Looking to relocate to Kansas City (Independence, Lee's Summit: rentals, crime, townhomes)

[Cookn2plese]

My husband and I are looking to relocate to the K.C., MO area. We have 3 children that will be moving with us and would appreciate any info you can share about where we can find affordable housing with awesome schools. My husband's grandma lives in Parkville, and we LOVE that town---it reminds us of Eureka Springs, Arkansas! 2 of our kids are preschool age, the other is in Jr. High. We know the schools in Park Hill school district are really good, but how affordable is housing? We've been researching rentals online and found some townhomes pretty close to Worlds of Fun. What is this area like for crime and schools? Help, PLEASE.

[RjRobb2]

The area around Worlds of Fun is very mixed, you have some good neighborhoods, some not so good neighborhoods and some bad neighborhoods.

Housing in Parkville varies. You can get a nice house in some areas of Parkville for around 150K. But, there are also neighborhoods with multi-million dollar homes. If you are going to live north of the river, the further north you can get is better as far as crime is concerned.

[Cookn2plese]

Thank you for the information! This helps! I am glad to know about the area around Worlds of Fun. The townhomes we found online are on Bellaire ave. Any clues? I do think we are leaning more toward Parkville, unless you know of some really "laid back" place that is in awesome schools. We are moving from a town of less than 500 people. Told my husband and teen that this will be like our own "Survivor" game!!hahaha. Good thing we don't scare easy, huh. Thanks again for the info, and please if you have suggestions, we would love to hear them.

[christina0001]

Parkville is, IMO, wonderful. I would have loved to live there. The downtown shopping area is adorable, crime is low, and the schools are highly rated. As stated above, there are neighborhoods where you can get a nice 3 bedroom home for $150k...and prices go up from there.

[Betsyg]

Liberty is also great for a laid-back, historic feel with great schools.

[kevandlibk]

I would not live near the Worlds of Fun area. Schools would not be good. Basically, if you are living in the Missouri side of Kansas City, you need to either be in Parkville, or Lee's Summit. Both school districts are good. The Blue Springs area is supposed to have a good district, but I hear mixed things. If you choose an area of KC, Mo called Brookside, then you must do private school. Many, many people live in this area and send their kids to Catholic/private school. You can find homes from $250-on up in this area.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by kevandlibk

I would not live near the Worlds of Fun area. Schools would not be good. Basically, if you are living in the Missouri side of Kansas City, you need to either be in Parkville, or Lee's Summit. Both school districts are good. The Blue Springs area is supposed to have a good district, but I hear mixed things. If you choose an area of KC, Mo called Brookside, then you must do private school. Many, many people live in this area and send their kids to Catholic/private school. You can find homes from $250-on up in this area.

Huh? I will never understand this. Firt off, Parkville is a tiny, tiny city. I think Parkville is a fine town, but it's not your only choice on the MO side.

In the Northland you have Park Hill, Platte County, Smithville, North KC and Liberty. All are fine. The area by Worlds of Fun is a pretty big area. It really depends on what area. Most of that area is industrial. There are some modest residential areas along 435 (not crime ridden or anything) but if you go a bit north of there, you get into Shoal Creek which has some of the highest demographics in the metro now.

In the MO side south suburbs you have Blue Springs (which is fine), Lee's Summit, Ray-Pec, Fort Osage and others. Even Grandview, Independence and Raytown have good schools. You really don't get into trouble till you get into the Hickman Mills, Center and KCMO districts.

The KC area has over 2 million people in it and around 100 high schools. You can't tell me that 95% of those schools are not worth of sending your kids to.

This is one of the biggest problems in KC. If it's not brand new or or Overland Park, people say stay away. That's messed up.

[aragx6]

Grandview High School has some major problems. They scored 19 percentage points below the state average in English and 9 points below state average in math.

The middle and elementary schools performed no better, often worse.

These stats came from: Grandview C-4 School District Schools, Grandview - MO: charter and public schools. Grandview School District - Grandview MO School District if you want to check them out.

I would agree that Independence's schools are fine, as are Raytown's, but let's not lump schools together and offer praise where none is due just to make a point. That's no better than what kevandlibk did.

[christina0001]

Many of the above named towns are fine (I like Lee's Summit a lot, too), but they don't have the same atmosphere that Parkville has. Parkville has a very unique feel, IMO

[ChicagoRefugee]

Originally Posted by aragx6

I would agree that Independence's schools are fine, as are Raytown's

Really? How do you figure that? According to SchoolMatters, the highest rated elementary school in Raytown has scores of: reading 50.2% and math 51.6%. Independence's best logs in with scores of 62.0% and 60.1%. As far as I can tell nothing on the Missouri side of the line has decent scores.

Why is that? On the Kansas side, KC city schools have scores in the 70's, and suburbs like Shawnee Mission and Overland Park score well into the 90's. Is there a major difference in the scoring system between the two states? Are the MO standards that much more rigorous?

I'd really like to know 'cause a move to KC might be in the cards, and I've got an eight year old!