Today is Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Mexican Army's unlikely victory over the French army in 1862.
Today is also the day that Pulte Homes, the 3rd largest homebuilder in St. Louis has announced that it is leaving our fair city. You may wonder how this will affect the rest of the new home construction real estate market in St. Louis. Well, I don't think that it will have a significant impact.
The St. Louis market, inside of Hwy 270, doesn't have a bunch of large scale new construction. Most of what is built is done by community builders. In fact, out of the 9 current projects that Pulte is working on, just two of them exist inside of 270. One is Central Park Townes, in Richmond heights, which start at just over $400K. The other is the Woods of Ladue, which starts at a smidge over $800K. Pulte has four other developments on the St. Louis County side of the river, in Wildwood, Chesterfield, Town & Country and Creve Coeur. Their remaining three projects are in St. Charles County.
According to the St. Louis Business Journal, a company spokesperson said “Following a detailed review of our competitive position, we have determined that the market dynamics are not conducive to running a return focused business, which is a top priority for the company.”
The average sale price for a Pulte home is over four times the home sales price average in St. Louis. It's no wonder that a large scale builder has a tough time competing in that market. We have several high quality community builders that do a great job serving the luxury new home market in St. Louis.
Meanwhile, McBride and Sons, the largest builder in the market is having the grand opening of their Maryland Oaks Development on May 20th, in Maryland Heights. With starting sale prices from 170K for rowhouses, to 300K for single family homes, they expect it to be sold out on opening day.
Although I am not sad about Pulte leaving our market, I am sorry to see employees being laid off, but hopefully, they will land on their feet in this robust real estate market.
