Nesper, League Director of the Bicycle Friendly America program.

To discover and map your own new bike route check out Bike St Louis. They have a great interactive map of the many new bike paths in the city.

Many thanks to Great Rivers Greenway for getting STL on the map! Below is a screen shot of the current and developing trails for the greenway.

Want to live on the greenway? Check out 6405 Ruth. This home faces the Christy Park extension path which connects Holly Hills to River Des Peres.

In this gorgeous parklike setting you may never have to travel by car again. Just take your bike out the front door, hop on the trail and ride to the Metrolink! This home is listed at $194,900 has 3 beds and 2 full baths with an additional family room upstairs and an impeccably finished lower level rec-room. There is a one car attached garage as well, but who needs it?