Does anyone know of good places to live around St. Louis for families with school age kids?

Appreciate the thoughts.

There are plenty of family friendly areas in St. Louis and the surrounding suburbs but specifics are needed in order to point you in the right direction. What's your budget? Are you opposed to a commute > 45 minutes? Do you want a typical suburb or a more rural setting? Do you plan to send your kids to public or private schools?

Without this information I'd just be making recommendations based on my own preferences.

[This message has been edited by billikenag (edited 6/17/2012 10:58p).]

town & country

I don't know whether I really have an opinion either way in regards to rural vs. traditional suburb. I would most likely just look for an area with good family-friendly quality of life and good public schools.

If you have 600k+ to spend on a house:
Town and Country
Ladue
Clayton
Frontenac
Manchester/Ballwin
Chesterfield

If you have 300k-600k to spend on a house:
Webster Groves
Kirkwood
Creve Coeur
Maryland Heights
Des Peres
Crestwood
Oakville

If you have less than 300k to spend on a house:
St. Charles
Illinois

Choose wisely as the first question anyone ask after hs is where did you go, and are judged instantly

It's a pretentious city like dallas

**** st. louis

Thoughts about the O'Fallon area? That's were the gig would be...

Budget would be 600k....

quote:

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Choose wisely as the first question anyone ask after hs is where did you go, and are judged instantly

It's a pretentious city like dallas

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You have completely misread the city. St. Louisans ask that question not because they are pretentious but because they are provincial. Families have lived in the city for generations and knowing your high school allows people to think who you may know in common. Plus, nobody really cares what high school you went to unless the answer is one of the Catholic schools. Texans are unaware of this because the cities of Texas don't have a well developed Catholic immigrant culture, but in the historic cities of this country that experienced waves and waves of Catholic immigrants from Europe, you can pretty much know 75% about a person's socioeconomic status by knowing which Catholic high school he attended. If you know the high school, you know the grammar school and the parish, and if you know the grammar school and parish you have a good idea of neighborhood, ethnicity, parent's occupation, politics, etc. In San Francisco (where I grew up) this question was also asked all the time, though not so much anymore since there are very few native San Franciscans left in the city. When I lived in St. Louis I just told people who asked me that question that I went to St. Louis Universiy High School as it was essentially the sister school of my alma mater in San Francisco, and that way St. Louisans could fit me into the appropriate box.

quote:

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Thoughts about the O'Fallon area? That's were the gig would be...

Budget would be 600k....

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O'Fallon is a typical outer-ring suburb (think Plano or Cypress without so hellish of a commute). I've never heard anything particularly bad about the Fort Zumwalt School District. 600K is a lot of scratch for a house in O'Fallon (most people move out there and endure the commute because your housing dollar will stretch farther there). With that kind of budget for a house I'd be looking at some of the inner ring suburbs inside of or along I-270 or maybe even at neighborhoods in the city (if you are the type of person who doesn't mind raising a family in the city). But my bias is to live closer to the ciy to take advantage of what it has to offer, and if your job will actually be in O'Fallon you could have the beauty of a really nice home and minimal commute.


[This message has been edited by billikenag (edited 5/3/2013 11:34a).]

[This message has been edited by billikenag (edited 5/3/2013 11:40a).]

[This message has been edited by billikenag (edited 5/3/2013 11:41a).]

Role is in O'Fallon... 30-45 minute commute is fine as well...

Somewhere better closer to city in that range?

These are my own preferences so do with them what you will...

I see the value in places like O'Fallon, Cypress, and Plano for families of smaller means, but I wouldn't want to live in those places if I could afford better.

I'd look around the I-270 corridor as far south as I-44 (once you get that far south you're really starting to stretch your commute). I'd look in Creve Coeur, Manchester, Des Peres, and Kirkwood. If you want to be in the toniest suburbs check out Town and Country, Ladue, and Frontenac.

For those who really understand St. Louis, this is hilarious and contains just enough wry truth in its stereotypes...

http://media.riverfronttimes.com/7642101.0.pdf

[This message has been edited by billikenag (edited 5/3/2013 11:04p).]

If you are going to work in Ofallon (st Charles county) be aware that you have to get there from 270 corridor you will have crowded Missouri River bridges to deal with. Those cause the most hassles. The one between Chesterfield and Ofallon is about to be upgraded. 600k puts you in a nice house in the Parkway, Lafayette, or Marquette school districts in the Chesterfield, Wildwood and maybe even Town and Country or Ladue. If looking in Ofallon MO the school district I would shoot for is Francis Howell.

Also I am assuming Ofallon Mo and not Ofallon IL which is just a few miles across the Mississippi.

Luckily the where did you go to school crap has dropped off in the last 10 years. 25 years ago when I first started coming up here that crap was unbearable. Blankly staring at someone after answering with Lufkin used to be priceless.

If you need anymore info pm me.

I know people who live in Columbia and drive to St. Louis for work or vice versa, simply because Columbia is so much nicer/cheaper/safer than St. Louis.