Question. West Bloomington or Eden Prairie. Old homes or New Homes (Minnetonka: sale, new house)

[folasanmi]

hi all,

We are trying to decide between living in West Bloomington and living in Eden Prairie. We have found 2 private schools of equal desire, one in each location and we want to live within 5 minutes of the school of choice.
Please share your thoughts on pros/cons for the two cities.

Also, looks like Bloomington has so many older houses. Is that a disadvantage in MN? At what age does the house resale value come into question due to age?

Coming from the South, most people will consider a house built before 1990 too old. I see that wont be true for MN. What is the age range of the house that an average young family will like to buy?

PS: we've been told to avoid East Bloomington!

TIA y'all (the southern way - for the few weeks of the South left in us )

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by folasanmi

hi all,

We are trying to decide between living in West Bloomington and living in Eden Prairie. We have found 2 private schools of equal desire, one in each location and we want to live within 5 minutes of the school of choice.
Please share your thoughts on pros/cons for the two cities.

Also, looks like Bloomington has so many older houses. Is that a disadvantage in MN? At what age does the house resale value come into question due to age?

Coming from the South, most people will consider a house built before 1990 too old. I see that wont be true for MN. What is the age range of the house that an average young family will like to buy?

PS: we've been told to avoid East Bloomington!

TIA y'all (the southern way - for the few weeks of the South left in us )

Few things to consider about homes in the north.

1. No termites
2. Construction standards are quite different for climate
3. Most homes have basements, many of them are finished.
4. Construction is more expensive in MN than other places



I recently sold a house built in 1924 and bought a brand new house. They are both great homes.

What I like about the old house
1. Character and craftmanship. Hard to find that in new construction. Builtins, crown molding, only the finest grades of wood were selected.
2. Equity opportunity. I did a lot of updates myself and it paid off at sale time.

What I like about the new house
1. More open floor plan
2. More energy efficent
3. Warranty
4. Everything is new and I know the history.

East Bloomington will be older stock than West Bloomington. Eden Praire will be fairly new construction in many cases less than 10 years old.

[Minnehahapolitan]

I am a bigger fan of west Bloomington because it is a more central location within the metro and because it feels less ticky-tacky than Eden Prairie. Lots of trees, two lane roads, et cetera. In my experience, houses from the 1960s (to a lesser extent the 1970s) are better built than newer houses and don't have the archaic floor plans of truly old houses.
Eden Prairie gets a bigger reputation than it deserves from the million dollar-subdivisions (Bearpath), but most houses there are pretty average among suburban areas here and wouldn't be statistically more desirable than a house in Bloomington or Minnetonka. It isn't the brand-new suburb that it was a few years back, some of those houses are upwards of 30 years old now too. Since Eden Prairie is newer relative to Bloomington, it is likely to have a larger proportion of families.
P.S. -- I don't think east Bloomington needs to be avoided, but it was developed in the 1950s and has fewer young families and less prestigious schools.

[folasanmi]

Thanks a lot! Energy efficiency may be a concern because of the cold. Approximately what year did energy efficient buildings start in MN? Is there generally a way to make older houses better efficient without too much cost? Please pardon my naivety.

TIA!

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by folasanmi

Thanks a lot! Energy efficiency may be a concern because of the cold. Approximately what year did energy efficient buildings start in MN? Is there generally a way to make older houses better efficient without too much cost? Please pardon my naivety.

TIA!

Energy efficiency has always been a concern what it really comes down to is how well it has been maintained. Have the previous owners kept adding insulation, put in new windows if needed, etc. Our old house was a 1940 build and was considerably more energy efficient then our 12 year old house now. Plaster walls have a great advantage over drywall. The best thing to do is make sure you get a good inspection done and make sure they investigate the insulation in the house. You can also check to see what their heat and electric bills have been running. If you do that for several homes you will get an idea of what is high/low/average for the area-which varies based on which electric/gas company services that area.