Prospective buyers camp out for first pick of new St. Charles County homes

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. (KMOV) - The rush on new real estate in St. Charles County is hitting new heights, as prospective buyers wait a whole work-week to get first choice on homes.

Prospective buyers are attempting to bypass stressful bidding wars in this hot housing market by buying new homes instead. Dozens are camping out at a new McBride Homes development about a five-minute drive west from Lake Saint Louis.

Dale Linn was the first one in line Monday morning, and he is prepared to stay here until Saturday morning, being a surrogate for his daughter, who works full time. Linn says he’s never seen anything like it since he bought a home years ago.

“This is crazy, but this is what you’ve gotta do nowadays,” Linn said. “This is a seller’s market. That’s the only reason you get people out here doing this.”

The first contracts will be drawn up Saturday morning. Getting in line early lets people have the first pick of the development’s nearly 1,000 lots and get lucrative discounts on land. For some young homeowners like Isaiah Mays and his wife, waiting for a new home is one of their only options.

“We’ve been looking for about two years, but we just keep signing a new lease on our apartment because we were like, ‘we don’t want anything to do with this housing market right now.’” Mays said. ”We were putting offers in for $25,000 over and still got outbid by $20,000 ourselves.”

The homes at Harvest by McBride start at $250,000 and go up through $500,000. New developments like this are a dime a dozen along Highway N, but supply is still not meeting demand. Erin Hardebeck with McBride Homes says they still can’t build new homes fast enough.

“Right now, there’s only a one-month supply of inventory in St. Louis, so we are very short,” Hardebeck said. I think that’s why new construction is doing so well. We’re filling in that gap between need and demand right now.”

McBride says focusing on walkable amenities, community spaces, and more will help them stand out in the hot market. They hope to break ground later this year, targeting the first closings next year.

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