Living around Stockton or Pomme de Terre? (Springfield, St. Clair: house, neighborhood)

[Pfeigle]

We are looking to move into SW Missouri and are considering rural areas around Stockton or Pomme de Terre Lake.

We want to be away from a big city and live simply on affordable acreage. We love the outdoors.

Any opinions on living near either one of these two lake areas?

[KonaKat]

My sister has a lake house at Stockton. They love it there. A few nice little towns nearby, and Springfield just an hour or so away. Very pretty country.

[Pfeigle]

Thanks. We are coming into the area to view a handful of properties from Stockton Lake, Pomme de Terre and also Buffalo.
It is lovely country, the first time we visited was in early September.

[Wanderer0101]

It's a very nice area. I've looked at quite a bit of property there myself. Lake Stockton tends to be rather windy and rough. It's great if you like sailing but maybe not so great for other activities.

[christina0001]

I live pretty close to both lakes. Both are lovely. There's definitely plenty of affordable homes with acreage in this area. People in this area are pretty friendly. I prefer folks around Pomme de Terre over Stockton just a bit.

[brushrunner]

Pomme de Terre is the forgotten Lake out of most in the area. I like Pomme de Terre. Just sold a house there, $68K.

I now live 30 miles from there but love to make the drive to Hunt and Fish.

Stockton seems to catch most from Springfield.

brushrunner

[Pfeigle]

We visited the area again last weekend looking for a place to buy. We saw a great place very, very close to Pomme De Terre on the west side of the lake. Plenty of acreage, house and price were right! But, I was a little put off by all the not-so-tidy trailers in the area. I've been told that's just the way it is being close to the lake in an unrestricted county. I guess it's just something I'm not used to seeing, being from the city. Any local opinions out there?

[Arrby]

That's just the way it is. No zoning in Polk, Cedar, St. Clair, or Hickory Counties. No building codes.

[christina0001]

I agree with Arrby. It's a roll of the dice. There's plenty of people who take a lot of pride in the appearance of their home, and there are those who do not. A place could be a mess now, and then get sold down the road and have someone clean it up... or vice versa. We had that issue where we lived in Osceola (I'm not knocking Osceola at all, I really liked it there). Fortunately we had lots of mature trees and didn't have to look at it, except when we drove down the road. Where we are at now, we only have one neighbor that's kind of a mess, and in the 2.5 years we've been here, he's been slowing getting things cleaned up, which is nice. He's a strange but nice older gentleman; he and my DH rebuilt the fence between our properties, basically for the neighbor's benefit (for livestock he wanted). Better to get along with neighbors, and if it helped him get his place organized we were glad to help.

If it really troubles you, you might want to keep looking for a home in a different neighborhood. Of course, the price may be a little higher for it.

[Pfeigle]

Thanks for your input. I love the SW Missouri countryside, it's just beautiful.
We'll take another look at this proptery and more in Jan–Feb. I need to feel the winter there too!