Where to look for home rentals? Rental prices high? (Milwaukee: spring break, real estate)

[momtoax2]

My family is moving to Milwaukee at the end of May. We currently live in Indianapolis (NW suburb) and my husband is being transferred. We will be visiting during my chidren's spring break the first week of April to get a feel for suburbs and areas to look for housing. I've been looking and think we're looking more towards the west of the city, tosa, wakesha, pewaukee, west allis, brookfield, etc. Also not against Mukwonago, Muskego. Seems the south is the part we need to stay clear from and the actual city from all my research. We have two small children (5 and 6) so schools are huge priority. My problem is I don't see much housing for rent....any ideas? I'm really not a fan of shared living spaces (apartments, condo, townhome, duplex) - we're a loud family. We currently rent a house that is 5 bedrooms, LR, FR, DR, Kit, loft and 2600 sq ft and only pay $1250 rent. From what I am finding to find something even close to what we have now is going to be AT LEAST double ir not more for rent in WI! So I've come to my senses and now realize we will be down sizing for sure, but we still need at least a 3 bed, 2 bath HOME in a nice subdivision, good schools, etc. I couldn't imagine going from 2600 sq ft to 1200sq ft...and I'm starting to freak out a little. Any help would be appreciated. My husband will be working at MKE and I'm in healthcare when I do find a job if that helps on location. Thanks for any help that is offered. The unknown is so stressful.

[Jesse276]

I'm usually not a proponent of living on the south side, but I think you're overlooking a bunch of places that would make you feel at home. There really aren't any bad suburban school districts... it's more a continuum of good to great. The south side doesn't have as much prestige and generally is more blue collar but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you're looking for decent neighbors, chain shopping, and relatively safe, family friendly neighborhoods... you'll feel at home in the south suburbs.

[northbound74]

Not sure why the south side is so bad Greendale (we adore it), Franklin, Hales Corners... all very nice places. Franklin has the most newer stuff to choose from.
Some of the best rentals often aren't listed anywhere online. You just have to drive around and look.

But anyway, yeah, Milwaukee is oddly expensive for a midwestern town. Rent is high, real estate is high, certain taxes are downright ungodly, even Chinese and Mexican food are double here to what I've paid elsewhere in restaurants. There really isn't a whole lot of free stuff for families to do other than go to the beach in the summer.
On the flip side, milk is cheap and utilities are reasonable (doesn't make up for the other expenses of course). There is no personal property tax on cars which is nice, but tags and titles are pricey.

All that aside, Milwaukee is a really cool place, but there are some quirks to get used to. We've found that the downsizing was well worth it.

[Milwaukee City]

You can also contact a realtor and they have services where they help you find home rentals. I have found more home rentals on JSONLINE.COM and Craigslist. The South Side is not all or mostly chain shopping as previously stated, I think you will find plenty of ma and pa type stores around. You will find a lot of ethnic food stores and restaurants as well. No need to avoid the city as a whole Milwaukee is reasonable safe and on the safer side for cities it's size. For the south side I would think the best luck at home rental would be anything from Oklahoma and South and areas of BayView.

[Packersngolf]

We lived in Waukesha in a nice, but smaller 2 bedroom. Rent there was over $1,000 a month. I can't imagine finding anything affordable to rent in Waukesha County; there you'll pay a premium to rent a home. Can you buy a condo, because at least then you can have a tax write off.

[lolablitz]

My husband is a City of Milwaukee firefighter and we also have two young kids so schools are a HUGE deal to us. IF we could live outside of Milwaukee (we can't because he's a city FF) we would in a heartbeat because the public schools in the city are bad (some good grade schools, horrible middle schools and high schools). So IF we could move, we would move to Greendale in a hearbeat. Their schools beat out Shorewood, Whitefish Bay and every other wealthy district in the state consistently.

Also - we lived in Shorewood before DH became a FF. It's a nice neighborhood and close to the city. But DH couldn't stand the pretentiousness of the residents and much prefers the down-to-earth southsiders. And I honestly can't say I miss Shorewood.

We rented a house in Bay View before we bought our house. It was small - 1000 sq ft and we paid $950 a month for rent. We found it after I posted an ad in the Housing Wanted section of Craigslist and a guy who was desperately trying to sell his house contacted me in a day. It's worth a shot to post and ad or call a realtor as previous posters suggested. There are TONS of people trying to sell houses who are stuck right now and would gladly rent to the right family.

[barajaj]

your going to be in for a rude surprise, a decent 5 bedroom in the city will be $1500 at the least. and for the suburbs, i'm gussing a home like that the price range will skyrocket. I say you look into bayview/st.francis/oak creek/cudahay/south milwaukee area.

[Engineer_Guy]

Definitely look in Oak Creek. I lived there for a year with my GF however we are moving closer to the city because she has a new job. There are lots of rentals that are much cheaper than most other suburbs. There are good schools, ad it's very family oriented area.

Look into Mequon as well. It's one of the few Milwaukee suburbs where you will find truly large houses with large yards. Prices are usually reasonable due to being further away from the city.

You might also want to look in Glendale though you may be harder pressed to find large houses in the area and yards will be smaller.