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DH and I are "active" 56 year olds looking for a place to retire from St Louis. We remember our college years very fondly. I have always said I would have stayed in Columbia if I could have found a job there back in 1979. I can see it's gotten quite a bit bigger since then and is probably not the Columbia I remember but I have read good things about living there in various publications.
Would it be a good place to retire? We would like to:
1) Get away from the air polution in St Louis.
2) Be able to walk or ride our bikes to the library, grocery store, restaurants instead of having to get the car out every day.
3) Have some outdoor recreational opportunies nearby to hike and ride our bikes.
4) Have a decent size low maintenance house or condo that doesn't cost an arm and a leg (between $250,000 and 400,000) where the property taxes aren't sky high.
5) Have "decent" grocery stores similar to Trader Joes and Schnucks.
We are not golfers or the "country club" type. Would there be an area in Columbia that would fit the bill?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Especially from someone who chose to retire in COlumbia.
I'm a recent Mizzou grad and while it's true that Columbia has grown a ton since you lived there last, I still think its downtown maintains a slightly quaint vibe. The bar scene is also big of course. Your budget will get you anything you want, the area has some gorgeous city parks (I love Stephens Lake) as well as some wonderful places nearby (my favorites include Devil's Icebox and the Pinnacles). As far as grocery stores, there's no Trader Joe's, but you're in luck because there is a Schnucks and they recently renovated it.
A house bikable to downtown would be good -- there's some gorgeous historic houses west of Providence and north of Stadium -- where a lot of professors live (though, if you're looking to downsize, it's not the best loation -- the houses are big), but if you want something a little quieter you should also look over off of Forum -- it's biking distance to Schnucks and a fair amount of retail and restaurants (including Shakespeares' second location) and the housing stock is quite nice.
aragx6, Thanks for your reply. That sounds promising! DH saw something called "Old Hawthorne place" in an alumni magazine. Have you heard of it and do you know anything about it?
^That's the country club they built out on WW (far east Broadway) right? I'm pretty sure that was being finished right when I graduated (2007). Other than it being a country club (which you said wasn't exactly your style) and being walkable/bikeable to exactly nothing, it's a pretty area. The houses they were building the last time I was out that way certainly seemed nice. IIRC, they were also building some condos and villas if you wanted to get away from having a single-family house.
DH and I are "active" 56 year olds looking for a place to retire from St Louis. We remember our college years very fondly. I have always said I would have stayed in Columbia if I could have found a job there back in 1979. I can see it's gotten quite a bit bigger since then and is probably not the Columbia I remember but I have read good things about living there in various publications.
Would it be a good place to retire? We would like to:
1) Get away from the air polution in St Louis.
2) Be able to walk or ride our bikes to the library, grocery store, restaurants instead of having to get the car out every day.
3) Have some outdoor recreational opportunies nearby to hike and ride our bikes.
4) Have a decent size low maintenance house or condo that doesn't cost an arm and a leg (between $250,000 and 400,000) where the property taxes aren't sky high.
5) Have "decent" grocery stores similar to Trader Joes and Schnucks.
We are not golfers or the "country club" type. Would there be an area in Columbia that would fit the bill?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Especially from someone who chose to retire in COlumbia.
I can't give you all the detailed responses you are looking for, but as a fellow MU grad, I love Columbia and think it would be a great place to retire!
I'm not sure the air pollution in St. Louis is that bad unless you are living next to a factory? I'm sure you can find a house in your price range, but I looked half-seriously years ago at relocating to Columbia and was surprised to learn that the housing stock was not that much cheaper than St. Louis. A little, for sure, but not by a wide margin.
^That's the country club they built out on WW (far east Broadway) right? I'm pretty sure that was being finished right when I graduated (2007). Other than it being a country club (which you said wasn't exactly your style) and being walkable/bikeable to exactly nothing, it's a pretty area. The houses they were building the last time I was out that way certainly seemed nice. IIRC, they were also building some condos and villas if you wanted to get away from having a single-family house.
I'm not that crazy being in the middle of nowhere but DH thought they looked nice. Is there anything else out there? We came up with a controversy over a pile of dirt when we searched on Google. Do you know anything about that?
I'm not that crazy being in the middle of nowhere but DH thought they looked nice. Is there anything else out there? We came up with a controversy over a pile of dirt when we searched on Google. Do you know anything about that?
I don't know any details about a controversy, sorry I can't be more help. But as far as anything else being out there? No, really nothing. There's a Casey's gas station about two miles away at the entrance to El Chapperel an older, moderately dingy, subdivison. I'm not certain where the exact city limits in CoMo is, but at Old Hawthorne you'd be really close to it. You're pretty much living in the country at that point.
Old Hawthorn(e?) is a golf course development and is on the far east side of Columbia. If you want to take advantage of the best of Columbia (which IMO is downtown and environs and places along the MKT Trail, about which more shortly) then I'd avoid any place like that.
It doesn't sound like you've been here in a while. There's been a Schnuck's here since the 70s, I think, and the one here is comparable to the ones I've seen in StL. No Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Lots of people here want them but the demographics aren't there yet.
Pollution is not a problem. Traffic can be at rush hours.
While there are several hike/bike trails in town, the primary one is the MKT that runs from downtown out to meet the Katy Trail somewhere at the Missouri River. Columbia got a federal grant some years back to throw lots of tax dollars at making the city more bike-friendly. Of course, it started huge arguments between bikers and other folks, but it certainly is a bike-aware city. There are houses that back onto the trail-- dunno about condos or townhomes, really aren't that many.
Our neighborhood, Old Southwest, is one of the most sought-after in town-- walking distance from downtown and the head of the MKT Trail (not to mention the library, which is really good, and right across the street from us). The downside on your checklist is the low-maintenance house. Ours was built in 1941 and most of our neighbors' houses are comparable, maybe up to the 1950s. We're 58 and 59, btw, and very active-- we USE the trail a lot.
Downtown is the main draw, even for people our age-- maybe especially for people our age, although it's also the primary student recreation area. We belong to the club at Ragtag Cinema, the local art house movie place with a bakery/coffee shop attached, and regularly go to concerts on campus (University Concert Series) and at the Missouri Theater. There's an interesting food scene here too, both restaurants, a good farmer's market, and some interesting alternative choices. In general, the presence of people from around the world who've moved to Columbia to teach or research at MU means we've got what's pretty common for a college town with a university this size-- better food and more entertainment than most cities with 100,000 people.
I don't know if the new downtown building (on the east side of downtown, near Ragtag, in fact) are rental apartments or condos, but that looks interesting if parking is available and if it's far enough away from weekend noisy college kids to make it nice. I know there are low-maintenance duplex-style condos somewhere, I want to say south around Forum and close to Nifong, and there's some townhomes on Forum, south of Schnuck's by a mile or so, that have several for sale. The word is, they were way overpriced, but dunno what "overpriced" was. Some look vacant, like they had been foreclosed, but it's new construction.
You should come down, spend a weekend here, stay at either Stoney Creek Inn on S. Providence and close to the trail, or the new Hampton Inn just south of campus on Stadium, walk around downtown and see how it's changed (some old standbys like Heidelberg and Booche's are still there, but Heidelberg is awful and Booche's is idiosyncratic, love it or hate it). The campus is the same but different and probably a lot bigger than you remember.Don't stay downtown-- the only hotel is about to be torn down, and for good reason. It'll be replaced with a Hilton in 3-5 years. It'll be a lot quieter from about next week through the second week in January, I think, because that's winter break. Watch the Weather Channel for crummy weather...or wait until spring break, unless you want to see what it's like with the students here. I think there's about 30,000 now. They bring energy and traffic and a little bit of boorishness, but they're just kids. With 4-6 inches of snow, you can cross-country ski on the trail if you have the equipment. When it's nice, you can rent bikes from CycleXtreme downtown and ride to the trail if you aren't bringing your own.
Meanwhile, you can do a lot of internet house-shopping on realtor.com, you can find the parks and trails in town here.
Old Hawthorn(e?) is a golf course development and is on the far east side of Columbia. If you want to take advantage of the best of Columbia (which IMO is downtown and environs and places along the MKT Trail, about which more shortly) then I'd avoid any place like that.
It doesn't sound like you've been here in a while. There's been a Schnuck's here since the 70s, I think, and the one here is comparable to the ones I've seen in StL. No Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Lots of people here want them but the demographics aren't there yet.
Pollution is not a problem. Traffic can be at rush hours.
While there are several hike/bike trails in town, the primary one is the MKT that runs from downtown out to meet the Katy Trail somewhere at the Missouri River. Columbia got a federal grant some years back to throw lots of tax dollars at making the city more bike-friendly. Of course, it started huge arguments between bikers and other folks, but it certainly is a bike-aware city. There are houses that back onto the trail-- dunno about condos or townhomes, really aren't that many.
Our neighborhood, Old Southwest, is one of the most sought-after in town-- walking distance from downtown and the head of the MKT Trail (not to mention the library, which is really good, and right across the street from us). The downside on your checklist is the low-maintenance house. Ours was built in 1941 and most of our neighbors' houses are comparable, maybe up to the 1950s. We're 58 and 59, btw, and very active-- we USE the trail a lot.
Downtown is the main draw, even for people our age-- maybe especially for people our age, although it's also the primary student recreation area. We belong to the club at Ragtag Cinema, the local art house movie place with a bakery/coffee shop attached, and regularly go to concerts on campus (University Concert Series) and at the Missouri Theater. There's an interesting food scene here too, both restaurants, a good farmer's market, and some interesting alternative choices. In general, the presence of people from around the world who've moved to Columbia to teach or research at MU means we've got what's pretty common for a college town with a university this size-- better food and more entertainment than most cities with 100,000 people.
I don't know if the new downtown building (on the east side of downtown, near Ragtag, in fact) are rental apartments or condos, but that looks interesting if parking is available and if it's far enough away from weekend noisy college kids to make it nice. I know there are low-maintenance duplex-style condos somewhere, I want to say south around Forum and close to Nifong, and there's some townhomes on Forum, south of Schnuck's by a mile or so, that have several for sale. The word is, they were way overpriced, but dunno what "overpriced" was. Some look vacant, like they had been foreclosed, but it's new construction.
You should come down, spend a weekend here, stay at either Stoney Creek Inn on S. Providence and close to the trail, or the new Hampton Inn just south of campus on Stadium, walk around downtown and see how it's changed (some old standbys like Heidelberg and Booche's are still there, but Heidelberg is awful and Booche's is idiosyncratic, love it or hate it). The campus is the same but different and probably a lot bigger than you remember.Don't stay downtown-- the only hotel is about to be torn down, and for good reason. It'll be replaced with a Hilton in 3-5 years. It'll be a lot quieter from about next week through the second week in January, I think, because that's winter break. Watch the Weather Channel for crummy weather...or wait until spring break, unless you want to see what it's like with the students here. I think there's about 30,000 now. They bring energy and traffic and a little bit of boorishness, but they're just kids. With 4-6 inches of snow, you can cross-country ski on the trail if you have the equipment. When it's nice, you can rent bikes from CycleXtreme downtown and ride to the trail if you aren't bringing your own.
Meanwhile, you can do a lot of internet house-shopping on realtor.com, you can find the parks and trails in town here.
THanks for all the great info! We had a death in the family so we got off track on this. I agree we need to get down there and look around after we scope out some neighborhoods using the internet.
Our biggest issue is we know we have conflicting goals. Something close in that you could walk to the library and leave while you travel a month at a time vs having a little place out in the country where you can see the stars at night.
I remember the Schnucks now. I stayed at McREynolds Hall and it was close to it, I think. I do remember "Nowell's" grocery stores beng nice. Are they still there?
Nowell's is gone. One was taken over by an independent called Patricia's Foods that I've never set foot in, while the other was converted into something governmental. The competition is Hy-Vee, not quite as snooty as Schnuck's but in many respects as nice (better produce, for one), Gerbe's (kind of downmarket), Moser's (even more downmarket), Aldi (continuing the down thing), and three super Wal-Marts, i.e., with groceries. The only Target has no grocery section-- amazingly, in a town where the spouses of two Wal-Mart heirs control so much of the real estate action, Target has had a devil of a time getting planning and zoning approval to expand. Imagine that.
I get frozen foods and other nationally-based commodities from Wal-Mart, produce and some specialty stuff from Hy-Vee or Schnuck's or the farmer's market, and keep a watch out for sales elsewhere.
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I agree we need to get down there and look around after we scope out some neighborhoods using the internet. 
