Blue Springs or Stanley? (Kansas City, Independence: real estate, new home, schools)

[cyclonejen]

Ok, you guys helped me a lot a few weeks ago. I posted a possible relocation to Independence and the replies have been extremely helpful when talking with employers. Now that offer has changed we are considering job opportunities in Blue Springs or Stanley.

I would like opinions on working and living in either place.

It's me, my hubby and my 1 year old son and this would be a permanent move. Schools, crime, cost of living and overall pleasantness of the areas are important. We would want less than 30 minute commute.

We currently are in a 10 year old home with 2000 sq ft home on the east coast ($1700 mortgage) and would look for something similar (hopefully cheaper). Green spaces a must! Walks, bike rides, yards are important to us.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by cyclonejen

Ok, you guys helped me a lot a few weeks ago. I posted a possible relocation to Independence and the replies have been extremely helpful when talking with employers. Now that offer has changed we are considering job opportunities in Blue Springs or Stanley.

I would like opinions on working and living in either place.

It's me, my hubby and my 1 year old son and this would be a permanent move. Schools, crime, cost of living and overall pleasantness of the areas are important. We would want less than 30 minute commute.

We currently are in a 10 year old home with 2000 sq ft home on the east coast ($1700 mortgage) and would look for something similar (hopefully cheaper). Green spaces a must! Walks, bike rides, yards are important to us.

Blue Springs is a smaller suburb that would have a lower cost of living compared to Stanley (which is actually part of Overland Park). Your housing dollar will stretch much further in Blue Springs compared to Overland Park and you would be closer to the ammenities of KC, MO if you choose Blue Springs.
Both cities are safe suburban areas for the most part. Schools- both would probably be good although I don't know as much about Blue Springs overall.

[Samantha S]

Hard to beat Blue Valley schools (Stanley). Between the two, I would choose Stanley. But I prefer the KS side over the MO side of the line, so it's an easy choice for me.

Coming from the East coast, you will find housing much more affordable here. Housing in Stanley will be a little more than in Blue Springs, but still quite affordable.

Welcome to KC!

[kcmo]

There is quite a difference between Blue Springs and Stanley.

Stanley is not really Stanley. Stanley was a tiny town that is being swallowed up by Overland Park sprawl. If you live in Stanley, chances are you are living in a new home in far south OP. Not an older home in a small town. It’s a quickly developing area, but it's far from built out. Even though OP is large, the Stanley area maintains its small town KS feel to some degree because it's not fully built out yet like most of OP.

Blue Springs on the other hand is not as large as OP, but it's not small either. Blue Springs has 60,000 residents. Grain Valley has close to 20k and Blue Springs and Grain Valley act as one city. Then you have Lee's Summit next door which is close to 100,000. So the area would be very comparable to Stanley when it comes to population.

Schools. I'll say it for the 100th time. I think the schools in Blue Springs and Lee's Summit are as good as they get. Same with Blue Valley. I don't know why you would choose one area over the other just because of schools. Blue Valley is almost entirely upperbracket, they don’t have even a small lower income population that can offset stats like Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs etc do.

The big differences are in the feel of the areas. South OP is WIDE open and very flat. There are not many trees, the right of ways of roads and highways are huge etc. Everything is extremely spread out and I happen to think the built environment is very bland due to the strict rules that OP has on buildings, colors etc. You can't tell a sonic from a goodyear store. But overall, it’s more upscale.

Blue Springs and Lee's Summit is set in a totally different topography. Water is everywhere, massive parks, lakes, rock, river valleys, and very dense forests. Many of the new housing developments are built right in the forests and up against parkland. It's very different than southern OP.

While there are tons of upscale housing in the area, there is also far more starter housing and modest housing in the area around Lee's Summit and especially Blue Springs than southern OP. That doesn't mean the area is less desirable, it just means there is a wider spectrum of demographic living in the area.

Both are nice suburban areas. It all depends on what you want I guess.

I would equate the Stanley area to the kind of sprawl you might see in NW Phoenix or N Dallas and the kind of Sprawl in east Jackson to suburban areas near west county St Louis or northern Atlanta.

[wathman]

You mentioned that you wanted bike trails nearby, you'll have to look fairly hard for those unfortunately. Kansas City currently has a rather pathetic bike trail system. It's a known problem, and local government keeps saying they're doing something, yet they never have the money where their mouth is. I think it's unbelieveable that the tiny city of Liberty, MO has probably 10x more trail mileage per capita than the entire KC metro area. Since I'm up in the Northland, the best place for me to hit some trails is over in Smithville. Since you're looking in Blue Springs and Stanley now, I don't know what their trail systems are like, but don't be surprised if you end up underwhelmed by bike trails.

[Deines-Paulson]

Hi...my name is Mike and I am a partner with the largest real estate company in the Kansas City area. I would suggest Blue Springs as a more centralized area in the metro. Schools are great, Homes are moderate, lots of ammenities and you would avoid KS taxes. If you have questions please feel free to call me at my office.Modcut- send contact info to the poster via a direct message if they request it.... I would be happy to help you find a home and show you the area.

Regards