Suburbs South of Madison (Milwaukee, Janesville: credit, real estate, property taxes)

[moving616]

We're moving to the area in the spring, working about 45 minutes south of Madison. We're convinced that we would love the Madison area based on comments here but are concerned about house prices. At what point does the price start to drop off (on the south side of Madison) where we could still enjoy the benefits of being near Madison without the cost? Any advice? Fitchburg? Stoughton? Others we're overlooking?

[Chelito23]

Anywhere in Dane County will be expensive as a general rule, whether it be land, a home, taxes etc. Since you will be working 45 minutes south of Madison, you should look into any community that is on the border with Dane County. I know a lot of people like New Glarus...

[LML]

Fitchburg is as expensive as Madison proper. Stoughton is somewhat cheaper. Evansville (which is a very nice smaller city) is also cheaper. New Glarus is a great small town and is cheaper. Mt. Horeb is growing and so is the price of the homes there but it is still a bit cheaper than Madison. It all depends on what you are looking for in a house. Older or new, large or small. If I knew what you are seeking I could maybe give you a better idea.

[Drover]

You should probably mention (as you did in another thread) that you'll be working in Beloit. It would be a hell of a haul from New Glarus and especially Mount Horeb to Beloit and back every day. As much as I love both of those places, I don't think they fit your situation well. There's just no easy, straight shot from those places to Beloit -- your route would be on zig-zagging back highways the entire way there.

Stoughton is at least in the right direction. Stoughton is a nice little town, though there isn't a whole lot to do there. No matter though, Madison is only 15 to 20 minutes away. It has a cute little downtown and nice, well-kept pre-WWII homes plus some newer stock as well. The Madison housing price craze hasn't really reached Stoughton yet. I don't know much about the schools in Stoughton, but there are other resources to help you with that such as greatschools.net and schoolmatters.com and maybe some others.

[midwest1]

As a Beloit College Grad, I might be a bitbiased, but why not consider Beloit itself? The city has made remarkable progress in recent years (largely due to billionaire Ken Hendricks) and its downtown is seeing new housing and dining. Plus, you can still enjoy Madison. And Beloit has the added convenience of being only a half hour to another somewhat major metro (Rockford) and is only 1 hour from Milwaukee, 1.5 hours from Chicago.

You'd save lots on oil and housing and watch one of the Midwest's little gems continue its (so-far) unsung renaissance.

[Drover]

You don't often see proximity to Rockford being used as a selling point...

[midwest1]

Rockford is totally underrated, particularly by Rockfordians living in the Chicago area. The crap all over their hometown. Rockford has at least the minimum urban things, foo-foo martini bars, sushi emporiums, Indian buffets, Laotian, great Mexican joints, Swedish, decent Italian, and a wonderful Korean fusion place downtown (Kuma's?)

It also has wonderful public gardens (their Japanese Garden was rated the best in America!!). And the parks along the Rock and Kishwaukee rivers south of the city are some of the best I've seen in Northern Illinois.


And Mary's Market would do a booming business if it were in Santa Barbara or SoHo.
All without a trace of Madison navel-gazing.

[redmare]

I like Stoughton. We moved here 1.5 years ago because housing prices are too high in Madison (and the taxes were worse).

We find plenty to do in Stoughton. There is a movie theater, 2 dramatic arts theaters, lots of town festivals all year long, good shopping for antiques, and some places to go out. We even have a wine bar, a cocktail bar, and a martini bar downtown in addition to the usual bar haunts for which Stoughton is, um, famous, or infamous rather. There is a sand-bottomed swimming pool over by the fairgrounds that's $2.25 to get in...slides, diving board, sand activities, volleyball, and you can bring your own food.

There is a member-owned grocery co-op starting up in the next couple of months that the community has worked hard to get off the ground. We're over $90K of the needed $100K with a couple of fundraisers still in the works.

The two big drawbacks are the school system and the town's lovefest with the stupid Wally World supercenter. They are ready to just give them whatever to let these clowns come in and that WILL raise property taxes because we all know Wart-Mall does NOT pay its own way. It will decimate our historic downtown and in a sense, it already is. As businesses are closing due to natural causes, new businesses are not starting up as everyone is afraid of what will happen.

The schools are continuously getting poor report cards from county evaluations, usually in the form of test scores and program cuts for gifted and special ed students. But I think if you are involved with your kids' education, you'll do okay.

Close proximity to interstate and Madison make it not too hard to get places when you want to bug out.

We bought a historic 2400 sq. ft house just a few blocks from downtown (read: we walk everywhere) for only $156K It was perfectly inhabitable, but does need some work which we can get historic home tax credit for doing. Taxes about $2800 for the year (a lot, but also a LOT less than anything in Madison!).

[Livewire]

Originally Posted by LML

Fitchburg is as expensive as Madison proper. Stoughton is somewhat cheaper. Evansville (which is a very nice smaller city) is also cheaper. New Glarus is a great small town and is cheaper. Mt. Horeb is growing and so is the price of the homes there but it is still a bit cheaper than Madison. It all depends on what you are looking for in a house. Older or new, large or small. If I knew what you are seeking I could maybe give you a better idea.

How far south of Madison? Janesville? Oregon? Evansville was very pleasant,one of those towns where everyone knew everyone, and rent there wasnt so bad. Stoughton seemed like an average town, more to do there. But where ever you choose, better do it before the real estate boom hits out there!

[weshop94]

Oregon Dude!