Moving to Columbia (St. Louis, Fulton, West Plains: for sale, real estate, apartment)

[kfrazier]

I am a college student with a small family. I have a wife who is an LPN and a 2 year old daughter. We are moving to Columbia in the summer of 2008 as I am transferring from MSU-West Plains to Mizzou. We have already looked in to the Columbia Montessori School for our daughter and found it very nice, needing a little updating, but still very nice. We have put our daughter on the waiting list there. What we really need help on is finding a house in a good neighborhood. This will be our first house and we are not going to be able to spend more than about 80,000. We are looking for an established neighborhood that is preferably near downtown. Downtown is the part of the city we love the most. We don't want to be in a neighborhood with very much crime though. If anyone has any advice please share. I am not sure if we are going to stay in the city long enough for my daughter to start regular school so that is not a huge concern. We just want safety. We like the eclectic feel of the downtown as well and since we just have the one kid we are not worried about a lot of room.

[jrhartwick]

Finding something near downtown under 80,000 would probably be a little bit of a challenge. Have you looked at the campus preschool option available to students with chilren? There is a link on the missouri.edu website and is located near campus. Check out Realtor.com and check back if you have questions regarding specific neighborhoods. You may want to check out a condo because single family in that price range probably won't get you in an area you would be comfortable with. If you are willing to commute, you may find something in one of the smaller towns surrounding Columbia. Such as Hallsville, Ashland. Both about 15/20 minutes.

[Clipperlover]

Agree about getting a house for $80,000...it's possible, but it would be tough. You might be able to get into a (very) small 3 bedroom place for that, or maybe an OK size 2 bedroom. We are talking about 700-1100 square feet on a small lot. The downtown area and the Ash/Worley are also are considered to be the "worst" in Columbia as well, although there are some perfectly fine places within those spots as well. Still, from what you've said, you'd probably be more comfortable with something away from downtown...but if your heart is set on that, drive around until you see something you like in an area that looks decent.


If you aren't planning on staying long then, as jrhartwick says, you might want to look into a condo. There's plenty in the area in that price range. A friend of mine lived in the Primrose Condos on the West side of town--near the Mall, middle of a pretty good subdivision. I know they remodeled them recently and I think they're going for around $80K. If you go to the Northeast part of town--which is the growth area right now--there are a lot of big 3 br townhomes that are in your ballpark, pricewise.

[Darlynn0217]

I saw a website today that might be of help....it had links for Columbia as well as Jeff City....
donemery.com
Hope it helps

[kfrazier]

Thanks for the website and all the information. That website had houses I had not seen on the other real estate websites. I hope we are able to find something in our budget. I am completely willing to live in a condo or townhouse but I don't want to feel like I spent 80 grand for an apartment.

[MasterofJune]

Have you looked into Fulton??? There is very reasonable housing there and a lot of jobs available. It is only 20 minutes from Columbia and there are very good schools.

[afk211]

I came to Columbia for grad school and my husband and I loved it so much that we decided to settle here. We bought an older house in SW Columbia for $115,000 - it's a great, safe neighborhood with good schools. Actually, almost all of the public schools in Columbia are excellent. Check greatschools.net and the few that aren't so good will stick out. We would've loved to live closer to downtown, but chose a house farther out because what we could afford there would've been in the not-so-safe part of town. The area between Broadway and the business loop west of Providence is where almost all the crime in Columbia is concentrated. We also looked at some brand new houses north of I-70 and found the neighborhoods to be cookie-cutter and saturated with houses for sale. That's not encouraging if you're planning to sell anytime soon. If safety is your main concern and you're looking to spend around $80,000, my advice is to look at condos in the SW. Nothing in Columbia is that far - just drive downtown to enjoy all the great shops and restaurants!

[aragx6]

Honestly I would be careful buying in Columbia if you are not planning on staying very long. From what I saw there are a frightful number of houses on the market and they're still going up. Expect some more condo developments in the next couple of years too. the last thing you'd want is to be competing with new construction. I think the market is going to fall for at least another year or two.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by aragx6

Honestly I would be careful buying in Columbia if you are not planning on staying very long. From what I saw there are a frightful number of houses on the market and they're still going up. Expect some more condo developments in the next couple of years too. the last thing you'd want is to be competing with new construction. I think the market is going to fall for at least another year or two.

That is also true for the vast majority of the country right now.

[aragx6]

And I would likely caution anyone anywhere who isn't planning to stay for 5 years or more to seriously consider not buying right now.

What is scariest about Columbia's market is the number of brand new houses that have sat empty and unsold for 6 months +

There are actually some new house auctions going on in Columbia- not just the typical foreclosure auctions people have seen in the past- and in talking to realtors from Chicago, St. Louis and New York this is not only highly unusual but raised immense concerns for them in regards to Columbia's housing market.