Place to Live Near City (St. Louis, Webster Groves: apartment, renting, violent crime)

[jsfoertsch]

My wife and i moved to Missouri at the beginning of January from Minnesota. For now we are renting an apartment in Fenton, which as worked for us so far. We are looking to purchase our first home by October. We are a younger couple, 23 in age, and our price range is up to 170,000 but would like to stay around 150,000. We would like to move closer to the city. We like the Webster Groves area, but i looks like it will be to expensive. What is Maplewood like? I think the closest to the city we would like to go would be Tower Grove Park area. Any suggestions and opinions would be great, we still don't know much about St Louis. Thank you

[SouthCity09]

Originally Posted by jsfoertsch

My wife and i moved to Missouri at the beginning of January from Minnesota. For now we are renting an apartment in Fenton, which as worked for us so far. We are looking to purchase our first home by October. We are a younger couple, 23 in age, and our price range is up to 170,000 but would like to stay around 150,000. We would like to move closer to the city. We like the Webster Groves area, but i looks like it will be to expensive. What is Maplewood like? I think the closest to the city we would like to go would be Tower Grove Park area. Any suggestions and opinions would be great, we still don't know much about St Louis. Thank you

how about this house 6824 Garner Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63139 - Zillow

not mine or anything but i like it and the area...maybe you will too.

[TGS]

Tower Grove Park is pretty far into the city itself. So are you saying you do or don't want to live in the city?

Maplewood is fine. Older housing stock with a nice downtown area.

[zach_33]

Maplewood is pretty cool in my opinion-- there are a lot of young urban dwellers in Maplewood. It has its rough patches around the public housing projects closer in towards the city, but the stretch of Manchester a block or two around Sutton is a very up and coming shopping/entertainment district. There is an awesome billiards and bowling bar called Saratoga Lanes on Sutton just south of Manchester-- friendly crowd of hipsters. You can probably get a pretty nice 3 bedroom bungalow or victorian style home within a couple blocks of there within your budget.

Tower Grove is also an up and coming area and another good idea for a person in your situation. It is an undervalued area from what I have heard. You can get a beautiful brick house there. TGS and other posters here can give you some pointers on specific areas, but in general, the most desirable area is the section bounded by Grand, Gustine, Utah, and Arsenal.

Based on your criteria, I might also recommend you check out The Hill, Southhampton, St. Louis Hills, and Shrewsbury. Enjoy the house search.

[mklein49]

I just relocated back to the area with my fiance. We ended up in Richmond Heights, near the StL and Maplewood borders. We really like it, we're centrally located and close to Forest Park and lots of nice dining options. There are sections near us that don't seem real nice, but our street is great.

[jsfoertsch]

Originally Posted by TGS

Tower Grove Park is pretty far into the city itself. So are you saying you do or don't want to live in the city?

Maplewood is fine. Older housing stock with a nice downtown area.

I guess moving into the city doesn't bother me, i just wanted to get some opinions. thank you

[jsfoertsch]

Originally Posted by zach_33

Maplewood is pretty cool in my opinion-- there are a lot of young urban dwellers in Maplewood. It has its rough patches around the public housing projects closer in towards the city, but the stretch of Manchester a block or two around Sutton is a very up and coming shopping/entertainment district. There is an awesome billiards and bowling bar called Saratoga Lanes on Sutton just south of Manchester-- friendly crowd of hipsters. You can probably get a pretty nice 3 bedroom bungalow or victorian style home within a couple blocks of there within your budget.

Tower Grove is also an up and coming area and another good idea for a person in your situation. It is an undervalued area from what I have heard. You can get a beautiful brick house there. TGS and other posters here can give you some pointers on specific areas, but in general, the most desirable area is the section bounded by Grand, Gustine, Utah, and Arsenal.

Based on your criteria, I might also recommend you check out The Hill, Southhampton, St. Louis Hills, and Shrewsbury. Enjoy the house search.

Thanks for the great advice. I recently started looking at The Hill, Southampton, and St Louis Hills areas. they all look great. Are these areas considered safe? I guess it depends on your opinion of safe. Again thanks for the help

[anr_black]

Originally Posted by jsfoertsch

Thanks for the great advice. I recently started looking at The Hill, Southampton, and St Louis Hills areas. they all look great. Are these areas considered safe? I guess it depends on your opinion of safe. Again thanks for the help

Those areas are very safe. You'll hear about the occasional garage or car break-in (who doesn't?), but that's about it. You could easily buy a 3 bedroom in Southampton and the Hill, but St. Louis Hills is a bit pricier. Welcome to the neighborhood

[aragx6]

Those areas you mention are very safe even by suburban standards.

You'll find more garage break ins than in the suburbs, but the reason is simple -- detached garages with alley access are a far easier target -- you might get a weed whacker swiped, but violent crime there is very very low.

[BoomBoxing]

I was in the same boat a couple months ago and am also 23. My girlfriend and I looked all over the metro area and decided on southwest city. We also liked Maplewood, but there just wasn't as many options, and we also looked in Affton but we felt a bit out of place there. I would recommend looking in the 63109 and 63139 zip codes in the city as that part of the city is full of young couples, is very safe, low taxes, and there is always a lot to do. To be a bit more specific there are 5 neighborhoods I would highly recommend: St. Louis Hills, Princeton Heights, Southampton, Northampton, and Lindenwood Park. Other solid city options are the Hill, Holly Hills, Dogtown, and Carondelet. Good luck!