Moving to Madison, need help choosing neighborhood & housing (Sheboygan: apartment, rentals)

[new_madisonian]

hey all,

i'm moving to madison soon and i'm trying to decide on a neighborhood and apartment. i'll be working in capitol square and my budget is 1000-1300 including utilities. ideally id like a 1BR but i'm not sure whether it's possible. i don't have a car or pets.

i'm trying to decide between capitol square and the near east. there are a few different factors i'm thinking about and i'd like your all help to help me decide

culture
my impression is that capitol square is filled with yuppies and students and that the near east is filled with more eccentric people. i like eccentric and artsy people, and i've also heard that the neighborhoods in that area are more interesting. is this an accurate view? i've spent a couple days in capitol square, but no time on willy street or the neighborhood in that area. what are they like?

transportation/distance
i'd love to be able to walk to work, but im not against biking and taking the bus in the winter. my question is how difficult is it to take the bus from the near east in winter? according to google it's only a 10 minute ride -- is it 10 minutes in winter? are the buses punctual? is there space on the buses when it's cold?

entertainment
how does entertainment differ between the two areas? i know some of the activities in capitol square like the theater, farmers market, terraces, etc. there is a martial arts gym in the near east that i'd like to go to and im guessing there's other sorts of things to do, but i'm not sure what else

quality of housing
near capitol square i might be able to afford a relatively new complex if i get an efficiency, but i get the sense that i'd need to live in a duplex or multi-family house in the near east. is this accurate? are they run down or are they okay? a lot of places include heat in the rent--is heat generally taken care of or are we talking about 60 degrees inside?

finding a place
it has been relatively easy finding information about the larger complexes in capitol square, but more difficult to find housing in the near east. neither craigslist nor a couple other resources have good listings. can you all recommend another method?

thank you all so much!

[NomadStephanie]

My experience of Madison so far is that there are interesting, eccentric, intelligent, artsy, etc. people wherever you go. I'm on the west side, which has a less artsy/interesting reputation, and yet have a landlord who answered a basic question about our water softener by explaining how it affects ions, and a duplex next to me where one couple are artists and the other are a plumber and a social worker. I was standing in line in Walgreens the other day and the cashier was having an animated conversation about advanced chemistry with the woman who was checking out.

My advice is not to worry about students, yuppies, or any other stereotype of people you don't want to be around. People are good here. That said, I can understand the impulse to not want to live right in the campus area where it's mostly students--not because there's not a lot of cool people who happen to be students, but that it can be alienating if you're not one yourself.

The east side has a lot of cool things going on and definitely has a unique vibe. But there's not as much in walking distance as there is downtown or on the west side. Don't underestimate how important it is to have a pleasant commute to work--whether in terms of total distance or ease of route.

The reason you may be having a harder time finding housing in the near east is that it's a popular area. When we were looking for a place, it was much rarer to see a place on the near east and they rented a lot more quickly than places elsewhere. A lot of people have the same impression of it as you. And keep in mind what happens when a lot of people who aren't necessarily artists or bohemians themselves want to live where artists and bohemians live--demand goes up, prices go up, the artists who can no longer afford to live there move elsewhere. That hasn't happened in the near east yet, but I think it has the potential to.

I think that's already happening on Willy Street. We were shocked when we saw that Willy Street had the highest rents of any part of town we looked at--even downtown central--and for much smaller rentals maintained in poorer condition.

I'd say that based on your scenario, downtown would be a better choice, as long as the discrepancy in rents between both locations isn't too significant.

[new_madisonian]

Thank you, Stephanie. Great advice and I agree with you a lot. I am going to open up my search to the western part of town and aim to find a permanent place in the downtown area. Can you suggest a way to find a place besides craigslist or someone who doesn't live in Madison yet?

[NomadStephanie]

I used Craigslist and had an excellent experience. I've used Craigslist in several different places and the response rate and friendliness in Madison was way beyond what I expected. We moved in February and looked at places in January. I had to line up places to look at quickly and within a few days of emails and calls had managed to line up 15 showings over two days. We found more than one place we liked and found a range of locations and rent levels.

I'm sure there's other ways to find places, I just am not familiar with them. I believe I did find a couple of downtown places just by Googling around to see any new buildings that had gone up and that had available spots.

One thing that's tricky about Madison is that due to the huge influence of the university on rentals, a lot of rentals have leases that run from August to August ONLY. This means there will be more on the market in August but more competition. I've heard it can be pretty dead at other times, especially right before and right after August. As stated, we had no problems in January/February.

Oh, and I should add that we looked at places in several different parts of town--the near west, downtown, Willy Street, the near east, and near Olbrich Gardens. It was a big undertaking but I believe helped us make a more informed decision about where we wanted to live.

[zachlooter]

Middleton is a quiet, nice town.

[Corn-fused]

Originally Posted by NomadStephanie

I used Craigslist and had an excellent experience. I've used Craigslist in several different places and the response rate and friendliness in Madison was way beyond what I expected. We moved in February and looked at places in January. I had to line up places to look at quickly and within a few days of emails and calls had managed to line up 15 showings over two days. We found more than one place we liked and found a range of locations and rent levels.

I'm sure there's other ways to find places, I just am not familiar with them. I believe I did find a couple of downtown places just by Googling around to see any new buildings that had gone up and that had available spots.

One thing that's tricky about Madison is that due to the huge influence of the university on rentals, a lot of rentals have leases that run from August to August ONLY. This means there will be more on the market in August but more competition. I've heard it can be pretty dead at other times, especially right before and right after August. As stated, we had no problems in January/February.

Oh, and I should add that we looked at places in several different parts of town--the near west, downtown, Willy Street, the near east, and near Olbrich Gardens. It was a big undertaking but I believe helped us make a more informed decision about where we wanted to live.

^^Agree with NomadStephanie. Craigslist is your best bet for apartment searching. The only thing outside of that would be if someone just put a sign up in front of their building and never advertised it online anywhere but that would be very far and few between. I say, if you can't find it on CL you probably won't find it.

And yes, as NomadStephanie mentioned, you are going to run into the campus housing which is a pretty good radius around the capitol and UW, that runs their leases from Aug to Aug only for school year. But you should be able to find additional housing right in the downtown area that caters to working professionals but you are also going to pay beaucoup bucks for most of those. Quite a few new high rise apts being built regularly in downtown area.

[MassVt]

Plenty of places on the near West Side, especially around Hilldale, and Sheboygan Avenue, on the bus line. Willy Street was the local counterculture place, bu I guess gentrification is taking over.

If you value your sanity, and your sleep, stay away from the student neighborhoods. There notable for having a couch, or several bikes, on the front porch..