Ah, OK then. Your DH's office will be quite near mine. The area just east of there has some residential that would be the very closest in, and it's nice, but it happens to be one of the largest aged-in-place neighborhoods in the US -- it's almost like the Villages, but without golf carts. In your 40's you would be the young'uns on the block by a mile.
Ladue would work for you if you could afford it, probably, but the demographics tend to skew older in many cases. It's VERY pricey, though the schools are great (but the very wealthiest families that live there don't use them, they send their kids to private schools for the social connections.) You would be hard-pressed to find anything nice in Ladue for under $700K. (However, you CAN get into the Ladue school district at a bargain price if you're willing to take a smaller, older ranch home. The trick is buying in southern Olivette, which does not have its own schools, so the kids are in the Ladue schools. Nothing really wrong with Olivette, it's just all late-50's architecture and a bit blah.)
Honestly, I think that your best best may be Creve Coeur itself if your DH doesn't want a long commute; the western area outside I-270 has lots of very nice houses. (That will be Parkway schools.) The homes in western Creve Coeur were mostly built in the 80's. If you stay north near Olive, it won't be too difficult to get into UCity if you decide to send your DD to COCA for dance.
Western Kirkwood or parts of Town and Country would also be a good commute, straight down I-270. (Though fast may be a relative term; 270 southbound tends to very quickly become a parking lot if there is any kind of traffic incident at all.) Staying fairly close to Manchester Rd. keeps you close to the greatest array of shopping opportunities.
Note that Wildwood has no community parks at all. If you have a child in team sports that means that you'll won't be playing near home. For the most kid-friendly amenities, I'd recommend trying the the western edge of Kirkwood, as it is an older community with a very established infrastructure.
(The architecture is more interesting there, too.)
If you are mostly looking for a house price from the mid-200K's to around 300K, you are probably going to want to start looking in the school districts of Kirkwood, Parkway Central or the northeast edge of Rockwood, and maybe Parkway West. The biggest real estate brokerage in the metro area is Gundaker (you may already have heard their name mentioned if your DH is getting a relocation package -- they have a big department), and if you go to their website you can look at listings by school district.
www.cbgundaker.com.
If you need to go significantly cheaper your best bet would be either St. Charles or some parts of North County. North County has some areas that are a serious mess, but Maryland Heights is fine, particularly the part of it in Parkway North School District. There are also still some nice areas in Bridgeton, and old downtown Ferguson is gentrifying very fast right now (my DH grew up there.)
Welcome to St. Louis!
I can't get over how low the house prices are there.
