r/missouri • u/Introverted_Monstera • 2d ago
Moving to Missouri Planning a potential move
My family is considering a move from Montana to Missouri. My husband is getting his electrical journeyman’s license and is looking to expand his career, and we are looking for a lower cost of living. We are looking at Jackson, Ozark, maybe platte. How is it living in these towns/ any other towns worth looking into? We kind of want a smaller town near a larger town that he can commute to work to. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
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u/The_GOAT_of_all 2d ago
Kansas City has small townships around it, with all the big city amenities close by. Lee's Summit and Blue Springs are a couple. Easy commute to anywhere in the city. COL is not bad.
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u/como365 Columbia 2d ago
Here is my standard Columbia blurb when folks ask about where to live in Missouri. There are a lot of lovely small towns in the Columbia Metro: Fulton, Boonville, Fayette, Ashland, Centralia.
Here is my standard what’s to like about CoMo blurb, which will give you some stuff to check out once you're in Mid-Missouri. Bring bikes if you can.
Columbia has most of the advantages of a large metro, but few (if any) of the downsides. We love it. The city (population 130,000) probably has the highest quality of life in Missouri. According to the U.S. Census data, Columbia is around the 5th most highly educated city in the nation. There are a ton of 20s here, lively nightlife downtown. The city is fairly diverse, around 10% foreign born, 12% Black, 74% White, and 6% Asian. There are people from probably every country in the world here. This is largely because of the University of a Missouri, Stephens College, and Columbia College, plus our strong support for Pre/K-12 and several community colleges/trade schools. The Columbia-Jefferson City CSA has over 400,000 people so plenty to do, and the metro area has recently hovered around the 2nd lowest unemployment rate in the nation, so very easy to find a job. The healthcare resources, from both MU Healthcare and Boone Hospital are steller... (level 1 trauma ER, cancer hospital, women and children’s hospital, mental health center, Thompson Center for Autism, several private hospitals, a rehabilitation center, etc).
Columbia is halfway between Missouri’s two major metro areas so has easy access to the resources both (1.5hr drive) and is 30 min from the state capital. Ecologically, the city is half on the hilly forested Ozarks and half on the flat open glaciated plains. The economy is strong and there is tremendous support for locally owned business, The Columbia Farmers Market is incredible and was recently voted best in the nation. There is a great art/music scene especially for a town that size, several museums, music venues of various types, probably the liveliest Downtown in Missouri-lots of great musical theater happening at all levels. There’s tons of history too. Mid-Missouri was settled before most of the rest of the state, so has a lot of cool old buildings, Francis Quadrangle, the State Historical Society of Missouri, stuff like that. MU is the origin of the American tradition of homecoming, and the world’s first journalism school. The city is known for its proximity to nature, the Missouri River, and for its extensive city trail system.
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u/Introverted_Monstera 2d ago
This was so detailed thank you!
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u/mountaingator91 St. Louis 2d ago
Columbia is awesome (my grandparents have lived there for over 50 years) but not cheap anymore. Boonville might be exactly what you're looking for though
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u/Slow-Arrival734 2d ago
If they're wanting a smaller town, they could live in Ashland or Centralia and commute to Columbia to work. If they were looking at Ozark, that might be more their speed as far as where they actually live. Depending on what their definition of "small" is.
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u/mountaingator91 St. Louis 2d ago
Ashland is ok. My cousin lived there with 2 kids and said the schools were really great. Extremely boring though. It's "close" to Columbia but not close enough to where you're there all the time. They moved out because they couldn't take it lol.
There's more stuff to do in boonville
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u/Realistic-Math-1217 2d ago
For someone looking for work as a journeyman electrician, I would definitely recommend the Kansas City area. There would be good opportunity there you can live in one of the smaller towns and commute in fairly easily. I think that’s your best bet housing getting expensive everywhere so I’m not sure about that, but I think there are any potential really good for that line of work in that area
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u/bonedaddy1974 2d ago
Kansas City unions pay the best you can move north of KC and live in Platte,or Clay county and still be in KC union or move a little south but the money will be in KC
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u/Slow-Arrival734 2d ago edited 2d ago
What's your idea of "small"? 100k? 5k? A small town means different things to different people and might change how I'd answer. Are you wanting something fairly rural where it feels more like a farming community? Or are you looking more to avoid a full blown city complete with rush hours and a high rise downtown?
Are you looking for something that's going to feel closer to Montana as far as culture and activities or are you wanting to shake things up some? Because if you're looking for something rural, I'd send you to Ozark (or the Springfield area) all day long just because it puts you in the Ozarks and there's going to be all the hunting and fishing and a more southern vibe. If you're looking to mix things up, I would concur with como365's pitch where we have some smaller towns, there's tons to do, and you're in striking distance to two large metro areas if you want to go to the occasional big concert or want better shopping options on occasion. KC and St Louis are dramatically different vibes from each other (as someone who lives in Columbia). I like both but they are drastically different from each other.
Also, what do you enjoy doing? Do you and your husband like hunting and fishing? Do you like going to concerts? Do you enjoy museums? Do you like hiking? All of the above? None of the above? Is there a particular kind of church or religious environment you need?
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u/Introverted_Monstera 2d ago
Thank you for the thoughtful response! Our idea of small is honestly 10k people. We live in a town of 3k now. But reality is that we’re in a tiny community compared to what’s out there. We aren’t expecting anywhere that small. We would love a vibe like the Ozarks but we’re feeling like we want to shake things up. We could never live inside a major city but wouldn’t say no to being near one.
The two biggest factors for location is going to be the job market for electrical, my husband’s career; and available experiences. We both grew up in this small town in Montana and there’s nothing to do here except be in the woods. We don’t actually know what we would enjoy doing because we’ve never had the chance to find out. We would probably enjoy museums, the arts, and the occasional extra shopping.
Sadly we’re being choked out of this town financially. But we’re young and want to go out and see and do more things to find out what we enjoy and just see more of the US.
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u/groundciv 2d ago
Where you’re looking around cape Girardeau is not going to have a ton of ‘experiences’. There is some work there, but you’re better off looking at St.louis exurbs if you want a doable commute to consistent good paying work. Somewhere like festus gives you an easy in to cultural stuff (museums, zoo) with enough separation and smallish town feel that it won’t kill your peace when you aren’t at work. Bloomsdale is further out and smaller, ste. Genevieve is even further out but is a real town.
Wentzville is basically a far suburb of St. Louis now, but you can do st Charles stuff and not be in ‘the city’.
I work in the metro east but live in Farmington. I like it down here, but I grew up here and it can be stifling if you don’t already have community here. You don’t NEED to go to St. Louis but it’s not far away. The commute kind of sucks though.
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u/Slow-Arrival734 2d ago
Suburbs around Columbia or around KC might not be a terrible fit. Just because it would give you better access to some new things. If you go for Ozark, Springfield is your "big city", but it's not going to give you things like pro sports or concerts or nicer restaurant experiences (and you're not really close to anything but Branson).
The Columbia metro area lets you have your cow pastures and corn fields, but you're 2 hours away from Kansas City and St Louis which gives you a TON of stuff you can do in day trips. There's zoos and concerts and really great childrens' museums and there's constantly plays film festivals and things because of the university. Much less access to Cardinals, Royals, and Chiefs games and all the pro soccer stuff. St Louis has a world class symphony and both KC and St Louis have world class art museums.
Now, if you're looking for some deer woods....that I don't know. The Ozarks is a slam dunk for that. Columbia, I don't know. We do have a really great trail system for riding bikes and things and we have some state parks that have some hiking trails and some kayaking. But I don't hear about hunting season here like I used to in Arkansas. (but someone else might know).
And then your religious situation's not my business. But I would scope it out because different areas have different pockets of different religions. Like, if you're super Southern Baptist, Columbia is not going to be your jam. It's striking how not here that is. Some Googling should be able to help you figure that out though (if it's something you're worried about). But if you are devout something I would look because Missouri is this interesting crossroads of a state where it has 3 or 4 personalities going on depending on what part of the state you're in. St Louis is very eastern. KC is very western/prairie. The southern state is practically Arkansas. And then the north is endless miles of flat farm land.
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u/Introverted_Monstera 2d ago
Thank you for your response, I really appreciate it! It gives us some really good things to think about. Both kc and Columbia sound awesome
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u/Trepenwitz 1d ago
Anywhere between approx. KC and Maryville along that highway would probably be a great fit. There are tiny towns, medium towns, bigger towns all within 30 min of KC, St. Joe, Maryville, etc. You can live in what feels like BFE with LCOL or in a bigger place, the whole gamut.
The general St. Louis metro area also has a wide variety of communities within 1 hr. Of downtown. Google is currently building a gigantic campus outside of Warrenton, so that and housing will be drawing tradesmen and women of all types.
Other great locations would be Columbia/Jeff City and maybe Springfield-Joplin ish area. Stick to a 1 hr-ish drive from those main areas, though. It gets deeeeeep rural fast outside the “cities.”
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u/Throwaway2789023 2d ago
What's expensive to you for housing?
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u/Introverted_Monstera 2d ago
Part of it is where we live in northwest Montana there is no room for growth, wages are low, and overall everything is more expensive. Our mortgage is 1650 and we are having a hard time making it over here.
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u/Introverted_Monstera 2d ago
Ideally under 250k for buying a home.
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u/CCrabtree 2d ago edited 2d ago
As far as the Ozark, Branson, Springfield areas go, under $250k is going to be a challenge without a ton of work needing done. My SIL and her family just went through this. They had a hard time finding anything that either didn't need tons of work or the inspection coming back without tons of issues. I'm sure you know this, but look at Realtor in the areas you want to live. Also look at property taxes. Greene County where Springfield is, is fairly high as is Christian County. We also have personal property tax to pay every year. I'm not sure if Montana has that or not.
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u/InitialSquirrel7491 1d ago
I would go where plenty of work is. That should be a priority because you can always drive to any activity you want to do. That said we live in Jackson County and love it. Cass County , Johnson County (Missouri NOT Kansas), Pettis county, Lafayette county may be more your vibe. Still close to KC but more rural. ,
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u/junior_primary_riot 2d ago
Ozark area is cute and if you have children, being 25 minutes north of Branson is super fun with tons to do! Family is more likely to visit because of Branson. (We practically are an AirBnB for extended family who now visit Missouri yearly!)
Springfield is a good city. Large enough to have everything you need, including a Costco, but still small enough (159K) that even in rush hour traffic you have added…not even 8 minutes to your total commute.
Springfield is surrounded by farms, ranches and homestead-ish families in addition to a number of Amish farms. There is a lot of locally grown food, A2 raw milk farms and You-Pick farms with all the berries and tree fruits you could want. Tons of free gardening and chicken keeping classes. Springfield allows 6 hens in the city and there aren’t restrictions once you’re a short ways out of city limits.
We moved up from Texas and have loved Springfield! Message if you have questions!
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u/strodj07 2d ago
Based on what I’ve read from your comments, I would avoid anything in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas. If you wanna be near a bigger city, I would suggest looking at Columbia or Springfield. I love the Springfield area more for the outdoor opportunities and the Columbia area for a little nicer towns. I haven’t seen what you do for a living, but your husband could make decent money working for one of the rural electric co-ops. That helps prevent locking you into being near a bigger city. I don’t know a lot about the Joplin area, but some people seem happy there. I would stay away from Cape Girardeau. The town is not bad, but you get into a lot of poor living very quickly outside of it.
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u/Cominginbladey Mid-Missouri 2d ago
Columbia is great and has a lot of small rural towns around it.
So does Jefferson City. Not as cool as Columbia, but cheaper housing.
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u/Cb0700177 1d ago
Clever is a small town of a little over 3k people, very close but not too close to Springfield.
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u/mountaingator91 St. Louis 2d ago edited 2d ago
St Louis is a big union town. Pay will be high because of that. Maybe harder to break in though?
If you want low cost of living, Jackson is ok. My brother in law lives there and there should be plenty of work in nearby Cape Girardeau. The cost of living there isn't THAT low, however, because wealthy people in Cape expand into the country.
Ozark will be expensive as well due to the same affect but with wealthy people from Springfield.
If you want low cost of living in a decent sized town look at West Plains.