Liberty/Parkville/Others: Communities for family (Kansas City, Lee's Summit: cul-de-sac, real estate, HOA)

[nicolecl]

Our family will be relocating to the Kansas City area soon. We are interested in looking at houses in the Parkville and Liberty areas (any safe surrounding areas as well). We have two children in elementary school, so schools will be important. We tend to like relatively newer housing communities (90’s +) with amenities (community pool, playground, events), as it seems to be easier to meet people. Under 350k would be ideal. Any names of specific communities/developments to look in would be great as well as public elementary schools that kids seem to generally both enjoy and do well in (and are not too overcrowded- my daughter's current school now has a student/teacher ratio of 25:1 and it was just announced that it would be worse next year). We enjoy being outdoors on weekends (parks, lakes etc) but also don't want to be too far out. Thank you for any advice or suggestions!

[Okey Dokie]

There are tons of housing choices for you "north of the river" as it's generally called, so many I couldn't even make a specific subdivision. A lot of this area is within the city limits of Kansas City, MO but remember that this part of Kansas City is NOT in the much-maligned Kansas City School District. Look at Reece & Nichols is Kansas City's Real Estate Expert and look for Park Hill, Liberty, And North Kansas City school districts.

Good luck

[JackieB23]

Parkville sounds ideal for you, but you might have a hard time finding the house you're looking for at that price at that age. You could get lucky, though.

Really, the Park Hill School district is excellent, so anywhere in there would work well.

Liberty schools are also excellent.

Good luck!

[poke17]

Parkville is a great option. Thousand Oaks is a neighborhood that sounds like what you want. Pool, playground, ponds, etc. I think their HOA is like $700/yr though. Park Hill South is a great high school too.

Liberty has a handful of good neighborhoods under that $350k range. Copperleaf and Woodneath are going to be on the upper end. Benson is kind of a "mega-community" with different price ranges within it, up to the 300's. There are the Brentwood neighborhoods too.

Another to consider is the Staley area, which would be Staley Farms (there are a few homes under $350k) and Staley Hills. It's NKC schools, which is lower than Park Hill or Liberty, but those neighborhoods go to the brand new Belle Prairie Elementary and Staley High School.

[nicolecl]

Thank you so much for all of the suggestions! I will definitely look into those areas and specific develpoments. Lees Summit was another area that was suggested. I have looked into this city a little and realize the commute will be a little longer, but nothing that appears unreasonable. The schools seem to be very good as well. Any advice on choosing between the 3 or this area in general?

[TabulaRasa]

Lee's Summit has really good public schools, as well...it really just depends on what you are looking for in a community, if location is flexible.

[nicolecl]

I just wanted to follow up on my original post as this forum has always been helpful to us during the moving process. We traveled to KC and looked at many, many homes. We finally decided on a home in Thousand Oaks in Parkville and have been very happy. The neighborhood is awesome (there is new construction and resale homes). There are tons of walking/biking trails throughout, lakes and two community pools (tennis courts in progress). Everyone has been welcoming and kids were playing outside in the cul-de-sac with the other children within a few days. The community puts on its own fireworks display that was beautiful for the 4th of July and had a parade, magic show, bouncehouse etc. for the kids earlier in the day. The commute to KC downtown is better than most of the other locals we looked at. The Parkville downtown is just as I had read on this site (really cute and unique place) but other shoppping (Zona Rosa, The Legends) is just about 8-10 minutes away. I am really enjoying the beautiful scenery with hills and woods here. The only drawback I can see so far would be for someone who wanted to be right next to chain stores, restaurants. The short drive is longer than the one we had in VA. For me, the trade-off is more than worth it, but I know that it is not for everyone. Other communities we liked were Staley Hills in North Kansas City, Winterset Park in Lees Summit (this just ended up being too much of a commute, but we did it during afterwork traffic and the actual traffic was not that bad..just the distance) and Riss Lake in Parkville (another community where there were a lot of families all active outside when we looked at houses). We toured the school and were welcomed warmly. Our neighbors reported being very happy with the education and activities offered. Park Hill school district is supposed to be rated very highly. Again, thanks to everyone for all of the great advice!

[zach_33]

That's cool - sounds like you got good advice. I always think it is interesting when posters here can come full circle and explain their choices. Thanks.

[kcmo]

Is Thousand Oaks actually in the city of Parkville or in un-incorporated Platte County? I was just wondering, I thought that Parkville was going to annex a lot of that area out there.

[poke17]

It's unincorporated Platte.

Nicole - Glad to hear you're loving it. We were so very close to building in Thousand Oaks, but couldn't come to terms with the builder quick enough and ended up finding a spec home elsewhere. Don't regret it, but always wonder what could have been.. As I just really liked the neighborhood. Best of luck and enjoy!