Safest Neighborhoods in the 62243 ZIP Code

About 20 miles southeast of Saint Louis , Smithton is a village of about 4,000 in St. Clair County. Its quiet, rural surroundings have attracted new residents for decades, even as neighboring communities like Belleville saw a population decline. “It’s quiet here,” says Pastor Robert Endsley of the village’s First Baptist Church. “Crime’s increasing all over,

About a 30-minute drive southeast of Saint Louis , Freeburg is a village of about 4,300. Surrounded by green spaces with countless lakes and ponds, this area was once barely noticed by anyone uninterested in fishing or camping. "Fifty years ago, Freeburg was just a place you passed through on the way to Belleville ," says Stephen Ellerbrake, a broker with