Olivette in Ladue school district worth looking at? (Florissant, Rea: for sale, real estate)

[Badger96]

Since the Ladue school district is in my top running, just wondering if I should consider new homes in Olivette that are in the Ladue school district?

[glamatomic]

Definitely! Olivette is normally more affordable than Ladue itself but is still a safe area (about half the national crime average) with some great mid century housing stock. Plus, being in the Ladue school district your resale value should be fairly good if you ever decide to move on.

Good luck!

[julian17033]

Ladue and Olivette are extremely expensive and exclusive thus creating a tax base that can and does afford superior public education opportunities.

Other than nit picking tax assessment rates on property you can't go wrong.

If you can afford it then by all means enjoy the benefits.

[glamatomic]

Originally Posted by julian17033

Ladue and Olivette are extremely expensive and exclusive thus creating a tax base that can and does afford superior public education opportunities.

Other than nit picking tax assessment rates on property you can't go wrong.

If you can afford it then by all means enjoy the benefits.

Olivette isn't extremely expensive by any means- at least not compared to Ladue. Currently, the average house value in Olivette is $238k compared to $679k in Ladue.

As for taxes, in Olivette at least while they're a tad bit higher than where I live in Florissant, they're not exorbitant. An average 3 bed 2 bath mid century home is usually looking at $2000-$2500 in taxes per year in Olivette. I'm not sure what Ladue taxes are like, but considering the cost of the houses I'd assume a lot more!

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by Badger96

Since the Ladue school district is in my top running, just wondering if I should consider new homes in Olivette that are in the Ladue school district?

I think that's just a matter of personal preference.

[NettieV6]

If you want a new home in the Ladue school district, Olivette is a good option. When we were looking, we decided to buy an existing home in Ladue because it was much more affordable than new construction.

[zach_33]

There are pockets of Olivette, primarily in the neighborhoods north of Olive Blvd, where you still have high concentrations of older, some not so well maintained, ranch homes. I'm going to say 10 to 15 years ago (I believe) there was an influx of "suburban pioneers" buying those ranches, tearing them down, and building nice 3000-4000+ square foot new builds, and since the school district is excellent, they were fetching 600, 700, even 800. Well, the infill never hit manifest destiny proportions, so you have a lot of folks up there who are waiting and anxious for the dominos to keep falling. Fair market value in those neighborhoods may still be hovering 20% below peak (very roughly speaking). The apartments along Olive also tend to be lower income, transient folks too. So it's a little bit speculative up that way. The southern portion of Olivette, however, including most of the neighborhoods that radiate from Old Bonhomme, is quite nice, uniformly affluent, and practically indistinguishable from Ladue.

[julian17033]

Originally Posted by glamatomic

Olivette isn't extremely expensive by any means- at least not compared to Ladue. Currently, the average house value in Olivette is $238k compared to $679k in Ladue.

As for taxes, in Olivette at least while they're a tad bit higher than where I live in Florissant, they're not exorbitant. An average 3 bed 2 bath mid century home is usually looking at $2000-$2500 in taxes per year in Olivette. I'm not sure what Ladue taxes are like, but considering the cost of the houses I'd assume a lot more!

Really?? Let's take a look shall we?

Olivette Real Estate - Olivette, MO Homes for Sale - REALTOR.com®

I see over 10 homes in the Olivette zip code over 700,000 dollars and many more in the half million dollar range.

This drives the cost of homes that would normally be considered much more moderate in size and price simply because they exist within the confines of the School district.

Please list your source for average cost that you listed.

[glamatomic]

I was looking at Zillow- I realize ZEstimates are often way off, but for the overall area (since it's based on Zip Code) I've found it to be fairly accurate.



I realize that there are lots of properties for more, (more in line with the Ladue price range) but there are also properties for less. DH & I looked at one house in Olivette last year that was for sale for $120k (a total bargain for the area) but it went under contract VERY quickly.

North of Olive Blvd in particular you'll find plenty of houses $300k and under. Not including Condos, there are 15 Single Family Homes in Olivette priced under $300k (some of them in the $150k and less range). This drives down the overall average price for the area.

[flynavyj]

I had looked at Olivette as well, while I absolutely love the school district I wasn't so thrilled with the condition of some of some of the subdivisions North of Olive Blvd. But the house prices, along with the stellar school district, essentially guarantees good home prices moving forward.

The areas to the South of Olive Blvd are very nice as well, some of the new construction I can remember seeing in that area did seem a bit overpriced though, especially in the 05-08 housing heyday. I can specifically remember a gorgeous new home, that took up nearly all of it's postage stamp sized yard, that carried an asking price of $800k...the only thing that justified it was new construction in an area where that's hard to get, and being in the Ladue School District. That home sat on the market for ages, but was somewhat of an attraction on open house days, since it was clearly the nicest home in the neighborhood. The zillow estimate puts the homes value around $450k, which might be a bit low now, and shows that it sold for almost $700k in 2009.