Why do you live here? (St. Louis, Buffalo: high crime, how much, buying a home)

[Seahawksfan33]

I only live here since it's one of the cheapest places to live in the country.

[gypsyjudy]

Because of my husband's job. But, I will be moving to another state in 20 days!!!!!! The third time (living here)has NOT been a charm for me.

[FrankMiller]

It's a good goldilocks town, not too big or too small, although that's my personal bias. There's more to do here than in most comparable cities, and I prefer to visit NYC or Chicago rather than live there.

[Seahawksfan33]

Originally Posted by gypsyjudy

Because of my husband's job. But, I will be moving to another state in 20 days!!!!!! The third time (living here)has NOT been a charm for me.

This is the second time for me. I guess that another thing that I like about it is that it actually gives off a big city impression, which is something that a lot of bigger cities fail to do. The downtown area has some decent restaurants as well. It's a shame that the high crime has to overshadow the few nice things about it though.

[STL74]

Because...I like it.

I agree on the Goldilocks town. I did enjoy living in Chicago, but didn't feel like the Chicago urban life was ideal for raising a family and moving to the suburbs made it just like living in any other city, so we left. We also lived in a city that was too small for a while but that was great for my husband's career.

We live close in, with great proximity to everything. My kids go to top notch schools. We have a beautiful house with a big yard for the kids and the dogs. We have access to amazing healthcare. We enjoy the symphony and watching shows at the Fox, etc. We love the access to museums. We love the botanical garden, the zoo, the restaurants, hockey and baseball. And we have family here. My husband didn't grow up with grandparents and I did. We both agree...growing up with grandparents nearby is ideal. We also get to travel a lot and we're right in the middle, so that's nice.

We could live anywhere. We choose here.

[BerkeleyKid]

This is a good question as I haven't now for quite a while but still wonder what keeps those staying especially even with the extreme weather temps and conditions there. To each his own I guess.

[billiken]

We're another couple that could live pretty much anywhere in the country, but we choose to live here. It's the mix of economical with great city amenities. Love the architecture too. I'm a city girl, and we can afford a larger SFH here in the city. With plenty of money left over to save a lot for retirement, travel a bunch, and have a lot of flexibility in how much we work (since having kids, I reduced my schedule a lot). I've moved away to try something new, and ended up back here. I also like the civic pride [online things seem negative--but almost everyone I know likes living here and generally are very charitable] and feeling like I can have a really big impact in the community.

We tried Denver for a couple years [again, everyone online hypes it...I did not get they hype]. We thought about moving back to Chicago [where I am from]. Realized very quickly we couldn't afford a house where I wanted to be without making cuts to retirement, fun money, and the flexibility we have now, and my husband isn't a huge Chicago fan. Thought about moving to where my husband is from [Buffalo NY]. Too small and cold.

Other places we considered when we were leaving Denver: Indy, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore. But St Louis just was so great to us the first time around, it was hard to pass up.

I think the only thing that would drive us to leave now would be a really crazy job offer, or an opportunity to move overseas (love traveling).

[glamatomic]

It's my second time living here. The first time I moved here for work, the second time we chose it.

Buying a home here was very affordable, the cost of living is low, and now that we have young children I like it even better! There's a lot of free/cheap stuff to do with the kids- possibly even more so than in other cities?

St. Louis is a decent size as well. It's big enough to have all of the big city cultural amenities, but as I said before, it's affordability is what makes it win in my eyes.

[1grin_g0]

Originally Posted by billiken

We're another couple that could live pretty much anywhere in the country, but we choose to live here. It's the mix of economical with great city amenities. Love the architecture too. I'm a city girl, and we can afford a larger SFH here in the city. With plenty of money left over to save a lot for retirement, travel a bunch, and have a lot of flexibility in how much we work (since having kids, I reduced my schedule a lot). I've moved away to try something new, and ended up back here. I also like the civic pride [online things seem negative--but almost everyone I know likes living here and generally are very charitable] and feeling like I can have a really big impact in the community.

We tried Denver for a couple years [again, everyone online hypes it...I did not get they hype]. We thought about moving back to Chicago [where I am from]. Realized very quickly we couldn't afford a house where I wanted to be without making cuts to retirement, fun money, and the flexibility we have now, and my husband isn't a huge Chicago fan. Thought about moving to where my husband is from [Buffalo NY]. Too small and cold.

Other places we considered when we were leaving Denver: Indy, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore. But St Louis just was so great to us the first time around, it was hard to pass up.

I think the only thing that would drive us to leave now would be a really crazy job offer, or an opportunity to move overseas (love traveling).

You hit on some key points. STL is a great value. You don't have to work 40+ hours a week to live comfortably. A great work-life balance is attainable in STL. Discretionary income, time to travel, fewer traffic headaches, are a few of the things that make STL attractive, especially to families. If STL could just solve the crime issue it would be even better.

For the life of me I can't figure out what is so great about Denver. Proximity to mountains are a plus, and the airport offers more direct flights, but that is about it.

Indy is intriguing, especially its northern suburbs. We may be moving back to the Midwest soon to be closer to family. Indy and STL are high on our list.

[FrankMiller]

I had the chance to move to NJ for work and it was like, NJ suburbs look the same as St. Louis suburbs but cost twice as much. Pass. It's closer to NYC, but I can take day trips to NYC by plane and still come out ahead financially.