Liberty, Missouri or Johnson County, Kansas? (Kansas City, Independence: apartment, renting, new home)

[brianjb]

Good afternoon all!

I used to live in Missouri. My son was born in Independence. I like the areas of Liberty and Overland Park, etc. I am living out of state, but am looking for a job in the area. I know the general rules of living close to where you work, but I don't mind a commute. Especially important to me are good schools, since my son is in the 4th grade.

Any thoughts?

[xenokc]

Since you've already lived in the KC area, is there something you have a question about?


According to this Franklin and Shoal Creek are the good elementary schools in Liberty. Blue Valley in southern JoCo is considered best on KS side. Also look up 'Shawnee Mission' district in KS.

GreatSchools.org Search: liberty

Liberty has a quaint town feel with some suburbia, JoCo is more cookie cutter suburbia and leans consumer oriented with a lot more high end retail. Check out total local/city/county/state taxes for each. JoCo can appear lower in some categories but is typically higher overall than the rest of KC metro.

Good luck with finding a job. The unemployment is better than US average here but KC took a big hit in jobs a couple years ago. Depending on job type, it could be really tough. IT and medical jobs are fairly abundant and govt jobs seem to be growing.

[kcmo]

^ when did you start caring about the suburbs??? Must be trying to win that grand prize!

[brianjb]

Originally Posted by xenokc

Since you've already lived in the KC area, is there something you have a question about?


According to this Franklin and Shoal Creek are the good elementary schools in Liberty. Blue Valley in southern JoCo is considered best on KS side. Also look up 'Shawnee Mission' district in KS.

GreatSchools.org Search: liberty

Liberty has a quaint town feel with some suburbia, JoCo is more cookie cutter suburbia and leans consumer oriented with a lot more high end retail. Check out total local/city/county/state taxes for each. JoCo can appear lower in some categories but is typically higher overall than the rest of KC metro.

Good luck with finding a job. The unemployment is better than US average here but KC took a big hit in jobs a couple years ago. Depending on job type, it could be really tough. IT and medical jobs are fairly abundant and govt jobs seem to be growing.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I did live in the KC area. But that was when I was renting an apartment off 39th street near the Independence Center and schools were at the bottom of my wish list.

Now my wants are good schools and decent tax rate. I know that there is some trade off. Sometimes you have to pay higher taxes to get better schools. But higher taxes can be cheaper than private schools.

I work for a large government agency in the IT field. I have also worked in the medical field in IT before.

I am looking for jobs in the IT field in KC. Sometimes it is hard to get an interview when coming from out of state, however.

I will post if I hear anything.

In the meantime, please continue to send updates and responses. Does anyone know where I can compare a similar priced home in both JOCO and Liberty and see what the tax rates would be?

[aragx6]

^Zillow.com will show you the property tax history for any property.

[kcmo]

Are you wanting to stay in the city limits of Liberty? Most of the new homes around Liberty are actually in KCMO. The Shoal Creek area of KCMO across 35 from Liberty (most people call that liberty) is actually the fastest growing suburban area in metro KC in the past decade while Liberty itself has grown very modestly. So not sure if you want new construction or not, but if so, you may have to look at Liberty. If taxes are are big deal to you, then you should look at Gladstone, they have some of the highest taxes in the metro and Gladstone has some really nice parts like in the northeast corner of the city.

Johnson County is a big place with prices of the same home varying wildly in JoCo alone, let alone trying to compare it to Liberty. I would think Olathe, Lenexa etc are more comparable price wise to Liberty/Shoal Creek then the Blue Valley area (Leawood, OP etc).

Have you looked at Cerner or Burns and McDonnell? They seem to be hiring right now.

[kcmo]

Here you go brianjb:

Capgemini gets Missouri incentives to add 125 IT jobs in Lee?s Summit - Kansas City Business Journal

Maybe you should look into Lee's Summit, they have some of the best schools in the metro