Cost of Living in Minneapolis vs midwest (Eagan, Apple Valley: sale, foreclosure) - Minneapolis - St. Paul - Minnesota (MN) -Twin Cities - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

xandrex · 01-04-2013, 01:13 PM

I'm guessing you're going to have to go down in lot size or get less house. Our housing certainly is more expensive (I've heard a variety of reasons, including we apparently have pretty strict requirements because of snow?) and it's in a major metro area rather than a rural area. Simply put, you can always get more in the country than the city/suburbs (not that I need to tell you that!). But 4BR/4BA with 2900 square feet and 22 acres of land is going to cost a pretty penny. I think my family who live near Duluth have a house around that size (5BR/3BA, 2500-3000 square feet, 10 acres) and it was significantly less, but that's because northern Minnesota isn't exactly expensive...probably closer to what you see in Missouri in some ways.

In general, though, the MSP area is not "expensive". It might certainly be more, but it's barely above average (I believe estimated COL is about 6-7 percent higher here, which is probably why they gave him that salary increase). Your prices for milk and gas seem pretty spot on (I don't remember the price of milk as I buy by the half gallon and only occasionally, but I did just pay $2.95 for a gallon of gas yesterday in the city).

That said, I don't see how you couldn't get a nice house in the metro for $275,000. I've seen good houses in nice neighborhoods in the actual city at that price, so it's hard to imagine that the suburbs lack reasonable options as well. You just might need to downgrade a few expectations (probably mostly on land size?).

golfgal · 01-04-2013, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joytodd

Commute wise.....what do you think a reality commute would be for an 'on paper' commute of 30 minutes?

I was doing a project at the Normandale Towers (highway 100/494), it was 35 minutes taking mainly back roads from Rosemount. I think you have more leeway with where you want to live then you think. Traffic here isn't as bad or for as long as you find in the St. Louis metro. I know that traffic backs up 40 miles out of St. Louis in many directions, you just don't get that here. I think anywhere along 212, 169, 100 out 30 miles is going to get you the commute you want 99% of the time. The more you can avoid the bottlenecks, the farther out he can work. I think you can look at Delano, Norwood/YA, Belle Plaine, Jordan, New Prague (rural areas), Prior Lake over to Rosemount and points between and still have a reasonable chance of finding acerage that is affordable and a reasonable commute.

Look up MLS # 4192424. Also, it's a bad time to be looking for a house. I don't remember your timeframe but starting at the end of March or so, listings will pick up. It's cold and not many people list their houses in the dead of winter here.

Looking up a cost of living chart on another site--St. Louis metro has the lowest cost of living for major metro areas in the US, MSP comes in 11th lowest, but 12% higher than STL. The base it on basically how far a $1 goes. In MSP it's right at $1, with the most expensive area being $1.343. St. Louis comes in at $.891. Also checking various salary comparison tools, $100,000 in STL would be comparable to $121,000 here with housing being 58% higher. Housing here is expensive. Take the same numbers of $100,000 to San Jose, CA, the most expensive metro area and you need $165,000 to live a comparable life.

1stpontiac · 01-04-2013, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by golfgal

I was doing a project at the Normandale Towers (highway 100/494), it was 35 minutes taking mainly back roads from Rosemount. I think you have more leeway with where you want to live then you think. Traffic here isn't as bad or for as long as you find in the St. Louis metro. I know that traffic backs up 40 miles out of St. Louis in many directions, you just don't get that here. I think anywhere along 212, 169, 100 out 30 miles is going to get you the commute you want 99% of the time. I think you can look at Delano, Norwood/YA, Belle Plaine, Jordan, New Prague (rural areas), Prior Lake over to Rosemount and points between and still have a reasonable chance of finding acerage that is affordable and a reasonable commute.

Look up MLS # 4192424. Also, it's a bad time to be looking for a house. I don't remember your timeframe but starting at the end of March or so, listings will pick up. It's cold and not many people list their houses in the dead of winter here.

Heh, earlier in this thread (or the Norwood Young America one) I had gotten curious and starting looking around for large lot places just outside the metro, and almost came back here and posted the exact listing you do.

xandrex · 01-04-2013, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by golfgal

Look up MLS # 4192424. Also, it's a bad time to be looking for a house. I don't remember your timeframe but starting at the end of March or so, listings will pick up. It's cold and not many people list their houses in the dead of winter here.

Although from what I understand, the average house sells for 10 percent less during the winter. Maybe they can snag a good deal before the weather picks up.

golfgal · 01-04-2013, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xandrex

Although from what I understand, the average house sells for 10 percent less during the winter. Maybe they can snag a good deal before the weather picks up.

But its 1 of 2 houses with acreage for under $350,000 in that path I mentioned earlier.

joytodd · 01-04-2013, 02:22 PM

1stpontiac.....I didn't know about Google maps offering that! Thank you so much for the tip! I have always used another site and have never seen a feature like that.
That will be extremely helpful in mapping out where some of these homes are and getting a better handle on the commute into Eden Prarie! Thanks again.

golfgal · 01-04-2013, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1stpontiac

That totally depends on where and what direction you are going. A 30 min "on paper" commute westbound on 94 from downtown in the morning would be about 30 min in reality. If you were coming into downtown on the same route at the same time, it would likely be more like 50ish minutes.

I'm not sure how many people notice that Google map directions give both normal drive times and current drive times. You could map out potential routes at 7:30 on a weekday morning and that would give you some idea. Its at least semi-accurate along major routes, but I imagine they have a lot less congestion info as you get onto smaller, or further-out roads, where I think you are looking.

Being a frequent uses of Google maps however, I find their times to be not very accurate at all. They don't account for speed limit on roads for one thing. It's slightly more accurate for shorter trips but for longer trips, say over 2 hours, it's way off. It's off by an hour + from our place to my parents in the STL metro. I find if I calculate by miles and average speed limit it's much more accurate. Again though, if he can stay away from the bottle necks-find surface streets or whatever for his commute once traffic backs up on the major roads, commute should be very close to mileage--so 30 miles should be very close to 30 minutes 99% of the time.

joytodd · 01-04-2013, 02:33 PM

Well the conversation on commutes has put my mind at ease a bit! We kept hearing nightmare stories about the traffic in MSP area....people saying figure if it is 30 miles, add on for a wreck everyday and for snow and for construction that happens constantly and in the end thinking we were crazy for trying to look on the outskirts!
It is so nice to hear it isn't all that bad. We lived in St. Louis (Western suburbs) for two years and the traffic there could be brutal (its bad when you finally just turn off the car on the interstate!)....we were expecting worse than that from the horror stories people kept telling us.
So, thank you!! We have been growing more and more nervous about this move (with 5 kids) because of all the differences.....higher costs, longer commutes, housing.....whereas we were so excited about the opportunities.....just want to be able to afford to actually do the things that we fell in love with when we came up to look around a bit

Thanks again.

joytodd · 01-04-2013, 02:35 PM

It sounds like the timing may be good.....we are looking about now to see what is available where as far as homes but won't be buying until probably March - April....would love to see more options on the market! I will keep that in mind!

joytodd · 01-04-2013, 02:41 PM

I looked up that listing....I honestly don't know how we would do it....we are VERY tight in our home now (5 kiddos)....I honetly don't know where to begin getting rid of 1100 square feet of 'things' to fit into something less than 2000 sqft. We will be able to look (because of equity) up to about sale price of $325 or so....depending on taxes on the home...I will attempt cautious optimism for the spring listings! Everything seems to be a good $400K that I am finding (or a short sale that our realtor said realistically probably wouldn't work for us bc of timeframe)....yep cautious optimism!