Best Places to Live in STL for Decent Price?

[moops]

Anybody have any input?

Thanks!

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[tBw]

ummm....well, of course I do have opinions on this...but...don't you already live here???

 

[moops]

on campus- never lived off- don't know anything about the apartments... i'm in the market for a single bedroom or studio ... don't want to pay too much more than 550 if i can avoid it

 

[tBw]

hum, well there are nice apartments in the central west end but they are all on the pricier end. But you also do get to live in the central west end which is pleasant - and particularly convenient if you end up at WashU but perhaps not perfect for SLU. There are a number of decent apartment buildings up Lindell near SLU.

It really depends on how close to school you want to live.

I personally don't like University City too much - kinda grungy and the neighborhood changes between so-so and dead-awful way too quickly. Dogtown has good cheap apartments right across from the park.

I always chose to live west of kingshighway in the south of tower grove. Its slightly more of a drive (15 mins to washU, prolly the same to SLU) but you are always driving in the opposite direction to traffic so never delayed, theres lots local to you, and at $350/month for an apartment with 1 bedroom, 3 walk in closets, dining area, office, sunroom, kitchen, sitting room, hardwood floors, stain glass windows, basement, parking and free laundry...it's a lot cheaper to live there than most other parts.

 

[moops]

WOW. 375 for that!?! that sounds SPECTCULAR!! is the area nice and all? how do I find out about these homes? That sounds so perfect for me.. i dont' mind the drive at all either! 🙂

 

[el piel]

I've got the same question as moops, kind of, but I don't already live in St. Louis. If I end up out there, my wife and I are planning on buying a house rather than renting. The decision here is obviously a little more weighty, since we've got to balance affordability and likelihood of selling the house at a decent price when we decide to move.

So my question is, what neighborhoods would you recommend NOT buying a house in. (For whatever it's worth, if we move to St. Louis, I'll be attending WashU, so if you've any advice specific to that neighborhood I'd be delighted)

Thanks!

 

[Doctor Wyldstyle]

The neighborhoods vary greatly in St. Louis, especially if you plan to buy it within the city limits. You can research a little more on st. louis city neighborhoods here, with a break down on demographics, and perhaps a hint on what the neighborhood is like at the city website.

Buying a house is a good investment, i know at least 4 areas in StL where property values went up 20%, so in the end you may come up esp. w/the good rates for loans. Here are the links, just click on neighborhoods:

http://stlouis.missouri.org/

Each neighborhood may or may not have its own site.

Hope that helps,
wyldstyle

ps. Additional realtors, buying houses, etc can be found here. Cheap places to rent can also be found here.

http://mstl.org/relocating/index.html

Finally, if you go to Wash U's site, they have a good rental listing there too.

 

[moops]

know anything about the chesterfield apartments in the central west end?

special rate: 525 for 1 bedroom apartments...and damn they seem NICE.

?

 

[Doctor Wyldstyle]

I think i've heard of it but I can't put the name to the visualization. If you ahve a link, that would be great. Man, you can save alot of if you room up. My share of rent is $200 and I live in soulard w/2 other roomates and have my own room. - wyldstyle

 

[moops]

i would definitely room up,,but i don't really know of anyone staying in stl .. i fear i will be stuck paying for th 1bedroom by myself until i make a posse at school and force them to pay my rent (jk)- i will prob drive by some places today to see what' sup- central west end was such a beuatiful area though! i never knew!

 

[Sonya]

if you're willing to take a 20-25 minute drive, collinville, bellvue (I'm pretty sure i spelled it wrong, can never get it right), and other nearby bities are very cheap compared to near campus. I don't know rents for a single person, as we rented a large house for the whole family. Living in collinsville, though slightly further then the other nearby cities really cut down the traffic for us .

I don't know if you're talking medical school or undergrad, or Slu or WashU, or w hat not. But, WashU undergrad has off-campus housing which are decently priced. they certainly are not steals.


Parts of central west end are BAD neighborhoods. But, other parts are nice. The medical school and CWE are on the border of the bad area and the area where all the doctor and proffesor live (good).
Sonya

 

[tBw]

As far as reselling houses, those that are in the best school district are *always* resellable here, however they are also higher priced. Houses in the city have the opposite problem - lower priced but because of bad school districts and the perception that the city is somehow dangerous its hard to re-sell.

As far as Collinsville or Belleville. Ummmm....well, I guess that just shows what a diversity of opinion you are going to find, as I couldn't recommend anywhere *less*. Sure they are nice enough towns (I infact lived in Belleville for a while but it was for 'personal' reasons and the moment those reasons ended, I moved *straight* back to St Louis!) but the traffic you have to deal with is horrendous. 20-25 minutes!?!?!? I'm sorry, no offense intended, but I'm not sure how thats possible unless you fitted floatation devices to your car! - they are in Illinois and so you *have* to drive across the bridge into St Louis. Anytime between 7 and 10am or 3:30 and 6:30pm this is pretty packed with all the people from Ill who commute to work in St Louis so you do nothing but sit in traffic. Also, although they are nice enough towns themselves most of the routes between them and St Louis take you through the shadiest areas around here. I'm sorry if that offends anyone - I used to live there and this is my opinion of the place. I would stay in MO without a doubt, there are plenty of places to live on this side of the river.

Moops - finding places cheap in StL is pretty easy. Just drive through the neighbourhoods I mentioned. Loads of places have "for rent" signs infront (I counted 8 driving to have coffee this morning). Some will be good, some bad, but finding a real deal is very possible, it just takes a bit of looking/leg-work. CWE is overpriced but there are few neighbourhoods that are going to be quite as nice, so its a trade off between price and location as always.

 

[ephgirl]

I'm going to WashU this fall, and I have never been to St. Louis except for the interview! I'm looking for a good off-campus neighborhood to live, and also wondering if there is a way to contact other 1st years who might be looking for roommates. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[LaughingGiraffe]

several points regarding housing around wash u, in particular.


i grew up in the central west end (CWE), and just spent a few weekends learning the ins and outs of all the streets and neighborhoods while looking for a condo near the school.


if forest park is a big rectangle, with the med school on the east side and the ugrad on the west (about two miles across), here are the neighborhoods:

dogtown - south of the park. lots of young families. cheaper rent, but not as trendy a neighborhood, and a bit of a haul to the school (not on the shuttle)

u. city - north of the western half. similar to dogtown, maybe a bit more expensive, on the shuttle. typical place = 3br single family or 6 unit condo. keep in mind that if you plan to drive to school, you'll be spending $400 or so on the parking permit.

CWE - east and northeast. a huge mix. near the medschool are lots of condos, in low and high rise buildings. north and northeast of the park generally consists of enormous, old mansions - 3 story, 10 bedroom affairs with elevators and carriage houses that could house several students quite happily. this area also has some streets with smaller houses, as you head towards u. city. further east (starting at boyle), things do get pretty sketchy in patches. we're talking boarded up houses, or real estate-wise, houses on for $40,000. the whole area is on an upswing (condos that were $80-$90,000 in 1999 are regularly selling for $200,000). so maybe buying in a patchy area will net you some serious gains.

forest park southeast: just south of the med campus. the latest really down and out area to catch the eye of a few adventurous souls. i tend to feel pretty laid back and safe, perhaps even when i shouldn't, and as a woman i absolutely would NOT walk alone at night, and i'd be cautious during the day. again, some real deals to be found, and potential for great growth, but not ideal if you're in the library until midnight.

tower grove/ shaw neighborhood: like dogtown, but surrounding forest park southeast, and extending southeast beyond that, around the botanical garden.


i settled on a condo a half mile or so from the school (industrial buildings means it's hard to get much closer without being in olin. even though places advertise "steps to wash u med," mapquest it to the school (660 s. euclid, 63110) because you may be in for a surprise. i decided it was worth the higher price, because i wanted an easy walk and nicer, safe neighborhood for the next few years. i'm also a couple blocks from the restaurants and bars of the CWE (north of the campus), so it's easy to get to the fun part of the CWE. plus, i figure i'll probably get it back when i sell, and if fortune is smiling upon me, the place might even appreciate a bit as well. i'll likely be trying to find another first year to share it with me, since it's 2br and 2ba. it'll probably be in the range of $550-$600, which is maybe on the higher side, but that's about half of what it will cost me to own, and it's worth that much to me to be in such a prime place, with a nice condo (large rooms and plenty of space, exposed brick, etc.), the place will be fully furnished and equipped with a washer/dryer in the unit, somewhat decent furniture (i'm ditching the freebie furniture i've in college and my current apartment), and come with free parking. ugh - run on sentence.

the school does send out info in june to help everyone figure stuff out. apparently, 90% of first years live in the central west end, generally in high rise places (because those are the easiest to come by). i've heard 8% or so live north of the park, and 2% live elsewhere.

i should add that much of this info comes from what i have seen directly or current students i e-mailed when trying to hammer out the details of what would be the best fit for me.

sorry to ramble on so long - this just happens to be stuff i've been quite focused on for the last couple months.

feel free to pm me with questions, and i can do my best to answer them.

 

[LaughingGiraffe]

www.gundaker.com and www.realtor.com

i found it useful to search by zipcode -

63108 will limit your search to the central west end. to see the wide range of places, don't set price limits.

63110 will often get you tower grove area and forest park southeast (both, as the second name suggests, southeast of forest park).

63112 gets you the area west of the CWE north of the park. anything north of delmar is likely very sketchy.

63117 gets you dogtown, and an area called richmond heights, i think.

don't forget to try search condos as well as single-family houses.

 

[gotgirth]

Anyone have experience with Olin Hall?...How much does it run, what are the room sizes, and what are general feelings on the place? I remember hearing at my interview that ~1/3 of the first year class lives there, seems like a good spot to meet people and be close to class for the first year?

Comments appreciated 🙂

 

[Polar girl]

Originally posted by LaughingGiraffe


63108 will limit your search to the central west end. to see the wide range of places, don't set price limits.

Part of SLU undergrad is in 63108. Definitely not central west end.

 

[LaughingGiraffe]

here is what i know of olin:

the rooms run about $300-400, depending on the size of the room. i think you can share a double and spend less. so it's fairly cheap, and pretty darn convenient (a 2 minute walk to class). apparently, lots of first years live there (more males than females) and most people move out after that (i'm not sure if this is because olin isn't that great, or they've had time to find the best apartments around). added benefits are a gym downstairs for basketball, etc, and a small workout facility that doubles as a kitchen (apparently, small is a generous way to describe it). the big issue for me would be the kitchen situation - there are common kitchens on all or some floors, but i find it's tough to eat-in regularly when it's hard to store food, or the pots, pans, etc, are readily available, so i make up the difference in cost by eating all my meals at home, or brought from home. if you eat out a lot anyway, olin is a very convenient and cost-effective place to stay. the other issue for some is that most rooms use a communal bathroom. i imagine it's also easier for network connections, etc.

 

[moops]

i want to live in the central west end probably in an apartment that costs no more than 550/600 per month (either a studio or 1 bedroom)

suggestions for nice places? i saw jackson arms (****ty I thought) and the hawthorne (looks nice, rooms ain't too great though)...

 

[regisphilbin]

im undecided on whether to rent or buy a condo in the st. louis area...

does anyone know what regions of the St. Louis area are decent places to purchase (ie. will have good resale value in 4 years)?