does White Bear Lake feel like living 'at the lake?"

[Hotfeet]

Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus

I didn't realize I wanted a live-at-the-lake lifestyle until just now!

Haha. If you can get out on the water with a flashy boat or jetski, they might be waving from the shore for a ride.

In any case, the WBL lakeshore homes are a good value if you believe that the lake will recover. Back in the late 80's the lake dropped quite a bit and home values plummeted. Subsequently the lake levels came roaring back and the lakeshore home values followed. Hard to say if history will repeat, but it is still a huge, deep lake compared to other lakes in the TC area even at its current water level, and home values are still at the low end. Lake Minnetonka is also nice but since it is on the other side of the metro area most folks will tend to pick whichever is closer to their job.

[Hotfeet]

OP, what is nice about the WB area is that there are some good restaurants and shopping venues, on top of the fact that WBL is the second largest lake in the metro area (I'm not including Forest Lake). It has a small but pleasant downtown area with many community events. In my mind it is more than a bedroom suburb although most locals do tend to commute for work.

[tjasse]

I checked it out this morning. It's a nice area but not really what I thought of. there aren't very many trees like up north. the downtown is cute but doesn't have much stuff that interests me personally. It also takes a while to get to my office, and that was without any traffic.

[Ghengis]

like someone else mentioned earlier, if you are here now, take a drive up to the Chisago City, Lindstrom, Center City area

[tjasse]

I've concluded that Vadnais Lake/Vadnais Heights is the closest place to the Twin Cities that feels like the Bemidji area.

[Hotfeet]

Originally Posted by tjasse

I've concluded that Vadnais Lake/Vadnais Heights is the closest place to the Twin Cities that feels like the Bemidji area.

Did you check out Birchwood? It's located along the south shore of the lake between WBL and Mahtomedi. It's a small community with older trees, as I reported in another thread. Not too many evergreens like up north, but at least it doesn't feel like a development created out of a flat farmer's field.
Another advantage is that it is Washington County, which has lower taxes than Ramsey's. Also it is close to 694 -- just zip down Century (as long as you don't get entangled in the college traffic between class times). All city residents can use (and park their kayaks) on the city beaches (there are 6) and if you aren't living on lakefront property you can get on a waiting list for dock space.