Twin Cities place 5 suburbs in top 22 of 2012 Best Cities List (Minneapolis: real estate, house)

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

Have these Money magazine people ever looked into Stillwater?
You have your new construction homes with the curvy streets and culdesacs. plus you have the main part of town with the older homes, downtown, more simple street layout and a RIVER!

Commute, maybe? Affordability?

[stolafs69]

What happened to Plymouth? A couple years ago they were voted best place to live in the country (granted by a different magazine). Now they don't even make the top 100?

I have to agree with the list in regards to the the twin cities suburbs. Eden Prairie is probably a little better then Woodbury. However, I choose woodbury based on lower priced and newer houses and much less traffic. Eagan was also high on my list. Problem with Eagan is that parts of Eagan are in the Burnsville school district which in not good.

Lakeville and Maple Grove are clearly a step below the top 3 in my book, but still very desireable other then being a long ways from Mpls.

[HiFi]

Originally Posted by Lafferty Daniel

... I'd much rather live in St. Louis Park, Hopkins, or Roseville. At least these suburbs have more character and are much closer to the cities. ...

What do you mean by character? Lakeville is a very old city with a historic 'small town USA' down town, and tightly packed central residential district, surrounded by sprawling higher end suburban housing developments. I consider it to have great character.

[1stpontiac]

In case anyone else was slow to notice, this is specifically a list of SMALL cities. Like most of this lists, it seems pretty arbitrary and random to me. I can't actually find their methodology. I don't have a problem with any of the cities on the list, but I'm not sure there is much objective reason to say Maple Grove is better than Roseville or worse than Eden Prairie.

Pretty much a good little story to generate lots of clicks for the advertisers.

[stolafs69]

Originally Posted by Lafferty Daniel

Eden Prairie, Woodbury, Eagan, Lakeville, and Maple Grove? I'd much rather live in St. Louis Park, Hopkins, or Roseville. At least these suburbs have more character and are much closer to the cities. Sure the other suburbs are like a new shiny toy, but they are soulless for the most part.

I never understand these people that insist that the older close inner ring suburbs are so great. Whats so great about them? Who wants to live in a 1950's 2-3 bedroom rambler on a small overgrown lot with a leaky basement and a 1 car garage? How is that "character?"
To me a 2-3 story brick colonial in Edina or around the chain of lakes is character. I admit that many newer homes in woodbury or EP don't have a ton of character, but at least they are funcional, energy efficient, open and roomy.
Besides, many of the older close inner ring suburbs now have turned to to crap such as brooklyn park, brooklyn center, parts of New Hope, Columbia Heights etc.
Then the distance thing, just because Hopkins in 5-10 minutes closer to mpls then Eden Praire, who really cares. You still need to get in your car and drive so to me an extra 5-10 minutes is negligable.

[dravogadro]

Originally Posted by Ghengis

I count one in the top 25...Newton...

Reading comprehension...

[LH0607]

EP moved from #1 to #3?!?! Good thing we are moving...

[Beenhere4ever]

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

Soulless? they all have populations around 60,000 and growing like crazy lol

That just tells me that the construction industry is making a lot of money. Plastic housing. Bedroom suburbs. And that a lot of people are happy with it. But then McDonalds is HUGE, and that doesn't mean it is a gourmet hot spot.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by 1stpontiac

In case anyone else was slow to notice, this is specifically a list of SMALL cities. Like most of this lists, it seems pretty arbitrary and random to me. I can't actually find their methodology. I don't have a problem with any of the cities on the list, but I'm not sure there is much objective reason to say Maple Grove is better than Roseville or worse than Eden Prairie.

Pretty much a good little story to generate lots of clicks for the advertisers.

I bet the minimum population is 50,000, which may be why SLP, Edina, Hopkins, Roseville, etc. aren't ever on these lists.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

Have these Money magazine people ever looked into Stillwater?
You have your new construction homes with the curvy streets and culdesacs. plus you have the main part of town with the older homes, downtown, more simple street layout and a RIVER!

Not big enough for this list. They usually do one for towns under 50,000 too though.

Originally Posted by HiFi

What do you mean by character? Lakeville is a very old city with a historic 'small town USA' down town, and tightly packed central residential district, surrounded by sprawling higher end suburban housing developments. I consider it to have great character.

Most of the people that claim the suburbs are so bad have never actually been to these places or have only seen them from the highway. It's pointless to try to convince them otherwise because there is a false assumption here that if you live in Minneapolis you are automatically "sophisticated" and if you live in the suburbs you are soleless and boring.