Holy sales tax Batman! And a question about cost-of-living (St. Louis: low income, apartment)

[bomgd3]

Hey everyone,
I'm a medical student at Wash U doing a one-month rotation. I grew up here, attended Glenridge Elementary and later Parkway West Middle and High. My family eventually moved out to Connecticut but I'm interested in returning to St. Louis for residency because I think it would be a great place to raise a family and focus on medical training. Theoretically the midwest has cheaper COL but more on that below:

My question is about the cost of living in St. Louis. I remember housing being really cheap in my childhood. Our house in Ballwin was something like $120,000 for a great neighborhood and school district, and our apartment in Clayton was very cheap as well. However, now that I'm back, things really don't seem all that cheap! Based on my quick searches on Zillow, condos in Clayton are pricey, houses are ridiculously expensive (to be fair they always were expensive, even in the 90's when I lived there), and... the sales tax... oh my goodness! I have never seen a sales tax so high!

At first glance, daily life seems significantly more expensive here than in Connecticut since we are not taxed on groceries or clothing and overall sales tax is only 6.35%. Housing is certainly cheap in the outer suburbs, but the desirable areas still seem expensive and comparable to east coast prices. Income tax in Missouri is actually higher than Connecticut as well. Are the property taxes low?

What's the deal with the insane sales tax? And what is the cost of living truly like here? If I came to St. Louis I would be looking for a great school district reasonably close to Barnes Jewish Hospital, such as Clayton or Ladue. I don't live extravagantly and would be looking for a small apartment or condo, like 500-800 sqft or so. My income would be approx $50,000 pretax but nearly $1100 per month in loan payments. If everything goes to plan, my significant other would join the next year and our combined income would be $100,000 but with loan payments of approx $2,400/month.

[STLviaMSP]

It could have something to do with the Hancock Amendment, which is a piece of legislation passed by the good ol' boy city-hating Missourah legislature back in the early '80s, which has made it almost impossible to increase taxes at the state level, thus the low income taxes, meaning if metro STL needs more $$$, it has to find them locally. It makes things more complicated than they need to be. That's my theory anyway.

[marigolds6]

Missouri income tax is not as bad as it seems because it is loaded down with exemptions and credits way beyond federal credits and exemptions. Clayton sales tax is actually lower than you had on your receipt, but there are some special taxing districts with much higher taxes. You must have dined in one of them.

The problem from a housing perspective is that Clayton and Ladue are some of the richest zip codes in the country; housing is similarly expensive. You can move just a small distance over into Overland (for the Ladue district) or Brentwood/Richmond Heights (for Clayton) and cut your housing prices by more than half while staying in the same district.

[wustu87]

Yes, the sales tax you pay these days in St. Louis County is pretty crazy, but your 10.991% seems even higher than the 8-9.5% taxes I am used to seeing in Richmond Heights, Maplewood or Brentwood (where we spend the vast majority of our retail spending.) Where did you get that winner of a sales tax rate? I always find it a bit insane how every municipality has a slightly different rate since so many little taxes are being added up together to make the final giant total.

As for property tax rates, the rates tend to be lowest where the properties cost the most (i.e. Ladue, Clayton, Brentwood), but it seems just about all the districts have recently had property tax increases (I know Brentwood just passed one in April and Ladue just passed one last year.) I have no idea how they compare in Connecticut but I know where we live in the Ladue district our annual property tax ends up being about 1.3% of the appraised value.

[billiken]

Woah, those are some sales taxes! A lot of Brentwood's retail development has lots of special taxing districts, which causes me to avoid making any big purchases there. I never saw anything over 10%, but when I lived there 2 years ago, a lot of Brentwood was in the 9% ranage.

I'd look in Brentwood Forest. Cheap townhomes especially compared to Clayton, very stable community, great schools, still close to everything.

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by STLviaMSP

It could have something to do with the Hancock Amendment, which is a piece of legislation passed by the good ol' boy city-hating Missourah legislature back in the early '80s, .

Wrong. It was passed by voters and is not legislation; it is an amendment to the state constitution.

[zach_33]

Agree, sales tax of 9% seems more common. Curious where you got hit with that tab.

Clayton and Ladue are the two most expensive housing districts in the metro area, but they pale in comparison to the CT suburbs of NYC. Does it get any more expensive than Fairfield County CT? Maybe Palo Alto, CA.

Like others said, you can focus in on the communities around Clayton and Ladue that still use their school district and get a good deal. Richmond Heights, Olivette, Creve Couer. You could also buy a decent, vintage 2-bedroom condo in Clayton on a $100k income and trade up to a single family after residency. No shortage of that kind of lifestage planning happening in De Mun and the Moorlands.

[jribe]

i live in brentwood and shop at the dierbergs there as well as trader joes and target- i think the 9-10% seems about right; there's special taxes that are added on.. I went to Petsmart recently and spent $90- total came to just about 100 w/tax. I had never really paid much attention to the taxes until that one..

[bomgd3]

That receipt was from Starbucks in the Central West End. Thanks for the info regarding living in the cheaper areas sharing Ladue/Clayton school districts. Very helpful!

The sales tax here is really out of hand. For example, today I went to the Wash U book store to buy a textbook. Their price is already 20% above the Amazon price, but there isn't a textbook or nonprofit sales tax exemption, so with sales tax the price of the textbook would have been 30% more than Amazon. I will pay a small premium for the convenience of buying locally, but not when the differences are so huge!

The sales tax is very regressive as well. As a relatively poor student and future poor resident, it's almost like a 10% income tax if I spent my budget locally. Of course one day as a "real doctor" I guess I can breathe a sign of relief.

[Cellar-door]

Ah it was an extra 1.5% for the city restaurant tax.