Houses around $200,000 (St. Louis, University City, Clayton: for sale, real estate, 2014)

[Sue212]

HI - I am currently house hunting and am having a hard time finding a place to live in my budget. I am a retired woman. I moved to St Louis to be near my daughter and her family and had planned to be close enough to be able to watch her son during the day while she worked. They live in University City. There is very little for sale in my price range in University City. I have seen a few nice houses, but they appear to be in the flood plain. I love the houses on the university named streets, but most are not in my budget.

What I would like is a 2-3 bedroom single family house with garage, formal living and dining room, eat in kitchen at around 1500 s.f. I could spend up to $225,000, but prefer less if possible. I may have to move out to the suburbs to find what I want. Any suggestions on which suburbs to look at? I don't want to be too far from my daughter and her family.

Thanks.

[aragx6]

I'd probably first look for a little place in Richmond Heights or Maplewood, which would be close to your daughter:

Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate

But if you're still not finding what you're looking for in the inner-ring 'burbs, I wouldn't move out, I'd move in. Because you don't have kids, schools aren't an issue, so I'd look at the very safe west and southwest city neighborhoods like Southampton, Northampton, Clifton Heights, Lindenwood Park, St. Louis Hills and Southwest Garden. You can easily get what you're looking for at your price point and you'd be only about 15-20 minutes from your daughter in University City. Here's just a couple of examples:

Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate

Best of luck and feel free to ask follow-up questions when and if you have them!

[Dawn10am]

I would second South City, or more specifically southwest city. There's a lot of nice houses there that run around the $200,000 range. A lot of historic places have been recently rehabbed with the latest bells and whistles and are still reasonably priced. Maplewood would also be a very solid option. The farther west you go from University City the more expensive it will get. My advice is to look south.

[zach_33]

University City has a good selection of quality homes at 200k plus or minus 25k, especially if you don't mind 2 bedrooms. You should look at the City View Heights subdivision - it is just north of those pretty "university" streets- it is the area bounded roughly by Jackson (west), Midland (east), Dorset (south) and Drexel (North). I owned a house there for 7 years and loved it. The toughest thing to find on your wish list at that price point will be an eat-in kitchen, but the other items are all there. Its a great, safe neighborhood-- doesn't have the cache of University Hills or University Heights, but it is still a solid area with good people. Just glancing at the listings I see these examples (though I realize these are often outdated, you should be able to find others like it):

Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate
Coldwell Banker Gundaker -- Your site for St. Louis Real Estate

[Sue212]

Zach 33, I have looked at some of those and like that neighborhood. My concern is flooding from the river des peres. Does that affect that area? I know it sits on a hill, but the river is very close.

What about the area of U-city between Old Bonhomme and McKnight?

I will check our Richmond heights and south city, too.

[zach_33]

You are fine as long as you stay east of Jackson. I would also stay south of Ahern, but that has more to do with aesthetics. No need for flood insurance on any of the homes I linked. The river did badly flood some homes several years back (Wilson, Parkledge, Shaftesbury west of Jackson), but they are all ~50+ vertical feet below the area I described.

The area between Old Bonhomme and McKnight is good. Old Bonhomme is quite nice but McKnight is lined with a lot of apartments, so I guess I'd want to be closer to Old Bonhomme. Right around Old Bonhomme and Delmar is kinda fancy, with relatively large homes. Up toward Groby/Ruth Park is more modest, predominantly small ranch homes, and more racially and socioeconomically mixed. If I were spending $200k on a house in that area, I would probably want to be south of Balson, maybe on Gannon, Cornell, Swarthmore, Oakbrook or Old Bonhomme itself. Ruth Park golf course and driving range would be a neighborhood bonus. You might be interested to know that that area has the highest concentration of Jews in the greater STL area. I would guess it is 20-40% jewish.

I am admittedly biased, but if by chance you can find a well maintained single family south of Delmar that meets most your criteria (2+ beds, 1200+ sf) for $200k or less, I'd fall on it like a fumbled football. That area is just choice. I also really like Aragx's Richmond Heights suggestion - it's close enough to your kids, but still central/conveniently located, and the homes/neighborhoods have character.

[AJohnston_STL]

If no one has mentioned it yet, Dogtown would be a perfect city neighborhood for you. You can get to U-City in 10 minutes with some traffic, and it's very affordable and safe.

If you look online, they may mention these neighborhoods: Clayton-Tamm, Franz Park, and Hi-Pointe. These 3 neighborhoods make up the unofficial neighborhood "Dogtown"...but 9.9 out of 10 times they will simply refer to it as "Dogtown". It is separated from Maplewood only by McCausland Ave (aka Skinker Blvd), so there's no reason to consider Dogtown if you are considering Maplewood/Richmond Heights. I lived there for 2 years but fled to the suburbs when it was getting close to school time for my son.