Moving to Minn - confused about commute (Minneapolis, St. Paul: real estate, foreclosure)

[tfranklin]

I agree with Ben Around. Just over the river from Mlps, Merriam Park, Highland Park, etc. Both Mlps and St Paul have open enrollment. You have a lot of options for schools. Rents tend to be lower in St Paul. I used to live Merriam Park area and work downtown Mlps. It was a 10 minute commute or less.

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by StilltheSame

Thanks for all the insightful and helpful information. For clarification - we would like to put the kids in public school, so if that changes our choice of neighborhoods let me know. Also, I noticed that many on these boards emphasize the desirability of south Minneapolis and the western areas more so than the northern areas. However we are open to any great neighborhoods that will meet our needs. Thank you all for your assistance - we cant wait to join the Twin Cities!

It is difficult to put a bunch of opinions in perspective and figure out what will or will not work for yourself. There are quite a few great areas to choose from and it will be difficult to come up with a list of criteria where you find the perfect location. I think it is a series of trade offs.

SW Minneapolis is great, has some good schools, but on the other hand it is expensive, and not as convient to downtown as other areas mentioned.

It is also true that St. Paul and other suburbs can be considered as they are going to be similar in commute times.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by Clifford63

It is difficult to put a bunch of opinions in perspective and figure out what will or will not work for yourself. There are quite a few great areas to choose from and it will be difficult to come up with a list of criteria where you find the perfect location. I think it is a series of trade offs.

SW Minneapolis is great, has some good schools, but on the other hand it is expensive, and not as convient to downtown as other areas mentioned.

It is also true that St. Paul and other suburbs can be considered as they are going to be similar in commute times.

OTHER SUBURBS? How dare you Sir!

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by Ben Around

OTHER SUBURBS? How dare you Sir!

Whoops. Did not really mean it that way, but said it that way.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Ben Around

OTHER SUBURBS? How dare you Sir!

It's not so bad. At least St. Paul is a first-tier suburb. Wisconsin, for example, is really only a distant suburb of St. Paul, so it's considerably worse off. And Iowa is where our rivers flow. 'Nuff said.

[moonwaxing]

Originally Posted by StilltheSame

Thanks for all the insightful and helpful information. For clarification - we would like to put the kids in public school, so if that changes our choice of neighborhoods let me know. Also, I noticed that many on these boards emphasize the desirability of south Minneapolis and the western areas more so than the northern areas. However we are open to any great neighborhoods that will meet our needs. Thank you all for your assistance - we cant wait to join the Twin Cities!

Southwest Minneapolis has an easy commute to downtown Minneapolis. That's where I live, and I love it. I used to work downtown. 35W provides a fast commute when the weather is decent. Lyndale and Nicollet Aves provide alternatives when the snow is bad. My husband works at the airport and has an easy commute there.

Check Kenny and Armatage and Windom neighborhoods for better prices than Linden Hills and others that are a little closer to downtown.

North Minneapolis has a lot of crime, and I couldn't tell you which parts to avoid. SW has less crime than North or than South. SW is easy drive to downtown, businesses in Edina and Richfield and Bloomington, Mall of America, airport. It's easy to get just about anywhere.

My kindergartener is in Mpls schools. The schools are good for mainstream kids and special ed kids. Probably not as good for advanced kids. However, we have open enrollment right now, so you can pretty much choose your school--and you have charter and magnet schools as options, too. The choices are almost overwhelming.

Google the Southwest Journal. Also check neighborhood Web sites. If no where else, check the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation for neighborhood names--they each have a community center.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by moonwaxing

Southwest Minneapolis has an easy commute to downtown Minneapolis. That's where I live, and I love it. I used to work downtown. 35W provides a fast commute when the weather is decent. Lyndale and Nicollet Aves provide alternatives when the snow is bad. My husband works at the airport and has an easy commute there.

Check Kenny and Armatage and Windom neighborhoods for better prices than Linden Hills and others that are a little closer to downtown.

The more I read posts on this forum, the more I think that A LOT of people that live in Southwest work in marketing. Also, when has 35W ever provided a fast commute?

Originally Posted by moonwaxing

North Minneapolis has a lot of crime, and I couldn't tell you which parts to avoid.

The old saying "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" comes to mind, especially considering your admission that you are not familiar with the area.

Originally Posted by moonwaxing

Google the Southwest Journal. Also check neighborhood Web sites. If no where else, check the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation for neighborhood names--they each have a community center.

Might be true in SW where the resources flow abundantly, but this actually isn't true for most individual neighborhoods. Note to OP - if you're on a budget (that's not considered affluent/ upper income that is), then SW is going to be a stretch.

[StilltheSame]

Camden,

My request for information on the southern areas of Minneapolis has been based upon my research on this site, but I must admit it does seem as if the Northern areas are discussed negatively - perhaps you can note some areas that I should consider. I want to keep an open mind and be cost conscious. Thanks for everyone's help.

Also, is it feasible to have a family in the downtown area or should I be concentrating on surrounding communities. It seems a basement would be needed for the kids - even in a townhouse - because of the weather during the winter.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by StilltheSame

Camden,

My request for information on the southern areas of Minneapolis has been based upon my research on this site, but I must admit it does seem as if the Northern areas are discussed negatively - perhaps you can note some areas that I should consider. I want to keep an open mind and be cost conscious. Thanks for everyone's help.

Also, is it feasible to have a family in the downtown area or should I be concentrating on surrounding communities. It seems a basement would be needed for the kids - even in a townhouse - because of the weather during the winter.

StilltheSame,

Regarding basements, not sure why this would be needed during the winter for kids - as a play area because they can't go outside? And I would think that 95% of townhomes and houses up here have basements, but could be wrong on townhouses.

Also, I just reread your original post (I think I was getting yours mixed up with someone else's) and saw that you could pay up to $2000, in which case you will have a lot of options.

I think it is wise to keep an open mind - people not familiar with the area tend to have tunnel vision, largely based on the recommendations you see on this board, and too often overlook other great areas where they may otherwise have been able to get a much better home for less money. Southwest is obviously a very safe recommendation - upper-crust area with lots of families, very safe neighborhoods, parks/ lakes, etc. - but I wouldn't think that it's for everyone so to speak - in my experience, upper crust areas tend to come with a lot of upper crust attitudes which isn't where my wife and I would really want to be.

If you want to expand your range and see what else might be out there in perfectly nice but more affordable areas, you have a lot of options - there are areas in South Minneapolis like people have mentioned where you can probably find some nice homes for rent in great areas. In the Northern/ Northwestern areas, there are some great areas to be found, but judging by the sound of your post, I think that some of the areas that might appeal to you are also areas that tend to be 90-95% single family homeowners, and the rentals that are available tend to be in small apartment buildings scattered here and there. This is the case in Victory neighborhood - from what I could tell there was only 2-3 houses for rent in the neighborhood, all of which didn't sound like they met your requirements. But you could keep your eye on this neighborhood, there seem to be more and more younger families moving here all the time. Also, I would expand your search to places like Robbinsdale and Golden Valley - both are extremely convenient to downtown, I believe have a pretty fair amount of young families around (although I've heard mixed reports on this w/ Robbinsdale), and have some really nice neighborhood areas. For instance, this house would be just several blocks from my own on the other/ Robbinsdale side of Victory Memorial Parkway sandwiched between the parkway and Crystal Lake- so there would be lots of walking/ biking trails with nice scenery all around you:
Updated 3BD/3BA House
Other possibilities:
Lake Front Living - New Construction - 2200 SqFt
Spacious Cape Cod style home with tranquil views of Crystal Lake (street address seems wrong on this - I believe this is in Robbisndale)
2 Bath Single Family Home

As for schools, I'm definitely not an expert on that, but like others have said - due to open enrollment you can for the most part pick and choose around here. Good luck-

[DaPerpKazoo]

Camden, I know it's unfair for people t say bad things about the north side when they mostly don't know what they're talkng about. I don't make judgements about neighborhoods I hardly know. I know you get angry when you see someone talk about crime on the north side sweepingly, and your anger is justified, but don't you see that you're doing the same thing- making sweeping judgements? Clearly you either know nothing about SW or you are choosing to ignore that which you do know and replacing it with something else. Obviously it is unfair to say that the northside is filled with crime; it's also clearly misleading to say that SW is all "upper crust". Sure, Linden Hills, East Harriet, Tangletown and Cedar-Isles-Dean might be, but what about the rest of the area? What about Whittier, Lyndale, Kingfield, Steven's Square, Lowry Hill East?

Saying southwest is all upper crust with a ****ty upper crust attitude is just as wrong and blanket as saying that the north side is full of crime.


BTW, 35w from 36th to downtown is very fast, almost no traffic ever.