buying home based on school district (St. Louis, Columbia: sales, renting, houses)

[boilerman]

As you may have read in my previous post, my family and I are moving to STL next month. My wife has charged me with finding a good school for our 5, 9, and 10 year old. One child is academically superior, one is academically challenged and may require a learning-disabled class, and the youngest is very smart and very interested in sports.

We are looking at houses in Belleville, Florissant, Oakville, Bellfontaine Neighbors,and Columbia, Il. These locations are negotiable based on the school. I am bound only by the price of the house (no more than $140K), and the safety of my family. I have found no definitive information on which schools are best and require your advice. Time is of the essence, as I am driving to STL on Thursday morning and will be placing an offer on a house that day.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Tony

[TGS]

Originally Posted by boilerman

As you may have read in my previous post, my family and I are moving to STL next month. My wife has charged me with finding a good school for our 5, 9, and 10 year old. One child is academically superior, one is academically challenged and may require a learning-disabled class, and the youngest is very smart and very interested in sports.

We are looking at houses in Belleville, Florissant, Oakville, Bellfontaine Neighbors,and Columbia, Il. These locations are negotiable based on the school. I am bound only by the price of the house (no more than $140K), and the safety of my family. I have found no definitive information on which schools are best and require your advice. Time is of the essence, as I am driving to STL on Thursday morning and will be placing an offer on a house that day.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Tony

If you are going to use public schools, then Belleville, Oakville, and Columbia will be fine. Take Bellefontaine Neighbors off your list... don't even consider it. Florissant would be ok if you can't find anything in the first three school districts, but the school district has a lot more problems than the first three.

If I were you, I wouldn't spread my net so far. Just look at either South County or Illinois and skip North County altogether. If you are looking at South County, then also look in the Affton, Bayless, and Mehlville districts. Valley Park also has a good and VERY SMALL district which might be good for kids that need special attention. If you can go all the way out to the Fox school district, you will get a lot of house for the money.

The premiere school districts are Clayton, Brentwood, Ladue, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Parkway, and parts of Rockwood, but they are probably out of your price range. You might be able to find something in Parkway South.

[illinoisnative]

An excellent tool for comparing public schools in Illinois is the Illinois Interactive Report Card, which gives you information about each school and how they test compared to the district and state averages plus their academic standing, etc. You'll find Columbia the better choice for schools when comparing Columbia and Belleville, IL but will also find much less of a housing selection for the lower $100k range. Columbia's median sales price is $186,500 vs. Belleville's $115,000 so far this year according to figures available through the local multiple listing service. Belleville schools are pretty good with scores above average. There are plenty of homes available for this price range in Belleville. Good luck on your search Thursday and welcome to the St. Louis area!

[CellarBelle]

Edwardsville school district is a great school district. Check it out at the same Interactive Report Card that Illinoisnative referenced. Tough to find a house for under $140, but not impossible. if you look at Holiday Shores and Worden, you will still be in that school district and you can find some better buys. That would put you about 35 miles from downtown st. louis. If you move in town in edwardsville/glen carbon, you are looking at about 20 miles from St. Louis. Good luck!

[boilerman]

We sure appreciate all the information. We found some good deals in Collinsville as well.

[cd_stl]

Don't leave out area like Ballwin which has awesome schools. We know of a 3 bedroom/1 bath (we are not the owners) with a useable basement for $139 in Ballwin...

[21mm397]

Hey Tony, are you heading up to St Louis today or tomorrrow? My family and I will be there all next week. The realtor selling our house here in Georgia hooked us up with a realtor in St Louis, and she's sent us tons of listings. In a pinch, you might consider renting for a year. My wife has been looking on-line, and there are a lot of town homes, some over 1,000sqft, for between $700 and $800 a month. I figure if we don't find anything or can't sell our house before I have to start work, that's probably the way we'll go.

cd_stl,
How big is that house in Ballwin? That's one of the areas we are looking at as well.