St Paul - Good nearby places to buy! (Minneapolis, St. Paul: crime rate, houses)

[mazzer]

Hi Everyone,

I have a chance of moving out to the St Paul area. It'll be a pleasure to get away from California, where I have lived for the past 6 years.

My company is located in the Little Canada, Roseville area and I'm trying to find a decent community to buy a home.

I've 3 young kids, so good schools are my highest priority.
For me, I like older victorian style homes. My wife likes trees and nice scenery.

We heard Stillwater was nice can anyone confirm this? Would it suit us or is there a better place that is local to my workplace and one where I don't need to drive for hours to get there. (Like now) ;-)

[golfgal]

Stillwater would be perfect for you. There are many older Victorian houses and being a river town, the scenery is beautiful. The schools are excellent. It has a great hometown feel. I saw your other post about soccer, I know they have soccer there but don't know any details. Their high school soccer teams are usually pretty good so the youth programs are usually good then too.

Mahtomedi would be another option but you won't find as many older homes there. Again, the schools are excellent, their soccer program is very good and it is a lovely setting. It would be about 10 minutes closer to work for you meaning you might have a 5-10 minute drive vs a 15-20 minute drive depending on where exactly you live/work.

[Robert P Stewart]

My wife is from Stillwater - and that makes the town wonderful. I proposed to her in the Gazebo there by the St. Croix river. We were married right up the road in St Johns Lutheran. Had the reception downtown at (what was then called) the Lumber Baron.

It's a great place. And Stillwater high school (go Ponies!) has a good soccer program (and a good team for everythig else too).

I don't know what you're looking for, but you may want to check out Lake Elmo. I've sold a few places there and I think it is becoming a good value. Over the past severeal months, I've seen the prices begin to correct themselves.

There's a home in Lake Elmo that was originally on the market for $599,000 - and it is going to sell for $475,000. As Golfgal will tell you, it is difficult to touch Stillwater for under $400,000.

I absolutely love that area. The homes around and near Lake McKusick are very nice. The downtown area is FUN - and restarurants down there will give you first seating if you're a local.

Hope this helps!

Robert
Robert@RobertPStewart.com

[Ben Around]

mazzer--Don't know what your budget is, but you'll find great Victorian homes in the Summit Hill/Crocus Hill areas of St. Paul. The city has excellent parochial schools, some good choices in charter schools (free, no tuition), and some good public schools for high-achieving kids (My daughter gradauted from a public high school where she took IB classes which got her into a selective college with a nice scholarship.) St. Paul also has agruably the best private school in the state, St. Paul Academy (tuition too much for our budget, but maybe not yours!)

If the Victorians of Summit Hill are out of your price range, there are lots of less expensive 1920's (not quite Victorian) homes in the neighborhoods along the Mississippi River in the Mac-Groveland and Town and County neighborhoods. Lots of beautiful scenery along the heavily wooded river bluff.

Your commute from anywhere in the city to Little Canada would be shorter than from Stillwater (about 6-10 miles vs. about 16 miles).

[mazzer]

My budget could stretch to $400K at a push.

My commute currently is 1 hour in slit your wrists LA traffic so pretty much anything St Paul can throw at me isn't too bad. Even the weather, which I've experienced (I was there 2 weeks ago). Where I live, it gets cold and its windy too mostly throughout the year I might add. And when its summer it gets too hot, so I'll not miss the climate.

I'm a Brit actually, so football (soccer to you guys) is something I've been coaching in my local town over in LA, so it would be nice to get into that over in St Paul.

The house is somewhat of a dream for both me and my wife. We've seen some very nice homes (on the web) with a Rene Macintosh feel to them, some with a more art deco approach but they would be welcome also. Most of the Victorian homes in the UK went through a phase of being gutted and updated, mainly in the 70's. Only then for owners to realize the cast iron vintage baths, original iron grates, decorative doors and coving was actually a nice feature and they've gone and ruined a very nice home in favour of the Ikea home.

We are also currently deprived of nice scenery and trees. Two things we sort of took for granted when we lived in Chester, UK. Also the fine architecture is also sadly lacking here, now I come to think on it. Again Chester harked back to the Roman era so it wasn't uncommon to find yourself enjoying a beer in a 15th century pub.

I was glad to feel a little more at home in St Paul with its lovely architecure and old world feel. It sort of reminded me of Amsterdam.

[mazzer]

Also, to counter my question, where should we not be looking? Are there any unsavory places to avoid?

[golfgal]

Most of the renovated Victorian's in Stillwater were done right, keeping the original features, etc. Personally I wouldn't look in the St. Paul area unless you like the real urban setting. The nice thing about Stillwater is your kids can ride their bikes to their friends houses and you won't have to worry about them, very safe town. You couldn't pay me enough to live in Minneapolis.

I would stay away from Roseville, Little Canada, Woodbury, Cottage Grove, etc. Any of the towns in the Stillwater district are fine (Afton, Marine, etc.). You could go over to West St. Paul/Mendota Heights and have a nice easy commute since you will be going against traffic. You could probably find an older home, maybe 1920's there but probably not a Victorian.

The northern, southern and western suburbs are going to be a longer commute and even though I love the south suburbs, working where you will, Stillwater and Mahtomedi are your best choice and I would give Mahtomedi a SLIGHT edge because of the soccer program but the town of Stillwater has a better hometown feel. I grew up in Stillwater, too.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Most of the renovated Victorian's in Stillwater were done right, keeping the original features, etc. Personally I wouldn't look in the St. Paul area unless you like the real urban setting. The nice thing about Stillwater is your kids can ride their bikes to their friends houses and you won't have to worry about them, very safe town. You couldn't pay me enough to live in Minneapolis.

.

Hey wait a minute, golfgal! Both my kids wre brought up in St. Paul and rode their bikes all over the place, and we didn't worry any more than any other parent in the suburbs. In fact, here in Highland, the crime rate is lower than in many of the suburbs! We have friends in Crocus Hill, Summit Hill and Mac-Groveland, and even (shudder!) South Minneapolis, and their kids play outside all the time. Plus, city kids don't need to be driven everywhere. The Rec Center was a 3 block walk for my kids, and the JCC an easy bike or bus ride. They also walked to elementary school, the skating rink and even soccer. (mazzer, my daughter's soccer coach was from Scotland. Loved his brogue!)

[golfgal]

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[mazzer]

The crimes not too good where we are living. We were shocked at the level and seriousness of the crime.

The costs are simply over the top here too so we can't wait to move.

The schools are dreadful.

We can't even let the kids play in the street for fear of strangers, there's too many stories of kids getting snatched.

Now in the UK we could play anywhere, of course these days that's also not the case. I'm not sure what happened, but my Mum and Dad were hands off parents. We could generally go anywhere we liked as kids. I remember my Dad leaving me in the car while he went buying fish for his aquariums. I'd be on my own waiting for ages. My wife remembers her Mum and Dad leaving her and her siblings while they went for a meal! Too poor to pay for 4 kids!

Now we are totally hands on parents, pretty much like everyone else but now we can't let our kids get out of sight, have to accompany them to the park, arrange play dates (a thing unheard of in my childhood). It was a case of calling for friends with the typical "can xyz come out to play?".

Regarding Scotland, great people the Scots. The best of them is Billy Connolly, a Scottish welder gone comedian gone hollywood star. The one thing I do like about LA is the fact that he's playing there in March. The only highlight of our year!!