Moving from Seattle area - Best safe and inexpensive suburb to live? (St. Louis: apartment complexes, renting) - Missouri (MO) - City-Data Forum

pro2010 · 09-23-2010, 04:02 PM

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum and will be new to the St. Louis area soon. I will be taking a position with Boeing and moving from a suburb of Seattle (originally from the midwest myself - Ft. Wayne IN).

I will be moving with my fiancée who will be looking for a job in the medical reception field in the area as well. We are looking to move to a suburb that is reasonable price wise, safe, and with an easy commute to Boeing and other things to do like shopping (malls, best buy, etc.), gyms, groceries (costco, wal-mart, target), etc. (by easy I mean hopefully not much more than 30 minutes). It is just her and I and we may look at getting a dog, so we want an area that is not a "concrete jungle" so to speak.

We are both in our upper 20s and enjoy an environment typical to our age.

Looking around on the forums, I have seen some recommendations for living in IL including Edwardsville, Fairview Heights, Shiloh, and O'Fallon as well as some recommendations for St. Charles area in MO or Maryland Heights MO.

Are those currently the best locations as most of the recommendations I found were from 2007?

DinsdalePirahna · 09-23-2010, 04:05 PM

Lots of Boeing Engineers in Lake Saint Louis that have relocated from Seattle. Not exactly a "hip urban" environment but if you like water and other outdoor activities it may be a good place for you.

moorlander · 09-23-2010, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pro2010

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum and will be new to the St. Louis area soon. I will be taking a position with Boeing and moving from a suburb of Seattle (originally from the midwest myself - Ft. Wayne IN).

I will be moving with my fiancée who will be looking for a job in the medical reception field in the area as well. We are looking to move to a suburb that is reasonable price wise, safe, and with an easy commute to Boeing and other things to do like shopping (malls, best buy, etc.), gyms, groceries (costco, wal-mart, target), etc. (by easy I mean hopefully not much more than 30 minutes). It is just her and I and we may look at getting a dog, so we want an area that is not a "concrete jungle" so to speak.

We are both in our upper 20s and enjoy an environment typical to our age.

Looking around on the forums, I have seen some recommendations for living in IL including Edwardsville, Fairview Heights, Shiloh, and O'Fallon as well as some recommendations for St. Charles area in MO or Maryland Heights MO.

Are those currently the best locations as most of the recommendations I found were from 2007?

Those are all nice places to live. Not too popular with young couples with no kids though. If you love the burbs and plenty of green space then you're probably looking in the right place. Are you really that worried about safety? St. Louis is NOT the dangerous place you hear about on the news.

stlcitygirl · 09-23-2010, 06:38 PM

The most popular suburbs for young people are: Brentwood, Richmond Heights, Webster Groves, and Kirkwood. They tend to be more expensive, but they are MUCH hipper than the further out suburbs like St Charles, St Peters, Chesterfield, Creve Couer, O'Fallon, Lake St Louis and any on the Illinois side (Shiloh, Belleville, Alton)

billiken · 09-23-2010, 06:39 PM

I think the most obvious choice is St Charles. Suburban, safe, close to Boeing, very affordable, still some stuff going on with young people on Main Street and the casino

stlcitygirl · 09-23-2010, 06:40 PM

^
St Charles is all those things, but for a younger couple with no children it could be very boring. All my friends that lived in St Charles in their 20's hated it.

billiken · 09-23-2010, 06:47 PM

I would hate it too, but I have friends who enjoy it. The OP said nothing about wanting to live in a hip, trendy, or walkable area, so they may not see the value in paying a premium for those things.

Philadelphia Jim · 09-23-2010, 06:52 PM

St. Charles County is your best bet. I live in Chesterfield but hang out in Old Town St. C with co-workers/friends.

Be sure to research social groups/clubs and join them - you are entering a very insular, nepotistic and parochial environment, and it can be a challenge to make new friends if you don't "speak the language" per se. Unlike most sophisticated Eastern and Western cities, there is definitely a small-town conservatism here.

STLCardsBlues1989 · 09-23-2010, 07:57 PM

St. Charles and Maryland Heights would be close to your work, but far from all the city amenities. Most twenty-somethings seem to prefer the city because that is where the clubs and restaurants and sports scenes are. But it would be a longer commute. Where is your wife hoping to work? That would make a difference. Personally I find some of the suburbs to be more bland and boring than the city. Just my opinion, though. Still, the city has some beautiful neighborhoods, moreso than St. Charles.

I don't know much about the Illinois side, but it seems to be about the same distance as the city. If that's the case, especially being young a married couple with no kids, the city might be better. I don't really see any reason to drive from Illinois to North County every day.

Once you have kids and they start school you will probably end up in the county anyway. Still, you'd might as well enjoy what the city has to offer for a couple of years first. No matter what you do, I would suggest renting before buying, to make sure you like the area and the neighborhood you are in.

I would advise renting first, but that's just me. Whether you choose to live closer to work and farther from the city or closer to the city and farther from work probably depends on what you like to do for recreation. If you lived in the city and drove to work your commute (according to Google) might be around 20-35 minutes, but you could take MetroLink or MetroBus to a lot of the ball games (if you lived close to a Metro stop, South City only has buses, Central West End and Downtown and neighborhoods around there have MetroLink) and restaurants and bars and stuff. A one-month MetroLink pass costs $68 ($2.25 for one ride I think), which is about equivalent to a gallon of gas a day. You could take MetroLink from Downtown to Lambert, but it would take longer than driving. Google says a trip from Downtown to Lambert on Metro at 6 am tomorrow (for example) would take about 45 minutes compared to about 20 minutes driving (depending on traffic). So if you lived in the city, taking Metro to work might not work for you, but you could take it to a lot of the other interesting places in the city. Just a suggestion.

There are a lot of great places you could choose to live. As someone else said, some young couples like the suburbs and some don't. I just wouldn't buy a home until I had tested the area for a couple of months. Best of luck.

flynavyj · 09-24-2010, 05:22 AM

If you're looking for green spaces the city may not be for you (probably why you said you wanted suburbs). Most city "homes" have tiny little backyards, maybe a patch of grass if you're lucky. At the same time, i see numerous people and know several city dwellers who have dogs w/o issues (none are living in apartments or flats though).

I grew up in Bridgeton (very close to Boeing) and currently live in St. Ann (Also very close to Boeing/Airport). I'd highly advise Maryland Heights, i know there's a Golds Gym right off Dorset Rd (west of McKelvy) plenty of Chain resturants. The closest Walmart right now is in Bridgeton/St. Ann and it's not a super walmart. But a super Walmart is planned and approved (i think) for Bridgeton. Currently the nearest super walmart would be in Chesterfield or St. Charles, both have Sam's Clubs next door.

Old Town St. charles isn't bad. There are some cool "lofts" that were built on the Northern end of old town recently, and would be trendy living, with an easy commute to Boeing, plus all the conviences of being walkable to numerous bars, clubs, resturants, etc. I've got at least 10 friends in their 20's with and without kids living in St. Charles and they all seem to love it, including one set of friends who now live in St. Peters and both commute to the airport/boeing for work.

I'd stay away from Illinois, but i'm partial to the Missouri side (that's where i was raised). But the commutes would be significantly better. If you can stay inside of the rivers you'd do better to, the bridges can offer nightmares in the morning around rush hour, especially if there's an accident. Lots of my current co-workers seem to live in Illinois. My wife and I were in Belleville (very close to Shiloh) this past weekend. It was a gorgeous community (little cookie cutter though) but from boeing it was a 40 minute commute during non-rush hour times. If you were going to be working at Scott AFB, i'd advise living over there, or if you were retired military etc (i think their tax situation is better for military folks).

I'd also advise renting before buying, get a feel for the area, then make the decision to buy.

Oh, and my wife and I also lived in Creve Coeur for a bit. Great area, very very very convienent (right next to I-270). There are lots of apartment complexes in that area, it's very typical "suburban" with chain resturants, etc. But in order to have a yard for the dog to go running around in, i'd just plan on renting a house in whatever area you plan on moving...My list.

Maryland Heights
Creve Coeur
Bridgeton
St. Charles
Hazelwood
St. Ann