housing prices in St. Louis (St. Charles, Florissant: real estate, renting, mortgage)

[Deb in VA]

Hubby and I are thinking about a possible move to the St. Louis area sometime in the next year or so. He works for NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) here in Bethesda, MD and thinks he may be able to transfer to the location in St. Louis.

Anyway, we would be interested in an older home on a decent sized lot in an established neighborhood. We have young children so good schools are important. Hubby now is driving an hour and 20 minutes each way to work so something in the 20-30 minute range for a commute would be great.

We think we want to spend somewhere between $200,000-$225,000 for a house and would need at least 2,000 sq. feet of space. Are there any such homes available in St. Louis or am I being unrealistic? Where we live now a nice sized older home would go for at least $300,000 and I'm hoping housing prices in St. Louis are a little more reasonable.

[CellarBelle]

I know some of the NGA folks live on the Illinois side in Edwardsville. That is the town I live in. It takes about 30 to 35 minutes to get to the airport, and about the same amount of time to get to downtown.

The great thing about Edwardsville is the schools and family-friendliness. Our taxes tend to be higher than the Missouri side, but our schools are outstanding. A lot of people in St. Louis opt to put their kids in private schools, so many times the tax difference is made up in the private school savings. There are some great burbs on the Missouri side - Chesterfield, St. Charles and so on. So you can't go wrong if you stay on the MO side.

Check out the Edwardsville, IL school district at the greatschools website and see what you think. If you are interested, you can post more questions about Edwardsville, and I'll be happy to answer what I can. I have a 7 year-old and a 9 year-old, and we love the area for our kids.

Something to consider.

Good luck and best wishes. St. Louis is a wonderful town, and I hope if you move here you find it to your liking. The people in and around St. Louis are top-notch.

[deadliestformula]

There are homes in Florissant that are in your price range. And the neighborhoods are nice. Depending on where your hubby works the commute shouldn't be too bad. I think worst case scenario you'd be looking at an hour to downtown in traffic. I currently live in Florissant. You should check out the Riverwood subdivisions (Estates, Place, Trails, and I forget the newest ones name.) The first 3 have been around for 20 years or so and the newest one is about 10 years old. The neighborhoods I mentioned are kept up very nicely, and have some large nicer homes that should be in your price range.

[jbushart]

Deb,

There are many good areas in the St. Louis area that will suit your price range. Be sure to find yourself a good buyer's agent when you arrive in St. Louis and begin your search. In Missouri, by law, your real estate salesman must provide you with a full written disclosure as to who they have a fudiciary responsibility to in the transaction. Don't take it for granted that "your agent" is representing you...get it in writing.

Right now, in this buyer's market with a good negotiator working for you, you should get a very fine home for the amount of money you are looking to spend.

[RonnaBR]

Hi Deb,

My name is Ronna and we just relo to STL from DC. In fact we lived in Bethesda across from the Defense mapping agency at one point. We just moved from Ashburn, VA.

Prepare yourself for the housing prices to be as high as DC suburbs. The issue with STL is finding a good school district. About 30% of population sends their kdis to private schools. And that is not just the rich people.

We moved to West County Chesterfield---because it has good public schools. The old homes are form 300- 400K that need at least $100k in work and there are oodles of new homes form 1.5mil+ I was shocked!!!!! Right now we are renting! They say it is a buyers market but I have had several mortgage lenders tell me to hold off for 12-18 months because they think prices will fall further. Basically STL is where DC metro was 2 years ago. NOthing is moving but people are in disbelief so they are not dropping the prices.

I do like living here---lots of family fun things to do and traffic is a breeze but it is really different than the East Coast. Grocery shopping is just as expensive and organics are outrageous.

We can take this off line if you want to email me at ronnabr@gmail.com

[RickMG]

I just ate dinner at Rock Bottom(?) Brewery in Bethesda last week. You can find many homes in areas all around St. Louis close to the price range you're looking for, just depends on the amenities you want, ie: new versus old, updated or not, etc. I have trouble believing that 30% of people here send their kids to private schools. I can tell you that you can find a home here for much less than in the DC area. Chesterfield is one of the most expensive areas around, but there are homes in great neighborhoods in and around Chestefield for under $300k.

[Deb in VA]

Thank you all for your replies. I appreciate the info. If we do decide to make the move it won't be until next spring/summer so I have lots of time to do my research. We may decide to make a trip out sometime this fall just to look around as we've never been to St. Louis. CellarBelle thank you for the info. on Edwardsville. We currently live in a small town so we would absolutely be open to moving to another small town. If the folks on here are any sort of representation of the friendliness of the St. Louis area then I know we would love it there....not sure if that was worded correctly but you know what I mean, lol. Thanks again!
Deb