Best place to live in missouri (Kansas City, Columbia: housing, rent, schools)

[Indy4570]

Love the place MoMark. Unless I win the lotto (and I don't buy tickets often) I can safely say I will never own one as nice. But I can say that I wait with forced patience to get down there and start building my own rustic home in the hills. I just found a site today that lists log cabins or stone style building restrictions for some areas. I have heard of restrictions but never one such as that. I am leaning toward a post and beam design with vaulted ceilings and lofts and a basic open floor plan. My biggest fear is penetrating the ever present rock that seems to be everywhere. Anyway as to the thread, anywhere is southern Missouri seems to be a beautiful place to be!

[Indy4570]

Originally Posted by Bird_Watcher

I agree, the photos are really nice!...and I'm laughing at what you said about taking the day and driving around to all your fav places snapping photos...that's just what I did when I moved from Rolla, Mo back to Cleveland recently. I spent most of the days leading up to my move taking tons of pics...*sigh*

A moment of silence please for Bird watcher.... Rolla to Cleveland? I feel for ya...I really do are you still in Cleveland? If so I can understand why you visit these webpages, much the same as I it brings you closer to the place you long to be

[MoMark]

Originally Posted by Indy4570

Love the place MoMark. Unless I win the lotto (and I don't buy tickets often) I can safely say I will never own one as nice. But I can say that I wait with forced patience to get down there and start building my own rustic home in the hills. I just found a site today that lists log cabins or stone style building restrictions for some areas. I have heard of restrictions but never one such as that. I am leaning toward a post and beam design with vaulted ceilings and lofts and a basic open floor plan. My biggest fear is penetrating the ever present rock that seems to be everywhere. Anyway as to the thread, anywhere is southern Missouri seems to be a beautiful place to be!

Thank you Indy. But, believe it or not, it wasn't nearly as expensive as you might think. I paid $227,000 with the sale being completed in Jan. 06. That's 4.3 acres and the house you saw. There are incredible homes dotting this whole area at incredible prices. Mine cost what the average neighborhood home in the U.S. costs...and the price/value has probably decreased slightly since I bought as the market here is extremely slow.
Don't count yourself out yet!!!! You may surprise yourself! And the home style you're talking about, especially with stone and vaulted ceilings, lofts, etc...that sounds beautiful. I'll bet you could find something like that already built in SW. MO. If not, you could probably do it at a reasonable cost. It's making sure a site has water for wells and then access to a nearby power line that seem crucial.

[Bird_Watcher]

Originally Posted by Indy4570

A moment of silence please for Bird watcher.... Rolla to Cleveland? I feel for ya...I really do are you still in Cleveland? If so I can understand why you visit these webpages, much the same as I it brings you closer to the place you long to be

Thanks, but no need for silence...lol
I take it you've lived in Cleveland?
I just recently moved from MO to Cleveland....at the end of Jan.
Basically came back to care for my aunt and help her get back in the swing of things after her surgery. I plan on moving back to MO by August.

[Indy4570]

Well I am sitting on a really nice log home that I can't sell in Indiana. I have the land and I have power in Missouri. The well will be a big purchase, about 300' to 800' ft. deep as far as I can tell from surrounding wells. The work I will have to do myself. We plan to live in our RV while the construction proceeds. I have little resources beyond tools and expertise. We do have some logs down on the property as well as a sawmill close by. The major hurdle will be to establish trails to access the timber. Most of the property,(25 acres) is on a slant and rollover is a real concern with the small tractor I have. We do have a hilltop higher than most around and the views are spectacular when foliage does not obscure them.
I understand about dropping home values. Our house was appraised at $300,000.00 unfinished and now I can't sell it for $225.000.00. If something doesn't break soon the bank will own it. And we will start over on a patch of dirt in Missouri. It is what we want anyway. We had the place free and clear and made the mistake of not borrowing enough to wrap it up. After we paid off all of our debts as the loan stipulated we had not enough to continue. But that's life right? I and my wife have more than a lot of folks these days and for that we are thankful.

[Indy4570]

Congrats Bird Watcher ! Glad your back in the land of beauty! I have never lived in Cleveland but have been through there several times. I am sure there are some finer points to Cleveland I just never had the time to actively search them out!

[DocGSD]

Lolls.... if those houses are 400k, then those peeps are getting hosed! I mean I know those are old, and im not trying to be rude but man... I lived in KCMO, and loved it! I now live SW Mo. It is soooo much cheeper here. Brand new 2,500 sq ft house in rural Joplin, 4 bed 2.5 bath with finished walk out basement, 2+ car garage, .80 acres all brick= $210,000. Hope this helps u p horsager!
and no offence lollis

gsd

[Lolls]

Hi - no offence taken at all! Brookside became a very hot, very trendy market over the housing boom. Many people who live here bought well before the prices spiked, and back then the homes ran under 200K. The price hike covers more than just the house - remember, we've got location, location, location

It's the neighborhood. The houses are great - ours are not unusually impressive as houses, but that big expanse in front of them is a park ($$). I'm five minutes away from the Plaza, a few blocks away from old money mansions and 5-10 minutes away from major shopping - but none of the commercial places intrude on the big family neighborhood feeling of the area.

We've had visitors from Portland, Oregon, NYC and LA here, and they all lose their minds over the fact that we live in this house (which is a great old house, it's just not a mansion or anything), on a park for less than 800K. You have to keep in mind the markets those people see for real estate - 250K in the NYC metro area will get you 800 square feet next to a landfill.

At any rate - we're happy where we are.

[MoMark]

Originally Posted by Lolls

Hi - no offence taken at all! Brookside became a very hot, very trendy market over the housing boom. Many people who live here bought well before the prices spiked, and back then the homes ran under 200K. The price hike covers more than just the house - remember, we've got location, location, location

It's the neighborhood. The houses are great - ours are not unusually impressive as houses, but that big expanse in front of them is a park ($$). I'm five minutes away from the Plaza, a few blocks away from old money mansions and 5-10 minutes away from major shopping - but none of the commercial places intrude on the big family neighborhood feeling of the area.

We've had visitors from Portland, Oregon, NYC and LA here, and they all lose their minds over the fact that we live in this house (which is a great old house, it's just not a mansion or anything), on a park for less than 800K. You have to keep in mind the markets those people see for real estate - 250K in the NYC metro area will get you 800 square feet next to a landfill.

At any rate - we're happy where we are.

Those houses you showed in the photo are beautiful. I'd happily live in one and I understand exactly what you mean as far as the values having gone up and people having ridden the wave of the increases. Older homes have so much character. That is one thing about the first house I ever owned that I really enjoyed.

[Indy4570]

After watching a home movie of My wife and myself (and the dogs!) camping on our small mountain in SW Missouri, I have come to the conclusion that the best place to live in Missouri is right there on what the wife has dubbed " Crazy Woman Mountain " ! And we just can't wait to get back there!