What makes a good place to live? Some people say it's the people, some people say it's the architecture, some people say it's the job, and I say it's if it has Thai House (spoiler, Columbia does.)
Well, Columbia Illinois is a fantastic mixture of a large amount of positive features. And in this post, I will go over what I think makes this town amazing.
St. Louis Proximity
Columbia is a town with around 10,000 people, a cozy place to be. With that being said, Columbia has direct access to the J.B. Bridge making the drive to South County STL only ten minutes. This tiny drive allows you to live in a beautiful small town while being able to work in a large city, driving a minimum of ten minutes.
With St. Louis being ten minutes away, not only can you work in the city, a large number of restaurants, forms of entertainment, shopping centers, and the one and only Insomnia Cookies are a short drive away. Columbia is perfect for this reason, you get all the benefits of living by the city, without having to face the consequences of living IN the city. All the perks, none of the cons. That's quite nice.
The Housing
Columbia's housing market is fantastic, trust me, I know a real estate agent (it's me). Houses are extremely affordable in Columbia, with the median list price being $125,000. Columbia absolutely offers amazing houses for all sorts of incomes. Within Columbia, there are many great opportunities for families to purchase their first homes at a very affordable rate, while at the same time provides many properties with beautiful large homes with a view on top of the bluffs with St. Louis in the distance, or a surrounded by large lakes. It also provides homes with plenty of acres for those who like to ride four wheelers. Almost anything you could want in a property, Columbia can provide. And not only does Columbia most likely have what you are looking for, it has it at a great price.
The food
In the beginning I spoiled that the single best restaurant to open on this planet exists within Columbia's city lines, and that's true for many of the restaurants. I could eat at a restaurant IN Columbia for breakfast lunch and dinner without getting bored of the food every single day. Although there are not as many restaurant choices are there are in STL (which is 10 minutes away, expanding what you can eat), there is a medium number of 5 star restaurants to choose from. The plus of these restaurants is they are ALL good, every choice is a good pick. However, being a weekly visitor, I must throw out my one true love in this world and that is Thai House on Main Street. Their food simply tastes like angels tap dancing on my taste buds.
Schools
If you are moving with children, you chose a great place for schooling. I first will preface this with that Columbia is within the top 10% of Illinois schools for Athletes, so if you have the next Yadier Molina as a child this is not a bad place for your child to be. Besides for the athletics, on Niche.com Columbia receives an A for its education. With a 92% graduation a large percentage of these graduates doing fairly well on their ACTs, it's safe to say Columbia is a great place for education for your child. Speaking purely from experience, most teachers really care about the students and have a relationship with them as well, so the experience is nice. There is about a 19:1 student to teacher ratio, so each student can have a fair amount of attention.
Beauty
Columbia has some very beautiful features. From properties having a view on top of the bluffs, to beautiful backroads will falling leaves in the fall, to some waterfalls when it rains on the side roads, to houses with beautiful architecture, Columbia really provides some unique delights. Recently Columbia has been doing things to make the town even prettier, like adding fairy lights above the road on Main Street, and redoing the roads, sidewalks, and lights. Main Street is a beautiful place to walk and shop, as there are many local business along this beautiful road. During holidays, Historic Main Street is decorated to the theme, usually creative like the previous decoration for Halloween, in which the community came together tying funny or cool scarecrows the the light poles.
Extra: Vacation Proximity
For those coming from far away, the St. Louis area is like smack dab in the middle of popular destinations. It is four hours away from a variety of different locations. Branson, Missouri is 3 and a half hours away, in the same area Lake of the Ozarks is 2 and a half hours away. Chicago up north is 4 and a half hours away, and to the east Louisville, Kentucky is 4 hours away. Also west is Kansas City which is 3 and a half hours away. There are far more vacation destinations between, however there is much to choose from that is not that far away!
Overall
In the end, Columbia is a great place to live. In a small town with nice people, you get to enjoy the benefits of St. Louis without dealing with the consequences of St. Louis. You get great schooling for the kids, a great place to live for a great price, tons of great food within the town and even more a simple 10 minutes away, and a beautiful town to explore. Columbia is definitely a place I would recommend living.