Moving to St. Charles from San Diego - Help (St. Louis: real estate, leasing)

[trlee77]

Help! My husband & I will be moving to the St. Charles area from San Diego in October. We are a young married couple with no kids. We are trying to find the best area of St. Charles that would suit our active lifestyle. We like to walk & bike, to conveniently located stores or coffee shops. And maybe somewhere close to the water would be nice, so the lack of a beach won’t be so dramatic, haha Any advice on the best areas of town would be greatly appreciated!!! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to see St. Charles before we move, so I’m flying blind. Thanks!!!

[STLMetro]

If you want to be able to walk and bike to shops, I would try downtown St. Charles. It has a quaint dowtown with a lot of fun shops that is right on the river.

[DinsdalePirahna]

Trust me, the closest thing you are going to get to a San Diego Lifestyle is in Lake Saint Louis (City of Lake Saint Louis, Missouri, USA -- Welcome, Lake Saint Louis Community Association - Lakes & Vacation Style Living)

We moved here from Newport Beach last summer and really enjoy the vibrancy of the LSL Community. There is a large boating Community with many active groups. The Downside is that Lake Amenities are only available to Community Association Members, and not all homes LSL fall within The Community Association Boundaries. Make sure you that know which is which before buying or leasing. Then there is the Annual CA fee of $450 (which is totally worth it).

Sad to say restaurants and Coffee shops in the LSL area are pretty much the standard Franchise Eateries. I occasionally go to the CA clubhouse for a burger and a beer. Forget Mexican food. Chipotle and Qdoba are about as good as it gets.

Bicycling in this area is nothing like the west coast. You are not going to get the dedicated Bike Trails that you may be used too. The Katy trail is a great ride, but unsuitable for Road Bike

It is relatively safe to Ride in LSl because of the 25 mph speed limit. The outer road will soon be finished you will be able to get a decent, fairly safe ride in around the lakes.

If you haven't been exposed to Midwestern culture and attitudes expect some degree of culture shock.

Other good choices woiuld be the Winghaven Section of O'Fallon and the NewTown Development of Saint Charles. Both are prefab New developments, with shops within walking distance. NewTown is built on a Flood Plain so that could be a problem.

I would avoid downtown Saint Charles. Its quaint on the surface but essentially a tourist trap and bar zone. Most of the shops are over-priced tsatke merchants with a few quality restaurants and coffee houses thrown in for legitimacy. Think of small Old Town San Diego done on the cheap, without imagination or planning.

[kshe95girl]

Dinsdale, its tchotchke, get your Yiddish dictionary out before you use these kind of words!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchotchke
Not even gonna comment about your lack of knowledge about the St Charles area.

[CarrieNeno]

I totally disagree with Dinsdale about downtown St Charles. Particularly if you like older homes, there are GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS Victorians that are breathtaking and very reasonable. All within walking distance to restaurants, the water, shops, casino, and bars. As far as St Charles goes, if I were young with no kiddies again, I would totally be downtown. A lot more activity and hustle and bustle, always something going on as far as festivals and whatnot, and closer to the St Louis side of the river. The homes that I have sold down there have all been young, just married couples. People tend to go further west into the cul-du-sacs and whanot after they have children.

You may also want to check out New Town, if you prefer newer construction and more organized activity: New Town at St. Charles :: Welcome . There are a NUMBER of previously owned homes on the MLS in NT that are a fraction of any new construction, thanks to our lovely housing market. Very active community!

[DinsdalePirahna]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

Dinsdale, its tchotchke, get your Yiddish dictionary out before you use these kind of words!

Tchotchke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not even gonna comment about your lack of knowledge about the St Charles area.

Tchotchke, chachka, tsatke...whatever

I am not even going to go into the accuracy of wikipedia.

Being from NY (and Long Island is essentially a piece of Israel that broke of and floated west) it was always "Tsatke".

And like many foreign words originally written in different alphabets (in this case Cyrillic) it will translate differently into the Roman alphabet. (the same logic can be used to understand why Al-Quida is spelled a least 5 different ways (but all translating to filthy dirty ar$ewipe). Enough about that.

I think I know Saint Charles pretty well. My mother in law lives about 1/2 mile from that area. No offence intended, but I'm Probably more familiar with the area than someone that has spent the last X years in Florida or a real estate agent that needs to move property.

We thought of (and CAREFULLY researched) the Downtown Saint Charles Area. We really liked the area, but it is pleasant only on the surface. We did not opt to buy because many of those gorgeous victorians need a lot of work. We were also not too crazy about the tourist trap ambience of the area. We lived in Huntington Beach when we were first married. Same bar oriented tourist trap type environment. Every weekend there was a AVP, Surfing or some sort of XGAMES tournament going on. Its fun when you don't have to get in and out of the area.

Then think how much fun it is to find some drunken yahoo from Pomona passed out on your lawn, puking in your trash can (if you are lucky) or peeing on the side of your house when the bars close.

Go down to Downtown Saint Charles about 1 am on a friday or saturday night. Maybe we just caught it on a bad night, but it wasn't pretty.

I did mention NewTown. Yeah, its a prefab community, but I liked the overall direction of the plan. For someone from Southern California, all the new builds in a planned environment will seem very familiar. In twenty years it will be a nice established community. I woud say give that one a chance. The Down side is that NewTown is on a flood plain.

[BoomBoxing]

And Dinsdale is back in perfect form! But in actuality I don't entirely disagree with you...just mostly. If I had to live in St. Charles, then the city of St. Charles would be the top choice. It has many classic beautiful houses, unique places to eat and hang out, and has the biggest concentration of progressive minded people in St. Charles county. New Town is a good idea in theory but in my humble opinion, something can't call itself "urbanism" if it doesn't have access to public transportation and is in a major city center.

As for cycling being a foreign idea here in St. Louis, it's not perfect but it has come a long way. We have several organizations working to promote cycling in the area including Bike St. Louis - which has created several cycling trails and has paths and signs throughout the city and inner county. I can't speak for how cycling is St. Charles other than the Katy trail is pretty neat.

[kshe95girl]

Dinsdale, I spent the 1st decade of life on Elm St. in St Charles, I have family that has always lived there, and still lives there, I am there at LEAST 6 times a year, so I think I know it a little better than a transplant.
What does Cyrillic have to do with Yiddish?????? I pulled it up to illustrate the spelling, would this work better for you????
tchotchke - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

All the OP wants is info, all you did was talk about your own bitter unhappiness and self-absorbed interests.

[DinsdalePirahna]

Glad to be back in form. I thought I was losing my edge.

Don't get me wrong. I really wanted to live in the Downtown Saint Charles area. The Foundry Art Center was a huge attraction for me, same with being near the River (too bad it is not really fit for recreation). And the Katy trail passes right through. All big selling points.

But when we added it all up, (and as much as I loved huntington Beach) the problems of buying and living there overweighed our long term plans. Maybe if I were 21 again I would have a different perspective. And I really liked the older homes, but I just don't want to bother with restoring a home. I restored a sailboat and that was more work than I bargained for. I can only imagine what restoring a home would be like.

I'm not going to go into the lack of a viable Metro (public transit) service in this area, Its a pretty sad state that one doesn't exist to the outer suburbs. But I think NewTown is a good idea. Same with WingHaven and I would give both a chance to mature before anyone writes them off.

I wish the Katy trail was paved for road bikes. Riding on hardscrabble is not exactly the smartest thing you can do on that type of bike. The lack of Bike-able Bridges over the rivers makes cycling around here very inconvenient. Then you have the yahoos in their oversized pick-up trucks that think it is fun to crowd you off the road while calling you names.

[Marksman84]

Originally Posted by trlee77

Help! My husband & I will be moving to the St. Charles area from San Diego in October. We are a young married couple with no kids. We are trying to find the best area of St. Charles that would suit our active lifestyle. We like to walk & bike, to conveniently located stores or coffee shops. And maybe somewhere close to the water would be nice, so the lack of a beach won’t be so dramatic, haha Any advice on the best areas of town would be greatly appreciated!!! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to see St. Charles before we move, so I’m flying blind. Thanks!!!

Welcome to Missouri. Hope you and your husband find that all suits your needs.

PS Chargers Suck!!! LOL I'm a Denver Broncos fan. For my fellow St. Louisians, that's the NFL, or National Football League, which on occasion is represented in our fair city...