Saint Charles (St. Louis, St. Charles, Troy: environment, real estate, transplants)

[Kendia]

I am considering a move to the Saint Louis area and would like feed back regarding Saint Charles as a possible location for a home. Would like a small town feel with a little bit of country.

[Kendia]

Thanks for the suggestion I'll check it out.

[stanatedj]

Saint Charles County is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. While the entire county is generally quite nice, I would generally speaking say that the farther west you are willing to go in the county, the better deal you will get for housing and as a vague rule, you will also find that crime is less. That being said, I do love the "New Town" development which violates that West idea I just proposed!

[Missourimom]

St. Charles is a nice place to live, but If you are looking for a "small town feel with a little bit of country", St. Charles is not the place. Maybe 30 years ago, but not now. You can go out a ways on HWY 70 to find a more rural environment, but the city is quickly catching up there too and real estate is going sky high. The Marthasville area used to be a nice area, but again the city is coming in there too and it won't be long before the small town feel is gone. We have looked for a place to go for the same reasons that you list and just cant justify moving because you have to go too far out to find what you are looking for and then you are too far away from work. There is not really any work out there in the small towns. Gas is too pricey to drive all the way in to work. People will have to start moving back into the cities soon because they are tired of the commute. Maybe real estate will go down then, but still no work there. Soooooo thats the rub !

[KathyKouts]

Hi Kendia. I am a native of St. Charles and absolutely love the area! I've traveled a lot, but think that I will always make my home in St. Charles. I've seen it grow considerably over the years from a fairly small town to one of the fastest growing counties in the country. It is a great place to raise your kids and close enough to St. Louis to enjoy all it has to offer. If you are looking for a home with acreage, you'll need to go further West as Missourimom mentioned. However, you mentioned "St. Louis," too, in your message. There are areas in St. Louis County that are absolutely gorgeous where you can get that country feel, too.
[moderator CUT]

Best regards,
Kathy

[runner]

Been living in Troy Mo for 8 years, very small, but booming town, and very good schools. About 38 minutes out from St. Charles, but the commute to work in St. Charles area etc is a bear, leave very early morning to get to work. But very good safe town, been running at 4:30 a.m. for 8 years here and no problems at all.

[JMedwick]

Kendia,

It really depends on where your job is located and what type of commute you want to make. To get a "out in the woods" feel, you are going to have to go pretty far out. If you are working in St. Charles, I would consider looking in some of the areas of far west St. Louis county, which can have the same feel. If your job is more centraly located, looking in Illinois is a good choice, as you needent go as far out to find the same feel.

[mite be moving to mo]

Dear forum,

I am currently living in Florida and am considering a job in the West County St Louis area. My wife and two kids have set our sights on St. Charles County. This is just based on information from the internet as well as home affordability and school information.

For a long time we have wanted to move to the Nashville, TN area but have been unsuccessful. One thing I am very concerned about is, the question of where you went to high school.

This seems as a way to weed out people. Especially transplants from out of state. I would be moving to the area with a 13 and 9 year old. I just don't want the transition to be tough for them.

We have always found the people in nashville to always be warm and inviting. is it the same in Mo?

Please let me know.

Thanks.

[stanatedj]

I think the high school thing is something that you find in the city far more than out here in St. Charles County. St. Charles is still qutie warm and friendly and the schools are in relatively good shape. You will still find I think an above average number of private schools even out here, but for the most part it is not so much 'elitist' as some of the private schools in St. Louis where perhaps the public schools aren't quite so great.

All of that said, I think St. Charles County is still a great place to live...it is especially great for raising a family and for the most part middle-class friendly if that is even a category of people!

I think you will find St. Charles very similar to Nashville in a lot of ways. Very church oriented and generally a family atmosphere everywhere.

[Windsor chair maker]

Hi Kendia, everyone keeps suggesting to go farther west. You may want to check out going north on Hwy.79 from the St.Charles County area. We live in Clarksville, MO. and have our business here. There are quite a few places along Hwy.79 like what you are looking for. The Bowling Green, MO. area is approx. 25 miles west of us on Hwy.61 and it is really starting to grow there. Rumor has it that the Louisiana, MO. WalMart will be moving to Bowling Green in the near future. Living here you will be within an hours drive to either St.Louis or Hannible. There is a lot of history to see. The thing we really noticed was the tax differance we now pay compared to what we did pay when we lived in O'Fallon, MO. which is in the St.Charles County area.