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All in all, I think St. Louis is a good place to raise kids. I'm raising two here, public schools, and am generally happy with the situation. Now, I have to admit I happen to live in one of the best school districts in the country, but compared to other cities you get a lot of bang for the buck. Our school district has houses ranging from $150K to $3M, average is probably $400K, new construction is now $600K for 3000 SF on a quarter acre. (But I've got an 1150 SF ranch on the market for $165K if you want to take it. Needs decorating, most of the major updates have been done in the last 7 years - roof, HVAC, kitchen, windows.) There are cheaper condos and apartments. Property taxes average about 1.25% of true market value.

We're 10 miles and 30-40 minutes from downtown in rush hour.

Kids are extremely bright, parents tend to be lawyers, doctors, accountants, engineers, executives, but not always. 30% of my daughters 4th grade class have IQs above 130. High school has ~300 students per grade, 10-12 National Merit Semi-finalists per year. Kids will go to everything from the local college to the Ivys, 95% go to college.

For sports, we've got the Cardinals, Rams, & Blues (no basketball). The Zoo is hard to beat, ranked #1 by Zagat. Magic House is one of the top childrens attractions in the country. Six Flags is the local amusement park, several water parks. We definitely have 4 seasons. No place in the country is further than 4 hours by plane, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. Chicago is a 4.5 hour drive, we go several times a year.

Yes, we're flyover country, but for kids, it's great.

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Plus, if you do choose to send your kids to private school, which a lot do, its only about 10k. You CAN NOT send them to city public school here, so you must live in the county to raise your kids (w/o private schooling). Otherwise, it sucks to be 20 something here, but Id imagine it would be a great place to raise kids.