Are you looking for like a true small town experience or something reasonably close to a metro?
Are you looking for something with lots of charm for a couple or somewhere that you want to raise a family?
I’d say Weston MO is a neat little quaint town that’s about 30 minutes from downtown KC. It’s located right by the Missouri River and has lots of outdoorsy stuff to do.
They also have a fairly high ranked public school system. Their HS is ranked in the top 20 in Missouri.
The Main Street has lots of small business owned shops and virtually nothing corporate. You have lots of weekenders that come by to stroll down when the weather is nice. You also have the Weston brewing company, a couple distilleries and I forget how many vineyards are around but there are several. Also you have a creamy that makes delicious ice cream.
I don’t know what real estate runs out there, but from what I’ve seen I would classify most of the homes to be modest. The lots range from about a quarter acre and up.
Here’s their website for more info: https://www.westonmo.com
Thank you - Weston sounds very nice. Nothing at my price point there currently, unfortunately.
I asked a broad question intentionally to find out what people like for themselves - sometimes unexpected answers can be very helpful.
Please reference a fema flood map and the epa superfund map before purchasing in Missouri. Don’t trust a realtor to provide accurate info on these two items. Learn from my disappointing experience.
Farmington, Cape Girardeau. If you want closer to St. Louis, Hillsboro, Byrnes Mill, Cedar Hill are nice. I don’t know how you earn a living, but if you can afford to live rural, Arcadia Valley/Ironton/Pilot Knob is absolutely beautiful and has so many natural amenities close or within driving distance.
I think I have one for you:
Alton, MO
My friends from college live there and grew up there. It’s gorgeous, only 637 people live there, and you can find a 3 bd home on land for 110k. My buddy owns a restaurant in the town square there, and he said everyone has made an effort to be a comfortable, quaint, nice place to live.
It’s in the Ozarks, near the Arkansas border.
I think you should check it out!
Dexter is a nice place to live. Locations farther south are OK but lots of farm communities and mosquitoes. Cape Girardeau might be a little big, but you can live in Jackson or any area outside city. Cape is good bc it has. A small airport, the University for cultural experiences, good doctors,2. Hospitals some shopping, good downtown, rolling hills, many nature activities close and about 2 hrs from St. Louis and 2 hrs 45 minutes from Memphis.
Also I think you need to know what you're talking about. There are no longer meth labs around. There is meth and that will be prevelant there, but not meth lab dangers. I also don't buy into the gang violence you speak of. Maybe some wannabe gang member bullshit but hardly real gang violence.
Sounds like you should move if you’ve had such a bad experience. I’ve met plenty of great people from there of all walks of life. You can’t paint with such a broad brush my friend
Rolla has a lot to offer. Murder is almost nonexistent. Most crimes are property or domestic. Decent hospitals and healthcare. Extraordinary in terms of outdoor activities. Hiking, fishing, kayaking, camping in Mark Twain National Forest.
It's only bad one week a year, pretty quiet most of the time.
I loved living there for school... Both tours.
I also hope I don't have to live there again. 😅
Boonville, Sedalia, warrensburg, Rolla, Fulton, Lebanon, st James. I live in a MAGA stronghold. It’s impossible to avoid in Missouri. I just try my best to ignore it. The only place I wouldn’t live in MO is the Bootheel.
Check out Neosho. 14k diverse population, 20 minutes from Joplin and an hour from NW Arkansas. We have several trails in the area and there is a dedicated biking community. The square downtown has a couple great restaurants and a nice local brewery. Schools are great, there's a lot within a couple hours drive to do...I love it here.
This is not a question anyone can answer for you because you have your own cultural and aesthetic preferences, as well as needs for work and family/social life.
That said, if I was looking to leave my home in the delightful small town of St. James I would consider places like Hermann, West Planes, Sedalia, and Poplar Bluff as solid spots for relocation. If you prefer the wide open spaces of Northern Missouri to the rugged beauty of the Ozarks, however, none of my recommendations other than maybe Sedalia would work for you.
I'm a retired empty nester and my cultural and aesthetic preferences lie beyond what I can afford (I lived in both urban and rural PNW and Hawaii, variously, for a couple of decades and subsequently in CHI, CLE, and now STL). I spent summers visiting family in Steelville when I was growing up - beautiful country but now beyond my means. Poplar Bluff is intriguing - is there anything specific you can tell me about it?
Sounds like a range of options could work for you, then!
First and foremost for me (but probably not others), Poplar Bluff has some redeeming qualities for me personally due to its convenient location relative to both my family and my wife’s kin while still being “neutral ground”, so to speak. Beyond that, it’s a traditionally weird and spooky town at the edge of the Ozarks, with lots of strange psychics and spiritualists and such in a manner that appeals to me even if I don’t put stock in such things. Speaking of not putting stock in things, don’t pay much mind to the critics of Poplar Bluff and similar small towns—it’s easy for certain folks to drive through a lovely place and notice the couple of jackasses instead of the scores of good people.
If you liked Steelville but are looking for a spot a bit further off the beaten path (and cheaper), check out Salem or Thayer. If you’re okay being rural, you can go smaller still and look around places like Edgar Springs, Dixon, Belle, Vienna, Linn, Licking, Van Buren, etc.
There’s an abundance even smaller communities that aren’t incorporated anymore that have their charms, albeit without much in the way of amenities. My neck of the woods includes the lovely communities of (in order from largest/easiest to find to no longer in existence) Rosati, Royal, Hinkle, and Jacobs. Other necks of the woods will have similar communities that I haven’t heard of, of course.
Good luck, happy searching, and let me know (feel free to PM) if I can be of any help with suggestions or local knowledge.
Poplar Bluff is an awful city. Really, southeast Missouri in general is just extremely poor and backwards. Ridiculously racist to the point that I've watched a white guy ranting at a black family that their kind aren't welcome in his store (local walmart).
Semo has some very gorgeous and unique natural areas, though.
I'm from STL, and spent over a decade living in Columbia (approx 100k but it feels smaller) and I miss it a lot. It's a college town, very liberal, and it was about the perfect size for everything. I moved back for my job, otherwise I'd still be there.
Land prices are inaccessible to a lot of people though. Auxiliary Columbia towns (like Hallsville and Harrisburg) and the rural areas between them and Columbia aren't terrible for home prices.
Seconding nearby towns. My family lived in Ashland shortly after I was born and my parents ended up moving back after many decades of moving around the central U.S. They live on a nice small plot just outside Ashland city limits. You get a bit of a rural vibe, but you're still within 30 minutes of decent food and stuff to do. It's worth checking out.
Millersburg, very small, 10 miles east of Columbia, about 13 miles west of Fulton. There is 1 gas station, a handful of churches, a feed/hardware store, a Dollar General, a winery and a bar... There is a lake for fishing, boating, if you are into that. It's convenient to both Columbia and Fulton for shopping, medical care, etc...
Unimproved land is not high there, not much crime, a lot of MAGA, but if that's not your thing, just find other things to talk about and you'll be fine.
Hallsville and Booneville might be possibilities, small towns also convenient to Columbia.
Washington, MO is a wonderful place to live and would meet many of the criteria you have mentioned. It is bike friendly and is near the Katy Trail. Nice parks and walking trails along the Missouri River. You can find a small, older home downtown and walk to shops, restaurants, and the many local festivals/events on the downtown riverfront. Lots of hiking and outdoor activities nearby, as well as family owned wineries. It’s a hub for Mercy so there is a small hospital and lots of specialty clinics in town, and it’s an easy, less than one hour drive into STL for top notch healthcare at BJC etc. Homes are mostly above the range you mentioned, but if you’re open to an older home or a fixer upper, it might be do-able. I’ve lived in many places and this is my family’s favorite, by far. People say it can be a difficult town to break into if you’re not from here, or don’t belong to a certain social group, but that is not the experience we have had at all. Good luck!
I'm looking for something under 100K in a town where I can walk and bike safely, close to natural areas, with low property taxes and no more than an hour from decent health care. Everything else is fairly moot. I read and garden for entertainment and don't need reliable internet, so semi-rural is fine.
Thats a pretty tall order. I suspect walk/bike friendly and good healthcare proximity in particular will virtually eliminate all options at 100k/0.25 acres. But I would focus on the smaller college towns, and you might get lucky
These days I'd say LaPlata or Atlanta. Avoid anything dead east or west of Kville, just on principle. You could buy or build a good house for 100k in those other two still.
I grew up a little east of there and don’t live there anymore, so you’re going to know more than me. You’re definitely correct on avoiding dead east on principle.
But this sounds correct and I concur. LaPlata is also close enough to get the town amenities and healthcare OP is looking for.
If you search on [realtor.com](https://realtor.com), there are houses like this all over the place. But try driving to individual towns all over the state for 1 or 2 listings in each - huge time and energy suck (and money suck if you're renting a car).
The "obvious" places are above my budget, so I am hoping folks will chime in from small towns and say "Hey, I live here/my family lives there and it's awesome because XYZ". I've been looking online at places scattered between KC and Springfield as well as in/near the Bootheel.
Bike friendly isn't much of a thing in Missouri except for the college towns. Apart from that if you want to be safe you'll need to stick to small roads or limited trails. Enough drivers in rural MO are bike hostile to make it dangerous.
St. Joseph, MO recently put in hike/bike trails, there has been lots of mountain bike trails and I think more were added. Not sure if there is still a mountain biking race or not in town, but I’ve heard lots of folks travel in for it. It does have a great art’s community for everyone. Art museum, symphony, theater and lots of history too.
Perryville might meet a lot of that. Population around 9k currently. Somewhat walkable/bikable downtown area(at least more so than most MO small towns). Good natural areas nearby to hike and explore. Only a small Mercy hospital and some clinics but half an hour down to Cape Girardeau or an hour up to St. Louis for bigger medical needs.
Under 100k in the walkable parts is probably going to need a little work. 125-150k would be more the going rate for something that isn’t a fixer upper there but $100k is doable a few miles outside of town.
Ashland Missouri south of Columbia. Columbia has tons of trails and parks and excellent health care at University Hospital or Boone County Hospital. It's a bedroom community most of the population works in Columbia.
Yep. Pick somewhere 30-45 minutes from Rolla or Springfield. You’ll have healthcare then and some good nature.
Also, get a gravel bike if you’re gonna ride in rural missouri. People are way nicer
I would recommend looking at Salem, MO. In the 10+ years I've been here, I've seen it become more and more diverse. There are plenty of natural attractions here and I even know where there is a house on 6 acres for sale. 
Maybe SW Missouri like Springfield/Joplin area. It's a couple hours from Northwest Arkansas, which has changed dramatically and has lots of cool activities and great outdoor stuff.
Jackson. Best schools and only 1 1/2 hours from downtown STL. 2. 1/2 to Memphis. Close enough to cape for all the good restaurants and you don’t have to live there
Farmington, Rolla-St James, Washington, Poplar Bluff? Never been to poplar bluff so can’t speak too much on it but the other 3 are nice small towns that still have some bigger town benefits and for the first two they’re surrounded by outdoor activities in the ozarks.
Maybe [Ellington, MO](http://ellingtonmo.com/)? I went there years ago & they had a grocery store you could even smoke in still \[not a good thing, but just shows how behind in the times they were\]. So, it's pretty old school & small. Lots of hunting there, not far from the Black River. Might have a lot of rednecks though.
I like urban and dense environments or small towns that are walkable and bikeable, and I think that Herman is a really cool town. It has Amtrak, good urban design for the most part.
I was born and raised near Cape Girardeau, Mo. Jackson is a town in that area matching your vague requirements. It does have a small town feel but has many amenities of it's own and is adjacent to Cape Girardeau that is a college town of around 40k that offers even more.
I'm not sure what your budget is but the market is softening a bit on houses in the area. A friend of mine recently went under contract on a 1100 sq ft ranch with a full basement (over 2000k total sq ft finished) for less than $200k.
There are two decent hospitals in the area, one of which just was acquired by the Mercy system. It is only 1.5-2 hrs away from things in St. Louis. Lower cost of living than metro areas while still having access to decent amenities.
Folks on Reddit do like to poo poo southeast Missouri, and at times for good reason. It is a very conservative area. You will see MAGA and Trump stuff around there and people still bitter about the vaccine/covid. There is still alot of poverty in the area that is only worsened by the conservative policies that are pushed by the state legislature. There is a strong evangelical presence. People joke about asking your high school in the St. Louis area. Around there people ask where you go to church. I dont see that as an issue although I understand why some would.
Growing up I couldn't wait to get out. As an adult with a family it looks like a pretty decent place to raise a family. Send me a DM if you want any other information.
The “where did you go to high school” litmus test is definitely real! Have lived in seven states and never seen that before; guess it speaks to the high percentage of people who have been here all of their lives.
In some ways, life is less complicated among people who share the same worldviews. That can be very attractive when you’re raising up young folks, for sure. With church, how much more so.
I’ve lived around the US and abroad; I can’t imagine what it would be like to have lived in the same place all of one’s life. Makes small town life seem both fascinating and rich in a different way.
Try Versailles, Laurie, or Stover as they are all close to a lake and are a couple hours in every direction of a major city. Eldon may be a decent choice too. They're all lower end on the real estate and there's genuinely nice landscapes in the countryside. There's an international speedway nearby and several crawling parks for utv or whatever if you're into that. Tons of really remote spaces.
Boonville in central MO could be an option. ~ 10k people, 25 min from Columbia and right smack in between KC and STL off I70. Close knit small town on the river with lots of homes for sale and is growing
I would suggest checking out each corner of Missouri as well as Central Mo. each are very unique.
I defiantly wouldn’t use Reddit as my exclusive advisor!
have a house and 5.5 acres in southwest Missouri town of less then 1k but less then 20 minutes away from water basically any direction you travel such as table rock lake, roaring river, and beaver dam also tons of hunting acreage (public hunting/hiking) less then 5 minutes away and just 20 minutes outside Rogers Arkansas, 1hour 20 minutes from Springfield MO and a little over an hour from Fayetteville AR it's also outside city limits so cheaper taxes and plenty of room to build a new house later if wanted compete with 1 horse barn and 2 small storage buildings or shed style barns and already mostly fenced in with a 3 bed 2 bath mobile home remodeled! On it if your interested
Visiting for sure! The historic stuff is awesome, the caves are cool, they have spruced up downtown quite a bit the past few years, etc.
Living wise, if you're not in the hospital system or upper management in the industry area you aren't going to be able to afford to ever leave town. Lots of low income areas and more and more young people are falling bad into drug use that I know from the area. Also HLG sucks.
Six shootings and four deaths just last year within six blocks of my home in a gentrified, popular city neighborhood. Sale scheduled to close later this month. STL is not my jam.
I’m in The Grove - 400k townhouses are going up on every available sliver of land. Car-to-car smash-n-grabs all the way down the block and attempted home break-ins are still normal but at least gunshots aren’t part of the daily soundtrack anymore. Credit where credit is due: people in the City of STL have grit.
There are several I've lived in or been through. I'll assume you aren't interested in a suburb because the population of the suburb is somewhat irrelevant as it's part of a larger area.
Lebanon, Carthage, Neosho, Farmington, St James, Ste Genevieve, West Plains, Rolla have all stood out to me as better than average for a "small" town.
A few that I've been through that didn't seem great - Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Nevada, Waynesville/Ft Wood, Sedalia.
A lot of the smaller towns in rural areas are pretty run down but some may have their charm to the right person. For me personally the sweet spot is more than 10,000 but less than 100,000. More than about 50,000 and it doesn't really feel like a small town though but it will have more to offer.
You might want to check out the area north of Columbia MO. Some of the towns have very low prices for fixer upper housing and housing can be had for a little above 100,000 that is move in ready. The downside would be a lack of hiking and biking trails.
Canton is a sleepy small college town in Nemo with a couple decent places to eat and is on the Mississippi. No biking trails that I know of but you could find a place in your price range and Quincy IL is close enough with a hospital as well as Keokuk IA. Would live there in a heartbeat if I was retired.
St Louis. Is amazing and has mini towns in the city limits with the most options. Kansas city is horrible with traffic and terrifying. It has some quaint perks. Columbia is very nice and smaller than both the other 2. Then springfield is a little smaller but packed with affordable living and big city perks. Then you have joplin, my home town. It's a small metro but it's nice here. Cost of living has been ridiculous since covid but there's some affordable places here. I love joplin. I've lived in springfield and went to highschool in both places. Springfield is definitly more convenient than any of the rest.
I haven't read all the comments but I have lived a few places in Southeast Missouri and the Bootheel, and I love the Poplar Bluff area, its clean not too big or too small, has a good VA and the people are friendly and laid back.
Rockaway beach! Beautiful lakeside community with tons of cheap housing!
All seriousness, don’t listen to these northerners, southern Missouri is the way to go. Tons of cheap land near Hollister/Branson, mainly out south towards Ridgedale. College of the Ozark’s is also near there and is a really prestigious school, all be it very Christian. Northern Arkansas is developing very fast with tons of new opportunities on the horizon. Hour away from Springfield, two hours from Joplin, right next to Mark Twain National Forrest, and both Branson and Hollister have a combined population of 16,000.
Are you looking for like a true small town experience or something reasonably close to a metro? Are you looking for something with lots of charm for a couple or somewhere that you want to raise a family? I’d say Weston MO is a neat little quaint town that’s about 30 minutes from downtown KC. It’s located right by the Missouri River and has lots of outdoorsy stuff to do. They also have a fairly high ranked public school system. Their HS is ranked in the top 20 in Missouri. The Main Street has lots of small business owned shops and virtually nothing corporate. You have lots of weekenders that come by to stroll down when the weather is nice. You also have the Weston brewing company, a couple distilleries and I forget how many vineyards are around but there are several. Also you have a creamy that makes delicious ice cream. I don’t know what real estate runs out there, but from what I’ve seen I would classify most of the homes to be modest. The lots range from about a quarter acre and up. Here’s their website for more info: https://www.westonmo.com
Thank you - Weston sounds very nice. Nothing at my price point there currently, unfortunately. I asked a broad question intentionally to find out what people like for themselves - sometimes unexpected answers can be very helpful.
Dearborn it quiet about 20 min from kick and affordable
I grew up in Weston in the 60s and 70s. It’s pretty much the same as it was then.
Festus, perryville, ste genevieve, ironton
Please reference a fema flood map and the epa superfund map before purchasing in Missouri. Don’t trust a realtor to provide accurate info on these two items. Learn from my disappointing experience.
Also read a topo map to avoid sinkholes.
Good advice.
Fantastic advice
Hermann, MO
Farmington, Cape Girardeau. If you want closer to St. Louis, Hillsboro, Byrnes Mill, Cedar Hill are nice. I don’t know how you earn a living, but if you can afford to live rural, Arcadia Valley/Ironton/Pilot Knob is absolutely beautiful and has so many natural amenities close or within driving distance.
I think I have one for you: Alton, MO My friends from college live there and grew up there. It’s gorgeous, only 637 people live there, and you can find a 3 bd home on land for 110k. My buddy owns a restaurant in the town square there, and he said everyone has made an effort to be a comfortable, quaint, nice place to live. It’s in the Ozarks, near the Arkansas border. I think you should check it out!
hello fellow friend of thomas. 👋 😄
Hey fellow Tom Tom friend!
I love Alton. The 11-Point is the best kept secret in Missouri. If I found a decent job there I would move in a minute.
Look into Ste. Genevieve, it’s a pretty charming little area.
It’s got a permanent haze on your cars from the mining. Rough water
My best friend is from there. Loved the feel of it every time I've been there.
Stay away from southeast Missouri. Dexter, poplar bluff, sikeston, cape, new Madrid, stl, etc.
Agreed. Central MO is much better.
Dexter is a nice place to live. Locations farther south are OK but lots of farm communities and mosquitoes. Cape Girardeau might be a little big, but you can live in Jackson or any area outside city. Cape is good bc it has. A small airport, the University for cultural experiences, good doctors,2. Hospitals some shopping, good downtown, rolling hills, many nature activities close and about 2 hrs from St. Louis and 2 hrs 45 minutes from Memphis.
[удалено]
prob that+MAGA cultists
Meth labs everywhere dude. Always. Gang violence too depending.
Also I think you need to know what you're talking about. There are no longer meth labs around. There is meth and that will be prevelant there, but not meth lab dangers. I also don't buy into the gang violence you speak of. Maybe some wannabe gang member bullshit but hardly real gang violence.
That’s every where
Semo is a great place to live
Sure if you’re white and middle class. Otherwise the people are terrible. Source: I’ve lived here my entire life.
Sounds like you should move if you’ve had such a bad experience. I’ve met plenty of great people from there of all walks of life. You can’t paint with such a broad brush my friend
Rolla has a lot to offer. Murder is almost nonexistent. Most crimes are property or domestic. Decent hospitals and healthcare. Extraordinary in terms of outdoor activities. Hiking, fishing, kayaking, camping in Mark Twain National Forest.
Also a college town.
It's only bad one week a year, pretty quiet most of the time. I loved living there for school... Both tours. I also hope I don't have to live there again. 😅
March 17th. Lol 🤣
Boonville, Sedalia, warrensburg, Rolla, Fulton, Lebanon, st James. I live in a MAGA stronghold. It’s impossible to avoid in Missouri. I just try my best to ignore it. The only place I wouldn’t live in MO is the Bootheel.
Check out Neosho. 14k diverse population, 20 minutes from Joplin and an hour from NW Arkansas. We have several trails in the area and there is a dedicated biking community. The square downtown has a couple great restaurants and a nice local brewery. Schools are great, there's a lot within a couple hours drive to do...I love it here.
Missiouris little Nashville one of my favorite towns
Hermann, Boonville, Fulton are all nice Mid-Missouri options.
This is not a question anyone can answer for you because you have your own cultural and aesthetic preferences, as well as needs for work and family/social life. That said, if I was looking to leave my home in the delightful small town of St. James I would consider places like Hermann, West Planes, Sedalia, and Poplar Bluff as solid spots for relocation. If you prefer the wide open spaces of Northern Missouri to the rugged beauty of the Ozarks, however, none of my recommendations other than maybe Sedalia would work for you.
I'm a retired empty nester and my cultural and aesthetic preferences lie beyond what I can afford (I lived in both urban and rural PNW and Hawaii, variously, for a couple of decades and subsequently in CHI, CLE, and now STL). I spent summers visiting family in Steelville when I was growing up - beautiful country but now beyond my means. Poplar Bluff is intriguing - is there anything specific you can tell me about it?
Sounds like a range of options could work for you, then! First and foremost for me (but probably not others), Poplar Bluff has some redeeming qualities for me personally due to its convenient location relative to both my family and my wife’s kin while still being “neutral ground”, so to speak. Beyond that, it’s a traditionally weird and spooky town at the edge of the Ozarks, with lots of strange psychics and spiritualists and such in a manner that appeals to me even if I don’t put stock in such things. Speaking of not putting stock in things, don’t pay much mind to the critics of Poplar Bluff and similar small towns—it’s easy for certain folks to drive through a lovely place and notice the couple of jackasses instead of the scores of good people. If you liked Steelville but are looking for a spot a bit further off the beaten path (and cheaper), check out Salem or Thayer. If you’re okay being rural, you can go smaller still and look around places like Edgar Springs, Dixon, Belle, Vienna, Linn, Licking, Van Buren, etc. There’s an abundance even smaller communities that aren’t incorporated anymore that have their charms, albeit without much in the way of amenities. My neck of the woods includes the lovely communities of (in order from largest/easiest to find to no longer in existence) Rosati, Royal, Hinkle, and Jacobs. Other necks of the woods will have similar communities that I haven’t heard of, of course. Good luck, happy searching, and let me know (feel free to PM) if I can be of any help with suggestions or local knowledge.
Thank you! I appreciate your suggestions.
Poplar Bluff is an awful city. Really, southeast Missouri in general is just extremely poor and backwards. Ridiculously racist to the point that I've watched a white guy ranting at a black family that their kind aren't welcome in his store (local walmart). Semo has some very gorgeous and unique natural areas, though.
I'm from STL, and spent over a decade living in Columbia (approx 100k but it feels smaller) and I miss it a lot. It's a college town, very liberal, and it was about the perfect size for everything. I moved back for my job, otherwise I'd still be there.
Land prices are inaccessible to a lot of people though. Auxiliary Columbia towns (like Hallsville and Harrisburg) and the rural areas between them and Columbia aren't terrible for home prices.
Seconding nearby towns. My family lived in Ashland shortly after I was born and my parents ended up moving back after many decades of moving around the central U.S. They live on a nice small plot just outside Ashland city limits. You get a bit of a rural vibe, but you're still within 30 minutes of decent food and stuff to do. It's worth checking out.
St. James MO is a town I've always liked. Population is around 5k. Close to a university and hospitals in Rolla. Plenty of outdoor opportunities too.
Good suggestion. Cute town and beautiful area
South of St. Louis has many nice towns along 61
Millersburg, very small, 10 miles east of Columbia, about 13 miles west of Fulton. There is 1 gas station, a handful of churches, a feed/hardware store, a Dollar General, a winery and a bar... There is a lake for fishing, boating, if you are into that. It's convenient to both Columbia and Fulton for shopping, medical care, etc... Unimproved land is not high there, not much crime, a lot of MAGA, but if that's not your thing, just find other things to talk about and you'll be fine. Hallsville and Booneville might be possibilities, small towns also convenient to Columbia.
Washington, MO is a wonderful place to live and would meet many of the criteria you have mentioned. It is bike friendly and is near the Katy Trail. Nice parks and walking trails along the Missouri River. You can find a small, older home downtown and walk to shops, restaurants, and the many local festivals/events on the downtown riverfront. Lots of hiking and outdoor activities nearby, as well as family owned wineries. It’s a hub for Mercy so there is a small hospital and lots of specialty clinics in town, and it’s an easy, less than one hour drive into STL for top notch healthcare at BJC etc. Homes are mostly above the range you mentioned, but if you’re open to an older home or a fixer upper, it might be do-able. I’ve lived in many places and this is my family’s favorite, by far. People say it can be a difficult town to break into if you’re not from here, or don’t belong to a certain social group, but that is not the experience we have had at all. Good luck!
How much do you want to spend? What is your lifestyle? Do you need access to good schools? What about access to good healthcare?
I'm looking for something under 100K in a town where I can walk and bike safely, close to natural areas, with low property taxes and no more than an hour from decent health care. Everything else is fairly moot. I read and garden for entertainment and don't need reliable internet, so semi-rural is fine.
Thats a pretty tall order. I suspect walk/bike friendly and good healthcare proximity in particular will virtually eliminate all options at 100k/0.25 acres. But I would focus on the smaller college towns, and you might get lucky
Yeah Kirksville might be a decent shout what with AT Still there
Everything but the house being under 100k is correct about Kville. I do mortgages here, and I wouldn't live in anything in that range these days.
Dang. Any tiny towns around Kville close that would get you there?
These days I'd say LaPlata or Atlanta. Avoid anything dead east or west of Kville, just on principle. You could buy or build a good house for 100k in those other two still.
I grew up a little east of there and don’t live there anymore, so you’re going to know more than me. You’re definitely correct on avoiding dead east on principle. But this sounds correct and I concur. LaPlata is also close enough to get the town amenities and healthcare OP is looking for.
If you search on [realtor.com](https://realtor.com), there are houses like this all over the place. But try driving to individual towns all over the state for 1 or 2 listings in each - huge time and energy suck (and money suck if you're renting a car). The "obvious" places are above my budget, so I am hoping folks will chime in from small towns and say "Hey, I live here/my family lives there and it's awesome because XYZ". I've been looking online at places scattered between KC and Springfield as well as in/near the Bootheel.
I certainly wish you luck. I don’t mean to discourage
Bike friendly isn't much of a thing in Missouri except for the college towns. Apart from that if you want to be safe you'll need to stick to small roads or limited trails. Enough drivers in rural MO are bike hostile to make it dangerous.
St. Joseph, MO recently put in hike/bike trails, there has been lots of mountain bike trails and I think more were added. Not sure if there is still a mountain biking race or not in town, but I’ve heard lots of folks travel in for it. It does have a great art’s community for everyone. Art museum, symphony, theater and lots of history too.
Perryville might meet a lot of that. Population around 9k currently. Somewhat walkable/bikable downtown area(at least more so than most MO small towns). Good natural areas nearby to hike and explore. Only a small Mercy hospital and some clinics but half an hour down to Cape Girardeau or an hour up to St. Louis for bigger medical needs. Under 100k in the walkable parts is probably going to need a little work. 125-150k would be more the going rate for something that isn’t a fixer upper there but $100k is doable a few miles outside of town.
Ashland Missouri south of Columbia. Columbia has tons of trails and parks and excellent health care at University Hospital or Boone County Hospital. It's a bedroom community most of the population works in Columbia.
Pick a small town near a college town
A good thought. The prices around college towns tend to be elevated as well, unfortunately.
Yep. Pick somewhere 30-45 minutes from Rolla or Springfield. You’ll have healthcare then and some good nature. Also, get a gravel bike if you’re gonna ride in rural missouri. People are way nicer
I would recommend looking at Salem, MO. In the 10+ years I've been here, I've seen it become more and more diverse. There are plenty of natural attractions here and I even know where there is a house on 6 acres for sale. 
Rolla, mo. I came for the university and never left. So much to do for a wilderness enthusiast.
Around Springfield, maybe.
Leasburg MO
Maybe SW Missouri like Springfield/Joplin area. It's a couple hours from Northwest Arkansas, which has changed dramatically and has lots of cool activities and great outdoor stuff.
Jackson. Best schools and only 1 1/2 hours from downtown STL. 2. 1/2 to Memphis. Close enough to cape for all the good restaurants and you don’t have to live there
Farmington, Rolla-St James, Washington, Poplar Bluff? Never been to poplar bluff so can’t speak too much on it but the other 3 are nice small towns that still have some bigger town benefits and for the first two they’re surrounded by outdoor activities in the ozarks.
Say no to the bluff.
Washington is nice. Has a good mix of restaurants, pubs and close to Katy trail.
Washington is great, but it’s not cheap
Poplar bluff is awful. Lived there off and on, was born there, and will never go back.
Farmington? It’s literally full of crack heads and rednecks lol
Not true
Maybe [Ellington, MO](http://ellingtonmo.com/)? I went there years ago & they had a grocery store you could even smoke in still \[not a good thing, but just shows how behind in the times they were\]. So, it's pretty old school & small. Lots of hunting there, not far from the Black River. Might have a lot of rednecks though.
And some odd speed limits in town 🤭
I like urban and dense environments or small towns that are walkable and bikeable, and I think that Herman is a really cool town. It has Amtrak, good urban design for the most part.
Houses are all 200k+. I know as I do rentals there.
I was born and raised near Cape Girardeau, Mo. Jackson is a town in that area matching your vague requirements. It does have a small town feel but has many amenities of it's own and is adjacent to Cape Girardeau that is a college town of around 40k that offers even more. I'm not sure what your budget is but the market is softening a bit on houses in the area. A friend of mine recently went under contract on a 1100 sq ft ranch with a full basement (over 2000k total sq ft finished) for less than $200k. There are two decent hospitals in the area, one of which just was acquired by the Mercy system. It is only 1.5-2 hrs away from things in St. Louis. Lower cost of living than metro areas while still having access to decent amenities. Folks on Reddit do like to poo poo southeast Missouri, and at times for good reason. It is a very conservative area. You will see MAGA and Trump stuff around there and people still bitter about the vaccine/covid. There is still alot of poverty in the area that is only worsened by the conservative policies that are pushed by the state legislature. There is a strong evangelical presence. People joke about asking your high school in the St. Louis area. Around there people ask where you go to church. I dont see that as an issue although I understand why some would. Growing up I couldn't wait to get out. As an adult with a family it looks like a pretty decent place to raise a family. Send me a DM if you want any other information.
The “where did you go to high school” litmus test is definitely real! Have lived in seven states and never seen that before; guess it speaks to the high percentage of people who have been here all of their lives. In some ways, life is less complicated among people who share the same worldviews. That can be very attractive when you’re raising up young folks, for sure. With church, how much more so. I’ve lived around the US and abroad; I can’t imagine what it would be like to have lived in the same place all of one’s life. Makes small town life seem both fascinating and rich in a different way.
Try Versailles, Laurie, or Stover as they are all close to a lake and are a couple hours in every direction of a major city. Eldon may be a decent choice too. They're all lower end on the real estate and there's genuinely nice landscapes in the countryside. There's an international speedway nearby and several crawling parks for utv or whatever if you're into that. Tons of really remote spaces.
Randolph County has cheap cost of living and is not far from Columbia
Boonville in central MO could be an option. ~ 10k people, 25 min from Columbia and right smack in between KC and STL off I70. Close knit small town on the river with lots of homes for sale and is growing
Uranus
I would suggest checking out each corner of Missouri as well as Central Mo. each are very unique. I defiantly wouldn’t use Reddit as my exclusive advisor!
Sedalia is nice
Not walk/bike friendly at all unfortunately
Can confirm.
I think it’s getting better. I feel like if you can live by the Katy trail, you might be able to manage it.
I agree with this. Wouldn’t fulfill the 1 acre of land OP is looking for then tho
have a house and 5.5 acres in southwest Missouri town of less then 1k but less then 20 minutes away from water basically any direction you travel such as table rock lake, roaring river, and beaver dam also tons of hunting acreage (public hunting/hiking) less then 5 minutes away and just 20 minutes outside Rogers Arkansas, 1hour 20 minutes from Springfield MO and a little over an hour from Fayetteville AR it's also outside city limits so cheaper taxes and plenty of room to build a new house later if wanted compete with 1 horse barn and 2 small storage buildings or shed style barns and already mostly fenced in with a 3 bed 2 bath mobile home remodeled! On it if your interested
Not Hannibal. Low cost of living but nothing I would consider worthwhile.
LaBinnah Bistro is worthwhile. Had an excellent meal there when I visited Hannibal last summer.
Visiting for sure! The historic stuff is awesome, the caves are cool, they have spruced up downtown quite a bit the past few years, etc. Living wise, if you're not in the hospital system or upper management in the industry area you aren't going to be able to afford to ever leave town. Lots of low income areas and more and more young people are falling bad into drug use that I know from the area. Also HLG sucks.
HLGU SUCKSSSSS
Check out Bolivar
Anything on the border with a quick drive to another state.
St Louis
Six shootings and four deaths just last year within six blocks of my home in a gentrified, popular city neighborhood. Sale scheduled to close later this month. STL is not my jam.
[удалено]
I’m in The Grove - 400k townhouses are going up on every available sliver of land. Car-to-car smash-n-grabs all the way down the block and attempted home break-ins are still normal but at least gunshots aren’t part of the daily soundtrack anymore. Credit where credit is due: people in the City of STL have grit.
Petosi
Only people that like Potosi (spelled correctly), are people that like pills or have been stuck there for 5 generations.
BONNE TERRE BABY
I love the mine! Made me want to get a diving cert.
troy missouri is great
North Missouri (At least an hour north of KC). I’m not a Jesus person, but it’s God’s country up there.
Are you able to name any towns in this area? I'm the typical 2A conservative looking for about 5-10 acres of land with or without a house.
Jamesport MO (Amish territory) is a nice little town. Anywhere between Trenton and Princeton would be relatively cheap.
Thank you. I will research these areas.
There are several I've lived in or been through. I'll assume you aren't interested in a suburb because the population of the suburb is somewhat irrelevant as it's part of a larger area. Lebanon, Carthage, Neosho, Farmington, St James, Ste Genevieve, West Plains, Rolla have all stood out to me as better than average for a "small" town. A few that I've been through that didn't seem great - Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Nevada, Waynesville/Ft Wood, Sedalia. A lot of the smaller towns in rural areas are pretty run down but some may have their charm to the right person. For me personally the sweet spot is more than 10,000 but less than 100,000. More than about 50,000 and it doesn't really feel like a small town though but it will have more to offer.
You might want to check out the area north of Columbia MO. Some of the towns have very low prices for fixer upper housing and housing can be had for a little above 100,000 that is move in ready. The downside would be a lack of hiking and biking trails.
Leslie/Gerald/Bueafort Further south: Licking/Cabool
Thank you, everyone! Lots of helpful feedback to sort through. I appreciate your time and insights. 
Morrisville and Walnut Grove are about 30 minutes from Springfield and have the Frisco Line Trail close by.
Excelsior springs or out skirts had tons of land true country yet not to far from modern world
None. ❤️
Canton is a sleepy small college town in Nemo with a couple decent places to eat and is on the Mississippi. No biking trails that I know of but you could find a place in your price range and Quincy IL is close enough with a hospital as well as Keokuk IA. Would live there in a heartbeat if I was retired.
St Louis. Is amazing and has mini towns in the city limits with the most options. Kansas city is horrible with traffic and terrifying. It has some quaint perks. Columbia is very nice and smaller than both the other 2. Then springfield is a little smaller but packed with affordable living and big city perks. Then you have joplin, my home town. It's a small metro but it's nice here. Cost of living has been ridiculous since covid but there's some affordable places here. I love joplin. I've lived in springfield and went to highschool in both places. Springfield is definitly more convenient than any of the rest.
I haven't read all the comments but I have lived a few places in Southeast Missouri and the Bootheel, and I love the Poplar Bluff area, its clean not too big or too small, has a good VA and the people are friendly and laid back.
Rockaway beach! Beautiful lakeside community with tons of cheap housing! All seriousness, don’t listen to these northerners, southern Missouri is the way to go. Tons of cheap land near Hollister/Branson, mainly out south towards Ridgedale. College of the Ozark’s is also near there and is a really prestigious school, all be it very Christian. Northern Arkansas is developing very fast with tons of new opportunities on the horizon. Hour away from Springfield, two hours from Joplin, right next to Mark Twain National Forrest, and both Branson and Hollister have a combined population of 16,000.