Incoming from Chicago! (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Shorewood: sale, real estate market, rentals)

[cheese plate]

Originally Posted by mizzou65201

I would not count out the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee; for your budget, you can probably find a similar home very close to the lake, and down there some of the homes right on the lake have stunning views of Downtown Milwaukee. I'm thinking of S. Shore St. and S. Superior Ave. in particular.

I picked Bay View a decade or so ago after spending a lot of time in town, and I've never regretted it. A huge bonus is definitely the views along the lake, which unlike the north side, is accessible for long stretches to the public. We walk/bike/hang out there all the time, as we're a few blocked inland. The neighborhood is rapidly becoming a "hot spot," which is moving rent/real estate prices up markedly, and it will continue to go up. Every few days it seems like a new business pops up. I'd say it's a good time to buy right now, but it was a great time to buy 10 years back.

[fishtab94]

Let me start off by saying WOW! Thanks for all of the information! In my first post I didn't make it clear that I had taken a new job around North Avenue and Lake Drive. My wife is hanging on to her job for a while. She works in northern Illinois but only goes once in a long while so she can drive down for a day or two every few months. For me commuting would be workable and I'm not going to have a choice until we sell our house. We are done with Illinois and want out of there, though.

I'm sure some are wondering how it's possible that we live an hour away and somehow my wife and I have not managed to look around. We have, actually, but not much. The only reason we haven't spent more time looking around Milwaukee is because we drive through Milwaukee so often going north To Waupaca on 894 and 41 (and sometimes towing a boat hence the user name ). We usually don't stop except for gas because the way we drive through goes through the suburbs and looks a lot like the suburbs around us, so we figured we weren't missing much.

We were talking about going up this weekend. It only takes us just a little over an hour to get to where I'll be working so we can easily go any time; we just haven't done it yet and the job change came about quicker than I thought. I'll keep you posted on what we see this weekend!

[brrabbit]

Originally Posted by fishtab94

We were talking about going up this weekend. It only takes us just a little over an hour to get to where I'll be working so we can easily go any time; we just haven't done it yet and the job change came about quicker than I thought. I'll keep you posted on what we see this weekend!

Get a room, stay overnight, enjoy nightlife of Walker's Point or downtown.

[Coldwake]

Fishta, one more clarification... you are childless now, do you plan to be childless in the future? If not, do you want to think about schools right off the bat? If so, count out Milwaukee unless you would like to look into private schools.

Regarding your visit this weekend, do you know yet where you're going to look? If checking out Shorewood, WFB, and Tosa, you should check out the main amenity areas of those 'burbs. Areas near Bayshore Mall and Silver spring/Lake Drive for WFB, Downer ave and Oakland ave for Shorewood, and for Tosa you should check out the village and east tosa along North Ave (60th-70th).

In all three burbs, the housing in those 'burbs can range from small but quality bungalows in the upper 100's to large mansions approaching a million dollars. Interestingly, it can change within blocks... and the feel of the streets themselves can change from one block to the next (size of lot's change, housing size and decade built can change, width of streets, tree canopies, etc). Knowing where to look for exactly what you like can be challenging... but after this weekend give us feedback pos and neg on what you see and we can help point you in the right direction for any future visits.

[brrabbit]

Originally Posted by Coldwake

Fishta, one more clarification... you are childless now, do you plan to be childless in the future? If not, do you want to think about schools right off the bat? If so, count out Milwaukee unless you would like to look into private schools.

Why? Even if his wife gets pregnant today, his child won't go to school in 5 years... Houses can be sold as much as bought, you know.

[cheese plate]

^ Agreed, if they don't have children already, this is a non-issue

[Coldwake]

Originally Posted by brrabbit

Why? Even if his wife gets pregnant today, his child won't go to school in 5 years... Houses can be sold as much as bought, you know.

They can, but some people do not like moving within a 5 year time frame. Sometimes you spend the first 5 years getting a house just the way you want it and don't want to start over. Not to mention that there are costs involved in buying and selling (closing costs for buyer, commissions as a seller, etc). With a normal 6% commission for a realtor, a 600k house costs a seller $36,000 in commission alone. Not chump change.

Hence that is why I asked the OP if that was something they wanted to include in their considerations. If they don't mind moving, then the answer would be "no we're not taking that into consideration right now."

[HyperionGap]

Originally Posted by adr3naline

By the way; love the user name, fishtab94!

I laughed as well. I prefer it to FIB.

[slamont61]

Color me shocked that your wife would agree to move to Wisconsin.

Waukesha County should be looked at before picking where you wish to reside. Haven't seen it mentioned here yet.

[Coldwake]

slamont61, same as your other post, while Waukesha county is a great option for many people with certain desired criteria, I don't believe it fits with this OP'ers desires. It's not near the lake, does not have walkable neighborhoods, and the commute can be pretty rough depending on where in Waukesha County you're talking about. I'm definitely going to have to disagree with you.