I don't know how deeply I can answer your first question. There seems to be a decent level of interest in visual arts in St. Louis. Last weekend was the art fair in the Central West End. A lot of the artists seemed to be local.
This is in comparison to the Clayton Art Fair which has mostly out of town artists. Anyway the CWE art fair was pretty crowded when I went late on Sunday.

What your asking for is on the tough side. Areas with lots of good attractions are higher priced. It's the law of supply and demand.

However one good neighborhood for you might be the Dogtown area. It's across highway 40/I-64 from Forest Park and has a couple of decent restaurants. (Chuys, Felix's, Pat's, Spagheteria Mama etc.) Plus it's in the price range.

Another decent neighborhood is the South City area. Specifically the area around the Hampton Ave. and Chippewa Ave. intersection and surrounding the St. Louis Hills neighborhood. St. Louis Hills itself is $200K+ but around it is still good housing. A lot of middle class housing in the area in the lower $100K to $150K range.

Downtown is still on the upswing with a lot of construction currently in progress. A lot of old building being converted to lofts. However the supporting stores and shopping are still lacking but are coming around.

(The problem is a lot of speculators who had no interest in building bought a lot of possible loft spaces and held onto them for the last two or three years. This is finally coming to end and real builders are finally starting building/converting.

I still think downtown is overpriced with most lofts in the $200K range. But that could change as the supply gets better when more stuff opens later this year.

Summers can be tough in St. Louis but probably not as bad as Charleston. May and September can get some hot spots but June, July and August are the only bad months.

Winters have gotten milder the last few years. In fact this last winter we only had just a few inches of snow and no real nasty cold spells. In fact none of the major districts used a single snow day this last year.

I don't know St. Louis well, but if you take a visit, you might drive over to Kansas City as well. The arts community is thriving. The Kansas City Art Insitute is renowned. And, the Crossroads district has a wonderful selection of galleries. The Plaza Art Festival is in September, but that includes artists all over the country. KC has some great old areas for housing. School district has some issues, but that won't be a problem for you. Hmmm, climate. Well, it's hot in the summer and cold in the winter, but I guess not to the extremes of some places, and no matter the weather, it changes every week or so. SL and KC both have great features, as well as a few negatives, but they have very distinct personalities. Give them both a try. annieladd

The art scene is very vibrant here. There are many organizations that sell, promote, etc...(Most of which are located in the Central West and University City. Mnay galleries, etc..
A neighbor of mine is an artist - contemporaty water color - She has a gallery here as well as in NYC represent her. Once she was at Cocktail party in our nighborhood and there was ohne of her pieces hanging in the Living room! It was her most expensive one as well- well over 15K.

St. Louis hosts one of the largest Art Fairs in the country. It takes up several city blocks, and attracts hordes of people.

You may want to look at Soulard area, Central west end (condo) or the loft areas, however they are getting pricey.
I am a STL native so I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
Good Luck!

Thanks for the great info, everyone.
We will look into Kansas City also- since it's so close by, we might as well check it out when we're there.

Does anyone know the name of the big art fair in St. Louis? I'd like to see if I can find more info about it online.

Also, I hear the Soulard area mentioned a lot, but am unsure where it is. Is is a separate town, or a neighborhood within St.L?

Thanks again!

artchik, I too am a St. Louis native and I agree with basically what has already been said.

As for Soulard, its a neighborhood within the city of St. Louis. It takes up several blocks and can be easily reached by driving south on Broadway. The Soulard Market is famous and well-frequented by locals. There are also a number of great restaurants and bars in the area. For some more information, visit http://www.slfp.com/soulard.htm.

Good luck and please feel free to post any more questions!

Tracy

I'm sorry...I should have mentioned that Soulard is reached "driving south on Broadway from downtown". Its very close to the downtown area.

For more information on St. Louis neighborhoods, click on:

http://stlouis.missouri.org/neighborhoods/alphaindex.html

This will give you an alphabetical listing of the different neighborhoods within the city of St. Louis, as well as information such as what is in the different neighborhoods. Hopefully you will find it helpful.

Tracy

The NYT recently wrote how St. Louis is at the front of a contemporary art rennaissance. Within the last five years, two significant contemporary art museums have opened in the city and a third major art-space has opened in St. Charles (which would be in your price range) including gallery and artisan space.

The other area worth considering is South Grand, which is south of St. Louis University and before you reach St. Louis Hills. It is by far St. Louis' "funkiest" neighborhood, with a large number of vintage stores, restaurants, and coffee places.

Check out - stlouisartfair.com for more info on this great event. It is 3 days long and is around sept.9th

I completely forgot about the new museums that opened. They are great!

Also check out - stltoday.com for more info on this city.

Thanks everyone for the info. All of the suggested websites have been very helpful.

A question regarding Dogtown: is it within walking distance to Forest Park?
dweebe mentions that it's across the highway.... where I live now, it's all but impossible to walk from one side of the freeway to another except in the few places where it's elevated. That may not be the case there.

Transportation: How efficient is the Metrolink system and do you think it's worth living within walking distance to a stop on the route? Or do most people just drive everywhere?

Regarding neighborhoods...at the risk of stirring up controversy (which is not my intention) what neighborhoods do we definitely NOT want to look at... In other words, if you had family or friends visiting and they were going out to explore the city, what areas would you warn them about/tell them to avoid?

I'm all for living in a diverse, funky neighborhood with an interesting mix of people- provided the majority of those people aren't crack dealers, prostitutes, and members of violent gangs.(I'm exaggerating a little, but I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at).

Again, I'm not trying to upset or alienate anyone, and I apologize in advance to anyone who may take offense to the question. But every city has these areas and the locals know where they are. If anyone wants to know areas to avoid in Charleston, I'd be happy to tell you.