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thinking of relocating- advice needed!
MY Dh has the chance to interview for a new position with his current employer in KC (MO). Neither of us has been there but so far after everything we have seen online we are interested in checking it out. We currently live in the suburbs of NYC but are ready to leave. While we like it here we are ready for a change and would love to move somewhere where we can actually afford to buy a home. Anyway, my main concern is the weather- I feel like all I hear about is flooding and tornadoes in this part of the country. How bad does it get?? How do you handle the storms- is there any advance notice or do they just come on suddenly? Do builders use any special construction to hold up to high winds (like hurricane proofing in FL)? Sorry to seem ignorant but we live in a part of the country where the chance of any type of natural disaster is low so this freaks me out a bit.
Also, we have been told to look into Clay county (Liberty) and Johnson County (Kansas) for suburbs. How long of a commute would it typically be to the downtown area during rush hour? DH drives an hour each way now so hopefully it would be less. In general are there a lot of transplants from other parts of the country in the area? If any of you relocated to the area, did you find it easy to meet people? We are younger (26 & 27), and definitely want to have kids but do not have any yet. Is there alot going on for young professional types? How are the school systems in the counties I have mentioned?
Thanks for any help!
Re: thinking of relocating- advice needed!
You should definitely come visit. KC is a great place to be!
Hmmm.... for weather. I have lived in KC my whole life and I don't worry about the weather too much. Yes, we get thunderstorms, yes currently there is some flooding, but is this a reason I would move away from KC? No. Homes do not have any type of special building materials as far as I know... we have never experienced weather damage to our home. We get plenty of advance warning for potential storms. The news is always up-to-date on current conditions. I tell people I love the weather here because you actually get to experience all 4 seasons here!
I can't tell you much about KS, but I do live in Clay county. It takes about 20 minutes to get downtown from up north. There are areas such as the Plaza, River Market, and Power & Light District for going out and meeting people, activities, etc. The schools in Liberty are excellent. One of the reasons we chose our neighborhood was so that our future kids would be in the district.
Hope that helps some. Come visit!
I think you'd love it here. Don't worry overly much about the storms you're hearing about. I've lived here my whole life, and the only time I've actually seen a tornado is when we were visiting cousins in Liberal, KS - WAY across the state!
I think you'd really like the Overland Park area (Johnson County) it has a fabulous school system - (Blue Valley Schools) lots of retailers and restaurants, and overall, it's just a nice place to live. It's probably about a 20-30 min drive to downtown from the OP area as well as from the Clay County area up north - I think you can't go wrong in either part.
There is quite a bit of new nightlife going on downtown and around the Plaza area - another area you could look into is Brookside - it's a beautiful area with lots of historical type homes - really great schools and atmosphere there as well.
HTH!
The weather is no worse here than in NYC. We don't get the excessive amounts of snow in the winter (we still get quite a bit), but I've lived here all my life and haven't had to deal with a tornado destroying my house or flood waters. (I grew up in housing built during floods in the 1950s.) There's no special construction used because tornados can get huge and nothing will really hold up to an E-5 tornado. (That's what hit Greensburg in rural Kansas.)
Johnson County KS can be expensive, but it's all really nice. My grandma lives in Lenexa and her neighborhood is nice and quiet. I haven't heard anything bad about most of the schools in Johnson County, but I've never attended them.
I really love living in the midwest. I've been to the coasts and it's just really crazy out there, the traffic and the cost of living. Here, it takes about an hour to get across the entire metro (rush hour will take longer, but won't have to go across the entire metro to get to work unless you live in the outskirts of the KCK side and work way out on the outskirts of the KCMO side, unlikely.) and the traffic isn't nearly as nuts. It'll be a shocking difference from NYC, but it's nice here.
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I'm a Liberty girl, so let me know if you have any specific questions about the area. The schools here are always top rated (and I can give you some other top rated schools as well if you want....I'm a teacher!)
I love Liberty because it's easy to get anywhere/everywhere we want to go. It's about 5 minutes to I-35 and I-435 and about 15 minutes to I-70 and I-29.
To get downtown the drive would be approx. 30 minutes depending on traffic. If we head downtown during a non-rush hour time, it only takes about 20 minutes.
We are also close to a lot of shopping and entertainment areas.
I also do some real estate stuff on the side (mainly during the summers since there's no school), so let me know if you have any housing questions.
Oh-and as for the weather....this is the worst we've had it in a long time! Usually we get 1 or 2 big storms with tornado warnings in May, but by June it's normally pretty dry and starting to get hot. We've had some crazy stuff this year, but at least it's keeping cooler.
Good luck with your planning!
I'm from Massachusetts orginally and was terrifed of the storms too. They really aren't bad. The weather here is more mild than up north. While does snow it's not near as much or as often as up there. The summers are more humid and longer but everything is airconditioned.
Some areas you may want to look at are Prairie Village, Fairway, Overland Park, Leawood for the Kansas Area. I'm not familiar with North KC. You should be able to buy something nice in those areas and they are close to the plaza and have unique areas themselves (Prairie Village Shops, Towncenter/Park Place). Downtown is going through a renovation and the plaza also has a lot to do.
I never thought I'd stay in this area but it's so new, clean and affordable it's hard to justify leaving. Good luck.
Like the other girls said, the areas you mentioned are very nice, close to lots of things to do, and the school systems are great. I went to school in a small part of Johnson County (DeSoto) and I loved it-there were lots of things to be involved in, and they offer lots of extra curriculars. And definitely less of a drive for your DH.
As far as weather goes, (I live in Manhattan right now) there is always plenty of warning-the weather systems are pretty advanced. We knew at least an hour in advance that tornadoes were coming and were able to take action. There were no casualties here in Manhattan. I'd say that's pretty good!
I just moved to the area myself a year ago. I've always been a midwestern girl though.
I live in Johnson County (Lenexa KS) and its a very nice, safe area. I work downtown, and my commute is about 20-30 minutes.
You don't need to worry about the weather at all, in my opinion. Tornados cause very limited damage... when they do drop down, they usually travel in a line and are not widespread. Of course there is always the exception of a small town being devastated, but for some reason big cities rarely get hit. If one comes, just go down into the basement and you will be safe. They usually only come in the spring too... and then only sparsely. I think recently global warming has increased the number of severe storms, so you hear about it more. Its really not a concern though. Definitely not a reason to not move here. Hurricanes and earthquakes are much worse in my opinion.
Aside from that, there is lots to do, good shopping, good entertainment, lots of parks and friendly people AND you will find that housing prices are much more affordable in the midwest than they are on the coasts.