Illinois Business Journal - Eastward Ho: Missourians moving to Southwestern Illinois

Missourians are moving to Southwestern Illinois and have been for more than 10 years, according to David H. Laslo, director of metropolitan information and data analysis services of the Public Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Laslo uses data collected by the United States Internal Revenue Service; the agency tracks social security numbers on tax returns from year to year and the origin of those tax returns. The IRS counts movement as a migration if the origin of the return moves from one county to another from one year to the next, according to Laslo.

Figures provided by Laslo show that a total of 41,162 people moved from the Missouri portion of the St. Louis metropolitan area to the Illinois side during an 11-year period from 1993 through 2003.

While the numbers moving to Illinois are large, the numbers moving to the outer ring of Missouri counties is larger.

"The river is still a very big psychological barrier, which I think Illinois has always felt was a drawback to its being part of the region in a larger way," Laslo said.

But bi-state homebuilders say that barrier is breaking down.

Sean Flower, president of American Heritage Homes, said 50 percent of his home sales in his Briar Lakes Estates subdivision in Columbia, Ill. are being made to Missourians.

American Heritage has built approximately 1,200 homes on the Missouri side in the last five years. According to Flower, it is the largest homebuilder in Jefferson County County and has built a lot of homes in South St. Louis County and St. Charles County as well.

"I think you're seeing the westward expansion begin to hit a wall," Flower said. "St. Charles County is still a pretty active area, but you really have to drop the price to get people to drive out to Lincoln County. Troy, Mo. is about as far as you see it go," he added.

Flower sees that growth going to Illinois.

"We still do a lot of Jefferson County development, but a good quarter to a third of what we're doing now is in Illinois," he said. "From our perspective, we could have done the four or five projects that we're going to do in Illinois anywhere, but we thought that Southwestern Illinois was the best place to be."

American Heritage has signed on to be the primary homebuilder in the Forest Lakes project in Caseyville.

"I think Forest Lakes is going to be attractive to Missourians," said Flower. "First, there's enough activity now in the (Illinois Route) 159 corridor that it's getting on the map with people. Second, Forest Lakes is so close to I-70, I-255 and I-64. There aren't a lot of places like that anywhere. You can appeal to who would be your St. Charles buyer, who would be your mid-county buyer and who would be your South County buyer. It's a good central location that would be almost like being at I-270 and US-40 in St. Louis," he said.

Hayden Homes' first venture to the Illinois side was at the Far Oaks Golf Club just beyond the bounds of Fairview Heights. Company president Dennis Hayden agrees with Flower. According to Hayden, the desire for a larger lot and a nicer home - along with not being too inconveniently located to where you work - has driven new home sales since World War II.

"Recently there has been a bit of wanting to move closer in," said Hayden. "Moving to St. Clair County also satisfies that desire. You're moving closer in to the action because you're only 15 minutes from the heart of the city of St. Louis, plus everything that is available to you in Illinois."

Hayden points to a recent example. "Just in the past five or six weeks we sold a home to a young couple that lived in Webster Groves," he said. "He's a doctor at Barnes. They had been looking for a little more acreage that is not inconvenient to his work. They don't play golf, but they like the golf course atmosphere. The lots in Far Oaks are greater than 20,000 square feet, the yards are very open, the property is very affordable and he's only 15 to 20 minutes away from his work at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Those parameters of the yard, the affordable price and the convenience of location to where they work were the three things that drove them to St. Clair County," said Hayden.

According to Laslo, the city of St. Louis' net population loss has been decreasing for about a decade. In fact, according to a recent special census, the city's population has grown since the 2000 census.

Hayden says this is a trend of things to come. "It is my belief that good things are happening in the city of St. Louis and it will continue to improve. I think it bodes well for Southwestern Illinois. We're continuing to look there (Southwestern Illinois) for opportunities."

Jerry Rombach, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Greater Southwest Illinois, says surveys of its members support Laslo's data.

"We surveyed our homebuilders in 2004 and asked them who bought their homes in 2003," Rombach said. "With very few exceptions, we found somewhere between 60 and 72 percent of the homes that our members were building were being sold to people who were moving within three to five miles of their existing house. Between 28 and 40 percent of their buyers were coming from other markets. About half of those were coming from Missouri and the other half from other parts of Illinois or out of state."

Rombach, a transplanted Missourian himself, says Illinois has remained an unknown quantity for the vast majority of Missouri residents, but that is starting to change. He sees the movement beginning to feed on itself.

"The population growth that has triggered the commercial development of recent years will be boosted when the commercial development does an about face and starts to, in and of itself, attract more people and more jobs and more companies, which will trigger more population growth," said Rombach. "The trend is there. It was clearly started by housing development. I think you'll see the lines between states and between municipalities become even more blurred in the future."