moving to minneapolis area - need suggestions pleez (St. Paul, Bloomington: cul-de-sac, apartments)

[ag1947]

hi guys,

been transferred, & will be arriving at minneapolis end-Aug/beginning of Sep. currently live in sunnyvale, CA so am already kinda psyched out at the thought of an MN winter..

am seeking inputs on the following:
1. where to live - MONEY magazine says Eden Prairie is #1 currently... and my job will take me all over the place - Minneapolis, St Paul, Bloomington, Richfield, Eden Prairie, Hopkins, Minnetonka etc. am tempted to go for eden prairie, but then would that be a good choice? have no particular preferences, only concerned whether that would be too pricey..
2. cost of living - my own preliminary guesstimate is that it would be a good 20-30% lesser, would be great if I am right. also what are the taxes like?
3. will be getting my car transported... have a hyundai sonata, which is a rear-wheel drive. what would i need to get my car minnesota-winter-ready? would putting chains alone suffice?

would really really appreciate any inputs on the above.

thanx in advance

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by ag1947

hi guys,

been transferred, & will be arriving at minneapolis end-Aug/beginning of Sep. used to live in sunnyvale, CA so am already kinda psyched out at the thought of an MN winter.

am seeking inputs on the following:
1. where to live - MONEY magazine says Eden Prairie is #1 currently... and my job will take me all over the place - Minneapolis, St Paul, Bloomington, Richfield, Eden Prairie, Hopkins, Minnetonka etc. am tempted to go for eden prairie, but then would that be a good choice? have no particular preferences, only concerned whether that would be too pricey..
2. cost of living - my own preliminary guesstimate is that it would be a good 20-30% lesser, would be great if I am right. also what are the taxes like?
3. will be getting my car transported... have a hyundai sonata, which is a rear-wheel drive. what would i need to get my car minnesota-winter-ready? would putting chains alone suffice?

would really really appreciate any inputs on the above.


thanx in advance

1) Totally depends what you're looking for. Commuting from Eden Prairie to some of those places wouldn't be fun, especially St. Paul. If commute time is important to you you may want to live in a more central location to where you'll be commuting to....Hopkins, Edina or SW/Uptown Minneapolis would appear to be more central, for instance. Secondly, what are your living preferences? House, apartment/condo, townhouse, etc. Urban, rural, suburban? What is your price range and are you looking to rent or buy? Renting at first is probably recommended until you get a better feel for the area and have ample time to look around and find the right place.

2) No idea how this would compare to the San Jose area. Providing some background on how much you were paying for housing there would help put things into perspective.

3) I don't know anybody who puts chains on their tires in the Twin Cities metro area anymore. All weather or snow tires should suffice. Rear wheel drive cars do tend to slip more so some people put sandbags in the trunk of their car to improve traction.

[uptown_urbanist]

I agree; it completely depends on what you want in a location. You couldn't pay me enough to live in Eden Prairie, but it's an excellent fit for some people. I wouldn't choose it just on the MONEY magazine thing, though. It's just one option out of many.

I'm not sure about Sunnyvale specifically, but the Twin Cities are a LOT cheaper than many places in CA. It's certainly far, far cheaper than where we lived in California (Los Angeles and San Francisco), and you also don't have the school district issues; in CA it seemed like if you wanted to live in a good school district it drove the cost of a house or a rental up dramatically. That's not the case here.

I don't think cahins on tires are legal here, but could be wrong about that.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist

I don't think cahins on tires are legal here, but could be wrong about that.

Minnesota - Permitted when road conditions (ice and snow) require tire chains. Studded pneumatic tires are not allowed on Minnesota registered vehicles.

per this website: Tire Chain Laws

[ag1947]

thanks. to clarify -
1. I am ok with a little bit more commute, but yeah, too much of commute would certainly be a big turn-off. You're right, it would probably be smarter to stay somewhere more central - Richfield, Edina or St Louis Park.
2. Sunnyvale like other places in the Bay Area was damn expensive - I was paying close to 1200 for a 1 bedroom apartment, which was anyway amongst the cheapest in the area. I am looking to rent certainly, at least for the first couple of yrs. Prefer apartment living, though a townhome in a small community would also be great. I don't have kids, so the school district issue is at least for the time being not relevant.
3, about car tires - food for thought; still unable to make up my mind how to go about it...

[ag1947]

and yeah, I would prefer living in one of the smaller towns rather than in Minneapolis, St Paul or even Bloomington..

[ag1947]

one more clarification - I am hoping that I can restrict my monthly rent (for a 1-bedroom) to below 1000...

[Radical_Car]

Originally Posted by ag1947

one more clarification - I am hoping that I can restrict my monthly rent (for a 1-bedroom) to below 1000...

Under 1000 is easy.

Definitely check out craigslist
also check out sites such as forrent.com and apartmentfinder.com (These sites mainly only list bigger buildings managed by big companies, but thats not really a bad thing and you can get a feel for the prices, though many, many awesome deals won't be found in an apartment magazine/website.

[Minnesota Spring]

Originally Posted by ag1947

and yeah, I would prefer living in one of the smaller towns rather than in Minneapolis, St Paul or even Bloomington..

If your looking for a smaller town atmosphere, Richfield and St. Louis Park would not be much different than Bloomington, South Minneapolis etc. Although Richfield may have less people, it has more of an urban feel than places like Eden Prairie etc. You would have to go pretty far out to find a true small town, thus your commutes would be longer. Places like Chaska, Waconia, Victoria have more of a small town feel with their own downtowns, but have had quite a bit of suburban development around them in recent decades.
Eden Prairie is a typical generic suburb with cul-de-sacs, some expensive neighborhoods and lots of big box stores (Home Depot, Best Buy, Costco, (The mall is pretty nice Sears, Target just to name a few). There are quite a few apartments in the Minnetonka/Hopkins area that may fit what you are looking for, but is also not really small town. I would personally prefer to live in a place like St. Louis Park if I was looking for a convinent location, vs the longer commute for the "small town" feel.
Winters here suck. There is no way to sugar coat it. The snow is nice for a month or so, but it stick around until March and you get tired of the cold and snow real fast. Every year around late november or early december almost all Minnesotants have to learn how to drive in the winter weather again so you would be in the same boat with everyon else. I would not worry about your tires, me and everyone I know dosnt do anything special to them in the winter. Although Winter is pretty bad, the rest of the seasons make up for it. You would probably find our summers to be a little more hot and humid than what you are used to in the Bay Area though.
Hope that helps. Goood luck.

[ag1947]

Thanks - I will probably settle for St Louis Park, unless I get some good offer in Richfield or Edina - the idea is to try & live in as central a place as possible. Eden Prairi, Minnetonka & the like would really be a bit far off, the commutes would get real long.

Thanks once again