Moving from Columbus, OH to St. Louis, MO (Columbia, Clayton: sales, rent)

[zach_33]

Originally Posted by Fishtacos

You even said, "All other things being equal." Well, I believe many people would disagree with your presumption on that part between Columbus and St. Louis. While one isn't necessarily better than the other, they have differences too. I don't think they are apples to apples in comparison, or as you put it all things being equal.

Yeah, they are different. I think I said that.

In the OP, she asks specifically about similar areas/school districts like UA and Dublin. Those are the elite public school districts and the most desirable neighborhoods of Columbus, we're talking very top. The closest analogy I know of for St. Louis is Clayton and Ladue, respectively. Compare the home prices in these communities.

[Fishtacos]

I think what I am saying is that I believe it is essential to demonstrate the differences between the two metros in order to make a decision based on preference. Perhaps I misunderstood what you were saying, but you seemed to be saying that you in particular thought all other things were equal or the same, but perhaps you weren't upon reading it again. Or perhaps you were saying if everything was the same to the original poster, then this would be your deciding factor. I thought the original poster's original post was more general than that.

While I believe the truth is in the middle on the school topic between your views and the other views mentioned, and the point is a valid one. I personally believe Columbus and Stl are apples and oranges as places.

[chicagoerin]

Fish-what part of Columbus did you live in? I have read your other posts and didn't see anything mentioning that you have lived here? The rest of us are coming from a perspective of having lived in both places...

[zach_33]

Yeah, the two are hard to compare. St. Louis is way bigger, for starters. Columbus is still basically confined to Franklin county and maybe 1.0 or 1.2 million people last I cared to check. Stl has Cols beat, hands down, on the quality of its inner city housing stock. Even the poor inner-city neighborhoods in St. Louis often have these indestructible looking brick houses that were built to last by craftsmen around the turn of last century. So I think there is better opportunity for urban renewal in Stl. I also believe Stl has more interesting terrain and architecture in general-- I like the rolling hills and valleys, particularly as one gets out into the county. Columbus is pretty flat all around. There is more history in Stl-- Columbus is relatively young, so the old money suburbs are more plentiful in St. Louis. The big money in Columbus is drawing up into the northern end of Dublin schools as well as New Albany if I'm not mistaken. In terms of topology and vegetation, those are very different looking from the new money neighborhoods (like Wild Horse Creek or St. Albans) in St. Louis. Shopping is, as has been pointed out to me by people who actually like malls, probably better in StL than Columbus. Professional sports favor St. Louis, too (even though I personally favor Buckeyes football to any professional sport).

For all that, Columbus has every urban amenity the average person could desire, and then some, because it is (I am pretty sure) cheaper to buy into a top tier school district, and the commutes are easier. I'd live there in a heart beat.

I know this thread is way old, but if I were the OP, I would target Clayton and Ladue school districts. There are a small handful of relatively affordable neighborhoods within each. For the Dubliner who chimed in much later, I think you would be more partial to Town & Country or Chesterfield.

[wustu87]

The median home price in the Ladue School District is definitely not the $919K figure quoted earlier. That might be the number for all existing homes in the 63124 zip code, but not for the whole district, and definitely not the median home value of the families who actually send their kids to the Ladue public schools, since many of the >$1M home owners send their kids to private schools. There are a number of areas in the district in Olivette, Creve Coeur and Richmond Heights (and even some in 63124) where you buy a nice home for under $500K.

[chicagoerin]

Sorry, but I typically don't posts stats unless I have checked them with too reputaable sources...Ladue median home price is in fact 900kish. Most recent place I saw it was Money Mag. Best Places List.

Housing Ladue, MOCity statsBest places averageAverage home price$866,956

[chicagoerin]

Also found an article that was interesting around the topic being debated here...

Newly transplanted Nestlé, Sara Lee, Hardee's execs experience 'sticker shock'


St. Louis Business Journal - by Margie Manning



Mike Knowles, president of Sara Lee Bakery Group's frozen and refrigerated division, faced sticker shock when he began house hunting in the St. Louis area.
Knowles, relocating with his family from Australia, wanted to be no more than 30 minutes from his new office in Clayton, and he preferred to be within 10 or 15 minutes driving time. He looked at about a dozen properties in two months, finally settling on a home in Ladue.
"I was surprised by how expensive everything was," said Knowles, who also has lived in Chicago and Philadelphia. "I was guessing without knowing that the price of real estate (in St. Louis) would be lower. But once we got over the initial sticker shock, we saw a lot of homes we liked."

"There is an affordability myth about St. Louis," said William French, president and owner of St. Louis-based Wm. French Buyer's Real Estate Services Inc. "People from major metropolitan areas come in with the expectation that their money will go quite far here, and they're not finding the houses are as affordable as they thought. We've seen good increases in value over the past several years, and that's tended to catch us up with other metro areas."

[wustu87]

The money mag article is in fact stating the median home price for the city of Ladue which is a lot different than the Ladue School District. Here is a site showing the median home sales in the various St. Louis area school districts for the past 12 months:

http://stlouis.blockshopper.com/schools

The 12 month median sale price within the district is $373K, still the highest price within the St. Louis county area, but well below the number from the Money magazine article (which I again state is just for the city of Ladue and not the whole school district.) Okay, I'll admit it, I actually live in the Ladue district and my children attend the public schools. We actually bought a house in the district for under $500K and we had plenty to choose from. We know many people living in the district and the vast majority we know live in homes costing under $1M. There are even many for sale within the district for under $300K in some places, especially now. I get tired of people thinking of everybody in the district as these filthy rich folks in million dollar homes, because it is simply not true.

[zach_33]

That's a good article Erin, and matches my sentiments well. I moved here from Chicago and was also surprised. I think it may be the average home price statistics that are misleading. Take for example this spreadsheet published by the Natl Assoc Realtors with median price of existing home sales for metro areas:

http://www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/conne...29ef8d0a12d865

For the 4th quarter 2008, it shows Stl at $113,700, Columbus at $126,500, and Chicago at $217,800. This is supposed to be taking into account the metro area, not just the city proper. So obviously, coming from Chi-town I am thinking I can do a lot better housing wise. Alas, it is not true if you want to live in a desirable part of the Lou. Clayton is no cheaper than Oak Park or Evanston. Huntleigh is probably nearly as expensive as Kenilworth.

Wustu87 was talking about the non-Ladue parts of the Ladue school district, like Olivette, Creve Couer, and Richmond Heights-- real estate there does not come close to the $900k Ladue average, but is still pretty pricey on the whole.

[Fishtacos]

[quote=chicagoerin;8592421]Fish-what part of Columbus did you live in? I have read your other posts and didn't see anything mentioning that you have lived here? The rest of us are coming from a perspective of having lived in both places...[/QUOTE

Do I need to have lived in Columbus to form an informed educated opinion based on extensive personal experience? No. Having spent time considerable time in Columbus, and having friends there, one of which is even an Assistant Principal at a very good high school there, which is completely random and unrelated to this topic. I believe I am capable of making a fair general statement which said and still says, comparing St. Louis to Columbus or comparing Columbus to St. Louis is like comparing apples to oranges. By that I mean in my opinion their differences are more than their similarities imo. One may choose to live in either place based on their own personal criteria. In my opinion because its apples to oranges, I believe it is very important to consider more than schools, regardless of opinion on that topic.