Some random questions (Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Whitefish Bay: real estate, vehicle registration, insurance)

[victoriaR]

Hello,
We currently are living in CA and want to move (taxes, taxes, and more to come) and my fam. is back east. I have so many questions about this area as I only recently stumbled upon it and from what I could find out through my limited computer literacy... it looks beautiful. I was looking in the Shorewood area and the areas north of it. There seem to be more jobs up there for what my dh does.
I have a few questions though. Through a basic google search, I can't seem to tell what the property taxes are like? Is there a base percentage? 1% ? 1.5% ?
Also I noticed there is a yearly vehicle registration. As it is, we pay almost 800.00/year for one 6 year old sedan and one 3 year old mid size SUV. Are the registrations that expensive over there?
Also, is there a big homeschool/charter school presence/community?

And some basic questions: Is there humidity in the summer, like that of the D.C. area or more or less? And I know it must get cold, but is it bitter cold that you don't want to leave your house?

What are politics like? I really don't like to be in areas where someone seems to always be making some sort of political statement. I tend to be very neutral, although I think I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative.

Thank you for any information, or if you want to direct me to a thread that addressed something similar, I would soak up any info you have.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by victoriaR

Hello,
We currently are living in CA and want to move (taxes, taxes, and more to come) and my fam. is back east. I have so many questions about this area as I only recently stumbled upon it and from what I could find out through my limited computer literacy... it looks beautiful. I was looking in the Shorewood area and the areas north of it. There seem to be more jobs up there for what my dh does.
I have a few questions though. Through a basic google search, I can't seem to tell what the property taxes are like? Is there a base percentage? 1% ? 1.5% ?
Also I noticed there is a yearly vehicle registration. As it is, we pay almost 800.00/year for one 6 year old sedan and one 3 year old mid size SUV. Are the registrations that expensive over there?
Also, is there a big homeschool/charter school presence/community?

And some basic questions: Is there humidity in the summer, like that of the D.C. area or more or less? And I know it must get cold, but is it bitter cold that you don't want to leave your house?

What are politics like? I really don't like to be in areas where someone seems to always be making some sort of political statement. I tend to be very neutral, although I think I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative.

Thank you for any information, or if you want to direct me to a thread that addressed something similar, I would soak up any info you have.

In my opinion, you couldn't pick a better area to live in than the upper East Side of Milwaukee, Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Fox Point, or Bayside. Home values are high and property taxes are high also. The schools are excellent. It looks beautiful online, and it's beautiful in person. The north shore communities are very attractive and have a lot of amenities, in addition to having Lake Michigan shoreline. Personally, I think the North Shore beats any other suburban area of Milwaukee. There are many other nice suburbs, but the people in the North Shore are a little more refined, established, well educated, and open minded than some other areas.

I don't know the tax rate, but for example a 4BR 2250 sq ft home, listing for $400k, has taxes of $9700. Another home listing for $400k has taxes of $9200. The best feel for property taxes is to look at some real estate listings and see what the taxes are.

Vehicle Reg is < $100 per car, so it's a lot cheaper. There is no ad valorem tax on vehicles. Yet.

There are homeschoolers in the area.

Insurance will probably be a little less than CA.

Humidity is fairly high (check climate data for more information). Not quite like Washington, DC but it can be similar at times. DC has hotter summer weather. I lived in Washington, DC, and Milwaukee's summer weather is not as hot. The humidity is there, and the proximity to Lake Michigan can elevate humidity levels depending on the wind direction. However, the same effect often keeps the shore of Lake Michigan much cooler than the western suburbs (and sometimes warmer in the winter months).

It gets cold there. I hate cold so I'm not qualified to opine for long. If you are coming from coastal CA, you may relate to a lot of the weather very well. Lots of 50s-60s, with clouds or fog. The obvious difference is that the winter temperatures are a lot colder. However, "most" winters are not that bad. We've had two bad ones in a row, though.

Shorewood would probably qualify as more socially liberal than other suburbs, but fiscally conservative (the same could be said of most of the North Shore suburbs, in my opinion). It's not Berkeley, but there is a major university adjacent to Shorewood, which keeps it from getting too crusty. Things probably get a bit more conservative as one moves farther from the city.

Finally, in terms of location, Shorewood has an excellent one. It's very close to the city, to the downtown lakefront, easy to drive to the airport, close to very nice shopping options, has a nice downtown, is easily walkable, is as close to crime-free as you can get, has great schools... etc. I can't say enough about that area. I've lived in Fox Point and Whitefish Bay also, and currently spend a couple months a year on the East Side of Milwaukee (just south of Shorewood).

[victoriaR]

Thank you so much for your reply. I am soaking it all in. It does look like the property taxes are a bit high (close to 2%) from the quotes you just gave me. I looked some houses up on zillow, and they usually have the property taxes listed, but none of the houses I have clicked on have had that info.
I love that there seems to be a decent size city but it looks walkable/safe. I also love older houses and miss them so much. Everything here is stucco. To me, there is nothing better than having some sort of water scenery and a convenient small sized city.

Thanks again, any info is great.

[Milwaukee City]

Here is a great website to use to look for homes, I know it's shorewest but they list other companies as well. I use their map feature to look for homes in a certain area. I just find their website the easiest and fastest to use.

Shorewest Realtors - Wisconsin Real Estate - Milwaukee Real Estate

[dcforbreakfast]

I would also encourage you to look at Wauwatosa. When we originally moved here we looked in Shorewood and Whitefish Bay, but for the amount of money-- you could get more bang for your buck in Wauwatosa (Tosa as we call it). Taxes are still high, but not as high and like I said you could get a little more for the money. Schools are excellent and all within walking distance (at least elementary). You can walk to stores, restaurants, coffee shops, parks etc, grocery store. Very safe and I don't think it's very political, or at least I haven't noticed! Plus you're only 7 miles from downtown. Less than five minutes from a nice mall...there's all kinds of stuff over here.

ETA: Forgot to mention, Wauwatosa is mainly older homes like Shorewood and Whitefish Bay. Ours was built in the 20's and it's fantastic! So much character. The neighborhoods are so unique with all of the neat homes around here.

[Nuclear_Art]

One thing to remember, especially coming from CA is that there is a winter here. Sometimes they can be brutal with lots of cold weather and snow. A friend here at work just moved to San Diego mostly for that reason. It gets bitter cold sometimes where you don't want to leave your house, yeah. I would highly recommend finding a house with a garage for the winter. It sometimes gets humid in the summer but not consistently.

Trucks have higher vehicle registrations plus Milwaukee City now has an added wheel tax which will probably spread towards other municipalities as time goes on and as city revenue sources shrink.

[victoriaR]

Thanks for the replies, I am still checking in and lurking on the other threads. Trying to convince my CA-native hubster to brave the winters. I love it cold but he likes it hot. I think the jobs would be the main factor, and then we would go from there. I am certainly doing a lot of research!