St. Louis city · St. Louis · population 279,695
Where St. Louis stands
At or near all-time high. population shrinking 1.9% per year.
Home value trajectory · last 10 years
Zillow ZHVI · monthlyLifestyle scores
Scores are heuristic estimates from population density, state, and known transit/walkable cities. Not based on a paid Walk Score / Transit Score API — see methodology for the formula.
Rent trajectory · last 5 years
Zillow ZORI · monthlyHome value vs rent · indexed to 100
Both rebased at first month of ZORI data (~2015)Rent vs buy
At a 11.3 price-to-rent ratio, buying generally beats renting in St. Louis on a long-enough horizon. The headline math is that one year of mortgage payments approximates 11.3 years of rent — well below the 15+ threshold where ownership starts to dominate.
How the momentum score breaks down
methodology →St. Louis offers a $186,427 median home with +3.2% annualized 5-year appreciation. Affordability + positive trend is one of the better risk/reward setups in US residential — small downside, room to compound.
St. Louis's population is shrinking 1.9% per year. Housing demand has to come from somewhere — if people are leaving, the buyer pool is shrinking faster than the inventory. That eventually shows up in price.
About St. Louis
St. Louis is a city in St. Louis city, Missouri, with an estimated population of 279,695. The population has contracted 1.9% per year on average since 2020. The median home value in St. Louis is $186,427 as of 2026-04, up 0.2% over the last 12 months. Over the last five years, home values have averaged +3.2% annual growth, with prices at or near the 5-year peak. Rents in St. Louis average $1,379 per month, up 4.0% year-over-year. The composite momentum score is 57 of 100 (Stable). Conditions are neither hot nor cold, so the local fit matters more than market timing.
▲ Bull case
▼ Bear case
About St. Louis (Wikipedia)
St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while its metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million. It is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri and the second-largest in Illinois. The city's combined statistical area is the 20th-largest in the United States.
Source: Wikipedia · this summary is contributed and licensed under CC-BY-SA.
City facts
Extracted from the Wikipedia infobox. Values may be slightly out of date relative to the latest sources.
Playbook
Lifestyle fit matters more than market timing in a Stable market. Take your time on the home and neighborhood; the macro trend isn't urgent. Negotiate normally.
Price competitively from day one or risk a 60+ day listing. Staging, photography, and presentation matter more in Stable markets than in Hot ones.
Stable cap rates, no big appreciation story to lean on. Underwrite this as a pure cash-flow play — the math has to work on rent alone.
Local safety & alerts
No active National Weather Service alerts for St. Louis city right now.
Public-safety links are official .gov sources, not curated by us. St. Louis city routes NWS alerts; check the state EM portal for non-weather emergencies.
Cities like St. Louis
Run the numbers for St. Louis
Sources: Zillow ZHVI (home values), Zillow ZORI (rents), US Census ACS + place population. Updated when source agencies publish revisions.
Climate & natural-disaster risk
State-level averages from NOAA Climate Normals (1991-2020) and FEMA National Risk Index. City-level conditions can vary significantly within a state.
Local sports teams
Major professional teams the St. Louis area cheers for. Detailed stats, schedules, and player pages on intherafters.com.
Current weather
Find rentals & listings
Open current St. Louis listings on the major real-estate sites.
Links open the live search on the destination site — results are always current.
Local news & community
Latest news
- Officer shoots, kills man with butcher-style knife in downtown St. LouisFOX 2 · 1d ago
- Google to invest $15B in Missouri data center, largest single investment in state historyKSDK · 4h ago
- Osage Indians pushed out by arriving Americans in 1808: Revisiting St. Louis' historySTLtoday.com · 17h ago
- A second take of Twilight ThursdaysSt. Louis American · 4h ago
- FBI asked to review St. Louis mail facilityFOX 2 · 2d ago
- He was wrongly imprisoned for 34 years. Missouri just upheld his exonerationKSDK · 1d ago
Local chatter (Reddit)
Updated 2026-05-21 from Google News + Reddit RSS. Headlines link to original sources.
Local economy & environment
Humidity is annual average relative humidity (NOAA). Income is Census ACS 5-year estimate. Industries are largest employment sectors statewide (BLS); the local mix in a given city may vary.
Cities similar to St. Louis
Explore other places with comparable momentum or affordability.