Small Town around River Market? (Kansas City, Independence: big house, school district, college)

[LookinginMO]

Hi there! My husband and I are looking for a small town/suburb around the City Market, where he works. We have two toddlers and currently live on the Kansas side in Basehor. My husband grew up there but he'd like to change it up and would really like to be closer to both the City Market and Independence (where he teaches concealed carry classes on the weekends). I grew up in Nebraska and he's been a Kansas boy his whole life so we don't know too much about the MO side except that I'm obsessed with Zona Rosa! My husband is very excited about the idea of moving to MO and I'm not at all opposed except that his family lives in Basehor and I don't want to be too far from them. I want to find somewhere we will love but isn't a huge burden as far as the drive to Basehor goes.

Anyway, here are our requirements:
-Good schools
-Strong sense of community/lots of community events
-Some space between houses - we don't like everyone being right on top of each other
-Stores/shopping relatively close by
-Having a cute little downtown area would be a perk! But it's not a deal breaker.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

[kcmo]

I would say Parkville or Liberty.

Sounds like Parkville would be best. Close to Downtown, not too far from Independence or Basehor. Very active and charming small town downtown, great schools, close to Zona Rosa. Parkville is kind of a small town lost in the suburban sprawl of Platte County. The town of Parkville itself may not have much to choose from as far as housing, so chances are you may have to look at the newer suburban areas around Parkville (much of which is either KCMO city limits or un-incorporated Platte County). But you would still be close and take advantage of what Parkville offers such as the downtown, festival, English Landing Park on Riverfront etc. All areas around Parkville has great schools wether it's in the city of Parkville, KCMO or another city (platte woods etc).

Liberty is a little further from Downtown and Basehor, but closer to Independence. It also has a nice downtown and sense of community with good schools. Liberty is much larger than Parkville though and more like a built up suburb with a historic downtown. But it probably has more housing options near downtown Liberty than Parkville has although the entire Liberty/Shoal Creek area is getting very built up and so it may be more suburban sprawl than you want if you want a small town feel, although the same can be said about Parkville anymore as well.

If you really want a small town on the MO side, then places like Platte City, Kearney, Smithville etc may be worth looking at, but those places don't really have the nice downtowns that Parkville and Liberty have, won't have the nearby shopping and they are further out, so not really much different than Basehor. But they will be the more rural/small town places if that's your thing.

Good luck.

[LookinginMO]

Thanks so much for your response! Do you know what the people of Parkville are like? I see that the median price of a home is $364,824. Is it a very wealthy area?

[MLSFan]

What about the north kansas city area? that's a nice community there with a park/gym/pool/school/shopping ("shopping" not much but it's there)/hospital . A cheap (was a dime but it's probably higher now) local bus that takes you around inside the "city" limits. Not that you couldn't walk/ride a bike where you needed since it's so small.

I liked it more than parkville because it felt "younger" and not just because of the highschool vs college age students either. Parkville felt more isolated to me as well even though you could drive out of it just as easy

[JackieB23]

I was also going to suggest Parkville. Meets all the requirements.

NKC is great - I lived there and I really liked it - but the schools aren't even close to as good as they are in Parkville.

[Okey Dokie]

Originally Posted by LookinginMO

Thanks so much for your response! Do you know what the people of Parkville are like? I see that the median price of a home is $364,824. Is it a very wealthy area?

There are some very expensive housing areas in the Parkville area - The National, Riss Lake, etc. which inflate the housing price statistics.

And I agree with the above poster that the Park Hill school district is better than North Kansas City, but NKC district is not a bad district.

[JackieB23]

B

Originally Posted by Okey Dokie

There are some very expensive housing areas in the Parkville area - The National, Riss Lake, etc. which inflate the housing price statistics.

And I agree with the above poster that the Park Hill school district is better than North Kansas City, but NKC district is not a bad district.

The Bluffs, Riss Lake and the big houses out far west of town inflate things, but in town, and just west and north of town, the housing expenses are far more reasonable.

NKC is not bad, esp. in the northern part, but Park Hill is significantly better.