Moving To Minneapolis From Nyc (Edina, St. Louis Park: transplants, lease, condo)

[becky609]

Hi everyone!!
We are moving from Nyc to Minneapolis leaving behind all friends and family and I am nervous. I would be really grateful for some honest opinions. These are our criteria for living there and if you could suggest some areas we could look into.

1. My husband will be working downtown and the commute should probably be not more than 20-30 min

2. I have a 18 month old son so a park, tot-lot, daycare and other places of interest would be very important as I am a stay at home mom.

3. A gym is very very essential

4.Entertainment and shopping close by would be nice.

My first predicament is whether to rent or buy?We spent one weekend in minneapolis and I thought that living downtown would be great. I am wondering if it makes any sense to move to the suburbs to save money....activities and things of interest for our son is our first concern. Thanks everybody in advance.

[Bagira]

Originally Posted by becky609

Hi everyone!!

My first predicament is whether to rent or buy?We spent one weekend in minneapolis and I thought that living downtown would be great. I am wondering if it makes any sense to move to the suburbs to save money....activities and things of interest for our son is our first concern. Thanks everybody in advance.

Please do not move to the burbs....if you want entertainment live in the city...you will be driving there constantly anyways if you want to do anything. I would rent there is fabuous places spendy by MPLS standards anything downtown/loring park neighborhood. We previoulsy lived in Loring Park. Great Park and 15 min. walk and your downtown.

Sign a year lease or 6 mo. look around where you want to live. You will NOT be missing any housing boom its over. We moved to MD and for what you can buy in MPLS for @275-350k cost 475-600k here good luck pm me if you want specifics. WE LOVED MPLS. Lived in the city for 6 years.

[Jim Stokes]

If your husband is making a pile of money, by all means move to Kenwood, which is near downtown. Kenwood has some great old houses. But be careful. Many of them are fixer-uppers. In most cases, the owners are older and don't want to fiddle with the upkeep.

Case in point is the "Mary Tyler Moore" house in Kenwood. That's the house exterior you see in the series. That's the only connection, of course, the rest of the show was done on sets, including Mary's house interiors. So now, that house is a hulking three-story structure. It has been bought and sold several times. Each time, the owners let it run down. At one time, it looked like an abandoned old house. It had graffiti on it.

So the point is, to make SURE to get the title and find out what all is WRONG with the house.

As far as other houses, a "nice" house will be at least $300K to $500K in a nice neighborhood. Don't buy a house north of Highway 55.

[Jaxx99]

Welcome! You will love Minnesota.

As much as I would like to recommend my suburb to you (5 years so far and I love it), from what you described you need to be in one of three places: SW Minneapolis, Edina, or St. Louis Park. I would basically do this: get a map of the Minneapolis area. With a marker, draw a box that goes from Lyndale Ave. on the right, along Hwy 62 (toward the west) on the bottom, up Highway 100 on the left, and then across on I-394 on the north side. The "lakes" will be in your box, and this is just a great area to live in. Great commute to downtown Mpls too... as short as 10 minutes.

You'll have lots of younger families with kids your age, neat homes with character, and real neighborhoods. I think you'll also find that alot of transplants to the area tend to be attracted to this area, so you will instantly have stuff in common with people who recently moved from out of state like you did.

We moved to the area from Chicago several years ago, and one of the first things we did was sign our 1-year old up for ECFE classes. They are done by the school districts and are incredible. Many of our best friends today are parents people we met in those very classes.

As for health clubs, there are lots -- with long winters, we need places to be active when it is cold out. Lifetime Fitness pretty much dominates this area and would have plenty of choices in that area I described.

[Minnehahapolitan]

First, it is not inherently cheaper to live in the cities or the suburbs. If you want to live in the city, live there. Ditto for suburbs. I should add that the cheaper suburbs are going to be newer and have few amenities. Going on your criteria, I would stay in Hennepin or Ramsey county. Living downtown is great, but there won't be as many families. On the other hand, there is a ton to do. The Linden Hills area has alot to do and is swarming with young families. Schools are great and I can't imagine there not being pre-school. More expensive, but managable. A Manhattan sized condo would be 150ish to buy, a pre-war bungalow would be 300ish (don't know rents, I would go with Craigslist and Edina Realty's website) There are fitness clubs in Saint Louis Park and Downtown that I remember, but there are def. many others. I also second the Loring Park area. It is more residential, but alot of people consider it to be downtown (It is not, btw). Fewer kids than Linden Hills, but convenient to everything downtown w/o complete hassle. I think you would be very happy in most areas of the city and some of the very immediate suburbs

[kuan]

Since you have an 18 month old I'd say move to a school district that has a good ECFE program, like 270.

[becky609]

Hi!
Thanks everyone.....The ECFE tip is really great - I didn't know such a thing existed. I am going to look over the areas you have mentioned. We will actually have a realtor for a week to show us around and corporate housing for 3 months - so I guess I will take the time to get a feel for the area before we buy. I am very impulsive so that's going to be hard!

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by becky609

Hi!
Thanks everyone.....The ECFE tip is really great - I didn't know such a thing existed. I am going to look over the areas you have mentioned. We will actually have a realtor for a week to show us around and corporate housing for 3 months - so I guess I will take the time to get a feel for the area before we buy. I am very impulsive so that's going to be hard!

My wife signed up for ECFE when she was pregnant with our now-19 year old daughter. She thought it was great, and still maintains a friendship she made there. We're in the St Paul district--don't know the #.

Check out the Highland, Mac-Grove and St Anthony Park neighborhoods in St Paul. All have easy access to downtown Mpls via transit or freeway (less than 30 min.), in fact are closer to downtown than some of the southernmost neighborhoods in the city of Minneapolis!

[athorson710]

I would agree with Jaxx99's response. I live in St. Louis Park off of 394 and 169 and it's a great location. It's a quick 8-9 minute drive to downtown Minneapolis. Also, I used to work downtown and it's very convenient to park your car at a park & ride lot and take the bus downtown. We have a fairly good bus system. I have alot of friends that live in SW Minneapolis and Edina and those are both great locations too. There are some pretty cool houses in SW Minneapolis. The "lakes" that Jaxx99 is referring to are awesome to run around, take your kids to, and hang around. Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriot and Lake of the Isles. You'll be close to them if you live around St. Louis Park, SW Minneapolis or Edina.

[becky609]

If your first concern is schooling, and you're wanting to go public, than you should probably cross St. Louis City off your list. Many people in the city go private, and for good reason, the school system isn't in good shape.

Is this really true?I read this on some other thread. We have decided to buy instead of rent and the school is going to be an issue.