Fairway, Prairie Village, Old Leawood vs Brookside

[northbound74]

What is known as Brookside these days is actually a large area the size of many suburbs. It is a fantastic neighborhood. It would easily be one of my top choices for a good-size house and yard, but not too big and garish.

Westwood, Roeland Park, and Fairway are all nice as well. They're no longer the most popular choice for young families so several schools are being closed. Still, they might be an okay alternative to private schools. I'd give it consideration at least. Some of those places seem to be seeing a renewal as trendier alternatives to the blandness of the likes of Overland Park and Lenexa.

[lifelongMOgal]

There are some really great housing prices and selections to be found right now in the Ward Park and Romanelli neighborhoods. There is generally a little more crime East of Wornall than West of it. No area is crime free so your best bet is to check the paper crime report, one of the online crime reporting websites, or check with a community police officer through the closest station for crime stats.

PV and Fairway have plenty of kids. Don't rule out the area near the Corinth shopping center either. Good luck, I don't think you can go wrong on either side of the State Line "close-in".

[forre65413]

Food for thought, you might choose based upon where members of the family might be working. KCMO does have an earnings tax, so if you aren't working in KCMO you will be penalized (IMO) for living there.

BTW I lived in Brookside / S Plaza for 5 years and thought it was a great area.

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by forre65413

Food for thought, you might choose based upon where members of the family might be working. KCMO does have an earnings tax, so if you aren't working in KCMO you will be penalized (IMO) for living there.

BTW I lived in Brookside / S Plaza for 5 years and thought it was a great area.

Even if you make $100,000/year the earnings tax would "penalize" you $83/month. I'd suggest living where you think you'll be happiest, not the place that will save you less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee everyday.

[forre65413]

Originally Posted by aragx6

Even if you make $100,000/year the earnings tax would "penalize" you $83/month. I'd suggest living where you think you'll be happiest, not the place that will save you less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee everyday.

True, indeed. But I have seen enough of people on these forums concerned about small increases in cost of living. If you make $100K then $1000 per year might not affect you much, but for those on a budget that can be one of the factors to take into consideration.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by greenzebra

We are going to be moving from the east coast to the KC area in the next year or so. In terms of families with young children, how are places like Fairway, Prairie Village, and Old Leawood relative to Brookside (we really like Romanelli Gardens & Romanelli West)? We are aware of the school situation in KCMO and private schools aren't a problem. However, everyone is always singing the praises of JOCO schools and we didn't want to rule them out completely. Recently, though, I've read a few articles about some changes and school closures in the Shawnee Mission school district that were concerning. We aren't interested in the southern parts of JOCO because the houses are, generally, too new and too big.

If we live in a place like Fairway, etc., are we going to be the only people on the block with young kids? I grew up in a neighborhood with very few kids my own age, and it wasn't much fun. Brookside, from what people on this board say, seems to be overrun with children. Is it worth it or could we find just as much of a young family oriented neighborhood in our Johnson county locations? Any advice would be very much appreciated...thanks!

There are only schools closing because there are a lot less kids than there were in the 70s. That's not to say there are no kids. Wherever your kids go to school, they will have plenty of neighborhood kids to play with. My kids went to Briarwood/Mission Valley (one of the schools they plan to close)/Shawnee Mission East (Prairie Village). I love, love, love the area around Briarwood (83rd to 87th, Somerset to Lamar). It's a great neighborhood and lots of kids.

[kcmo]

I have posted this 100 times, but I'll post it again.

If you make 50k a year, you owe KCMO $500 a year. If you make 100k a year and can't afford the etax, you have bigger problems. So lets go with 50k.

Trash and recycling is free in kcmo, while most suburbs charge between $15-30 a month. So your trash bill alone has already wiped out half your etax savings by not living in kcmo.

Chances are if you live in Brookside, you will be working in KCMO and if that's the case, you pay the tax anyway. If you don't work in KCMO, then there is probably about a 90% chance you work in Kansas then.

So you move to Kansas to avoid the etax. You start paying for trash collection but but then your are a KS resident so your income tax goes up as KS has a slightly higher income tax than MO. I believe it's between .5 and 1% higher. Right there, you are back to square one at best. I don't think KS lets you deduct as much of what you pay into federal taxes as MO does and that could make a difference.

Then you start looking at other taxes. Kansas has slightly higher auto personal property taxes and most retail areas are going to have a higher sales tax, some 2-3% higher than say Ward Parkway Target. That will add up in a hurry.

But you will save some on property taxes as they are slightly lower.

If you drive the same amount of miles, you will pay more in gas as gas taxes average 5-10cents higher, but your insurance rates will go down a little.

Utility fees and taxes are more in KS, but you have to get your car inspected in MO.

Bottom line. It's a wash and you would have to do some serious research to figure out what you may or not save by leaving kcmo to avoid the etax. At the end of the day, the difference is so minimal that you can't even measure it or feel it.

Live where you want to live then worry about taxes. But the kcmo etax is way over hyped.

As far as Brookside goes. It's when you introduce the cost of private schools into the equation that changes things. That was the deal breaker for us and why we left for the MO suburbs.

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by forre65413

True, indeed. But I have seen enough of people on these forums concerned about small increases in cost of living. If you make $100K then $1000 per year might not affect you much, but for those on a budget that can be one of the factors to take into consideration.

Well if you make 50k, it's only $500/year.

If you make 25k, it's $250/year (and you can't afford to live in any of the suburbs mentioned anyway)

edit:: Sorry I didn't see what kcmo said, so ... ditto.

[jason87x]

From what it sounds like, the people living in those inner JoCo suburbs are the now old people who moved there to raise families in the 50s. So if you're a young starting family there, you're probably in the minority. There are probably some middle age gays there as well, as well as other random people who just want to take advantage of being near the Plaza and Brookside.

As far as schools go, I went to Shawnee Mission schools, and hated the experience. The administration is extremely frustrating and mean, even now after Margie Kaplan is gone. They're also considering rather flashback ideas such as going back to the outdated Junior High (aka 9th grade in middle school) system. Olathe just went the other way (9th in high school) like everyone else. Everything in SMSD is dated and crap, and the kids at the high school there (SMEast) are mean and preppy. Enrollment there is dropping (actually, slowly growing because of Mexican families moving in to some parts) and it doesn't seem like that progressive of a district (progressive as in small p, not the socialist type). The further out districts seem more optimistic and future looking. Oh sorry I forgot this was a Fairway vs Brookside thread. If you have kids, don't move to Brookside *only* because of KCMO schools, unless you were sending them to private schools anyway. SMSD is still much much MUCH better than KCMO. KCMO isn't even accredited, or even if it is now, it's still crap. I know a friend that went to a charter (supposedly better) school there and his enrollment at UMKC was probationary to say the least. Plus he didn't learn anything there and couldn't even take PreCalc in high school. (the suburban districts, even SMSD, offer Diff Eqs. The math chain being Algebra 2 -> PreCalc -> Calculus -> Calc 3/DiffEq.)

And the Kansas creationism thing, that seems really overexaggerated. Isn't that like just a few people pushing that? Most people here, though religious, are at least willing to consider something like evolution, if not believe it outright. Sound like a paradox? Not if you simply believe that God created the Earth, but set up for evolution, and not just simply take the Adam and Eve story literally.