Older homes in KC Suburbs-Surrounding towns (Kansas City, St. Louis: real estate market, rentals, mortgage)

[parnoldo]

My wife, five year old daughter and myself may find ourselves relocating to the KC area in the upcoming year. This a a little distressing because we love where we are now so much. We are in a nice, safe, small town just on the Illinois side of St. Louis. We have an affordable old house with a lot of character, nice yard, terrific neighbors and great schools.

I know that's a tall order anywhere (hence our reluctance to leave) but we may have no choice. Any recomendations in the KC area with similar criteria? Particularly a relatively safe area, good schools and older homes with some character? We really don't care for the McMansion, snoot house suburban ascthetic. Older small town is more our style. Looking in the under $200,000 range, and a little updating doesn't bother us. Any places that are more likely than others to have what we're looking for? We'll be visiting in a month or so to look around. Thanks for any help.
Patrick

[christina0001]

My husband and I are relocating to the KC metro area at the end of this summer. We are by no means experts on the area, but like you, we also dislike McMansions and newer developments. We liked the area north of KC, up to St. Joseph. We adored Plattsburg. The 'burbs immediately surrounding KC and especially ever-popular Lee's Summit, while very nice, are exactly what we didn't like.

[midwest456]

On the Kansas side, you would probably like a lot of the older part of Johnson County (more or less inside the loop of I-435)..outside that is the fast growing Hummer/McMansion demographic On the Missouri side I dont know as much, but it could be worth visiting the Brookside area or some of the middle class neighborhoods in south Kansas City just east of State Line Road.

[Lynda in KC]

If you want more of a country setting/small town feel, you could try up north of the city in some of the areas that are considered the burbs, but not part of the "metro" area. Like Kearney, Liberty, Excelsior Springs. If you want to Private message me, I would be glad to give you the name of a real estate agent that handles those areas and is a pleasure to work with. There are some older parts of the "metro" that have nice old homes in them, but to me I have found those areas kind of snooty. Either snooty, or not the best areas to live in. Lots of older homes in the city that I would love to have if they were set out in the middle of at least 20 acres.

[midwest456]

I would like to second Lynda's mention of Liberty and Kearney as possibilities. My coworker at my last job had a horse farm out in Kearney and enjoyed putting lots of time into landscaping her large property, and she never had a long commute (the job was very close to KC's downtown). Her mortgage was the same as my monthly rent for a 1 bdrm, not expensive at all. Liberty is technically a college town, but it is a Baptist college (William Jewell) so I don't think it gets too out of control I have not looked at housing prices in Liberty but the rentals were VERY affordable so I'd think the houses wouldn't be too pricy either.
A bit of trivia about Kearney: it is the birthplace of the famous outlaw Jesse James; he was buried there (DNA testing in 1995 on the bones confirmed his identity) and the town holds a rodeo, parade, etc each September to commemorate their infamous resident.

[KC professional]

prairie village

two more

brook side

[Lolls]

Brookside is great but you are going to be hunting hard at $200,000. Then again - with the subprime issues going on, the next few months might make it a crazy good buyer's market

I missed whether a commute is a problem for you, but the surrounding areas of Platte or even out towards eastern Kansas - Tonganoxie, Lansing, Leavenworth - you can get a great older home in a smaller town feel.

Be very, very thorough in researching schools before you fall for a great neighborhood. KC MO schools are a mess. There are some good public schools, but you really need to talk to families in the neighborhood to know which ones will work for you. For example, we live in Brookside and right near us is a public Border Star Montessori school. One of our neighbor has their youngest there and they are really happy with it. There is also a public French immersion school here. And we are surrounded by amazing private $chool$.

But it is all wait-listed.

Don't get me wrong - we LOVE Brookside and an older home was essential to us, too. Just make sure you know the other aspects before you buy!

[razzy]

Check out Lexington, Missouri for a historic small town on a river with lots of charming older housing, if you dont mind about a 45 minute commute.

Odessa is a nice town also, and its closer to KC than Lexington, but probably lacks some of the charm of Lexington.

Excelsior Springs is a pretty neat place with plenty of older housing. Check out their downtown area, although its been a long time since I've been there.

I have also heard good things about Weston, another Missouri River town north of KC.

[jayhawks]

If anyone knows of acreage in any of these areas please let me know! I've been looking online and haven't found anything yet. We need a five bedroom home with some private wooded land. Are coal power plants so bad? I was told that Platte county has those, so if I don't like them, avoid that area. I don't want to come down with cancer from it but how bad can they be? Weston looks really pretty...at least the Laurel Brooks Bed and breakfast looks nice. That's why I ask how bad can the coal power plants be?
My husbands job is in downtown Kansas city. Kearny and Liberty sound really nice. If you have something that sounds like this, (5-10 acreas depending on how much we can afford )please pm me. Thanks.
Need to call a realtor.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by jayhawks

If anyone knows of acreage in any of these areas please let me know! I've been looking online and haven't found anything yet. We need a five bedroom home with some private wooded land. Are coal power plants so bad? I was told that Platte county has those, so if I don't like them, avoid that area. I don't want to come down with cancer from it but how bad can they be? Weston looks really pretty...at least the Laurel Brooks Bed and breakfast looks nice. That's why I ask how bad can the coal power plants be?
My husbands job is in downtown Kansas city. Kearny and Liberty sound really nice. If you have something that sounds like this, (5-10 acreas depending on how much we can afford )please pm me. Thanks.
Need to call a realtor.

Yes, Weston is DIRECTLY downwind from the coal power plants. In fact KCP&L is building another power plant in Platte County near Iatan which is northwest of Weston. I can not believe that their is a ski area near there with the plants nearby. They claim to have stringent emission controls, but I personally would NOT live next to a large coal power plant complex. Even with strict controls the plants still emit certain levels of mercury, radiation, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and huge amounts of CO2, which is a man-made greenhouse gas in the case of the power plants. If you are looking at living north of Downtown I would highly recommend Liberty, Excelsior Springs, or Kearney if you do not mind the longer commute. It is a buyers market right now and their are many nice properties at affordable prices, especially compared with over-inflated real estate markets in other parts of the country.
Here is the map with the location of all the power plants in Missouri and the US:
Clear The Air