Help me compare these neighborhoods please (St. Louis, Washington: apartments, rentals, lofts)

[Dustin_J]

Hi Everyone,

My G/F and I are thinking of moving down to St. Louis and I have a few questions about some different areas/neighborhoods. For some background, if we come down I'll be taking a position at SLU and she'll probably be working downtown somewhere or at AB, but that's up in the air.

We're really interested in renting a loft for the first year or two before buying somewhere, and we'll be to afford anything up to 1,600 - 1,700 a month, possibly more.

The areas we're looking at that seem to have the most potential are:

Downtown (including most of the Wash Ave. lofts)
Downtown-West
Midtown
Central West end.


From what we can tell, the CWE is probably the "nicest" of the areas, but it'd likely be a little more inconvenient. Also, it seems to be more expensive than the other areas. Downtown seems to be the best bang for the buck, especially in terms of being able to walk places and having things directly around the buildings. It seems that as you get into Downtown-West (1500 block + I guess) and Midtown, things are a little more sparse, although the rent is likely a bit cheaper.

Can you please let me know if my perceptions are right and give me any additional information, thoughts, comments, experiences, etc...that you have regarding these areas? Other potential areas of interest may be Soulard and Lafayette Sq., but they seem to be the most inconvenient.

Thanks so much!

[aragx6]

Well it's important to remember that St. Louis city is pretty small and traffic isn't all that bad either, so none of those options would be particularly inconvenient. That being said, in your price range you can absolutely have your pick of neighborhoods in St. Louis.

My favorite neighborhood of those you mentioned is definitely the Central West End, but it's major flaw is that the buildings are all older, and especially when it comes to rentals, they're often not particularly well updated. This is changing however and $1700 can get you a single family home there if you want it. For $1500 you can get this place- it's at McPherson and Euclid, which is the center of the CWE universe: AMAZING NEW REHAB -Everything you want! Parking, roof deck, W/D... (broken link).

The Washington Ave. area of downtown is great to, and really a huge surprise to anyone who hasn't been in St. Louis for a few years ago. A dozen years ago it was a ghost town, now it's a booming area with cool bars, restaurants and lots of great lofts.
For $1650 you can get this place: AMAZING 2BD/2BA CORNER LOFT on WASHINGTON AVE. (broken link) it's really gorgeous.

The other two areas you mentioned are growing very fast, but you're right that they're not quite there yet. With your price range I would rent somewhere hotter, if you were looking to buy, Midtown and Downtown west would be areas to consider for sure.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Dustin_J

Hi Everyone,

My G/F and I are thinking of moving down to St. Louis and I have a few questions about some different areas/neighborhoods. For some background, if we come down I'll be taking a position at SLU and she'll probably be working downtown somewhere or at AB, but that's up in the air.

We're really interested in renting a loft for the first year or two before buying somewhere, and we'll be to afford anything up to 1,600 - 1,700 a month, possibly more.

The areas we're looking at that seem to have the most potential are:

Downtown (including most of the Wash Ave. lofts)
Downtown-West
Midtown
Central West end.


From what we can tell, the CWE is probably the "nicest" of the areas, but it'd likely be a little more inconvenient. Also, it seems to be more expensive than the other areas. Downtown seems to be the best bang for the buck, especially in terms of being able to walk places and having things directly around the buildings. It seems that as you get into Downtown-West (1500 block + I guess) and Midtown, things are a little more sparse, although the rent is likely a bit cheaper.

Can you please let me know if my perceptions are right and give me any additional information, thoughts, comments, experiences, etc...that you have regarding these areas? Other potential areas of interest may be Soulard and Lafayette Sq., but they seem to be the most inconvenient.

Thanks so much!

As long as you have a car, all of those areas are in play for you. All would be good choices. All would be a 5 minute-plus side street drive for you.

[Bobster]

I don't know about 5 minutes for the drive...but not a bad drive at all. The lofts downtown have a different feel to them than apartments in the other areas that you mentioned, so I would call it more of a matter of preference.

Best of luck to you in your search!

[jojojohnson76]

I think 1,600-1,700/mo would get you just about anything you wanted in St. Louis. Take your pick!

[st. louie louie]

I would also look into Lafayette Square and perhaps Soulard. There are more unattached homes and townhouses in these areas and will feel more like a neighborhood. So...if you don't park in front of your house, clean up the leaves, throw your garbage in "your" trash can, etc...neighbors may let you subtly know.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Any of them are great areas. Central West End can be a little more expensive, though.

Downtown is convenient. There are restaurants nearby as well as plenty of younger people your own age. Could someone take the Metro from SLU to downtown (I'm asking, not stating)? I believe there are currently 58 loft developments downtown, some are done, some are not. I would suggest also checking out: Downtown St. Louis Partnership - Home )

[aragx6]

Yeah metrolink would be a good, easy option during the daytime. Alone at night is probably a different story- the area near SLU is still pretty questionable, though undoubtedly getting better.

SLU is nearest to the Grand stop on metrolink and you can take that to pretty much anywhere downtown you'd want to go. If you lived in one of the Washington Ave lofts you'd want to get off at the convention center. If you were going to do that everyday the closer you could live to Tucker and Washington the better- there's plenty of condos at Washington and 16th or 17th that would give you a bit more of a hike (like 3/4 of a mile or so)

[Dustin_J]

Thanks everyone; this is exactly the type of information I was hoping for. We'll both have cars, so we probably wouldn't need to use the metrolink for day-to-day things unless it is really convenient. It sounds like any of these areas would be good, and it's just up to us to find something we like.

[Fishtacos]

Could someone take the Metro from SLU to downtown (I'm asking, not stating)?

Yes. SLU's Metrolink stop is located on the Grand overpass of Hwy40. It's location isn't all that popular w students, but they use it to go downtown w/o car. It's fine during the day. At night, it's fine as well, but due to its location, I'd recommend going w/ someone else.