The suburban Northland area of KC... (Kansas City, Independence: sales, new home, neighborhoods)

[kcmo]

The Northland is doing better than most areas during this recession.

If you have read many of the threads on this forum, you would quickly learn that the Northland area of metro KC is probably the most recommended suburban area in KC.

The areas north of the river such as Gladstone, KCMO, NKC, Liberty, Parkville etc are some of the closest suburban areas to the core of the city (quick drive into downtown and midtown), the KCI airport is minutes away, you have the casinos, worlds of fun/oceans of fun/tiffany springs aquatic park, the river front parks and trails, the interesting, historic and charming downtown areas of Parkville, NKC and Liberty, the new shopping districts like Zona Rosa, Briarcliff, Tulleries and Shoal Creek, the residential lake communities and the huge recreational Smithville lake, great schools, amazing golf courses, public fountains etc all set in a beautiful rolling forested topography.

One more thing to add to the list. The diversity of the housing price points.

You can purchase a new home in the northland for 200k or 2 million and all points in between. This is the primary reason that the Northland has become the fastest growing area of metro KC over the past 10 years and is why KCMO’s suburban northland portion has built more homes than Olathe, Overland Park and Lee’s Summit combined over the last 5 or so years.

The Northland area is now well over 300,000 people and growing fast.

So check out the northland, you will not be alone.

Here is the link talking about how the northland is doing compared to other areas of KC.

http://www.kansascity.com/898/story/1140553.html (broken link)

[RjRobb2]

Home prices can actually be less than 200K. You can buy a decent home for 125K and a pretty nice home for 175K

[coffeedrinker]

wow, thanks for the info. We found out 2 days ago that we will be moving back to KC area (yay!) from North Carolina and my husbands sales territory will be North KC up to St. Joe, so we were wondering about North of the River/Liberty area. We've heard good things about Liberty schools, but have never really spent time there (or anywhere else in the Northland). When we lived in KC before, we lived in Johnson County, but I think that the drive would just be too far for him and it seems like North KC is up and coming. We still want to be in KC, close to everything the city has to offer, and it seems that Liberty is even a shorter drive to those things than areas of KS. Looks like you get a little more house for the money in MO as well.

[kcmo]

I would move to the Northland in a heartbeat if I could. (Platte County KCMO).

I now live near the border of Lee’s Summit/Blue Springs/Independence near 470/70.

There are great things about this area:

You get more for your buck than in any other comparable suburban area while you are still very close to major suburban retail, hospitals, medical offices, movie theaters etc. The lakes the lakes the lakes! The lakes combined with the terrain is wonderful with lots of valleys and rock that creates a less bland suburban landscape than some parts of metro KC. Quick exit out of the metro to the east (can be in StLouis or MO lakes fast). Royals and Chiefs stadiums are very close and very easy to get in and out of from the east.
The Independence Events Center and community hockey rinks will be very nice.

The bad parts about this area:

I-70 is just congested all the time and desperately needs to be widened and improved from Downtown all the way past Oak Grove. Even when it’s not backed up, it’s loaded with big trucks. Traffic in KC is not bad, so why live in an area of town that has some of the worst traffic. I work Downtown and it can take 45-60 minutes to make the commute many days, especially in the evenings and during the summer months. I-470 is getting worse by the day and in 5-7 years, 470 between 70 and 50 will be horrible. Although this area of town is likely to have one of the first commuter rail lines.

Here are a few reasons I really like Platte County:

KCMO address. Call me crazy, but I miss having a KCMO address. I know the thing to do in this town is bash on KCMO, but I liked living in KCMO and miss it. I liked voting on issues like light rail, stadiums, zoos etc. I like doing my part to help support important regional assets that improve the quality of my (and my family’s) life. It’s not fun asking people in KCMO to pass taxes to build arenas or expand the zoo from my non kcmo address. There is so much more to living in a community than schools and churches and in the Northland, you can live in a very nice suburban area with good schools and still be a KCMO resident.

The topography is beautiful in Platte County. I can’t stand most of suburban KC. Most of JoCo, Cass, some parts of Lee’s Summit, parts of Clay etc are horrible areas. Nothing more than 1000’s of homes crowded into what was farm fields before. Flat, few trees, far from everything, beige, blah.

The traffic is nothing. You can get downtown in under ten minutes and it’s a nice drive. You get to drive by the downtown airport, Briarcliff etc. Soon there will be a new amazing bridge that carries I-29/35 over the river and the downtown skyline looks awesome when driving in from the north.

Half my drive right now is through ghetto areas and it’s 2-3 times the distance.

I fly a lot and would love to be ten minutes from KCI instead of 45. I could even take a taxi to KCI if I lived up north and save on parking.

The kids like Worlds of fun / Oceans of Fun and have season passes, that would be closer.

The shopping is better. Zona Rosa, Briarcliff etc are as step up from the big boxes and strip malls of Eastern Jackson county and I know that the Northland has plenty of big boxes and strip malls too.

The charming downtowns of Parkville, Liberty are neat, as is downtown Independence and Lee’s Summit, but NKC’s Downtown is more my style. It’s more “urban” has the screenland theater and restaurants that I like.

Bike trails and walking trails are popping up all over Platte County and along the Missouri River.

You are so much closer to the cool parts of KCMO, where I grew up. You can see downtown from most parts of southern Platte County. The “city” just doesn’t seem as far away as it does from out east. With Southwest Trafficway etc, you can get as far south as the plaza in Minutes and the entire drive is a nice urban drive instead of 10 miles of sprawl + 10 miles of blight when coming in from the east.

Did I mention I would move to KCMO’s Platte County in a heartbeat?

If you work anywhere in the northland or the urban core of KCMO (Downtown to the Plaza), I honestly don’t see why any family looking for the perfect suburban area wouldn’t live in Platte County.

[Songbird111]

RjRobb - Any particular neighborhoods or subdivisions you can name that are in the 125-175K range? Sounds good. Thanks!

[RjRobb2]

Originally Posted by Songbird111

RjRobb - Any particular neighborhoods or subdivisions you can name that are in the 125-175K range? Sounds good. Thanks!

If you search in the 64118 area code, you will find tons of houses in that range. Clayton is the area that I live in that has almost of all of their homes in that range. it is located at 169 Hwy and 68th St.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by Songbird111

What do you locals mean by "the Northland?"

Here is a map of the "Northland"

http://photos.imageevent.com/kcphotos/misc/kcmap_northland_low.jpg (broken link)

Anything north of the Missouri River in Missouri.

Many people have different definitions of the Northland.

Generally it’s everything north of the river. That includes KCMO, Liberty, Gladstone, NKC, Riverside, Parkville etc. Some even consider exurbs like Platte City, Kearney and Smithville the “Northland”.

Some people narrow it down more and consider the Northland to only be KCMO, not any other cities. So KC,North is the Northland while Liberty, Gladstone etc are called by name.

Some people that live in KC North identifiy themselves with a city they don’t live in such as Parkville or Liberty. They say they live in Liberty, even though they live in KCMO to narrow it down or give where they live more identity. But will also say Northland.

Some people also call NKC, the small town just north of Downtown "Northtown".

Others, mostly those not from the area or from areas of the metro far from the northland like JoCo or Lee's Summit call everything north of the river "North Kasnas City" when NKC is really a small city and a tiny part of the "northland".

You will hear people in Olathe etc say that Zona Rosa is in North Kansas City, when it's really 15 miles from NKC in KC, North.

It's all quite confusing, but when you say Northland or North Kansas City, people know what you mean. There is no wrong awser, but I would say the best answer is everything north of the MO river on the MO side that is part of the immediate metro area. Basically most of Clay and Platte Counties.

Did I just confuse the hell out of you?

[RjRobb2]

You made that way too complicated. The Northland is everything in Clay and Platte counties.

[kcmo]

edit

[kcmo]

More articles.

Northland encouraged by housing market

KC-area housing market slowly building toward a recovery - Kansas City Star (http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1140553.html - broken link)

Sewer work delay clogs Northland development - Kansas City Business Journal: