Moving to St. Louis from Chicago Suburbs - Where do I look to live? (Chesterfield: homes)

[Flood19]

Hello. My family and I are moving to St. Louis from Chicago. We have 2 small children, and would like to live in a safe, kid friendly, afluent suburb of St. Louis. My new office is in the Des Peres area. I would like to be within 15 miles of the office. We currently live in Naperville, IL. 160K+ people, but fantastic schools, and consistantly rated as one of the best places to raise a family. We are looking for a similar feel, but without the overpopulation!

So please let me know your suggestions for us, we have no idea!!

Thanks

[Flood19]

Little more detail on the type of community/house we are looking for. We would prefer a newer home, in a family friendly neighborhood. Price range $450K to $600K.

[Old Trafford]

Originally Posted by Flood19

Little more detail on the type of community/house we are looking for. We would prefer a newer home, in a family friendly neighborhood. Price range $450K to $600K.

Take a look at Kirkwood and Webster, just south east of Des Peres, will remind you more of older Naperville and at that price point you will do good.

[tripmom]

Check out Chesterfield (pop. around 45,000). There are two different schoold districts that feed into Chesterfield-- Rockwood and Parkway. My kids were in Rockwood and we were happy with the schools.

[Howudoin18]

Ballwin, Ellisville, Wildwood, Chesterfield. Stick to the Rockwood school district.

[glamatomic]

I would look at Chesterfield and surrounds first- like Howudoin suggested, the Rockwood School district is good as is Parkway.

Another place to look at within your price range is Ladue / Frontenac and surrounds. Although the housing stock will be older, there are some really wonderful homes and the school district (Ladue) is amongst the best in the state. (If I had your budget to spend, I would be looking in Ladue!)

[billiken]

There's nothing directly comparable to Naperville here, but if your fav part of Naperville is their downtown, I'd check out Kirkwood; If newish with a lot of retail is the part you like more, I'd go towards Chesterfield. There's pretty much nothing out here that will feel as congested as the Chicagoland area. You'll hear a lot of talk about "West County" here--it's the western part of St Louis county, and its pretty much upper middle class suburbia with good schools.

[chicagobear]

I would say Chesterfield is pretty similar to Naperville demographically although it doesn't have the nice downtown that Naperville does. Really anything along Highway 40 (I-64) from Clayton to Chesterfield is pretty good. Clayton, Ladue, Frontenac, Creve Coeur, Town and Country, Chesterfield and Wildwood.