Thinking about moving to St.Louis from NYC, Please help............ (Kansas City: rent, how much)

[RobertR1121]

I have a chance to move to the midwest area with my current job. I am married (early 30's) and will be traveling alot for work. My territory will include Louisville,Cinn,lex, Indy, St.Louis, Nashville and Chicago. I could live anywhere in this territory. I am from NYC and my wife is from Miami we are looking to lay down roots, buy a home and start a family. Looking for a place that is a great place to raise a family and has a low cost of living, etc... From what I have read about St. Louis it seems pretty nice and would be centrally located for my work travels. Any recommendations?

[inahandbasket]

Originally Posted by RobertR1121

I have a chance to move to the midwest area with my current job. I am married (early 30's) and will be traveling alot for work. My territory will include Louisville,Cinn,lex, Indy, St.Louis, Nashville and Chicago. I could live anywhere in this territory. I am from NYC and my wife is from Miami we are looking to lay down roots, buy a home and start a family. Looking for a place that is a great place to raise a family and has a low cost of living, etc... From what I have read about St. Louis it seems pretty nice and would be centrally located for my work travels. Any recommendations?

St. Louis is a great place to raise a family. There are several threads that extol the virtues of city, suburban (both west and east of STL), country/exurban (St. Charles County) areas.

What's your price range?

Public/private/parochial schools?

Briefly about schools: St. Louis CITY public schools are awful, however, there is a magnet school program w/in the STL public school system that has one of the best academically rated high schools in the state (Metro Classical High). The magnet program is run by a lottery system of entrance. Depending on the age of your children, if they're not really young, it's hard to get into the magnet program. I'm sure other posters have more info.

STL has a big Catholic school culture.

Likewise, the independent private schools may float your boat, too.

Excellent public school choices: Ladue and Clayton are located in the wealthiest close-in suburbs. Brentwood is an inner ring suburb w/ a very small, excellent school system. Webster Groves and Kirkwood are great. Outside of I-270, know as "West County" you have Parkway (where my kids are receiving an outstanding education) and Rockwood (further out); both are terrific large suburban school districts.

So it really depends upon how much house you want to buy and where.

My personal choice? If we were rich, we would have lived in Clayton (De Mun neighborhood) and sent our kids to the Clayton public schools. My spouse and I are products of public schools and believe in public education.

There is gorgeous brick housing stock in the inner ring suburbs (Clayton and University City), but the UCity public schools are not that good.


My $.02

inahandbasket

[BoomBoxing]

St. Louis is an excellent place to lay down roots. I work with many people from all over the country, including NYC, and many of them have laid down roots here despite that not being their original plan. With excellent schools, diverse housing stock, affordable suburban/urban/rural areas, good weather, many amentities, it's easy to see why.

St. Louis has many options depending on what you are looking for. Without knowing a lot about your situation, I would probably suggest looking into the inner ring of St. Louis county. Specifically, Webster Groves, Kirkwood, and Brentwood. If you are very well off financially, I would recommend Clayton or Ladue. The great thing about these areas is that they have excellent public schools, nice and charming houses, strong sense of community, close to the city, close to public transportation, close to the airport, and mostly family oriented.

If you don't mind private education and prefer a more urban vibe then I would recommend checking out some south and central city neighborhoods too.

[kcmo]

I think St Louis is the perfect city for your situation. Being from NYC, you "might" prefer Chicago, especially if you plan to fly to most of those other cities more than drive. But if you want to step down from the mega cities then StL beats all the rest on your list hands down, especially for a family. Lots to do for families in StL.

[RobertR1121]

Originally Posted by inahandbasket

St. Louis is a great place to raise a family. There are several threads that extol the virtues of city, suburban (both west and east of STL), country/exurban (St. Charles County) areas.

What's your price range?

Public/private/parochial schools?

Briefly about schools: St. Louis CITY public schools are awful, however, there is a magnet school program w/in the STL public school system that has one of the best academically rated high schools in the state (Metro Classical High). The magnet program is run by a lottery system of entrance. Depending on the age of your children, if they're not really young, it's hard to get into the magnet program. I'm sure other posters have more info.

STL has a big Catholic school culture.

Likewise, the independent private schools may float your boat, too.

Excellent public school choices: Ladue and Clayton are located in the wealthiest close-in suburbs. Brentwood is an inner ring suburb w/ a very small, excellent school system. Webster Groves and Kirkwood are great. Outside of I-270, know as "West County" you have Parkway (where my kids are receiving an outstanding education) and Rockwood (further out); both are terrific large suburban school districts.

So it really depends upon how much house you want to buy and where.

My personal choice? If we were rich, we would have lived in Clayton (De Mun neighborhood) and sent our kids to the Clayton public schools. My spouse and I are products of public schools and believe in public education.

There is gorgeous brick housing stock in the inner ring suburbs (Clayton and University City), but the UCity public schools are not that good.


My $.02

inahandbasket

Thank you for replying, We really don't have to be in a big city like Chicago, coming for NY I would not mind a break.....I'm a big sports fan and we are into the arts, theater, etc....but more importantly looking for a safe place to live. I will be on the road a lot and my wife will be on her own....nice developed community close shopping and dinning..looks like i'll rent for a year then look to buy....my wife and i are both educated bilingual english and spanish......how is the job market.......No Kids yet and maybe 250-300k for a home to begin with.........

[stlcitygirl]

I would look in Clayton, Olivette or University City.

[Marksman84]

Originally Posted by RobertR1121

I have a chance to move to the midwest area with my current job. I am married (early 30's) and will be traveling alot for work. My territory will include Louisville,Cinn,lex, Indy, St.Louis, Nashville and Chicago. I could live anywhere in this territory. I am from NYC and my wife is from Miami we are looking to lay down roots, buy a home and start a family. Looking for a place that is a great place to raise a family and has a low cost of living, etc... From what I have read about St. Louis it seems pretty nice and would be centrally located for my work travels. Any recommendations?

Glad to see you and your family may move here - we need more New Yorkers to kick this town into gear!

I would say that from that list, St. Louis is second only to Chicago. Chicago is the best overall city in the Midwest and certainly presents the strongest parallel to NYC in terms of stunning architecture, ambiance and pace; having said that, if your wife is a Miami native, the winters in Chi-Town can be a bit more intense than NYC.

So if you want weak winters and a break from big-city life, St. Louis will give you more "bang for the buck." Fairly slow-paced, and pretty much everything here is low-cost except utilities, and you will get hammered with those costs during our legendary summer weather that reportedly even sent satan packing and headed for North Dakota. At least it's only from mid-May to mid-October.

Indy is very nice as well. I've been there and it's a classy, clean city. I would rank it third. Then the OH/KY/TN cities after that.

As soon as you get here and get settled, join a social club/interest group - St. Louisians are generally not "warm" people to out-of-towners, but you'll find more implants and hopefully a more progressive, younger and less xenophobic crowd. Joining a social group will afford you and your family the opportunity to meet positive, outgoing people that share your interests rather than crabby, miserable hedgehogs sitting in the garage smoking and eating themselves to death.

Speaking as a parent, all of the municipalities previously mentioned save Olivette are satisfactory for living. My family and I live in Creve Coeur and we are what New Yorkers would refer to as "tunnel people."

Sports - baseball is king here, personally we are huge Blues fans, I think we still have an NFL team here? Soccer is popular, golf, etc. You can find it all here, and real football is only 3.5 hours away in Kansas City. Great running (what we do) and cycling scene here.

Schools - yeah, no pun intended, but do your homework before choosing. County beats City every hand.

Good Luck!

[inahandbasket]

Marksman84 says:
"Schools - yeah, no pun intended, but do your homework before choosing. County beats City every hand."

Not true. The magnet school system within the STL public school system is competitive w/ any public, private or parochial school system in Missouri. Metro Classical High has the highest combined (Algebra I and English II) MAP scores in Missouri. The second highest MAP score in St. Louis County is Parkway West High (where my kids have attended - one graduated last year, the other is a junior now) at #34.
Top 10 Best Missouri State High Schools - MO School Rankings

Looks like you need to do your own homework.

inahandbasket

[ktCakes]

actually, Metro is the only decent school in the magnet system followed by Kennard and now Malincrodt. All three are gifted program schools. Sadly, the Magnet funding has been killed over the past 10 years.

HOWEVER...a string of new, smaller, creative charter schools are moving in. Not the big chain charters, but the grassroots ones. We live in the Shaw neighborhood and love City Garden Montessori Charter School. We have all our kids there. Our neighbors love St. Louis Language Immersion School's Spanish School. They are actually filling up from the county. (We've limited our range.)

[billiken]

While Metro is awesome...it's obviously not as easy as just moving into the right district, like is the case with county schools. I think that's part of the homework you've gotta do before choosing.