Rochester MN questions. Homes under 300,000 (Winona, Stewartville: real estate, townhouse, job market)

[Positiveone]

Hi all! Can everybody please tell me what the pros & cons are in your opinion of life in Rochester Mn area?

I was curious about Property taxes, Job Market, Public Schools,,Utility prices, cost of living.

Is it possible to find a 3-4 bedroom home these days under 300,000? In a safe area, good school district in Rochester?

Please add anything important I may have missed.

Thank you

Have a great weekend
😊

[Teak]

Have you checked zillow, realtor, or other house buyer websites yet? I am far from Rochester so that is where I would look first.

You might also look at the many small bedroom communities just outside Rochester: Kasson, Dodge Center, Stewartville, Eyota, Pleasant Grove, Potsdam, and etc.

I have a friend who lives in Rochester and LOVES it. The city has nearly everything one needs. No mountains or ocean, however.

[jmcahacker]

Originally Posted by Teak

Have you checked zillow, realtor, or other house buyer websites yet? I am far from Rochester so that is where I would look first.

You might also look at the many small bedroom communities just outside Rochester: Kasson, Dodge Center, Stewartville, Eyota, Pleasant Grove, Potsdam, and etc.

I have a friend who lives in Rochester and LOVES it. The city has nearly everything one needs. No mountains or ocean, however.

Pleasant Grove and Potsdam are not really actual towns anymore. There may be a church and a small cluster of a few houses but not most peoples definition of a town. Stewartville and Kasson are a couple of the higher priced suburbs because they are the closest but very nice. If you're willing to commute 20 to 30 minutes I'd check out Chatfield, Eyota, St. Charles and Dodge Center.

A realtor recommended to me to only look at Realtor.com because the other sites don't update as often and show houses that are no longer on the market. You can certainly find houses under $300,000 but my advice is to visit and see which neighborhoods you'd really like to live in. They run the gamut from brand new cookie cutter to some very run down areas. Real estate listing pictures will NEVER give you a true idea of the neighborhood. My husband and I were looking at homes out of state and the house we had our hearts set on from online pictures turned out to be about 20 feet off of a busy 4 lane highway!

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by Teak

I have a friend who lives in Rochester and LOVES it. The city has nearly everything one needs. No mountains or ocean, however.

No mountains or ocean, but if you head east or south from Rochester there is some amazingly beautiful bluff country that's not far away at all. Lanesboro, Rushford, Winona, La Crosse..... really great scenery that also features big rivers such as the Root and of course the mighty Mississippi. If I lived in Rochester I'd be headed to those spots as often as possible.

[CO_Rider]

My wife and I recently moved back to Rochester. We lived here previously from 1963 to 1993. The size of the city was 40,000 in '63 and 80,000 when we move to Colorado in '93. We have family here and at age 80 thought we should be closer to them. Rochester is now about 120,000 and growing rapidly primarily due to the Mayo Clinic and all the jobs they have to offer. We had a new Townhouse built for us that came in just under $300,000.

However, the town is not at all like what it used to be. More traffic with rude drivers like many large cities. Employees of the Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center, and the many stores are very friendly.
The weather is awful, cloudy most days, rains a lot, extremely cold winters, way too much snow with poor plowing. Also in Tornado country.
We must have been crazy to move back here! I would like to move back to the Grand Junction, Colorado area where we lived before but my wife thinks we are too old to handle another move.

[HighFlyingBird]

Originally Posted by CO_Rider

My wife and I recently moved back to Rochester. We lived here previously from 1963 to 1993. The size of the city was 40,000 in '63 and 80,000 when we move to Colorado in '93. We have family here and at age 80 thought we should be closer to them. Rochester is now about 120,000 and growing rapidly primarily due to the Mayo Clinic and all the jobs they have to offer. We had a new Townhouse built for us that came in just under $300,000.

However, the town is not at all like what it used to be. More traffic with rude drivers like many large cities. Employees of the Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center, and the many stores are very friendly.
The weather is awful, cloudy most days, rains a lot, extremely cold winters, way too much snow with poor plowing. Also in Tornado country.
We must have been crazy to move back here! I would like to move back to the Grand Junction, Colorado area where we lived before but my wife thinks we are too old to handle another move.

I grew up (until 20ish) in a real small town. Then spent 15 years in one of the biggest cities in the US. I love Rochester. It is big enough to have what you need. Its big enough you have a bit of autonomy and space when out working or running errands. But is it small enough not to have the traffic, crime, hustle that a big city has. Everything is 15 minutes away in the area. I love it.

[2x3x29x41]

Originally Posted by CO_Rider

My wife and I recently moved back to Rochester. We lived here previously from 1963 to 1993. The size of the city was 40,000 in '63 and 80,000 when we move to Colorado in '93. We have family here and at age 80 thought we should be closer to them. Rochester is now about 120,000 and growing rapidly primarily due to the Mayo Clinic and all the jobs they have to offer. We had a new Townhouse built for us that came in just under $300,000.

However, the town is not at all like what it used to be. More traffic with rude drivers like many large cities. Employees of the Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center, and the many stores are very friendly.
The weather is awful, cloudy most days, rains a lot, extremely cold winters, way too much snow with poor plowing. Also in Tornado country.

We must have been crazy to move back here! I would like to move back to the Grand Junction, Colorado area where we lived before but my wife thinks we are too old to handle another move.

I'm always a bit mystified that people consider tornadoes in Minnesota as a factor. There has not been a tornado fatality in the state in eight years. As far as I can tell, there have been four tornado fatalities in the last two decades in Minnesota, which makes one's annual odds of being killed by a tornado here somewhere around 25 million to 1. It is true that there were many more fatalities in the past, but given modern advances in radar and alert platforms, the decline in fatalities is to be expected.

Please understand, I am not merely touting Minnesota here. I can well imagine that coming to southern Minnesota from the Western Slope might cause one to want to return to Colorado (a state I consider very appealing, and where I could happily live). It's just that, statistically, tornadoes are inconsequential.