Moving from Chicago - need help on Milwaukee suburbs with good schools (Brookfield: apartments)

[Schaumburg]

Hello!

We are considering a move from Schaumburg (Chicago's NW suburb) to Milwaukee area. Job will be close to Menomonee Falls. I want to know -

1) What are safe/good neighborhoods in Milwaukee suburbs if we have to buy a new house? We are consideing a price range of approx 400K.
2) What would be good areas for temp housing/apartments till we buy a house?
3) Are there any websites where I can compare school report cards for Milwaukee suburban public schools?
4) How do charter schools work? Are they semi-private schools?


Thanks in advance for any help!

[schools]

Lake Country area is beautiful & the Arrowhead school district is great! Ask you realtor for the school rankings, Arrowhead is usually in the top5.

[code10t]

One option would be Germantown, which is just north of Menomonee Falls. It's a nice, safe area with lots of families, and is fairly reasonably priced by area standards. Their school system is supposed to be pretty good, although it's not one of the top ones in the region. Brookfield and Mequon are very nice too, but those can be a bit more expensive. Mequon schools are excellent, and I believe the Elmbrook system in Brookfield is supposed to be good as well.

As for your question about charter schools, I'm not sure exactly how they work, but I think in the context of the area, they are primarily for students residing in Milwaukee. It allows students to choose a designated private school to attend instead of Milwaukee Public Schools.

[ByetoWI?]

Just a couple good links on charter schools here:

Charter Schools in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Charter School Association - Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.wicharterschools.org/charter.faq.cfm - broken link)

With $400K you will have no problem finding a nice house in an area suburb. A local realtor would be happy to provide you with some more useful information than any of us can provide, in some regards. To me, you biggest problem is that from the Falls to the north and west you have so many good options. Nice homes, nice neighborhoods, and you don't even have to live in a character-less subdivision! Unless you really want to, that is. My personal opinion is, I don't recommend 'higher end' subdivisions to anyone, no matter how much money you have. I think if you have that much money to spend, you should have a home and a surrounding space that is entirely yours, and there are some nice ones to be had near the Falls and just beyond.

[gigi1966]

What are the top schools in the region...you didn't specify?

thanks

[justallex]

Brookfield has a great school system and low taxes!

[Pryme57]

I just posted this on another thread but check out this link http://www.publicpolicyforum.org/pdf...lingPoster.pdf

It has the 2007 school district ranking for SE Wisconsin.

[i4tas]

germantown has great schools... if you decide to live in richfield or colgate (still in germantown school district) you will be a little further out but have more land.