Madison-Janesville & surrounding areas (Milwaukee, Green Bay: relocate, travel, job)

[HappyToGo]

Hello...
My family and I are looking to make a move to WI and I stumbled across this board and have found some great info already so I thought I would post a few questions myself. We have spent a few days looking at Madison and loved the area, but the cost of living is much higher than what we are used to. Janesville is another area that we are considering, but haven't spent anytime there yet. Any general info you have would be great.

First a little background... I grew up in Eau Claire, WI with family still living northern part of WI. My husband is also a mid-westrener, he grew up in IL. We met in California in high school and lived there for 10 years. After my husband and I married he accepted a job promotion that moved us to IL where we currently live. We now have a 10 yr old son and live very comfortably in IL.

On to my questions...*smile*

We are looking for a community that has great schools...

Low crime rate...

As for population I would like something around 5,000- 10,000 or at least something that has decent shopping...

Good housing market as we could relocate again in less than 5 years...

How are some of the smaller communities like; Stoughton, Mount Horeb, Watertown, and Johnson Creek for accepting "outsiders"...

My husband will need to travel as far North as Green Bay, as far West as Monroe and almost over to Milwaukee...also he will spend a great deal of time around Madison...

I know that I am asking for a lot of info, but if anyone could give me a little advice I would be very greatful. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say about some of the communities.

Thanks,
Happy To Go

[kmccarty06]

Hello there,
I am a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I grew up and spent all of my life in the Janesville area. I actually lived in a small town of 5,000 called Milton. It is about 8 miles from Janesville and around a 35 minute drive to Madison. From experience, I know that Milton has an excellent school system. In fact, I have known many people who have moved to the Milton School District just to attend their schools. They have excellent extra-curriculars and city-wide sports. There is city league soccer, football, wrestling, swimming, etc. Its a nice and involved community. There's is no other place that I would have wanted to grow up. I would highly suggest looking into Milton/Janesville area. Janesville has just about every store or restaurant you can think of and is a rapidly growing city without the chaos of large metropolitan areas such as Madison/Milwaukee. Hope all goes well and if you have any questions feel free to contact me at kmccarty@wisc.edu

[HappyToGo]

Thanks for the info...

This may sound like a silly question, but on one of the searches I did I saw that Milton had a Hazardous Waste Site? Do you know anything about that. I am sure at some point in my life I have probably lived in a town with a waste area and never knew it, but I wondered if you might know what that map might have been referencing.

As for shopping does Janesvile have a mall and what major stores are in the mall. (I am not a huge shopper, but when I need to go shopping I HATE to spend a whole day driving to a big city to get to a Macy's or ect.)

Another question about Milton... Since it is a small town is it fairly open to "outsiders" I have lived in small towns where if you were not born and raised there, good luck ever getting into a cirlce of friends. Is Milton a growing town? New housing developments?

Thanks in advance for anymore and all the info you have already posted!

~Happy To Go

[politikally]

Your post just screams Edgerton, WI to me I only say that because I have family there and they really seem to love it there. It just reminded me of your post

It's the right size, location, low crime, good schools, etc....


Look into it!

[HappyToGo]

Thanks Politikally....I will check it out ASAP...I may have some more questions for you then...thanks again!
~Happy To Go