Edina neighborhoods, school, relocating with kids (Minneapolis, Hills: crime, affordable houses, YMCA)

[gopherviking]

We are considering a move to Minneapolis from an inner-ring suburb of Chicago. I grew up in MN, still have family and friends there. While we love our suburb in Chicago, it's liberal, close to the city, wonderful block parties, active parent community, awesome farmer's market, but the crime here is bad, traffic is awful and the state's finances are a disaster and while I don't mind paying taxes we pay over $10k year proerty tax for a 1800sf house. We have 2 kids, ages 10 and 8 and my primary concern is how they will be accepted in a new school. Growing up, Edina had the rep of being a bit snooty, and it has been mentioned a bit in the forums here as well, but the outstanding academics and relative affordability (compared to Chicago) make it attractive. Our budget is $450k and we would like a 4bd/2ba home at least 2000 sqft. We would like a neighborhood that has families with kids, block parties, restaurants/stores, YMCA or gym within a reasonable distance, walking distance preferred, but may be out of budget. Morningside looks nice, but not sure we can afford it. Looks like East of 100 is where we want to be. Does anyone have any thoughts about relocating to Edina with kids and recommendations on other Edina neighborhoods?

[rzzzz]

out of curiosity, what do you for a living?

[gopherviking]

Work from home it IT.

[rzzzz]

Cool, thanks. so do I but I'm moving TO chicago to make more money.

I don't think you can afford Morningside but maybe there is something near the 50th and France area. Depends on if you are looking for the "village" part of Edina, which is Morningside and 50th/France or the "suburb" part of edina, which is the rest of it.

[BillWallace]

There are currently 21 homes in the Edina School district that have 4+ bedrooms and are priced under $500k.

None of them are in Morningside.

All of them are within a 1.25 mile circle of the intersection of Hwy 100 and Crosstown (Hwy 62). 6 of these are north of 62 and east of 100.

The least expensive 4+ bedroom house in Morningside is $749k. There is 1 - 3 bedroom home there for $500k and a couple others between $650-700k.

You can read more about Edina Neighborhoods here - City of Edina

I'm sure your kids would do well - as you say, it's one of the premier school districts in the state.

Hope that helps

[gopherviking]

Thanks. The "village" type interests us more, at least for now. The other parts do have nice and very affordable houses.
A 3bd would work if there is space for an office somewhere...
I have been looking at the listings, but it's a bit hard to discern if any of the ones are close to anything like restaurants, shops, gyms, although I have been looking on google maps too. One is close to schools which is nice, as we walk to school now and I enjoy that aspect.
Thanks for the link. Are there any other local Edina discussion forums I could tap into?

[rzzzz]

Once you get out of Morningside and the area near 50th and France it's more like a typical midwestern 1960s suburb. Theoretically you could walk places but there are no sidewalks. The high school is in a cul de sac area and is the kind of high school where people drive their kids even if the house is only 5 minutes away. The more village-y section is actually pretty small.

[gopherviking]

Thanks good to know. We really need to figure out whether to up the budget or accept that we would need to drive everywhere, which would be ok, if we can find a great family friendly block.

[rzzzz]

I used to live in the most "walkable" area of Minneapolis and I still drove everywhere so I think driving is unavoidable in the metro area. Basically to get your kids to activities, school, and get them fed you will need to drive. All of Edina is family friendly. Although, like a lot of the wealthier neighborhoods it skews older with most residents being over age 45 and probably 25% being over 60.

[uptown_urbanist]

Agree that Edina can skew older; pick your block carefully if you're moving there with the idea that you want lots of kids in the immediate area.

You may wish to also extend your search into some of the adjacent neighborhoods in Minneapolis; you'd get good schools and neighborhoods like Armatage are overflowing with kids (as is Linden Hills, but not sure if you can find something that size at that budget there). Check out Fulton, too.

I'm sure the kids will be accepted just fine in the new school wherever they end up.