Moving to St Louis ..Need Help (St. Louis, St. Charles: apartment complexes, to rent, crime rate)

[hotshotspidey]

Hello All
I am the newest member to the forum!! Also know nothing about St.Louis except from what I have read in Wikipidia
I will be moving from Philadelphia to STL in Dec and need help regarding the good neighborhood with less to commute and good malls around to rent the apt. I will be working in Hazelwood (63042)..And I had searched and read the posts that its not exactly "Safe" area !!!
So could you all please suggest me a good neighborhood which is at good commutable distance (like 20-30min max) from my workplace (zip:63042) and having reasonable malls for groceries and stuff?

Hope to get suggestions from you
Thanks a bunch!!

[aragx6]

My suggestion would be St. Charles. it's just over the river, and you'll be able to use 370 to commute, which is pretty much never jammed. If you tell us more of what your looking for (rent or buy, price range, bedrooms) we can definitely give some more specific info.

[hotshotspidey]

Thanks for such a quick response
I am looking for apt to rent 1 bedroom mostly and a rent range upto 800(if including heat at least,internet will be even better) and will be more than happy to have 2 bedroom if get in this range !!

[hotshotspidey]

Sorry to ask so many questions but as you know 'know nothing about the place' also wanted to know if there is state tax and/or city tax applicable? As currently I am living in suburbs of Philly ,near to workplace and happily skipping City taxes.

[TGS]

If you live in the suburbs, then you will pay state taxes, but no city tax. City tax only applies if you live or work inside the city limits of St. Louis.

I agree that St. Charles is a good place to look. West St. Louis County, around Creve Coeur, would also be good. Both are nice, safe, suburban areas with lot of amenities. There are a ton of good apartment complexes right off of Page west of I-270, both in St. Louis and St. Charles Counties.

[isugrad]

Be sure to do research if you move to Saint Charles. The overall crime rate for the city of Saint Charles is higher than the crime rate for Hazelwood. There is also a problem with auto breakins at some Saint Charles area apartment complexes. For your price range, I would recommend the Maryland Heights, Westport area. I lived there when I worked at Boeing in Hazelwood and never had any problems plus the commute time was about 15 minutes. Plus you would not be too far from West County and Chesterfield malls. On a side note, Hazelwood is not as bad as it is painted out to be on this forum. There is no reason to be concerned about working in Hazelwood.

[aragx6]

Although I agree that Hazelwood is not as bad a place as it is often made out to be, to say that St. Charles has more crime is just patently false. Below are some crime stats per 100,000 people.

Murder per 100,000:
Hazelwood: 2002- 0, 2003- 7.6, 2004- 0
St.Charles: 2002-1.7, 2003- 0, 2004-3.3

Rapes per 100,000:
H-Wood: 26.2, 30.5, 22.9
StC: 26.5, 24.9, 13.3

Robberies per 100,000:
H-Wood: 61.1, 87.8, 68.7
StC: 44.8, 58, 61.3

Assaults per 100,000:
H-Wood: 278.6, 335.8, 358.7
StC: 114.4, 237.1, 157.5

Burglaries per 100,000:
H-Wood: 503.7, 614.4, 606.7
StC: 414.4, 394.6, 520.5

Thefts per 100,000:
H-Wood: 1694.3, 2289.6, 2686.4
StC: 2238, 2614.3, 2075.6

Auto Thefts per 100,000:
H-Wood: 435, 538, 435
StC: 213.9, 333.2, 253.6

All of this info came from here: City Demographics if anyone wants to check.

[hotshotspidey]

Whoa!! This looks lil scary....I mean I am not sure how much stats really show the real picture!! More than stats your experience of these areas would help me more I guess!! I mean honestly in last 3-4 years at least I had just heard couple of incidents of mugging happened with my friends in city in Phialdelphia! which I guess is nothing ...I have my wife who might have to go alone on her workplace and all so I am concerned for her safety now Yet she hasnt got a job in St Louis so no idea where she will have to go for work.
1) So can you suggest relatively safe neighbourhood as per your experience for my family and will also appreciate if you can let me know if in that city there are city taxes applicable.
2) Also I wanna know if cost of living really that cheap in St Louis as it was one major deciding factor (based on cost of living comparison calculators) for me to take up the job? What do u think of salary of around 62K for 2 is ok/good/bad? I understand its very relative but considering basic recurring monthly expenses like rent,utility bills, gas, taxes if you can give opinion will be great!!

Thanks guys so far for all the info provided ..I hope "crime rate" wont be too much to worry about!!!

[aragx6]

My point with the stats is that crime is nothing to worry about in St. Charles or any of the other places recommended to you. I lived in St. Charles for 18 years and really it is a very sleepy bedroom community. There will be crime everywhere, but one thing that's important to note is that many of these crimes are domestic in nature. In my life in St. Charles/St. Peters I can think of relatively few instances of "random" crime.

My mom is a worrier by nature, but she never thought twice about letting me go out in St. Charles alone. In High School we went to the movie theatre or to Denny's or something and nothing even remotely bad ever befell us.

And yes, St. Louis really is much cheaper than most places in the country. I don't know a lot about the cost of living in Philly, but I live in Chicago now and I am always shocked by how much more housing and groceries cost here. I think you could comfortably live on $62K, my mom had three kids and made about $35K and still managed to own a home. It was tight, but doable, so for the two of you $62 should be fine. you'll be solidly in the middle class.

Honestly, as far as city taxes, I don't know. Hopefully someone else can answer that for you. I always lived with my mom.

[hotshotspidey]

Hello Aragx6,
Thanks a ton for reply!! I mean with this "crime rate" all over internet (about STL as top ranked city) and stats and all was just getting concerned!! Thanks for your encouraging words