Do you live in Kansas City MO? What areas are better and which ones to avoid when looking to move there?

Question

I am in Seattle and just am over it with the high prices, junkies homeless crackheads and winos laying all over the sidewalks and the overcrowding.
KC looks pretty nice from what I have seen.
Looked at homes for sale and apartments online.
Can't believe how cheap it there, but what are the neighborhoods like?

Answer 1

Kansas City MO has it's fair share of junkies,homeless crackheads and winos .... Kansas City MO has a very high rate in the city core. If you are looking for cookie cutter tract homes stay out of Liberty, Lees Summit and most suburbs.
If you are looking for homes like in the Capital Hill area of Seattle check out Brookside. You should be able to find a nice home in 200's to way over a million. If you prefer to live on Kansas side by all means stay out of Kansas City Kansas. Wyandotte County. Stick with Johnson County, Fairway and Leawood are very nice but also prices rival Southern California. I pasted a link to Reece & Nichols they have the best real estate shopping website. I hope this helps you decide as I didn't candy coat anything .

Answer 2

Kansas City is sort of odd because it has those very thin borders, where in just one block you can be in a bad neighborhood, but in general, KC has really nice places everywhere, and some crime everywhere too.

Everyone would say the Plaza is the best by far for apartment living, homes are insane. Brookside is nice and residental, the homes are affordable and some are great structurally. Midtown/Hyde Park has it's crime, but the houses are historical and large, most have 4 to 5 bedrooms. Westport is the most accepting of any lifestyle, family structure, and/or decor, and it's basically Plaza/Midtown. Waldo is the name for our southern area of the city, it's like Brookside but a little cheaper, and a little older. No one lives downtown unless it's in a loft, which tend to be expensive for KC, but extremely reasonable compared to other cities.

That's all I can offer up in terms of locations, because quite frankly, I find the surrounding cities a whole other story in themselves. We have the stereotypes and the realities of each suburb, and there's far too many for KC to mention them. I can say this, don't move to the Kansas side unless you like commuting to play, because there is nothing on the Kansas side.

Answer 3

If you're urban-minded you might want to look into a loft. They are popping up all over the place in the downtown and Midtown area as older buildings are being restored. The Rivermarket and the Crossroads districts are the up and coming areas, as is the Union Hill area. You never know how those will do in the long run though, so that might be a bit of a gamble. Personally I've always favored the Brookside area myself. In my opinion that is the nicest neighborhood (with the best resale) in town.

I know those place names aren't much help when searching, so if you need more information send me an email and I'll go into greater detail.

Answer 4

Check into the towns just outside of the KC area -- Liberty is nice and Lee's Summit is as well. The West Port and Plaza areas are very pretty as well. Stay away from Independence or anything along Independence Avenue if you don't want to see homeless people and crack horse [hee hee] walking about. Maybe we'll meet up and you can show me Seattle some time!

Answer 5

I live in KCMO the areas you avoid are troost, prospect, 69th street, swpoe park, the plaza has a whole bunch of homeless people, kemper arena after dark whole bunch of crack heads drunkies, walbash, raytown and many more but i don't wnat to scare you are 6th highest crime rate shouldn't scare you if you know the right places such as overland park, ks, shawnee, ks, wardparkway (beautiful place huge houses right by th country club plaza), the plaza, North Kansas City and many more. Kansas City will welcome you with open arms. And o yeah stay away from the wrong parts of kansas city, ks

Answer 6

Maybe off season, when the fares are lower, you should go there for a week and really check it out for yourself.
If you are considering a move based on pictures and the opinions of strangers, you could be in for a deep shock when you get where you are going and decide you absolutely hate it.

I looked on flickr at pictures of Kansas City.
Noticed there was very little traffic... and NO PEOPLE in most of the pictures. I don't think they were ALL taken at 6am on a Sunday.
You really need to go there and look.

Answer 7

its a wonderful city...the neighborhoods are nice there, but I would go for the suburbs if you want to get good schooling at a public school...if you don't want to leave the city life though, stay in the city and go private school. its a fun place to live with lots of nice people and weather

Answer 8

Plaza...country club district is the coolest/nicest part of K.C......there are many homes of distinction...homes that were built in the early to mid 1900's with a lot of character. It is also hip and happening....progressive people....much more urban than you would imagine.

If you have kids of course, you would need to send them to private schools as the KCMO public schools suck...or, you would need to move to one of the suburbs...but, the suburbs of K.C. are like the suburbs of any other city....just plain and dull....very sterile.

Best of luck to you.

Answer 9

just stay away from south kansas city you be ok. the river market is a good area lots of lofts westport & the plaza are are good but the plaza area is expensive. fairway & prarie village on the kansas side is also good

Answer 10

Well take TOTO with you and go for a walk. Hit the local bars. And talk to the bartenders. Or follow the yellow brick road and talk to the wizard. tee hee ok ok sorry I had to make funny. But really you gotta go see for yourself. Beside by your pic you might be the one who would scare the neighbours. ok ok I make funny again.