Wisconsin Best Cities (Milwaukee, Racine, West Allis: middle-class, for sale, condos)

[timamine]

My husband and I are considering moving to the Milwaukee area from the Detroit area. He would like a job in Milwaukee, i will take what i can get in the admin field.
Any suggestions for us as to best cities to live outside Milwaukee? or even if Milwaukee is a good/bad choice? we like the city but Detroit just doesn't cut it with the burned out buildings, ghetto's and crime.
No kids, love to motorcycle (Harley's), need a 3 bedroom home around the $150,000 range.
we are currently commuting 1 hour to 1 and 1/2 hours now, would love to cut that down by a lot.
He is an engineer in the automotive field, he is interested in just about anything Engineering.
thanks for your time

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by timamine

My husband and I are considering moving to the Milwaukee area from the Detroit area. He would like a job in Milwaukee, i will take what i can get in the admin field.
Any suggestions for us as to best cities to live outside Milwaukee? or even if Milwaukee is a good/bad choice? we like the city but Detroit just doesn't cut it with the burned out buildings, ghetto's and crime.
No kids, love to motorcycle (Harley's), need a 3 bedroom home around the $150,000 range.
we are currently commuting 1 hour to 1 and 1/2 hours now, would love to cut that down by a lot.
He is an engineer in the automotive field, he is interested in just about anything Engineering.
thanks for your time

Hmmm...if you need a 3 BR home in the $150,000 range, you may be a little limited in your choices around the Milwaukee area. If you were able to sufficiently get up into the $175K range, you could find very nice 3 BR homes all over, however, in the $150 range, 3 BRs in a nice community, while doable, would be a little more restrictive in the areas.

Offhand, for a 3 BR, $150K range home in a decent area near Milwaukee, I would suggest perhaps parts of West Allis. West Allis directly borders Milwaukee. It is a very central location with easy access to places. Relatively safe. An overall middle-class, blue collar community. Decent homes can be found for reasonable prices in West Allis...probably the farther east in WA you go, the more prices would be close to that $150K range.

Another area you may find something of quality in that range in a decent area would be portions of Brown Deer. Brown Deer is a community that borders Milwaukee on the northeast side. You'd probably want to stay in portions at least a little bit away from N. 76th Street, but there are some very nice, solid, middle class neighborhoods in Brown Deer with respectably affordable home prices.

There are a few select areas of Milwaukee you also may look into. Overall, Milwaukee is no where near as "bad" crime/safety-wise as Detroit, but much of it is indeed still fairly non-safe with higher crime. The big parts of Milwaukee (downtown, east side, Third / Fifth Ward, Bay View, Washington Heights) that are really nice and really safe...probably nothing near that $150 mark. I know that my brother-in-law and his wife (they are a young couple in their early 20s) just bought a nice little home in the Lenox Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee which is pretty nice and pretty safe actually...that would definitely be affordable for you with decent homes. Do a google search on "Lenox Heights - Milwaukee" and they even have their own website. It is near the Washington Heights. I don't BELIEVE in the Washington Heights you could find something at that price, but I could be wrong...and it would be worth checking into.

Oak Creek, Cudahy, and St. Francis are southside, lakeside communities that are pretty affordable and near Downtown MKE. Oak Creek and Cudahy don't have the best reputations in this area (similar to West Allis) due to their more rugged, blue collar, industrial reputation, however, there are decent areas in them - and the price is fairly reasonable. St. Francis is a nicer community - very similar to a bit of a West Allis near the lakeshore - and also has decent prices.

There are areas on the southern side of Milwaukee, as well near Miller Park in Milwaukee, (also look for some areas around Hawley Rd. through say 70th Street in Milwaukee near Bluemound Rd. that border Wauwatosa...decent areas without the excess 'Tosa prices), that aren't too shabby with decent, quiet, safe neighborhoods. You just have to seek them out - a good realtor would be able to advise you on the areas.

Port Washington is another option, but much farther up. About 45 minutes from downtown Milwaukee...a small town right off of I-43 pretty far north of Milwaukee right on Lake Michigan. Fairly affordable.

It can be done on $150K. I would check out the parts of Milwaukee I listed, as well as St. Francis, West Allis, Brown Deer (these four preferable probably) and then Cudahy, Oak Creek, and Port Washington.

As for Harleys...yep, plenty of those around here!

Good luck.

[timamine]

thanks for the advice. What do you know about the condo's in Milwaukee? That also would be something for us to consider.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by timamine

thanks for the advice. What do you know about the condo's in Milwaukee? That also would be something for us to consider.

What part of Milwaukee are you referring to?

Typically, currently, if you would state "condos in Milwaukee", I think most people would think of the huge condo boom in the Downtown/Third Ward/East Side area. Tons of great condos going up everywhere, great lake views, etc.

However, these condos are generally at a minimum $250K...many much, much pricier than that. You wouldn't find anything condo-wise in these areas for less than $240K, etc., much less in the mid-$100s.

I would imagine - and folks can gladly jump in here and correct me - the only areas in the actual city of Milwaukee where condos would be available for $150K or so would be in highly undesirable areas.

In fact...I cannot think of many communities in the entire metro where condos with 3 BRs would be as low as $150K unless in a very undesirable area.

[Dea13]

You might want to take a look at areas in Northeastern Racine county. Village of Caledonia is very nice. Farmfields but close to city conveniences. There are things that would fall close to your price range. For example, we just put our house for sale, a 3 br 1500 square foot ranch just 25 minutes from downtown Milw. and asking price is $196,000. Our area generally has 1/2 acre or larger lots. For the commute you currently have, you could even work in Chicago from this area! Harleys love to ride Hwy 32. We had a Harley until we had our daughter - miss the motorcycle very much!! We parked it in our driveway or back patio many times and never even locked the ignition.

Dea

[luebda92]

Beloit, beautiful city, great established neighborhoods, less then an hour away, awesome college. LOW HOME PRICES

[EnjoyEP]

Not to try to rain on good-intentioned suggestions, I think all of these suggestions are great!, but having just bought a home myself, I can state with quite certainty that for a person whose house range is in the $150K area, a $196K home is considerably more expensive. I know that my range when looking recently was actually at a point in between those two figures, but even we couldn't have afforded a $196K home, especially with WI property taxes added on.

I don't know...perhaps Caledonia has some homes more in the $150K range, I just think it important to stress to this poster that while $150K and $196K may seem only ~$45K apart, that can make a huge, huge difference as it relates to a monthly mortgage payment.

Also...as for Beloit...boy, that would be one heckuva commute into Milwaukee on a daily basis (the original poster noted the husband would be working in Milwaukee). Beloit is no where near where you'd consider the Milwaukee metro area. Would be fine if they wouldn't mind an 1+ hour one-way commute every day, but I think that may be far too far and remote for most folks who'd be working in MKE daily.

Just my thoughts here...just want to give the original poster the full picture on what they'd be looking at.

[Dea13]

Although I agree with EnjoyEP that $45k is big difference, property taxes, etc make a huge difference when considering what one can afford. When we bought our house, just getting out of Milwaukee's property tax area allowed us to spend over $20k more than what we originally thought (because we had factored in Milw's higher taxes).

My house is just an example of a size and price range. There are things WAY more expensive in our area and less expensive. Depends on if you're in a subdivision, have municipal water & sewer, etc.

Take care,

Dea

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by Dea13

Although I agree with EnjoyEP that $45k is big difference, property taxes, etc make a huge difference when considering what one can afford. When we bought our house, just getting out of Milwaukee's property tax area allowed us to spend over $20k more than what we originally thought (because we had factored in Milw's higher taxes).

My house is just an example of a size and price range. There are things WAY more expensive in our area and less expensive. Depends on if you're in a subdivision, have municipal water & sewer, etc.

Take care,

Dea

This is true - agreed - property taxes can make a big difference, and some more outlying communities have better ones (although still expensive compared to much of the nation) by far than MKE County.

But yes indeed, Dea is right, some houses are "more affordable" price-wise in some communities based upon lower taxes.

(Although...then there is the caveat, just to play devil's advocate, that what you may save in property taxes, if you are commuting to and fro Milwaukee every day, you may end up spending in gasoline, car wear-and-tear, etc.)

All good food for thought though!