Moving to St louis area which schools/suburbs etc?

[FrankMiller]

My wife commuted from Kirkwood to Chesterfield for awhile and it wasn't too bad. Depending on where exactly you live/work, the traffic-heavy stretch could be pretty short, or avoidable using alternative routes.

My perception of St. Charles County is that if you're living far enough west to save significant money, you're considerably lengthening your commute (which will only get worse in the near future as the population increases there). It also represents a substantial investment risk, since so many of those developments are generic suburban sprawl near nothing but other generic suburban sprawl. Chances are good nobody will ever buy your house for twice what you paid for it in ten years, because they'll just live in a brand-new development five miles further down the highway.

Edit: Just to be clear, I'm mainly talking about the sprawling suburbia of distant O'Fallon and the like. There are neighborhoods like downtown St. Chuck that are quite nice, for example.

[ehfp]

I'd probably go for the shorter commute and look closer to Chesterfield in your position, but, FWIW, we moved from Lincoln Park to Clayton a few years ago and LOVED it. It's walkable, the schools and amenities are terrific, and the people are very nice. We hadn't thought we could find anything in our price range, but we managed to find a great house. Especially if Clayton is where you see yourself ending up in a few years, I wouldn't give up on finding a house in your price range now. (And then if you do get a pay bump and want to move up, your kids will already be in the district.)

[burningdrake]

We currently live in South County (due to convenient work commute), but if we had to do it over again, we would have chosen Kirkwood. (We've lived here 3 years).

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by Chicago76

It's tough to separate school quality vs. high student performance because the demographics of the school skews wealthier/more educated. Hinsdale South v. Central is a great example of that. They have the same teaching pool, curriculum, board, etc. Both are good schools. And if you put a kid in one instead of the other, I don't think it would make a bit of difference in terms of that student's performance.

In terms of having a general population that has an education/values it.

-In the state of Missouri, the 7 districts with the highest percentage of adults with at least a Bachelor Degree are: Clayton, Ladue, Brentwood, Kirkwood, Parkway (includes Chesterfield), Webster Groves, Rockwood..in that order. All are in the middle of St. Louis county.

-In terms of median family income, its the same 7 districts in a different order: Ladue, Clayton, Rockwood, Kirkwood, Parkway, Webster Groves, Brentwood.

Ladue+Clayton students on average come from the wealthiest and most educated homes in the metro. They perform at Hinsdale Central levels (probably due to their background as much as anything else)

The other 5 perform at very good levels as well. Closer to Hinsdale South, but between South and Central. I personally would have no problems sending my kids to any of them.

Here's how I'd break them all down:
-if you want the absolute highest school performance at any price: Clayton or Ladue
-town center charm at a lower price, strong schools (which goes for the next categories too): Kirkwood or Webster
-lowest class sizes + high expenditures per pupil in a smaller school setting without the Clayton or Ladue price tag: Brentwood.
-biggest bang for your buck on a house, more of a new suburban setting: Rockwood or Parkway (Cheterfield)

Quite accurate I would say. I would only add that, for better or worse, Kirkwood seems to be getting more affluent. Many older smaller houses are going down for bigger new houses. There must be a demand for it.

[krismoshes]

Zillow lets you check homes in areas and schools in those areas at the same time. Helpful cuz you can check just saint Louis or instead type saint Louis county and it's all there.