Madison's East Side - questions for prospective homebuyer (Middleton, Stoughton: low income, apartment)

[Kibi]

My husband and I just moved to Madison in September and we love it! We're looking to buy a house right now and wanted to check with locals to see what areas we may have overlooked.

At first, we thought we would limit our home search to the west side and Middleton (since we currently rent in Middleton), but we just haven't found the right house or neighborhood yet. We decided to check out the east side yesterday during an open house tour, and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found just driving around. We drove up Stoughton from the beltline to county route BB, then west to Monona Drive and south through Monona.

Specifically, what are your opinions about the Buckeye Rd area (both east and west of Stoughton Rd)? How are the schools over there (both in Madison and Monona)? What are the neighbors/neighborhoods like, especially compared to the west side? Are there any areas we should know about (the good, bad, the ugly, etc.) to help us in our home search?

Thanks for any advice you may be able to provide. We're ready to put our roots down!

[gold*dust1]

Originally Posted by Kibi

My husband and I just moved to Madison in September and we love it! We're looking to buy a house right now and wanted to check with locals to see what areas we may have overlooked.

At first, we thought we would limit our home search to the west side and Middleton (since we currently rent in Middleton), but we just haven't found the right house or neighborhood yet. We decided to check out the east side yesterday during an open house tour, and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found just driving around. We drove up Stoughton from the beltline to county route BB, then west to Monona Drive and south through Monona.

Specifically, what are your opinions about the Buckeye Rd area (both east and west of Stoughton Rd)? How are the schools over there (both in Madison and Monona)? What are the neighbors/neighborhoods like, especially compared to the west side? Are there any areas we should know about (the good, bad, the ugly, etc.) to help us in our home search?

Thanks for any advice you may be able to provide. We're ready to put our roots down!

I lived West of Stoughton Rd. in the Buckeye Rd. area close to the Monona golf course and it had its good and bad. Camden Rd. has a bad reputation for example, as it consists of many old apartment buildings and duplexes, which draws poorer folks and their problems. We personally never experienced any crime the entire time we lived there. Surprisingly it was very quiet considering its proximity to Stoughton Rd. It had a good neighborhood feel imo. I gasped recently when I was driving through the neighborhood to other points and noticed someone had grafittied a garage door as I have *never* seen that before. I actually did see it happen to someones fence once and was quite disturbed by it.

I think the majority of residents are middle age or older with older children if they had any. There were no children living in my immediate area which again helped on the quiet front. The schools (elementary) west aren't ranked the highest as they have many low income students that come in from other areas. Kennedy Elementary has a good ranking with Elvehjem which is east of Stoughton Rd and Buckeye slightly lower. Monona seems to be regarded highly and has a nice pool, skateboard park and library. You can check on their schools by using a site like schooldigger.com.

To sum up the area has good beltline/interstate access, convenient to other areas and close to the lake.