Best Affordable Suburbs 2009 - Pewaukee (Milwaukee, Whitefish Bay: new house, safe area, good schools)

[almost3am]

Hey, I just saw this link were Business Week named Pewaukee the best affordable suburb...in the US. The general methodology is included right before the rankings. Yes, all WI weather haters, this was also included: "We penalized places with bad weather, a lack of racial diversity, high divorce rates, and few children."

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate...e-Suburbs-2009

[EnjoyEP]

I was just out in Pewaukee this week and will extremely likely be spending quite a bit more time there professionally coming up for the next months ahead.

What a great town. I know when my wife and I were first married, we often went to Pewaukee Lake in the summer as the lake and beach are very nice and sometimes a more attractive "beach" option to Lake Michigan (although that has been changing quite a bit for the better in MKE too). Again being out there recently, I was reminded what a nice town Pewaukee is and how scenic it is there.

Having said that...

I am surprised it placed so well on this list, just because of the *affordable* moniker. With a median home price of what, $270K, maybe I am just dirt poor, but $270K for a median home price doesn't exactly strike me as extremely *affordable*...I wouldn't say it is more relatively UN-affordable either (eg: it isn't River Hills or Whitefish Bay...but when I think of Pewaukee "good value" doesn't hop into my mind.

I guess this is the same for their #2 town in Washington where the median home price is just shy of $400K...you'd better have a family income of north of $150K to find a $400K house terribly *affordable*.

Yet, I do certainly think Pewaukee is a really, really nice community.

[almost3am]

Yeah, I totally understand that. We looked at Pewaukee when we moved back here 4-5 years ago, but ended up in Sussex, mainly for affordability. In the end I ranked the schools as a wash and my wife wanted a new house and land was about 1/2 the price in Sussex (maybe a 5 minute drive from where we were looking in Pewaukee). We frequently go down to the Pewaukee Lake area anyway and hit the Capitol Dr stores often, too. Although, you can get a older house walking distance to the lake for a relatively good price in Pewaukee. I think it's a great town.

[Ron Burgundy]

Originally Posted by almost3am

Hey, I just saw this link were Business Week named Pewaukee the best affordable suburb...in the US. The general methodology is included right before the rankings. Yes, all WI weather haters, this was also included: "We penalized places with bad weather, a lack of racial diversity, high divorce rates, and few children."

Nothing against Pewaukee, but this ranking is a total joke. It's not affordable (relative to the median Wisconsin household income of around $50K), it's 96.5% white so there goes the diversity aspect, and let's face it --- the weather in Wisconsin generally sucks 4-6 months of the year.

As usual, you can take these and every other attempt at ranking communities with a huge grain of salt. As long as society still has differing opinions on what they do and don't want with regards to their area of living, there never will be any quantifiable universal tenets of living to base the rankings on. I understand why the publications try to do so (web hits == $$$), but consumers should never be valuing these rankings above their own judgments.

None of this means Pewaukee isn't a nice enough community though. It's just not for me, money-wise and culture-wise.

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by Ron Burgundy

Nothing against Pewaukee, but this ranking is a total joke. It's not affordable (relative to the median Wisconsin household income of around $50K), it's 96.5% white so there goes the diversity aspect, and let's face it --- the weather in Wisconsin generally sucks 4-6 months of the year.

Um, yeah, they address median income in the paragraph explaining the rankings..."median family incomes of $51,000 to $120,000". Obviously, the rankings are for a subset of people, as we all know that all people aren't the same--otherwise every city would look like every other city and we would all live in one latitude so we could all have the same weather. Basically, these rankings are for people that make over the median income, want a safe area that has lots of kids, is relatively close to a metro area, has good schools, etc. It is all explained in the weightings.

As an aside, I personally believe WI weather sucks for only 3 months a year (but I only dislike 2 months, as the beginning of the suckiness is actually fun and a change).

[Ron Burgundy]

Originally Posted by almost3am

Um, yeah, they address median income in the paragraph explaining the rankings..."median family incomes of $51,000 to $120,000". Obviously, the rankings are for a subset of people, as we all know that all people aren't the same--otherwise every city would look like every other city and we would all live in one latitude so we could all have the same weather. Basically, these rankings are for people that make over the median income, want a safe area that has lots of kids, is relatively close to a metro area, has good schools, etc. It is all explained in the weightings.

As an aside, I personally believe WI weather sucks for only 3 months a year (but I only dislike 2 months, as the beginning of the suckiness is actually fun and a change).

I read their intro. It ranks affordability as the heaviest factor. I realize that affordability is a relative term, but my question is does taking in $1K more than the state median income make that big of a difference? It's not "affordable" to the families on the lower quartile of their random threshold without a pretty significant down payment (over 20%) on the median house.

Factor in the lack of diversity and the uncompetitive weather (surely you realize our winters are a bigger deal on the national scale than for us locals) compared to elsewhere and I'm shocked it's #1. Again it's a nice place, but it's as if they chose the places and then tried to put in a rationale post-ranking.

I guess I take issue with the title more than anything. They can call it whatever they want, but they lose credibility with their flimsy attempt at defining "affordable".

[Ron Burgundy]

Just to pile on... people should probably be leery of judgments from a website that thinks Wisconsin looks like this. Never know Milwaukee was so far from the lake. When I'm in Veterans Park, it really seems like the water is right there...

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by Ron Burgundy

I realize that affordability is a relative term, but my question is does taking in $1K more than the state median income make that big of a difference? It's not "affordable" to the families on the lower quartile of their random threshold without a pretty significant down payment (over 20%) on the median house.

Not that I really care about the rankings, I just thought it was interesting, but...I would assume someone that is at the low end of the income range in the model would not be going after a median priced home in a city. I would assume that the closer you are to the bottom of the range (~$51K), the more likely you would be going after lower priced housing in a city...

Anyway, I loved that map, Milwaukee shifted west about 75 miles.