Moving to St. Louis, Best Neighborhoods?

My wife and I are headed to St. Louis this weekend. She has a meeting with her new employer and then we are off to look at a couple of houses.

I have only been to St. Louis once in my life and that was a few months ago. I didn’t get to see much outside of the pet friendly-hotel we were staying in with our 18yr old dog, but did get to see some decaying homes that looked like they were really nice about 80 yrs ago near the hospital.

She will be working at SLU’s hospital downtown off of S Grand Ave. and we are looking for houses with in a few miles of the hospital. A couple of them are near Tower Grove Park, I think there was one by Benton Park, and one that is about in between the two parks. I’m looking for a least cost, best neighborhood sort of thing.

I’m not afraid to put in some sweat-equity, but don’t want to get into a neighborhood where I will have problems loosing equity over several years as we did in GA. Live and learn I guess. I can do any contracting type work on the house, but don’t want to have to rebuild a house from the inside out again if I can help it (note: my wife would love it if I could though…)

Are there any areas that we should definitely stay away from? Are there any areas that we should definitely see? Is there a good pub that we could visit on Saturday evening…preferably one that has a couple of house brews?

Can't go wrong with Kirkwood and/or Webster Groves areas.

Close to her work and great communities. Some older (historic) homes and areas and some newer developments.

Safe. Family friendly.

There's a brew pub, Alandale Brewing in downtown Kirkwood.

Look for the places that aren't crime-infested. There's gotta be one or two out there.

I no longer live in St. Louis so maybe take this with a grain of salt.

From what I gathered while visiting over the holidays, the area around SLU is up and coming. Don't know if you are considering a loft but it might be worth a look. (Wish I could remember some of the street names) You said you'd like to avoid a fixer-upper but there are some cool old houses in that area as well. Several museums in the area if you're into that sort of thing. Also a decent selection of restaurants.

If not this, move out to the county as MB suggested. The areas to avoid are pretty self-evident.

As for beer pubs also check out a Shlafly's.

Happy hunting.

I hear East St. Louis real nice this time of year.

I can do the fixer-upper thing and would love a historic house, just want to make sure if I put in the work I'm going to actually gain value on the house. My previous (the practice house) I lost a good bit of money when it sold, but I did learn a ton... We have a rental now (Rochester, MN) and it is nice feeling like I don't need to work on the house or have a honey-do list...

Thanks for all of the input

RobertHSmith said:

I can do the fixer-upper thing and would love a historic house, just want to make sure if I put in the work I'm going to actually gain value on the house. My previous (the practice house) I lost a good bit of money when it sold, but I did learn a ton... We have a rental now (Rochester, MN) and it is nice feeling like I don't need to work on the house or have a honey-do list...

Thanks for all of the input

Click to expand...

PM me, I know a couple people in the 'biz.

Kirkwood or Webster are likely going to be your best bet. Personally, I wouldnt live near SLU or Grand. The Maplewood and Brentwood areas are not all that bad either.