Faro Labs / Markets / St. Louis, MO
St. Louis real estate investment market
What a typical rental in St. Louis, Missouri costs, rents for, and returns: underwritten by Faro's own engine, not a scraped summary.
Returns assume 20% down at 6.75% over 30 years, 7% vacancy, and standard operating costs: Faro's default assumptions, the same ones every report starts from. Home value and rent trends as of 2026-05-31.
Difficult for both
At market rent, a typical St. Louis rental runs $594 short each month, and home values moved −1.0% over the last year. Neither leg is carrying deals right now, which means the ones that work here are bought well below market rather than at it.
The price a deal actually works at
Faro models five price points for St. Louis, from a weak buy to a strong one. The market-rate deal is $234,182; a good buy is $210,764 and a great one $187,346 roughly 20% below market value. Those are the bars a specific listing gets measured against when you run it.
How St. Louis compares
Of the 210 markets Faro publishes, St. Louis is the 172nd most expensive to buy into: 41% below the median covered market, and the 97th strongest on rent-to-price. Within Missouri it's the 4th priciest of 4 markets we cover. On the last year of home-value change it ranks 125th.
To break even at the default financing, a typical St. Louis property would need about $1,910 a month in rent: $734 more than the $1,176 the market currently supports.
What each tier costs in St. Louis
Faro models five price points per market. A listing gets measured against these bars, not against a national average.
| Tier | Purchase price | Market rent | vs. market rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak buy | $257,600 | $1,117/mo | +10% |
| Fair buy | $245,891 | $1,152/mo | +5% |
| Market rate | $234,182 | $1,176/mo | — |
| Good buy | $210,764 | $1,235/mo | -10% |
| Great buy | $187,346 | $1,294/mo | -20% |
A typical St. Louis deal, underwritten
The market-rate property above, run through the same engine every Faro report uses.
| Purchase price | $234,182 |
|---|---|
| Monthly rent | $1,176 |
| Cash required (20% down + 3% closing) | $53,862 |
| Net operating income | $7,450/yr |
| Monthly cash flow | -$594 |
| Cap rate | 3.2% |
| Cash-on-cash return | −13.2% |
| DSCR | 0.51 |
Rents are climbing faster than prices
Rents rose 5.0% over the last year while home values moved down 1.0%: a 6.0-point gap. When rent growth outruns price growth, yields improve without you doing anything: the same $234,182 property collects more each year against a price that hasn't moved to match. It's the rarer of the two directions and it's what turns a marginal market into a workable one over a hold.
One of the cheapest ways in
At $234,182, a typical St. Louis property costs 41.0% less than the median market Faro covers: 172th most expensive of 210. Cash required at 20% down plus closing is about $53,862, which is what makes markets like this the usual starting point for a first rental. The trade is management: a cheap property is not a cheap property to run, and the fixed costs, a roof, a furnace, a turnover, are the same dollars against a much smaller rent.
What it would take to break even
A typical St. Louis property would need about $1,910 a month to cover itself at the default financing: 62% above the $1,176 the market currently supports. That gap is the honest size of the problem: it isn't closed by trimming an expense line, it's closed by buying meaningfully below market, putting more down, or finding a property that rents well above its market's median.
St. Louis investor questions
Is St. Louis a good place to buy rental property?
A typical St. Louis rental at $234,182 renting for $1,176 a month returns 3.2% on a cap-rate basis and runs short by $594 a month at 20% down. Individual deals vary far more than markets do, which is the whole reason to underwrite a specific address.
Can you cash-flow a rental in St. Louis?
Not at the market's own price and rent. A typical property runs $594 short each month. It would need about $1,910 in rent to break even. Deals that work here are bought below market rather than at it, which is what the price ladder above is for.
How much do you need to buy a rental in St. Louis?
About $53,862 at 20% down plus 3% closing on a typical $234,182 property: one of the lower entry points among the 210 markets covered here.
Are rents going up in St. Louis?
Rents moved up 5.0% over the last year, measured across 12 ZIP codes. The typical market-rate rental sits at $1,176 a month.
Other Missouri markets
Run the numbers yourself
A market average is not a deal.
Paste a real St. Louis listing and Faro underwrites that specific property from its own comps, with a target price you can actually offer.
Estimates for analysis and educational use only: not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Verify every number independently before making a purchase decision.