wildwood (St. Louis, Chesterfield, Ballwin: houses, construction, school districts)

[kingconger]

Moving in next 2 months from Canada. Have looked at lindberg/kirkwood, but feel value is not there. Any feedback for suburbs in rock wood/parkway districts would be helpful. Thanks

[billiken]

Wildwood is a pretty area, and the areas I'm familiar with have houses on larger lots which some people are a fan of. The downside is that it feels fairly secluded. A lot of the area has bad highway access, terrible cell phone and internet options.

In terms of bang for your buck on home size (if that's what you mean by value), Eureka and Fenton probably win in the Rockwood School District. In Parkway School District, its probably Ballwin. Ballwin has significantly more commercial development than Eureka/Fenton.

[FrankMiller]

Originally Posted by kingconger

Moving in next 2 months from Canada. Have looked at lindberg/kirkwood, but feel value is not there. Any feedback for suburbs in rock wood/parkway districts would be helpful. Thanks

Depends what you mean by value. Kirkwood and Webster Groves are organized around a downtown in the style of walkable older towns, with lots of local options as well as being less than 10min from the city. So much of the value is exterior to the lot itself. If you don't care about amenities like that, then yeah, the smaller houses and yards for the money will not feel like a good value.

I don't really care for the Wildwood aesthetic myself, but I know several people who are very happy there. I lived in Ballwin for awhile, and it was nice as long as you don't mind driving a lot.

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by kingconger

Moving in next 2 months from Canada. Have looked at lindberg/kirkwood, but feel value is not there. Any feedback for suburbs in rock wood/parkway districts would be helpful. Thanks

If you're in Parkway, it's probably going to be slightly more expensive, but they both have good reputations as school districts. I'd say Parkway has a slightly better reputation, but others might disagree. I'm sure you can get more house and lot for the money than you can get in Kirkwood/Webster and obviously they will be newer.

Just depends on what you want and other things like commute times could be an issue for you if you are going to downtown or Clayton.

[songinthewind7]

I have a friend in Wildwood. She's been in the area for 25+ years and loves it.

[kingconger]

Thanks for all the advice. I will be commuting to Clayton, but with kids would prefer a newer development full of family's. In our price range (around 350) most homes in kirkwood webster are smaller or in need of updating

[flynavyj]

Take a strong look in Chesterfield for some of the more recent construction, or subdivisions in Wildwood or Ellisville. Newer homes and at that price point, you should be able to make things work. Some of the Chesterfield subdivisions might be from the mid 1980's to early 1990's...those will need updating, but the bones should be new enough that you're not looking at structural issues, electrical re-wiring, or other problems that are attached to homes from the early 20th century.

As far as Wildwood goes, I love it out there. If my life revolved around sports cars and motorcycles (how I plan to spend retirement) then there'd be no ther place in St. Louis I'd really consider living. Right now, with a commute to downtown, Wildwood wouldn't be the most enjoyable commute...but boy do I love the roads out there, and the seclusion is fantastic.

[LAangel9190]

Just read your post on this thread… I would say that if you're commuting to clayton, the highway access that you'll have from the Legends as opposed to in Wildwood will be invaluable. My sister moved to Wildwood and highway access is horrible. Tack another 15 minutes onto your commute at least in order to get to the interstate, to then get to Clayton.

[kingconger]

we are looking at legends also, always curious on the commute