The new boss of Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. and her family initially targeted Clayton as the preferred location of their new home. ¶ But the scarcity of available high-end homes there prompted the family of Sharon Price John, who this month became chief executive of Overland-based Build-A-Bear, to broaden the search. It led to Portland Place, part of the leafy Central West End enclave of private streets and century-old mansions.

Her husband, Russ John, said the family looked at 15 houses over a couple of weekends before striking a deal for a nearly 13,000-square-foot Portland Place home built in 1909. The Johns are moving to St. Louis from Weston, Mass., a wealthy Boston suburb 14 miles from downtown.

“Coming from Boston, we’re a little more oriented to the city than the suburbs,” he said.

Russ John said the family discovered that “inventory was very tight” in Clayton, with few of the bigger and older homes the couple were seeking for themselves and their three children.

Real estate experts say the John family’s situation is becoming more common in St. Louis, where the luxury home category has become less of a buyer’s market than it was during the housing downturn.

Kevin Hurley, a longtime real estate agent for Janet McAfee Inc., said the area’s luxury home market is rebounding — “particularly this year,” he added.

Realistic pricing, the release of pent-up buyer demand and lenders’ greater willingness to work with qualified purchasers are producing sales, Hurley said.

Figures show that median prices have returned to levels last seen in 2009, when the housing meltdown was getting fully under way.

For example, among homes selling for more than $1 million in May in St. Louis and St. Louis County, the median price paid was $1.41 million, up 6 percent from last year. It’s also the highest in May since that same month in 2009, according to figures provided by Prudential Alliance.

Meanwhile, the number of million-dollar-plus homes sold in the first five months of this year was 15, compared with 16 in the same period last year.

“I don’t think prices are going to go way up but at least houses are moving,” Hurley said. “The bottom has been hit and we’re slowing coming back.”

Low mortgage rates and rising home values are prompting some transient business executives to buy rather than rent, he added. The improved housing market gives executives confidence they can sell their homes at a profit when they move on to their next C-suite job.

“A couple of my buyers are from out of town,” Hurley said. “Out-of-town buyers consider St. Louis a very affordable market. And I think that’s helped a lot.”

Ladue, Town and Country, and Des Peres are among the areas where luxury home purchases are picking up, said Al Rosen, of Coldwell Banker Gundaker in Des Peres.

Sales volume in his area is up 30 percent in the first five months of 2013 and the number of days a house sits unsold has dropped by 50 percent, he said.

Even for people able to make a seven-figure cash purchase, most still finance part of their home buys because interest rates remain near historic lows, experts said. Why put cash in a home when it can be invested in the booming stock market, the experts pointed out.

Russ John declined to say how much is family is paying for the Portland Place house, which was listed at nearly $1.6 million.

The two-and-half-story, Georgian-style brick residence was built for Dwight Davis, who served as secretary of war for President Calvin Coolidge and later as governor general of the Philippines under President Herbert Hoover. Davis founded tennis’ Davis Cup.

John said the home’s history played little role in his family’s purchase decision, although the property still includes Davis’ clay tennis court.

“We’ll keep the tennis court,” John said.