Last updated October 30, 2026
Houston buyers usually ask two things about St. Louis: where is the house like mine, and why does everything here seem older? This page answers both by house type, with 2026 St. Louis sales next to Census figures for the Houston suburbs. One difference runs through all of it: Houston builds on slabs, and St. Louis builds a lot of its houses on basements.
Match the decade your house was built. Katy, Cypress and Pearland homes from the 2000s line up with Jefferson County’s newer towns; 1990s Sugar Land and Woodlands houses with Wildwood; Heights bungalows with Maplewood and Webster Groves; and Pasadena’s 1970s ranches with South County. House type by house type ↓
A few, mostly south in Jefferson County. Katy’s and Pearland’s median houses date from 2003 and the Cypress area’s from 2007; in 2026 St. Louis-area resales, Herculaneum’s median was 2009, Hillsboro’s 2002 and the Jefferson County side of Eureka’s 2021. Jefferson County’s newer towns ↓
Wildwood. Sugar Land’s median house dates from 1994 and The Woodlands’ from 2000; Wildwood’s 2026 sales had a 1992 median and 3,342 sq ft above ground. Chesterfield offers similar size from about ten years earlier. Sugar Land and Woodlands matches ↓
Maplewood, Webster Groves and the South City neighborhoods, minus the rebuilds. Their 2026 medians were built in 1929 and 1936, and South City’s brick bungalows and flats date from the 1910s to the 1940s, while a quarter of the Heights went up in the 2010s. Heights and Montrose matches ↓
Up to a whole floor. A Houston house is all above ground, because the water table sits too close to the surface for basements. Many St. Louis houses add a level underneath the listed square footage, for storage, a rec room or a storm shelter. Slab vs. basement ↓
Sources: St. Louis figures from 2026 MLS (MARIS) closed single-family sales on this site’s area pages; Houston-area house ages from U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data (via Point2Homes).
Pick your row below. Greater Houston grew in waves, from Pasadena’s postwar ranches to the master-planned suburbs of the 2000s, and St. Louis has a counterpart for most of them, though rarely in the same place on the map.
| If you’re leaving | Houston-area examples | Start looking in St. Louis |
|---|---|---|
| A 2000s or newer master-planned home | Katy, Cypress, Pearland | Jefferson County’s newer communities: Eureka, Hillsboro, Fenton, Imperial |
| A 1990s planned suburb | Sugar Land, The Woodlands | Wildwood and Chesterfield in West County |
| An older home or rebuild in a walkable neighborhood | The Heights, Montrose | Maplewood, University City, Webster Groves and South City |
| A 1950s–70s ranch | Pasadena and the older Houston ring | Mehlville, Concord, Oakville and Affton |
| An inner-loop condo, or River Oaks or Memorial | Montrose, Midtown, River Oaks, Memorial | the Central West End and Clayton; Ladue for the high end |
A match here means the same era and size, not the same price or rules. Most of these St. Louis houses also come with something yours didn’t: a basement.
Head south of St. Louis County. Katy and Pearland both have 2003 medians, and the Cypress area is newer at 2007, according to Census data; St. Louis County’s houses mostly predate 1980. Jefferson County, across the Meramec River, is where the region’s newer resale subdivisions are.
| Community | Median year built | Median size | Median price | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eureka (Jefferson Co. side) | 2021 | 2,092 sq ft | $469,900 | 23 |
| Herculaneum | 2009 | 1,691 sq ft | $319,900 | 19 |
| Fenton (Jefferson Co. side) | 2003 | 1,892 sq ft | $350,500 | 51 |
| Hillsboro | 2002 | 1,916 sq ft | $357,500 | 64 |
| Imperial | 1999 | 1,872 sq ft | $354,500 | 96 |
Two adjustments for a Katy buyer: these houses are smaller, about 1,700 to 2,100 sq ft above ground, and many are ranches with a basement rather than two-stories on a slab. Master-planned amenities are rarer too, so ask what the HOA, if there is one, actually maintains. Jefferson County’s 16 communities compared →
Wildwood is your closest match. Sugar Land is mostly 1980s and 1990s housing, 57.4% of it, with a 1994 median; The Woodlands is a bit younger, with a 2000 median, according to Census data. Wildwood’s 2026 sales had a 1992 median.
| Area | Median year built | Median size | Median price | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildwood | 1992 | 3,342 sq ft | $599,000 | 136 |
| Chesterfield | 1982 | 3,326 sq ft | $685,000 | 120 |
If size matters more than age, add Chesterfield: about the same 3,300 sq ft at the median, built around 1982. Expect to pay more here than in most of St. Louis; West County is the region’s higher-priced corner. All West County cities, side by side →
You’ll find older originals here, not rebuilds. The Heights pairs a pre-war core with a construction boom: 16.7% of its housing predates 1940, and 26.6% went up in the 2010s, according to Census data. St. Louis’s walkable inner suburbs kept their original houses.
| Area | Median year built | Median size | Median price | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maplewood | 1929 | 1,344 sq ft | $295,000 | 17 |
| University City | 1935 | 1,815 sq ft | $439,200 | 88 |
| Webster Groves | 1936 | 1,936 sq ft | $444,500 | 82 |
| Kirkwood | 1951 | 2,315 sq ft | $566,750 | 80 |
Inside the City limits, Lindenwood Park, Tower Grove South and Shaw are lined with 1910s–40s brick bungalows and two-family flats. Where an older Heights house sits up on piers, these usually sit on a basement. The inner suburbs compared →
Go to South County. Pasadena’s housing centers on the 1970s, with a median of 1975 or 1977 depending on the Census measure, and roughly a third built before 1970. South St. Louis County was built out in the same decades, and ranches are its most common style.
| Area | Median year built | Ranch share | Median size | Median price | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affton | 1954 | 56.6% | 1,440 sq ft | $273,000 | 53 |
| Mehlville High area | 1966 | 60.1% | 1,766 sq ft | $323,500 | 148 |
| Concord | 1966 | 50.0% | 1,801 sq ft | $352,500 | 56 |
| Oakville High area | 1979 | 49.6% | 2,288 sq ft | $385,000 | 137 |
Concord and Mehlville sit a decade older than Pasadena’s median, Oakville almost exactly matches it, and Affton is the 1950s option at the lowest price. Every South County community, compared →
For condo living, the Central West End is the Montrose of St. Louis: Forest Park on one side, the hospitals on the other, and blocks of older apartment buildings converted to condos in between. Clayton trades that for an office district with condo towers.
For River Oaks or Memorial, the counterparts are Ladue and Clayton. Ladue’s 2026 median was $1,430,000 for about 4,400 sq ft built around 1955; Clayton’s was $1,240,000 for about 3,600 sq ft from 1936. Location carries most of the price in both. Ladue, Clayton and their neighbors →
Floor space you can’t get in Houston. Houston’s high water table and flat, flood-prone ground keep almost every house on a slab, so the square footage on the listing is the whole house. Here, a lot of the ranches and two-stories in the tables above have a full basement under the main floor, and the listed square footage counts only the floors above ground.
A Pasadena ranch buyer looking at a 1,766 sq ft Mehlville ranch, the 2026 median there, may be looking at nearly double the floor area once the basement is counted: storage, a laundry room, a workshop, a family room if it’s finished, and a safe place when the tornado sirens go off. How to compare square footage and what to check in a basement →
Mostly the paperwork around the house. Houston buyers usually notice these five:
Before you move
Yes. Houston is a long day’s drive away, so plan on touring by live video, keeping the inspection contingency and closing remotely through the title company if you can’t make the trip. How buying from out of state works →
Yes. The Dallas guide covers Plano, Frisco, Richardson and the Park Cities. Moving from Dallas →
The usual worry here is different: water getting into a basement more than a flooded street. Some areas along the Meramec and Missouri rivers do flood, so check the flood map for any address, then look at the basement walls and floor and ask about past water. What to look for in a St. Louis house →
This is one piece of the St. Louis home buying process. See how it all fits together:
📚 Complete St. Louis Buyer Guide →Looking at St. Louis listings before you move? I can pull any home on the MLS without a sales team calling you about it. Why it matters →
Grew up in South St. Louis, lived in Dogtown for 6 years, now in South County. You'll find us at Wellspring on Lindbergh on Sundays. I'm not selling you a house — I'm showing you how to think about buying or selling a house.
One text, email, or call is all it takes to put that experience to work for you.
Questions about what you are reading? I answer personally — no team, no handoff.