St. Joseph Area (Union, Platte City: for sale, daycares, house)

[2beamissourian]

We are looking at possibly relocating in the area...

how are taxes? Property taxes?
Living?
Home prices ?
Farm / ground prices?

Schools?

Daycares?

[mjb62676]

Originally Posted by DeborahWade

We are looking at possibly relocating in the area...

how are taxes? Property taxes?
Living?
Home prices ?
Farm / ground prices?

Schools?

Daycares?

I'm actually getting ready to move from St. Joe. The taxes on my 180K'ish house were 1700 last year I think. You can get a pretty nice house for less than 250K.

Living there has gotten better over the last five years since we moved there, but I still wish I had just moved to Platte City and commuted. We did virtually nothing in St. Joe in our time there....but we don't have kids and didn't have any friends there. It's a very interesting place where outsiders are treated just like they are outsiders, for the most part.

Any more questions, feel free to ask.

[patrickmich]

I actually have a job interview tomorrow in St. Joe. Once I did a MapQuest search, I was surprised that SJ is almost 60 miles from the North side of KC.
I want to stay in the KC area so I most likely will cancel the interview.
Unless there is something particularly attractive about SJ. If so, please let me know, and maybe I will reconsider. For the record, I am a charter bus driver, and recently relocated to KC.

[StJoeFanatic]

Hey guys... if there is anything you need to know about St. Joseph, just let me know. I have now lived here close to 15 years and LOVE IT! And yes, St. Joe just continues to get better and better. I hope that what MJB meant in the comment "We did virtually nothing in St. Joe in our time there....but we don't have kids and didn't have any friends there." is that they CHOSE to not do anything.... there is a LOT to do in this town...if you don't stay home.
Also, I guess, I am what is considered an "outsider" but I have never felt like I was treated as such! Yes, the old-time, southside bunch, can be a little intolerant of "progress" but they have never made me feel uncomfortable.

Deborah, I will try to answer your questions first:
"how are taxes? Property taxes?"
Sales Tax is 7.475%
Residential Property Tax is based on 19% of market value
Personal Property Tax is valued @33 1/3% of market value
Residential Property Tax on a $175,000 home will be around $1,200/year

"Living?"
I think you are asking about "cost of living?" It is cheaper here than in the KC Metro area. Groceries are fair, as well as utilities.

Home prices ?
Home prices are all over the place. Since this is an historic community, you have homes (and entire areas) that are on the register of historic places, you have smaller, moderate priced homes in good condition ($50,000+), you have mid-range homes in the $175,000-$200,000 and then you have them all the way up in the newer subdivisions $300,000+. So basically, there is a home for EVERYONE is this community! (Actually, my house is for sale right now... PM me for more info!)

Farm / ground prices?
Sorry, I cannot help you with this one.

Schools?
Blue Ribbon School District. Elementary & Middle schools are always winning educational awards. I think St. Joe has an excellent school system.

Daycares?
Again, I cannot help with this one, but I know that there are quite a few here and I haven't heard any complaints.


In answer to Patrickmich:
Yes, there is a lot that is attractive about St. Joseph. The incredible parkway and park system, the arts, the friendly people, the shopping, the trees, the proximity to KCI Airport (25 minutes straight-easy shot!) the festivals and parades, the sporting opportunities, you name it, this town has it.

Again, if you all have any more questions, just let me know!

[mjb62676]

My experience has been that people that live here either love it or hate it. We tend to be on the "dislike" side.

It appears to be a great place to raise a family...

Now that the "rosy" side has been given...I'll give some of the things I don't care for.

There seems to be an inordinate amount of VERY bitter, cynical people here...I call it the Union mentality...they all thingk the world is out to get them.

That, and there seems to be a lot of very rude people here. My wife and I both grew up within 40 miles of here on the Kansas side, and knew about this.

Until the last 5 years, this place was about 20 years behind the times in terms of retail outlets...

Change is VERY unwelcome here by many residents.

They just voted in a raving lunatic as mayor.

Like I said, it's gotten better, but if I had it to do over again, I would have opted like many of my co-workers have to commute from North KC/Platte County.

The best day of living here was finding out that HyVee was coming to town.