Over the last three months I’ve been databasing rents in South City, Saint Louis. South City is a collection of neighborhoods south of Highway 44. The real estate in this area is rich in history and densely populated thanks to the large number of multi-family units.

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Let’s dive straight into the numbers.

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For this write up I am only focusing on 1bd/1ba and 2bd/1ba because 90% of the units in South City match these layouts. Also its important to note, we looked at 81 units over a 3 month (Aug-Oct) period. 

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First, a look at South City as a whole. 

• Median rent for a 1bd/1ba is $750/mo
• Median rent for a 2bd/1ba is $1,145/mo
• Median rent for an unrenovated 1bd/1ba is $650/mo
• Median rent for a renovated 1bd/1ba is $895/mo
• Median rent for an unrenovated 2bd/1ba is $1,123/mo
• Median rent for a renovated 2bd/1ba is $1,173/mo

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Key takeaways:

• The spread between an unrenovated and renovated 1bd/1ba is $250/mo.
• The spread is much smaller ($30/mo) for 2bd/2ba. The small spread is a product of statistical misinformation. Of the 40 2bd/1ba’s in this survey -- 24 were renovated and 16 were not. 

As we explained, South City is a collection of neighborhoods. There are many investors that specifically invest in a few or even just one of these neighborhoods. So it only makes sense to review the data on neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. 

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Key Takeaways:

• There’s a $0.33/SF spread vs renovated and unrenovated rents in Tower Grove East
• There’s a $0.27/SF spread vs renovated and unrenovated rents in Tower Grove South
• It was easiest to see the discrepancy in rents in TGE and TGS because they had the largest sample size.

As more data is added the results will become more clear. Please reach out if you want access to the raw data or want to be in the loop on more data moving forward. Also, keep an eye out for my newsletter. I am spinning up this newsletter to discuss all things real estate as it relates to Saint Louis rentals. Sign up here.