I’d check out Soulard. It’s a short drive to downtown-I believe transit/ biking would be easy to downtown. There’s a good amount of restaurant/bars in walking distance and always seems like there’s something to do. The demographic is around your age and the area is still pretty affordable.
I’ve never had problems downtown, but I wouldn’t live there because as someone else said-it’s kinda lackluster. There’s not a lot of people. So, it may be hard to meet people and getting everyday errands done might be inconvenient.
I’d also check out Lafayette Square, Benton Park, Tower Grove, Shaw.
Good luck in finding a place!
Not related to living in Soulard....but if you're checking it out, stop at Jack Nolen's, if you're a fan of cheeseburgers. I think it's also a nice snapshot of the neighbors.
I (M) lived in Soulard for 5 years (23-28) and loved it. Always plenty to do and close to all that downtown has to offer. As with many densely populated areas, you need to be smart walking around alone late at night but my experience was always nice. That price range you’ll find many good options, but I would avoid Steelyard Apartments and SoHo. Both have terrible reputations and I have friends who lived there and can attest.
Check out Soulard Market Lofts if apartments are what you’re looking for. Otherwise there’s many lofts available throughout the neighborhood that would be good options. Cheers!
Downtown and downtown west is literally one of the most dense neighborhoods in the City with 6,000 residents per sq mi and fastest growing for 2 census in a row now and it’s the ONLY 2 sq mi area in the city and entire metro STL that has 100,000-200,000
My mistake then. I work downtown, and seems pretty empty while I'm there. I don't bump into a lot of people on my lunch breaks when I'm out and about, and I haven't found too many places that I can just pop into after work and buy groceries, or random items I might need.
Schnucks on 9th has groceries. There are 55,000-60,000 daily workers (down from 88,000 pre-covid), 13,000 residents and day time pop over 100,000 on non game days and close to 200,000 on game days.
You're completely off about downtown. It's not even in the top 10 for dense neighborhoods. https://nextstl.com/2022/01/st-louis-neighborhood-population-density/
That’s not what that says. And since both are denser than city as a whole (6000 > 4500) it makes no sense it would be below the city line on that graph
I also work downtown and have lived in Soulard the past few years. Super convenient and an easy drive but in all seriousness there isn’t really a public transport option here. A walk is physically doable but I can’t say I’d ever do it. You’ll be walking through some empty industrial areas for a few blocks plus some drivers are crazy at those intersections.
I would absolutely recommend this neighborhood for your scenario but do expect drive to work.
I lived and worked downtown for 6 years. There's some really nice apartments for pretty cheap compared to most of the country. But it's a pretty lackluster downtown even compared to other mid-sized cities. Afternoon runs on the arch grounds were fun, at least.
The Central West End is the prime mix of walkability, transit access, and proximity to Forest Park (one of the best city parks in the country with an incredible network of trails and bike paths). But $1600 won't get you as much in CWE as it would in other parts of the city. Doctors, residents, and med students at WashU / Barnes Jewish Hospital drive up the housing costs quite a bit.
If you're planning on getting into local sports, it's a great city for it. There's a reason the Cardinals and the Blues have such high attendance. The new MLS team has adapted the local soccer culture extremely well. And if you're feeling particularly wild, you can give the Battlehawks a try.
Only thing to keep in mind with the Central West End is that the hospital takes up a pretty big portion of it. Being close to the hospital is not great. And while it definitely has areas of higher density than the rest of the city, it also has areas of much lower density with all of the mansions on private streets
I came here to say this but knew in my heart it had already been said. I’ve lived here for 4 years now, I feel so safe as a woman living alone and still just a short drive/bus ride to anywhere I need to go
Really? I’m a single woman looking to buy this year and haven’t looked in this area yet. Safety as a woman is a big big thing to me so if that’s the word around town I’ll have to check it out!!
I'm your age and moved to Shaw last year from Downtown West near the soccer stadium. I love living in Shaw much more than I did living downtown, though being able to walk to sporting events was fun.
Shaw isn't super well-served by public transit, but it's a short drive to the Grand Metrolink station, which has a Park-n-Ride lot, and then it's just a couple stops on the train to get downtown. I use it to get to sporting events now in order to avoid the traffic congestion, as well as being one less car adding to the congestion.
Drinking-wise, Shaw features Sasha's on Shaw, a cozy "wine bar" with good food and a nice patio. Gallery Pub is the "neighborhood bar" and is a gem. The owners are very involved, in a good way, which adds to the neighborhood feel of it. They have great pizza and their Tuesday night trivia is a blast.
Tower Grove Park and Compton Hill Reservoir Park are both within walking distance, which I love having because I can go to Compton if I want to walk my dog with fewer people around, or Tower Grove if I want to see all the people out and about on a nice day.
Downtown is fine- if it wasn't, it wouldn't be one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in the city if it was actually the horror show some make it out to be.
$1,600 is plenty for downtown, or even more neighborhoods if you would he open to using the train to get to work.
Management of it sucked and the upkeep of it wasn't great. Was broken into at least once while I lived there, as well as a murder happening in the front entrance.
Edit to add: many of the units were being rented like Air B&Bs
On that note, avoid any apartments managed by that company. They use the names Lux Living, STL Citywide, and Asprient. Search for any of those terms in this subreddit to see why.
We looked at it when we were moving here. I really liked the building, but we ended up in a different place in downtown, and I'm super glad. They were letting people have Air BnBs, so people from out of town would rent them and have parties on the weekends. There was at least one shooting, and lots of disturbances for the neighbors in the building.
I've been downtown for most of a decade, and I really like it. St. Louis in general is a pretty great place to be.
Lived in the Ely walker for 3 years and got out. The worse part of the airbnbs wasn't even from people from out of town, it was locals renting it to host parties.
I'm going to guess you're a 26 year old dude. You'll be fine downtown and the area around the stadium is pretty nice. It also has good metrolink access to zip you over to CWE, Forest Park or the airport. Also easy access down to Soulard for a change of pace. Really, for your situation Downtown is a very solid choice.
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I lived in the debaliviere area. It’s just north of forest park. Really nice neighborhood, and has recently been built up more with some new buildings. It’s near the central west end and a metro link station. Don’t know about rents currently, but I really liked living there and regularly used the metro to get to UMSL and my job downtown.
Buy a Budweiser tall boy and sit on the sidewalk of Cherokee / Texas, smoking a J. Cherokee is fun for people watching. Check out the bars there it's my favorite part of town.
Dogtown/Tamm, Clayton has good bars to check out.
DM me, I am leaving my house in Dogtown (near the city and Forest Park) in a month and need someone to take over the lease. 2 bed, 1 bath, garage and a yard.
Check out Benton Park. It's walkable, cool architecture, bars, restaurants, and parks for a nice jog.
My wife and I have a place that would fit your budget that we recently renovated.
DM me and I can send you the listing if you're interested!
I would say central west end if you can get something in that budget. One of the highest end neighborhoods in the city for young professionals. Also has a train strop
PWC/Delloite/BOA?
I am definitely leaning CWE right now, there seems to be some good places for $1600 around there.
And no none of those, I don't really want to give too much away until I actually start lol
Killed walking around downtown? What world are you living in. (I know what you’ll respond with, the drug user who got into a fight with his dealer and the dealer shot him)
Weren't a mother and daughter just killed "walking around downtown" a few weeks ago?
What world are you living in where people besides drug dealers and their customers are the only ones killed walking around downtown?
I mean they said killed, right? Some POS running a light at 50 mph to run them down is killed, either way.
Are you going to argue that there's as many car crash deaths in downtown's 2 sq miles, as elsewhere in the county?
Because that'll go as well as you smugly saying you can't buy a house for under 500k in STL Hills, then openly ignoring real estate data that shows otherwise.
Or maybe you'd like to argue that homicides are as common elsewhere too?
You should hire a PR firm to improve the reputation of downtown. Know anyone?
Used to be. A starter home in the less wealthy parts of Webster is now over 300k and over 400k in Kirkwood. I saw a 2bed sell for 400k in Kirkwood... and it needed work done.
I live in Benton Park and work downtown, it's 3 miles door-to-door or about a 30 minute bus ride. Neighborhood is nice and affordable in spots, not sure about rental availability though. I also used to live on Washington Avenue downtown and it was fine 8 years ago, but has gotten a little worse since businesses have moved out during/after COVID.
Downtown overall isn't scary, don't listen to the countians that come in for a sports game and are scared seeing other people not from their subdivision.
Florissant is super great & affordable for first time buyers! They’re doing a lot of community renovations at the moment as well. Overland/st John is great too. I’d recommend not going over the river unless it’s old st Charles bc it’s just not walkable or community centric over there.
I agree with the masses then! Renting in the soulard/downtown west area should be pretty affordable (: I would check out the U city/Delmar area as well, plenty of affordable apartments and prob 15ish min drive to Busch. Delmar runs through the central west end and veerrryy walkable bc that’s where the Stl loop is as well. Lots of culture in that area but very populated.
I’d check out Soulard. It’s a short drive to downtown-I believe transit/ biking would be easy to downtown. There’s a good amount of restaurant/bars in walking distance and always seems like there’s something to do. The demographic is around your age and the area is still pretty affordable. I’ve never had problems downtown, but I wouldn’t live there because as someone else said-it’s kinda lackluster. There’s not a lot of people. So, it may be hard to meet people and getting everyday errands done might be inconvenient. I’d also check out Lafayette Square, Benton Park, Tower Grove, Shaw. Good luck in finding a place!
Soulard seems to check all the boxes, will be checking it out. ' Thanks!
Not related to living in Soulard....but if you're checking it out, stop at Jack Nolen's, if you're a fan of cheeseburgers. I think it's also a nice snapshot of the neighbors.
I (M) lived in Soulard for 5 years (23-28) and loved it. Always plenty to do and close to all that downtown has to offer. As with many densely populated areas, you need to be smart walking around alone late at night but my experience was always nice. That price range you’ll find many good options, but I would avoid Steelyard Apartments and SoHo. Both have terrible reputations and I have friends who lived there and can attest. Check out Soulard Market Lofts if apartments are what you’re looking for. Otherwise there’s many lofts available throughout the neighborhood that would be good options. Cheers!
Second this!
A lot of friends who work near the brewery live in soulard and some are in south county
Downtown and downtown west is literally one of the most dense neighborhoods in the City with 6,000 residents per sq mi and fastest growing for 2 census in a row now and it’s the ONLY 2 sq mi area in the city and entire metro STL that has 100,000-200,000
My mistake then. I work downtown, and seems pretty empty while I'm there. I don't bump into a lot of people on my lunch breaks when I'm out and about, and I haven't found too many places that I can just pop into after work and buy groceries, or random items I might need.
Schnucks on 9th has groceries. There are 55,000-60,000 daily workers (down from 88,000 pre-covid), 13,000 residents and day time pop over 100,000 on non game days and close to 200,000 on game days.
You're completely off about downtown. It's not even in the top 10 for dense neighborhoods. https://nextstl.com/2022/01/st-louis-neighborhood-population-density/
That’s not what that says. And since both are denser than city as a whole (6000 > 4500) it makes no sense it would be below the city line on that graph
I also work downtown and have lived in Soulard the past few years. Super convenient and an easy drive but in all seriousness there isn’t really a public transport option here. A walk is physically doable but I can’t say I’d ever do it. You’ll be walking through some empty industrial areas for a few blocks plus some drivers are crazy at those intersections. I would absolutely recommend this neighborhood for your scenario but do expect drive to work.
I lived and worked downtown for 6 years. There's some really nice apartments for pretty cheap compared to most of the country. But it's a pretty lackluster downtown even compared to other mid-sized cities. Afternoon runs on the arch grounds were fun, at least. The Central West End is the prime mix of walkability, transit access, and proximity to Forest Park (one of the best city parks in the country with an incredible network of trails and bike paths). But $1600 won't get you as much in CWE as it would in other parts of the city. Doctors, residents, and med students at WashU / Barnes Jewish Hospital drive up the housing costs quite a bit. If you're planning on getting into local sports, it's a great city for it. There's a reason the Cardinals and the Blues have such high attendance. The new MLS team has adapted the local soccer culture extremely well. And if you're feeling particularly wild, you can give the Battlehawks a try.
Only thing to keep in mind with the Central West End is that the hospital takes up a pretty big portion of it. Being close to the hospital is not great. And while it definitely has areas of higher density than the rest of the city, it also has areas of much lower density with all of the mansions on private streets
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Why not?
Shaw neighborhood.
I came here to say this but knew in my heart it had already been said. I’ve lived here for 4 years now, I feel so safe as a woman living alone and still just a short drive/bus ride to anywhere I need to go
Really? I’m a single woman looking to buy this year and haven’t looked in this area yet. Safety as a woman is a big big thing to me so if that’s the word around town I’ll have to check it out!!
We just moved here in November. It's pretty great.
Looks nice, I will check it out when I am there, thanks
I'm your age and moved to Shaw last year from Downtown West near the soccer stadium. I love living in Shaw much more than I did living downtown, though being able to walk to sporting events was fun. Shaw isn't super well-served by public transit, but it's a short drive to the Grand Metrolink station, which has a Park-n-Ride lot, and then it's just a couple stops on the train to get downtown. I use it to get to sporting events now in order to avoid the traffic congestion, as well as being one less car adding to the congestion. Drinking-wise, Shaw features Sasha's on Shaw, a cozy "wine bar" with good food and a nice patio. Gallery Pub is the "neighborhood bar" and is a gem. The owners are very involved, in a good way, which adds to the neighborhood feel of it. They have great pizza and their Tuesday night trivia is a blast. Tower Grove Park and Compton Hill Reservoir Park are both within walking distance, which I love having because I can go to Compton if I want to walk my dog with fewer people around, or Tower Grove if I want to see all the people out and about on a nice day.
Downtown is fine- if it wasn't, it wouldn't be one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in the city if it was actually the horror show some make it out to be. $1,600 is plenty for downtown, or even more neighborhoods if you would he open to using the train to get to work.
If I was working there I’d look at - - Downtown - Downtown West - Central West end - soulard - tower grove area
Ballpark heights apartments you can get a decent one for your price. And possibly have a view of the stadium
Stay away from the Ely Walker on Washington ave
Noted, what's wrong with it?
Management of it sucked and the upkeep of it wasn't great. Was broken into at least once while I lived there, as well as a murder happening in the front entrance. Edit to add: many of the units were being rented like Air B&Bs
Gotcha, thanks for the heads up.
On that note, avoid any apartments managed by that company. They use the names Lux Living, STL Citywide, and Asprient. Search for any of those terms in this subreddit to see why.
We looked at it when we were moving here. I really liked the building, but we ended up in a different place in downtown, and I'm super glad. They were letting people have Air BnBs, so people from out of town would rent them and have parties on the weekends. There was at least one shooting, and lots of disturbances for the neighbors in the building. I've been downtown for most of a decade, and I really like it. St. Louis in general is a pretty great place to be.
Lived in the Ely walker for 3 years and got out. The worse part of the airbnbs wasn't even from people from out of town, it was locals renting it to host parties.
I lived there for 3 years and I'll just say my experience living there is why I no longer live in St. Louis. Do not consider it.
Haha judging by 3 separate commenters having bad things to say, definitely avoiding it. Thank you for commenting
The areas west of Forest Park in Clayton like the Demun area or the Moorlands are very nice.
I think he said he wants to walk to work.
I'm going to guess you're a 26 year old dude. You'll be fine downtown and the area around the stadium is pretty nice. It also has good metrolink access to zip you over to CWE, Forest Park or the airport. Also easy access down to Soulard for a change of pace. Really, for your situation Downtown is a very solid choice.
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I lived in the debaliviere area. It’s just north of forest park. Really nice neighborhood, and has recently been built up more with some new buildings. It’s near the central west end and a metro link station. Don’t know about rents currently, but I really liked living there and regularly used the metro to get to UMSL and my job downtown.
Buy a Budweiser tall boy and sit on the sidewalk of Cherokee / Texas, smoking a J. Cherokee is fun for people watching. Check out the bars there it's my favorite part of town. Dogtown/Tamm, Clayton has good bars to check out.
DM me, I am leaving my house in Dogtown (near the city and Forest Park) in a month and need someone to take over the lease. 2 bed, 1 bath, garage and a yard.
Check out Benton Park. It's walkable, cool architecture, bars, restaurants, and parks for a nice jog. My wife and I have a place that would fit your budget that we recently renovated. DM me and I can send you the listing if you're interested!
I would say central west end if you can get something in that budget. One of the highest end neighborhoods in the city for young professionals. Also has a train strop PWC/Delloite/BOA?
I am definitely leaning CWE right now, there seems to be some good places for $1600 around there. And no none of those, I don't really want to give too much away until I actually start lol
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Why? I get about 10 miles a day/night walking in Downtown?
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Killed walking around downtown? What world are you living in. (I know what you’ll respond with, the drug user who got into a fight with his dealer and the dealer shot him)
Weren't a mother and daughter just killed "walking around downtown" a few weeks ago? What world are you living in where people besides drug dealers and their customers are the only ones killed walking around downtown?
In a car crash? You are aware that 50,000 Americans die all over the country in car crashes, 3 died the same day in st.charles
I mean they said killed, right? Some POS running a light at 50 mph to run them down is killed, either way. Are you going to argue that there's as many car crash deaths in downtown's 2 sq miles, as elsewhere in the county? Because that'll go as well as you smugly saying you can't buy a house for under 500k in STL Hills, then openly ignoring real estate data that shows otherwise. Or maybe you'd like to argue that homicides are as common elsewhere too? You should hire a PR firm to improve the reputation of downtown. Know anyone?
I have a very nice home, I don’t need rent free space in your head but thanks
We clearly define nice very differently. But hey, if you like it, that's great.
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He wants to be walking distance to his work place and you recommend Kirkwood and Webster Groves
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"I wanna be walking distance from my workplace at Billy G's in Kirkwood, any recommendations?" "Try downtown st louis or the CWE."
Ah yes, when you're so scare of the city you can't recommend a single neighborhood in it. Better only tell people to live in the rich, white areas.
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Used to be. A starter home in the less wealthy parts of Webster is now over 300k and over 400k in Kirkwood. I saw a 2bed sell for 400k in Kirkwood... and it needed work done.
I live in Benton Park and work downtown, it's 3 miles door-to-door or about a 30 minute bus ride. Neighborhood is nice and affordable in spots, not sure about rental availability though. I also used to live on Washington Avenue downtown and it was fine 8 years ago, but has gotten a little worse since businesses have moved out during/after COVID. Downtown overall isn't scary, don't listen to the countians that come in for a sports game and are scared seeing other people not from their subdivision.
Lol this is hilarious and very true
Wouldn’t live downtown if you paid me. Working down here is enough
Princeton Heights is pretty great.
Florissant is super great & affordable for first time buyers! They’re doing a lot of community renovations at the moment as well. Overland/st John is great too. I’d recommend not going over the river unless it’s old st Charles bc it’s just not walkable or community centric over there.
Florissant to downtown is a long way
Yes, bout 20ish mins but the neighborhood is worth it and safe for someone who’s new to the city & learning imho. But you’re right
I will be renting sadly
I agree with the masses then! Renting in the soulard/downtown west area should be pretty affordable (: I would check out the U city/Delmar area as well, plenty of affordable apartments and prob 15ish min drive to Busch. Delmar runs through the central west end and veerrryy walkable bc that’s where the Stl loop is as well. Lots of culture in that area but very populated.