Suggestions (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington: real estate, townhouse, tech jobs)

[lazy_d]

Hello,
My family and I will be in Minneapolis for a day this August and I was hoping to get some suggestions for an itinerary to see your fair city.

Background
We are considering relocating there and we would like to see what our day to day might be like. Based on feedback we will build the itinerary.

Work.
I am a Computer Programmer so I was wonder what part of town these jobs are typically located in? If asked about Atlanta or Jacksonville I would say for Atlanta: Downtown, Mid-town and Perimeter and for Jacksonville: Deerwood and Downtown.

Live.
Like many we are looking for an established inner ring suburb close to the above areas of work. Good schools, friendly, walkable, near parks and food.

Oh, and price wise between $180,000 and $225,000. (Not sure if this is at all realistic!)

Nirvana would be in biking or transit distance to the work areas.

Thanks very much!

[sfw1979]

We took a bus tour of the twin cities last summer that was pretty neat.

metroConnections | Conference Services, Event Production, Transportation and Tours.

[K-Luv]

I don't know what to tell you if you are only going to be in town for a day. If it is during the last week of August, then the State Fair would be a must.

Work; as a computer programer you can pretty much work anywhere. Downtown Minneapolis is a given, but many of the suburbs have pockets of business parks, plus a good amount of industry is headquartered out in the suburbs.

Live; first ring suburbs....St. Louis Park immediately comes to mind if you absolutely want to live in a suburb, however, there are many decent and great neighborhoods within Minneapolis itself.

$225,000 can find you a home in Minneapolis, but not sure about the suburbs.

[Haver]

Most of the jobs I've had in the industry have been along the 394 and 494 corridor in the western burbs. In your price range I would suggest St Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka. There are other clusters spread out around the Twin Cities, I'm just citing my own experience. One thing you can do is type in "Indian Grocery" in google maps; that usually gives a good representation of where the tech jobs are.

[golfgal]

Your price range for a home is somewhat unrealistic depending on what you want for a home. Since you mention schools, I am guessing you have kids. $225,000 is going to get you a 1000 sq foot 2/3 bedroom, 1940's rambler, maybe, in a maybe ok area but not great.

Your potential job could be anywhere in the metro area. There are jobs all over the cities so it is hard to suggest areas to look into. There are many, many suburbs that have jobs for you where you could live less then 5 miles from your work and be in a nice area, however finding a home in your price range is going to be difficult. Your options may not be limited to an inner ring suburb for work--meaning you won't necessarily be working downtown Minneapolis so an inner-ring suburb could land you farther from your job with no public transport options.

Do you just want to get an overview of the cities when you are here or do you want to 'do' something like go to the Minnesota Zoo, the Science Museum, etc? There is a Star Wars Exhibit at the Science Museum in St. Paul right now if that is something that would interest you.

[lazy_d]

I'm might have gotten the name wrong for the type of neighborhood.

Instead of inner-ring suburb, what neighborhoods are close to the areas of work?

Thanks!

[lazy_d]

Originally Posted by K-Luv

Live; first ring suburbs....St. Louis Park immediately comes to mind if you absolutely want to live in a suburb, however, there are many decent and great neighborhoods within Minneapolis itself.

$225,000 can find you a home in Minneapolis, but not sure about the suburbs.

Awesome, what are some of the decent and great neighborhoods within Minneapolis? That was actually what I was looking for, I mistakenly called them suburbs.

[MNNative]

A very quick real estate search for Hennepin County (but not including Minneapolis proper), min. 3 bedrooms, min. 1000 sq ft priced $175,000 - $225,000 brought out 844 listings.

I think until you can pinpoint where your job might be, you can rest the question of if your budget is reasonable.

[MNNative]

Oh, I just saw you're interested to be IN Minneapolis?!

In that case, the same search specs as before (only for Minneapolis only) results in 264 listings. I'd estimate about 1/3 - 1/2 of that to be in neighborhoods you'd be comfortable living.

[Haver]

Golfgal has high standards for places to live :-) From my own prospecting, your price range will either give you a classic 60's rambler with some updates, in a neighborhood which is good but not in the top 20%, or you'll get a nice but not great townhouse which means while it won't have everything you want you won't be climbing the walls trying to break out of it, either (for example, I toured an 1800 sf end unit townhouse that was 3/2 with den, double garage, and a laundry room that was bigger than some places I've lived, in west Bloomington which has a good school district for $204K). You'll have no problems filling out your "need" list but your "want" list could be a humbling experience if you set your bar at what is shown on the Home & Garden channel.