Author Archives: cgrus

Take the HOMELIFT QUIZ: It May be worth $15,000

Any home buyer’s looking in the city right now may want to check the qualifications of the Homelift Downpayment Assistance program.   The program really is ‘free money’ to those who qualify since it was devised as a mandate by the federal government for misbehavior by Wells Fargo.  Only those buying in St. Louis CityContinue reading “Take the HOMELIFT QUIZ: It May be worth $15,000”

Negative Spin undone

For years, a common perception has been that getting a good education isn’t possible in the City of St. Louis.   Young couples buy a home in the city with a vision for the future, and within a few years, they start having children and start focusing on the move that will bring them intoContinue reading “Negative Spin undone”

Whitaker Music Festival Line Up -2014

One of the highlights of summer for me is a relaxing evening at the Botanical Garden enjoying a packed light dinner on a Wednesday night.  The Whitaker Music Festival isn’t about excitement, but just a relaxing evening outdoors in one of our cities greatest assets:  the Missouri Botanical Garden. The summer line up was justContinue reading “Whitaker Music Festival Line Up -2014”

Great Perspective on St Louis

This is a video that describes why the so called crime reports that pop up on on news sources have St Louis ranked higher for crime than it actually is. While I’ve always understood how crime numbers are made to look bad due to the geographic size and population of St. Louis City, compared toContinue reading “Great Perspective on St Louis”

Forest Park Southeast, What’s Happening in StL!

One of the cool, up and coming parts of St Louis City is the Grove in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood.  This neighborhood is located south of the massive BJC main campus, Central West End, and Interstate 64, east of Kingshighway, and north of Vandeventer.  The Grove started out as a few popular nightclubs andContinue reading “Forest Park Southeast, What’s Happening in StL!”

What Makes a Great City?

Early in my real estate career, one of my mentors told me an analogy. “Neighborhoods are like mutual funds and individual homes are like stocks,” he explained further, “values rise and fall independently but they all have an effect on the overall quality of the neighborhood.” By the same reasoning, the overall value of theContinue reading “What Makes a Great City?”

Seven and a Half Ain’t Bad

City residents response to our presence in the media often ranges from frustration, to angst to sarcastic humor. Interestingly, the folks that seem the most suprised by the negative perception of St Louis are newer residents.  They hear all these negative viewpoints, then move here and enjoy the lower cost of real estate, lower taxes, and finally find that theContinue reading “Seven and a Half Ain’t Bad”

Let’s Make the ‘Burbs More Like the City

Hmmm. More transit. More density. Less Parking. Sounds sort of ….urban. This article from the Post Dispatch was refreshing. One of the most frustrating things about suburbia is being in malls and strip malls with hideous amounts of unused parking. These sterile asphalt tundras fill up maybe a few times a year. As the internetContinue reading “Let’s Make the ‘Burbs More Like the City”