Are higher gas prices good or bad for the Saint Louis MO Real Estate market?

“As a resident of Saint Louis MO, at what price for gasoline would you reduce your household spending?”

Crude oil prices passed $80 per barrel late last week. The Wall Street Journal launched a online poll with journal readers.

Their Question...What price would gasoline have to increase to cause your household to reduce spending?

The graphic below depicts the initial results of the Journal non-scientific poll.  By the way Saint Louis MO residents, you can participate as well! All you have to do is click Wall Street Journal Gas Price Poll.

 

“Gas prices for San Francisco Residents are already higher than $3.50/gallon”

Generally, as we’ve discussed in earlier posts, as consumer reduce spending, the economy, whether we are discussing the overall US economy or the St. Louis MO economy, slows down. The benefit for the Saint Louis MO real estate market is this slow down usually leads to reduced residential mortgage rates. For Saint Louis MO homeowners, the slow is less appealing due to weaker housing which is the result of job losses.  As recent survey by GasBuddy.com, some gas stations in San Francisco are already selling gas for more than $3.50/gallon.

Thankfully, Saint Louis MO residents are not seeing gas prices this high.