Two 20-somethings relocating to Minneapolis. Where should we live? (St. Paul: apartments, rent)

[messyjesie]

Hello,

My boyfriend and I are relocating from Ohio to Minneapolis in about a month for his job. I'm 23 and he's 26. We're looking for a community that's close to a shopping area, restaurants, bars, etc... but has a clean, suburban feel. We want to live in a townhome or maybe rent a single-family home in a nice neighborhood, spending around $1,200/month.

His job requires us to live specifically in Minneapolis and not St. Paul. We're really excited, but the process is moving fast so we want to know where we should be looking when we get out there because we won't have time to see everything! Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!
Jessica

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by messyjesie

His job requires us to live specifically in Minneapolis and not St. Paul.

That's odd.


Well, if you need to specifically live in Minneapolis then around the Uptown area would probably be what you are looking for. Depending on how much square footage you want, you may need to up your rent by a hondo or two.

[Slig]

You could probably rent a single family home for about that in my neighborhood but it isn't exactly suburban there.

[messyjesie]

Slig, what is your neighborhood? Eagan?

[Slig]

Not anymore, I work in Eagan and was renting there but recently I purchased a home in the city. I live in the Corcoran neighborhood in Minneapolis.

[BarbaraMN]

What does "suburban feel" mean to you? Depending on your perspective, Uptown could feel suburban (since it has single family homes and lots of trees) or urban (because it is densely populated and residential/commercial mix). We moved from downtown Chicago to Lynnhurst and experienced huge culture shock--we felt like we had moved to remote suburbia. Other people find the area to be too crowded. Knowing your perspective will help everyone here make better recommendations.

[messyjesie]

Right now we live on a residential street lined with trees, so I see what you're saying that some would say it's suburban. However if you walk to the end of our street either way, there are shops, restaurants, etc lining the streets. So we walk or bike almost everywhere we go. Plus, we happen to have a garage at our duplex, but most do not, so off-street parking is often the only choice. There are 52,000 people in only 5.5 square miles because of the large number of apartments & duplexes... I find this very crowded.

When we move to Minneapolis, we're looking to get away from this kind of area. We would like to live in a nice neighborhood or a townhome complex where there is a shopping center in driving distance instead of on the same block we live on... where residential is separate from commercial.

Does that make sense? I have heard a lot of great things about Uptown but it does seem that we would be getting ourselves into the same kind of place we currently live in. I don't want to be too far away from a commercial area, I just don't want to be able to see it when i look out my window.

[BlackOut]

IMO, you should look into southwest Minneapolis. There you will be very close to lakes, plenty of shopping (Uptown, 50th and France, the Galleria, Southdale, etc.), transportation (near bus lines, 35W, 62, near MSP International), and downtown Minneapolis. The neighbordhoods are very clean and quiet.

[knke0402]

Why not St. Paul?
Thats ok, St. Paul sucks compared to Minneapolis, just my opinion. If you're my grandma or an old irish couple, St. Paul would be right down your alley.

Why don't you look at St. Louis Park? Hopkins? East Minnetonka

[lalife]

Originally Posted by BlackOut

IMO, you should look into southwest Minneapolis. There you will be very close to lakes, plenty of shopping (Uptown, 50th and France, the Galleria, Southdale, etc.), transportation (near bus lines, 35W, 62, near MSP International), and downtown Minneapolis. The neighbordhoods are very clean and quiet.

I also agree that you would like this area. This would border on Edina ( nice suburb) and Linden Hills ( really nice SW Mpls area). You will LOVE the lakes in the summer.