Best area for a family in St Louis metro?

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by AJmsp

Hello all,

I’ve recently accepted a position in St. Louis and will be moving from Minneapolis. We are a family of four (kids 6 & 3). My wife will stay home at least until the youngest is in kindergarten, so we are a single income family for now. Household income will be $90K, plus discretionary annual bonus. We would like to rent for a year before buying a house but definitely plan to buy if we like it here. I would like to keep rent at 25% of gross pay, so $1800 or so. Same goes for a house-I would like to keep PITI at $1800 or less ($300K at most) when we choose to buy. I’ll be working in Maryland Heights.

I have searched these boards for advice, and I’ve scouted the area when I came for my interview. However, since I have no contacts in the area, I thought it might be good to ask the locals myself.

I would like to know what the best place for my family is. We need good public schools first and foremost. They don’t have to be great, but definitely above average. Based on what I’ve seen, it looks like Ladue, Clayton and maybe Lindbergh have the best rankings in the area. Again, we don’t need best of the best. I see that Rockwood, Parkway, Kirkwood, and Francis Howell have good test scores, amongst others.

It’s my understanding that STL has some nice family amenities downtown, and we do certainly plan to take advantage of that. But we would like to live in a suburb that has good amenities for more regular day to day use... bike trails, parks and playgrounds, libraries, maybe a water park. We aren’t very picky about restaurants or shopping. Those hobbies get expensive fast when you have kids. We aren’t fans of chain restaurants, but we’ll live amongst them if need be and commute to a good restaurant on the rare occasion that we go.

During my trip here, I ventured to both Clayton (170/64 area), Chesterfield and Saint Charles area. Clayton was so nice but not sure we can afford it based on Zillow prices. Chesterfield looked new and upscale, probably nicer than Saint Charles. But I’ve seen Cheaterfield prices, too, and I’m not sure I want to pay a premium for what seemed kind of like... generic suburbia. Saint Charles had a cool downtown, and the area overall seems cheaper. But I’ve seen some posts on here that indicate it’s maybe not the best place. I don’t care about whether a place is liberal or conservative, but I would ideally like my family to be in a place that is educated, people take care of their property, properly fund their schools, etc. Overall seemed like a decent place driving through save for a few lower class areas here and there.

Please, feel free to let me know if I’m way off base thinking the Saint Charles area might be a good place to raise a family. Also, feel free to let me know if there’s any other areas I’m missing. We don’t want to live in the city but wouldn’t mind a closer in suburb and older house (we could probably make do with 1500 sqft though closer to 2000 would be ideal). But again, it’d have to fit my budget. Thanks again for the help everyone.

St. Charles County seems a natural fit. It's family oriented. In St. Louis County, the Parkway School District would be a good option.