Cost of Living in Minneapolis vs midwest (Eagan, Eden Prairie: for sale, real estate)

[joytodd]

Our move is getting closer and closer!
Hitting a wall I am hoping some of you can help with however. My husbands company is looking at a 6% Cost of living increase in salary. We are coming up from rural Missouri and are consistently seeing almost a 45% higher price in housing alone and a pretty solid 22 or higher% increase in cost of living in Minneapolis area compared to here.
Wondering if anyone has moved up to the area from the lower midwest and what your experience was as far as cost of living difference?
We are looking on websites which can be different from reality, so perhaps the cost of living is not actually as high there as the websites are showing?
Would be based from Eden Prairie so suburbs out from there would be area we are looking at.
Thank you so much for your insights! (once again!)

As a point of reference....
We will be selling our completely renovated 4 bed/4 bath 2900 sq ft house on 22 acres (fenced/outbuildings) with a 20 minute commute for appx $275K....
A gallon of milk costs $2.94 here
Gas is $2.99 a gallon currently.
Just some very basic points of reference....

[golfgal]

My parents live in MO in a St. Louis Suburb similar to EP. Their house is about 1/2 what it would cost in EP. They have about 4500 sq feet finished, custom home, huge corner lot, "executive" neighborhood. Their house would probably sell for about what your house would sell for based on estimates from local real estate agents. Their house up here would be $450-500K in a similar EP neighborhood, probably 400K further out.

Gas seems to be about $.10-20 cents/gallon less in MO in the summer but similar in the winter. Groceries are roughly the same but I think they might be a bit less here. Car insurance, etc. is going to be a big hit for you depending on where you live. The farther from EP you can get, the less it will be. I know that our insurance is about 1/2 what we would pay in Minneapolis proper. Eagan's rates are between that and what we pay (all based on zip codes).

Property taxes are also going to be a lot higher so factor that into how much house you can really afford. My parents property taxes are a fraction what our taxes are and their house is bigger. Looking online at a house that is for sale down the street from them, it's listed at 265K, 3500 sq feet, custom build, upgraded features, etc. That house in our are would go for about $365K or so.


For $275K you are most likely going to find a split level/multi-level house on a typcial suburban lot that is pretty much built with "builder's grade" materials.

[joytodd]

When doing our home searches I am consistently finding nothing less than about $375K within a 40 minute commute even. But that 6% increase won't touch that.....
Property tax seemed to be a SOLID 4x higher than ours!

Thank you for your respose golfgal, I am going to forward your response to my husband!

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by joytodd

When doing our home searches I am consistently finding nothing less than about $375K within a 40 minute commute even. But that 6% increase won't touch that.....
Property tax seemed to be a SOLID 4x higher than ours!

Thank you for your respose golfgal, I am going to forward your response to my husband!

Are you looking for acreage? If so, that is probably about right.

[joytodd]

We have almost given up hope of having land. At this point we are looking at things with at least a 1 acre lot vs. actual land that we would love!

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

You can't really compare the two places apples to apples. If you believe that Minneapolis is a better place to live and/or offers more then you'll understand why you pay more for a house here. Let's say public schools in Minneapolis are so much better than MO or St. Louis that the move is worth it for that reason alone. And let's say to get a similar education in MO you'd have to put your kids through private school. Then it's easy to see how a $100K markup on a home (over 30 years) in Minneapolis would be WELL WORTH IT if you could put your kids through public schooling and avoid private tuition fees. Same with lots of other amenities: parks, wildlife, entertainment, job opportunity, people, etc.

The assumption is that you are moving because you see a better deal in one place vs. the other, and salary is just ONE PART of that equation.

[joytodd]

That is an incorrect assumption. We are being transferred. If we cannot afford to 'live' however we have a problem....which is where we are feeling like we would be with just the 6% increase....if living costs are 20% higher....we couldn't downsize much (other than in land) from where we are right now....

[golfgal]

I'm afraid that you are probably going to have to sacrifice the land, even an acre. It's sad but it is what it is. You live in one of the least expensive areas of the country right now and the Twin Cities is up there with the most expensive areas. Your company needs to help you out more or you are just going to have to give up something on the house--or increase the commute.

I have to agree that once you are here, it will all be worth it, schools especially but just overall things are better here then MO.

[joytodd]

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

[1stpontiac]

Originally Posted by joytodd

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

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.