April 2026 St. Louis County Estate Filings

Bottom line: St. Louis County opened 271 estate cases in April 2026. About half involve a house — and that share keeps climbing as records catch up.

This is the Monthly Market Pulse: a plain count of estate activity in the county, updated every month from court records.

How many estates opened in April?

271 decedent-estate cases. That count covers probate cases, small-estate affidavits, and a few related filings — the cases that follow a death. It leaves out guardianships, conservatorships, and trusts, which are not estates.

The monthly count has stayed in a steady range since we began tracking in January 2026. December 2025 is a partial month — that is just when we started.

Month	Estate filings
January 2026	253
February 2026	267
March 2026	329
April 2026	271

The steady line is the point. Estate filings arrive at a roughly constant rate, so reading one high or low month as a trend is a mistake.

How many involve real property?

About 48% of April's cases — 129 of 271 — are tied to a real property so far. If your interest in an estate is the house attached to it, that is the number that matters.

That 48% is a floor, not a final figure. We match cases to property after they open, so the most recent months keep rising. February 2026, which has had more time to settle, already sits at 61%. April's share will drift toward that as records catch up.

What this is, and what it isn't

These numbers come from Missouri CaseNet, added up by county and month. No case is named, and none will be. The Market Pulse shows the shape of the month — how many estates, and how many own property — never any single estate. For where these cases sit on the map, see where filings cluster.

Next month's Pulse covers May, plus the first look at June.