Contributing to a District Is Enough
The mistake owners make here is assuming their house has to be notable. It does not. A certified historic structure includes a building that contributes to a listed historic district, and South City contains a great many such districts.
So an ordinary two-family brick flat on an ordinary street may well qualify for a 25 percent state credit on qualified rehabilitation expenditures, and the owner has never been told. The full position is on our page covering historic credits, brick and condemnation.
How Likely Is My South City House to Qualify?
Which Changes the Repair Arithmetic Entirely
Most of the housing here dates from the 1890s through the 1920s. Missouri's credit is 25 percent of qualified rehabilitation expenditures in St. Louis, rising to 35 percent outside the two largest cities, and the federal adds 20 percent on income-producing property for a combined 45 percent. Credits can be carried back 3 years or forward 10, and the programme has been in place since 1997.
On a modest brick house a rehabilitation that looked unaffordable can become viable once a quarter of the qualified cost is coming back, and the credit is transferable if you cannot use it against Missouri tax yourself.
That is why the honest answer on a lot of South City files is not to sell. An owner who can fund the work, or finance it against the credit, keeps a building whose value after rehabilitation exceeds what any cash buyer will offer for it damaged.
Should I Rehabilitate Rather Than Sell?
We publish no rehabilitation cost figures for South City. The stock is consistent but the scope varies enormously with what the fire reached, and qualified expenditures are defined by the programme rather than by a contractor's total.
The Shell Usually Survives
Masonry construction is why. An interior fire in a South City brick building frequently burns out the floors, the roof structure and the finishes while leaving the walls standing and sound, and those walls are the most valuable thing on the site.
They also carry the historic eligibility, since it is the fabric being preserved. A buyer pricing the property as a teardown has usually not had anyone look at the walls, and on this stock that is worth challenging with a mason or a structural engineer.
South City in Context
Where the same brick stock sits under greater risk of theft and securing comes first, see our page about where securing the building comes first. Where preserved streets and higher values change the arithmetic again, see our page for a belt of preserved brick streets.
South City Questions
The Inside Is Completely Burned Out.
On a brick building that is frequently the recoverable case rather than the hopeless one. What matters is whether the walls came through, and that is a question for a mason rather than a photograph.
My House Is Not Special.
It does not need to be. Contributing to a listed district is enough, and South City has many. Check before assuming.
Will You Buy a Gutted Brick Flat?
Yes, and we will tell you plainly when the credits mean rehabilitating would net you more. On this stock they often do.