Home Hunting Advice in Twin Cities Metro!?

[Isaysos]

You can’t go wrong with either. Both have park and ride options. EP has a nice mall and close to Minnetonka. Eagan has the outlet mall and Lebanon Hills. It’s also very close to the MN Zoo. I live a few blocks from the Eagan border, near Hwy 13. Lots of nice neighborhoods. The home we bought was a bit dated but we budgeted to do some updating with our taste in mind, which had been fun. Generally the areas south and east of 35 E will have newer homes. It’s pretty easy to get into St Paul as well.

[WoodburyWoody]

Originally Posted by mr roboto

EP and Eagan are similar to one another - leafy burbs with chain shopping, great schools/parks etc.

EP has a larger regional mall and a very busy area around it with corporate headquarters.

Eagan is closer to airport/Mall of America and has a huge regional park (Lebanon).

Chan is smaller, with a small ‘downtown’ area (which don’t get it wrong - is still largely dominated by chains but with older housing stock around it). Chanhassen is going to be a bit younger (most residents in their 30s-mid 50s with younger kids). EP and Eagan will likely have a bit more empty-nest boomers. EP has a higher immigrant population than Chan mostly residing in the townhomes/condos around the mall. Chan is building some apartments eat their downtown but is largely WASPY in its demographics.

Chan and EP are closer to the Lake Minnetonka area which has a couple cute smaller towns (Excelsior and Wayzata) and also closer to other larger lakes as well. Hwy 5 can get backed up due to multiple stoplights in Chan and EP themselves.

The SW burbs have rapid bus service and are getting a light rail station in a few years. But the busiest commuting corridor in the Twin Cities is probably in the area too.

Eagan you have to cross a river to get to Minneapolis and that can be a problem in heavy traffic/weather.

Yup. Did that for nine years.

Bridges are pinch points for rush hour traffic on the east and south.

Also, OP, in Minnesota, school districts do NOT align with city or county boundaries, as they do in other parts of the country. For example Eagan is mostly 196, but parts of it are 191 or 197.

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by mr roboto

EP and Eagan are similar to one another - leafy burbs with chain shopping, great schools/parks etc.

EP has a larger regional mall and a very busy area around it with corporate headquarters.

Eagan is closer to airport/Mall of America and has a huge regional park (Lebanon).

Chan is smaller, with a small ‘downtown’ area (which don’t get it wrong - is still largely dominated by chains but with older housing stock around it). Chanhassen is going to be a bit younger (most residents in their 30s-mid 50s with younger kids). EP and Eagan will likely have a bit more empty-nest boomers. EP has a higher immigrant population than Chan mostly residing in the townhomes/condos around the mall. Chan is building some apartments eat their downtown but is largely WASPY in its demographics.

Chan and EP are closer to the Lake Minnetonka area which has a couple cute smaller towns (Excelsior and Wayzata) and also closer to other larger lakes as well. Hwy 5 can get backed up due to multiple stoplights in Chan and EP themselves.

The SW burbs have rapid bus service and are getting a light rail station in a few years. But the busiest commuting corridor in the Twin Cities is probably in the area too.

Eagan you have to cross a river to get to Minneapolis and that can be a problem in heavy traffic/weather.

Yes, the above is accurate. EP and Eagan are fairly similar in nature with few small differences. Chan is a bit more boutique in nature. I never really liked it, having to drive along highway 5 for all the amenities. It's not a bad place, just something about it never felt like home to me?

As for commuting from Eagan (my parents live there, I've done the commute a lot) I find it to be one of the best combination of shorter commute/good schools in the metro. It's 12 miles to St. Paul, 17 to Minneapolis, with tons of different highway options. They also have 3 different bus stations with good, clean, direct service into both downtowns.

[Minntoaz]

Originally Posted by mr roboto

Great point here.

My wife and I live in Eden Prairie, in the older part (homes built in the 1970s-1980s near the High School) and the average home in our neighborhood is like 350-400k. Walkable to a park with a swim beach/splash pad, close to the highway etc.

One of our neighbors down the street lived in a 2 story 4/2 typical 1980s center hall colonial. He made really good money running the sales team for a local company and they bought a 659,000 nearly new house in Chanhassen. Absolutely gorgeous. Major ‘upgrade’.

Wife and kids are begging to move back. Their new neighborhood is mostly wealthy middle aged execs w/kids in HS/college. Not walkable to schools. There’s one neighborhood park w/out a lot of kids.

I’m not making value judgments just putting my perspective in here.

That’s just it. Even if you have the money to buy in a wealthy area, If you have younger kids - you’ll be an outlier. So it’s like what gives? It just so happens that the district with all the young kids also has the low rated schools... at least in my corner of the metro. I could go on a big political tyrant about why that is but instead I’ll just say that I agree with this posters response and it’s something to very heavily consider.

[MnMomma]

I don't think that house value translates to if there are kids around or not. My neighborhood didn't have many kids when we moved in many years ago, but right now there are tons of little kids--and housing values have only gone up (most recent sales on the street have been $600,000+). There are quite a few stay-at-home parents as well as part- and full-time, so there's lots of activity all the time.

Just a few streets over there are literally no kids; so you can't make blanket-statements about areas, instead you have to visit, observe, and ask current residents. I'd also caution about just looking for kid stuff in the yard--I know enough people in suburban developments that picked their areas because of all the kid stuff they saw in yards--but those kids are never home so their kids are lonely.

[4&adog]

I’d also check out St. Anthony and Golden Valley, the section in the Hopkins school district. In addition to Edina, what about SE Minneapolis? They are literally everything on your list but new construction is more limited since these are established locations. There are some new builds on tear downs and some homes that have bee renovated. It’s not like Lakeville though with track after track of huge new homes.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by 4&adog

I’d also check out St. Anthony and Golden Valley, the section in the Hopkins school district. In addition to Edina, what about SE Minneapolis? They are literally everything on your list but new construction is more limited since these are established locations. There are some new builds on tear downs and some homes that have bee renovated. It’s not like Lakeville though with track after track of huge new homes.

Or nearly the number of kids you’d find in a Lakeville.

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by Socialmatt

Thank you to everyone for your perspective. We're 2-3 months from moving, but we're scouring the Edina Realty/Zillow apps like crazy to better understand the market. We're liking a few homes we're finding in the Eden Prairie/Chanhassen/Eagan area that are in the $400k range but have been updated. Our biggest sticking point is an outdated house with really old kitchen/bathrooms. Our current home in Denver is only 4 years old so we've become used to a more modern home.

We found some nice properties in EP and Eagan that were built in the 1980s but have been renovated inside. Both of those have wonderful school districts and that's are most important point for our newborn son. (Denver schools are not good at all)

When we find properties in Minnetonka/Playmouth area near that $700,000 - $725,000 budget in highly desirable neighborhoods they're often very dated with older folks moving out. That leaves no room for many renovations if we maxed out our current budget.

Not to be persistently obnoxious, but I'm going to push Lakeville again based on what you're saying here. You can get much newer construction at a much better price and still have plenty of cash left over for changes/additions/upgrades. 450-500K in Lakeville is going to get you a very nice, spacious, newer home. The neighborhoods may be more cookie cutter than in the older inner ring burbs, but man they're very beautiful/well kept and one of the main things I remember about our time there is all the active folks/kids constantly going up and down the sidewalks, especially during the warmer months. Lakeville is D194, and although I know some people are gung ho on other districts like 196, I'm telling you as someone who also moved here from out of state that the much of the Twin Cities school district argument is splitting hairs, because Minnesota is renowned for their educational system, which is one of the reasons we came here. We're in a more remote, lesser known district now and the schools are still excellent.....and I'm saying that as the parent of 3 special needs kids. The Lakeville high schools also feature some of the top athletic programs in the state if that's something your child(ren) would eventually be interested in.

If 45-50 minutes to commute is ok as you said initially, I'm telling you Lakeville sounds right down your alley because although that sounds about average there were also times I made it downtown or home even faster. Yeah, there might be some days where it's a tad longer due to stuff like weather and traffic, but keep in mind again that some of the old school city folk see a place like Lakeville as the Pluto of the metro solar system and it's really not that far out at all......being only a couple exits south of Bloomington. You can jump on 35 and instantly split to either Minneapolis or St. Paul and also have Cedar Ave. on the east end that provides fast access to many places like MOA, the zoo, the airport, and again both of the cities. It's a really nice, totally convenient setup. Believe me, I've lived in towns like Atlanta, Chicago, DFW and Houston......and even the very worst traffic here is an absolute breeze in comparison

Just to show I'm not a total homer, I will say the one thing Lakeville lacks is a decent downtown/city center area. Theirs is very small and blah, especially in comparison to places like Chaska, Anoka, White Bear Lake and to a more impressive extent, Stillwater. Really the only negative thing I have to say about the town. Otherwise, it sounds just perfect for you......at least IMO. We're way up here now because we didn't have your budget, but if we did we'd likely have stayed in Lakeville or moved to a spot like Chaska for sure.