Possible Beloit relocation (Milwaukee, Madison, Janesville: real estate, crime, unemployment)

[missikie]

My husband is considering a position in Beloit. We would be relocating from California. (Crazy, I know). We have a 10 year-old son and would like to consider towns within a 30-45 minute commute to Beloit (in Wisconsin or Illinois). Our current town has a population of approx 30,000 and we really enjoy the community atmosphere. We are also within 10 minutes of a city of 165,000 and within an hour of San Francisco. We are looking for a community with good schools and friendly neighbors. I am worried about the transition for my son and want to feel welcome within the community. We would like to be within 2 hours of a large metropolitan area. We would like to consider areas where the population is 20,000 or more to provide for shopping and dining convenience. Can anyone give us ideas on which areas to explore?

[luebda92]

I realize this reply is really late, but if your still looking into relocating, choose the city of Beloit itself. It's diverse, open, friendly, progressive, and fun. It's a community of 35,000, 20 min from Rockford (200,000), 45 from Madison (400,000) and 1hr30 from Chicago. Cheap real estate, good schools, EXCELLENT restaurants and metro areas are close!

[nidex]

The population of Madison is slightly over 200k. Nowhere near 400.

[Jesse276]

Originally Posted by nidex

The population of Madison is slightly over 200k. Nowhere near 400.

They're probably talking about the metro size... the metro is listed at ~550,000.

[toodles]

Also late, but I'd avoid Beloit like the plague.

Milton is a decent small town (well under 20,000 but 10 min north from Janesville and pretty much all shopping in Janesville is on the north side).

Also Evansville is about 30 min from Beloit and a straight shot down HWY 213.

[jesseca609]

We lived in Janesville for five years it is an okay town to big for me and too many Fibs as I am from the smaller, once upon a time "quieter" centeral part of the state. But Beloit is a bad place to live, very bad, to close to Illinois, to close to Rockford, and when we were down there the town was being over taken by unemployment, now with GM also moved out of Janesville I expect their has been an even greater decline in both cities. It has been five years since we have lived down there but with previous post the outskirts towns are much easier living, I loved Milton, it is a much quieter peaceful little town, Evansville is also very nice, but I would NOT advise Beloit, my husbands route took him down there and it was not a fun place and a lot of "dark" areas if I remember correctly.

[fattigmann]

I highly recommend Janesville's East side and North East sides. Excellent housing stock, quiet neighborhoods, many parks, good schools. Access to the Interstate (Madison, Milw., Chicago, Rockford) and best of all -- affordable.

[dive77mmwet]

Beloit the sound you make when you fart in the bathtub,Janesville both areas wiped out due to the downturn, any one say Detroit, same thing down and out!

[Chelito23]

I don't know if this is even relevant since the OP never came back, but to anyone that has to move to Beloit or is curious about it, here is a less slanted view.

Beloit is a small, working class, blue collar city. It is clean, safe overall, more diverse economically and socially than most Wisconsin cities it's size and it also has higher crime...but I wouldn't go as far to say that is is unsafe. If you drive around it is quiet and quaint. Very easy access to Madison, Milwaukee, Rockford, Chicago.

Janesville is a very nice city with more shopping, a little closer to Madison and less diverse than Beloit. They are having problems with GM as they always have...they will have to struggle to find another economic powerhouse, but the city isn't dead or dying at all, just struggling.

If you have to visit or move to either of these cities, there are plenty of nice and affordable and safe areas to choose from. It is hard to find a city that is bad in Wisconsin, even the "bad" ones are pretty liveable, just with visible areas that aren't so nice.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Chelito23

Beloit is a small, working class, blue collar city. It is clean, safe overall, more diverse economically and socially than most Wisconsin cities it's size and it also has higher crime...but I wouldn't go as far to say that is is unsafe. If you drive around it is quiet and quaint. Very easy access to Madison, Milwaukee, Rockford, Chicago. .

Agreed. There are some places along the IL border that are not the greatest. However, if Beloit is the hotbed of crime that some make it out to be, people ought to visit some cities with a real crime problem.