Moving from Houston to Minnesota this summer (Minneapolis, St. Paul: homes, neighborhood)

[cmboykin]

Hi,

My husband just got a job at St. Olaf College, so we will be moving from Houston to Minnesota sometime in July. We are trying to decide whether we should live closer to Northfield or stay in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. We like the tc area a lot, and the cultural opportunities.

We are an African American couple, no kids. We do not mind being in a majority white area, but would prefer not to be the only minorities in a town or neighborhood. We are looking to spend a max. $250,000 on housing. Would the suburb communites like Apple Valley to Northfield be very isolating, in term of diversity?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by cmboykin

Hi,

My husband just got a job at St. Olaf College, so we will be moving from Houston to Minnesota sometime in July. We are trying to decide whether we should live closer to Northfield or stay in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. We like the tc area a lot, and the cultural opportunities.

We are an African American couple, no kids. We do not mind being in a majority white area, but would prefer not to be the only minorities in a town or neighborhood. We are looking to spend a max. $250,000 on housing. Would the suburb communites like Apple Valley to Northfield be very isolating, in term of diversity?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

According to City Data (not sure exactly how accurate this is), Northfield is just slightly more diverse (white non-Hispanic population 89.4%) than Apple Valley (white non-Hispanic population 90.9%), although Apple Valley would of course be closer to MSP for you. If you go the opposite direction (away from the cities), Faribault is a lot closer to Northfield and is 85% white non-Hispanic population - I would guess this is largely due to the manufacturing/ meat-packing industry that is there which lures a lot of immigrant workers to the area. Faribault would be the most blue-collar of the bunch, so although more diverse, it likely would be less liberal and possibly have more tension than the other two cities. Apple Valley primarily seems to be a lot of new cookie cutter developments, Lakeville would be similar but just a tad closer/ more convenient to get to Northfield. I would assume 250K can get you into most areas these days. If you prefer living in a neighborhood and/or home with character (e.g. older homes, historical value, little shops that aren't chains, etc.) vs. suburban sprawl, living in Northfield would be the way to go IMO. I would also assume (by virtue of being home to two liberal arts colleges) that Northfield would be the most liberal of the bunch as well but couldn't say for certain.

[golfgal]

I would say that having spent much time in both Apple Valley and Northfield that the population in Apple Valley is significantly more diverse however, with Carleton and somewhat St. Olaf, Northfield will have more diversity in the 'visting' population of the schools be it students or faculty. Also, with two colleges in town the opportunities for arts and culture are unlimited. Also, why commute 30-45 minutes to Northfield from Apple Valley or the Twin Cities, especially in the winter.

I would NOT recommend Faribault.

Your housing dollar will also go farther in Northfield then it will in any of the suburbs.

[cmboykin]

Thank you for the suggestions. We are really looking forward to this move.

[BJB817]

In your situation, I'd have to go with Northfield. While lily-white for the most part, it's overall white collar and liberal minded. When I worked for the City years back, they even had a "Human Rights Commission". Not only that, but it has a great downtown, where AV is pretty much your cookie cutter suburb. The final kicker is that, while housing costs anywhere remotely close to the Twin Cities will be quite steep compared to Houston, Northfield will overall be cheaper than AV.

The only drawback to Northfield is that a pretty significant heroin problem emerged there in the past few years. You can find some newspaper articles about it online.

As for Faribault, sadly I'd have to agree with the above assessments. We lived there for 9 years before moving to TX (we went the other way ) and while not a horrible place to live, I don't know that I'd live there again. Yes, the diversity is mainly because of the immigrant labor at several factories. The majority of the immigrants are Mexican, Somolian and Sudanese, I'd say in that order. Yes, there has been some tension. And yes, I can attest to the fact it's more your blue collar, beer swillin' type of place.

Housing is alot cheaper there though.

[uptown_urbanist]

I'd strongly vote for Northfield. Apple Valley or one of the other 'burbs would be extremely boring and possibly isolating. Better off to live in a nice college town with all that offers, or alternatively, to do a longer commute and live in Minneapolis proper (although, as someone else pointed out, that drive would be pretty miserable in the winter). I'm white, and even I notice just how overwhelmingly blindingly white the outer suburbs can be. I think you'll find Northfield to be both more culturally diverse as well as simply more interesting overall.