Good Neighborhood/Good Schools? (Minneapolis, St. Paul: for sale, real estate, apartment)

[Thinner_Me]

My husband is looking at a potential new job in Edina and it looks like this suburb of Minneapolis would be way too expensive for us to live in. Any suggestions of other suburbs which wouldn't involve a commute longer than 20 minutes or so?

We have 2 school-age kids -- one entering middle school, one entering high school -- so would want a good school district.

At first, we would be renting, but we would like to buy a home within the next year or two and would like to stay within the same school district. I understand that Minnesota has Open Enrollment so this might not be a big problem if we ended up finding a home in another district.

From reading and searching a little on this forum, I am very curious about Eagan. Am I correct that depending on where your home is within Eagan, it could fall within 3 different school districts?

Any direction or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

[golfgal]

Eagan is part of 3 different school districts--all of which are good districts. A very tiny part is in the Burnsville district and of the 3 that would be my personal LAST choice. 196 and 199 districts are both excellent.

What activities are your children involved in? That is usually the best way to pick a district in the Twin Cities suburbs because the schools are all so closely matched as far as quality.

[Minnehahapolitan]

I could recommend any suburb in the cities from the request. If you gave us a better idea of the type of suburb you are looking for, what type of home you want and an approx. price range we could be alot more precise in our recommendations.

[Thinner_Me]

For renting a home, we would like to stay under $1700 for at least a 3 BR. My husband enjoys building things, so has many power tools and stuff. It looks like so many of the homes there have a garage and a basement, so that would be great for storage.

My daughters enjoy bike riding, hiking, soccer, and performing in musicals. My older daughter is in chorus at school and my younger one is in orchestra (plays viola) plus chorus.

We currently live in a city of about 10,000. We can shop anywhere within 20 minutes drive, many times right here in our city. We do enjoy living in an older town, homes with character (versus new homes).

My husband has spent many years working on our homes -- very experienced in construction and remodeling. Obviously we could not do this in a rental, but would updating our future home when we do buy. It looks like some areas in the West St. Paul-Mendota Hts. district fall into this category. Would you agree?

So hard to come up with what we plan to spend when buying. The home prices there are higher than we see around here. No idea of our salary at this point either. What would we be looking at in regards to utility bills? I have seen some cost of living numbers that show utilities to be a very high percentage in relation to the national average. What contributes to this?

[Family of five]

If you lived in West St. Paul or Mendota Heights, your husband's commute would be much longer than 20 minutes. I suggest that you focus your search on areas closer to Edina - traffic is pretty thick in the metro, and taking 494 or 62 from West St. Paul would be very slow. Eagan is also on the East side of the metro (along with West St. Paul and Mendota Heights). This metro is quite large and it takes a long, long time to traverse it, particularly from east to west and vice versa. Just something to think about!

[golfgal]

Mendota Heights/West St. Paul is one of the few schools left that still has an orchestra--they have 3 high school orchestras as a matter of fact. I think it would be a good choice for you given that your husband likes to fix up homes and your kids are in activities. When the Crosstown is reconstructed your commute to Edina will be pretty easy. Depending on when you drive now it isn't bad. I can get to Edina from Rosemount in 30 minutes now on the Crosstown if I go at the end of rush hour and that is further away using pretty much the same roads.

[Thinner_Me]

I never realized that there are school districts out there without a good instrumental music program -- bands and orchestras. Our current district offers 3rd graders the opportunity to begin violin or viola. My daughter actually switched to viola (from clarinet) in the 5th grade and loves it! Does this mean there are no middle schools with an orchestra program?

I thought it looked like some older homes in the West St. Paul area but wasn't sure about the commute time to Edina. It sounds like the traffic can be pretty bad depending on which direction you are traveling. Would driving from east to west (West St. Paul to Edina) be going against the heavier traffic, or is this the way most commuters are heading?

Thanks for all of your input!

[Thinner_Me]

Thank you to Golfgal for pointing out something obvious that I never thought to check -- the "extras" available at the schools that my children are involved in currently. After doing some more checking, I have discovered that yes, WSP-MH does have a string program (even in the middle schools). But I am finding it difficult to find homes for rent. We would really prefer to not live in an apartment building. We cannot buy right away, so I'm not sure this suburb is the way to go.

Back to checking out the others I had noticed -- Rosemount/Apple Valley/Eagan and Bloomington. No string program whatsoever at R/AV/E. Bloomington, on the other hand, looks like they have a lot of offerings in the music department, especially in the high schools. I was very pleased to see this! I also know that Bloomington seems to have a supply of rentals and homes for sale.

Any warnings for Bloomington other than steering towards West Bloomington?

[golfgal]

No, R/AV/E does not have strings. Rosemount has a phenomenal band program however. I graduated from Sibley High School and our director is still there. It is a wonderful program. Most schools have band programs but orchestra, not being as popular, has been the victim of many cuts. I am a violin player so it does make me sad to see that happen.

The orchestra program at Sibley is also very involved with the Great Twin Cities Youth Symphony and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as well. I spent 2 weeks in Europe with our high school orchestra too.

I would check with some real estate agents about homes for rent in the WSP area. There are probably several homes on the market where people would be willing to rent, especially to a handyman and then would take their house off the market.

[Thinner_Me]

Thanks for your help. We will hold off doing anything further until we find out if my husband got the job!