Walkable suburb/neighborhood with good schools (Minneapolis, St. Paul: sale, attorneys, homes)

[wamer27]

Originally Posted by paiste13

Yeah, I meant walkable in that budget. 700k could get you a beautiful house in a safe neighborhood in st paul or MPLS.

Correct, right across France are homes within budget, but are in Mpls.

[the_gruffalo]

I don't know enough about Minneapolis or St. Paul to identify safe neighborhoods, but I will look at that area around France when we visit Minnesota next time.

[paiste13]

Originally Posted by the_gruffalo

I don't know enough about Minneapolis or St. Paul to identify safe neighborhoods, but I will look at that area around France when we visit Minnesota next time.

It's not like the national media or rural folks from MN say it is. Crime is the same as any other big city. The population of MPLS proper continues to grow and the idea that people are "moving out as fast as they can" is not supported by any data. If you move into MPLS or Saint Paul, and are concerned with schools, there are much less expensive private schools than you mentioned before. For *safe* walkable neighborhoods, MPLS has linden hills, nokomis, windom/armatage. STP has macalester-groveland, highland, summit hill, and st anthony park.

Cretin-Derham Hall in St Paul is in a wonderful walkable neighborhood. St Paul Academy is expensive but in a wonderful neighborhood. If you lived in MPLS, Benild-St Margaret is close by. $700k will get you a ton of options in the twin cities, it just so happens the only areas it won't get you a ton are the ones you originally mentioned.

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by paiste13

It's not like the national media or rural folks from MN say it is. Crime is the same as any other big city. The population of MPLS proper continues to grow and the idea that people are "moving out as fast as they can" is not supported by any data. If you move into MPLS or Saint Paul, and are concerned with schools, there are much less expensive private schools than you mentioned before. For *safe* walkable neighborhoods, MPLS has linden hills, nokomis, windom/armatage. STP has macalester-groveland, highland, summit hill, and st anthony park.

Cretin-Derham Hall in St Paul is in a wonderful walkable neighborhood. St Paul Academy is expensive but in a wonderful neighborhood. If you lived in MPLS, Benild-St Margaret is close by. $700k will get you a ton of options in the twin cities, it just so happens the only areas it won't get you a ton are the ones you originally mentioned.

Or, however one could just flip over to the Minnesota forum, and read all the true crime facts about crime in The Twin Cities. According to that over there,

[UMN2BE]

Don't move to MPLS or St Paul. The public school districts are jokes. The "flagship" Southwest High in Minneapolis is approximately as good as an average or even slightly-below-average suburban school. School boundaries can change and probably will if one school starts overperforming. Everything hyper-politicized towards one direction. Political correctness and "equity" comes first, which means bringing all schools down to the same low standard rather than focusing on improving bad schools. Then you have insanity like the defund the police movement, where a bunch of unemployed artists and "community leaders" and professional activists are driving major decisions in the city - do you really want to pay $700k for a house in that area?

Prioritize your kids education first and foremost even if that means foregoing "walkability" which is a joke even in the most walkable neighborhoods in Minnesota. This ain't Tokyo or Hong Kong bro. And there's the whole winter thing BTW which makes walking to buy groceries a headache several months of the year.

My suggestion would be Edina, as there's a lot in the city itself, and it's close to a ton of stuff as well.

Shoreview or Arden Hills are two other options I didn't see mentioned, which are part of Mounds View district and your kids would go to Mounds View Senior High, a flagship public school in MN. It's super suburban, however. Woodbury, Wayzata, and Minnetonka are also excellent choices.

[wamer27]

There is a reason houses on east side of France are noticeably cheaper then houses on west side of the street (east is Mpls, west is Edina) if this isn’t the most captain obvious thing…. Yes I know there million plus homes in Mpls area I’m talking about also…but I’d bet those kids are going to private schools.

[UMN2BE]

Originally Posted by wamer27

There is a reason houses on east side of France are noticeably cheaper then houses on west side of the street (east is Mpls, west is Edina) if this isn’t the most captain obvious thing…. Yes I know there million plus homes in Mpls area I’m talking about also…but I’d bet those kids are going to private schools.

This is an excellent point. We know two families with homes in the $800k-$1M range in nice areas of Minneapolis (one near Lake of the Isles, and one on Lake Harriet) and both have sent their kids to private schools from K-12. One of their kids, did go to Southwest High, however, since she was super into Tennis and apparently the program their is solid. In one case, both are physicians with combined income of $600K+/year, and another one is a senior partner at a law firm, probably pulling in $500k in a normal year.

One of my former classmates from years ago lives in South Minneapolis and sends her kids to subpar public schools because she feels it's her "duty" to support the community public schools. One of her kids literally had school cancelled for a week because the building didn't have AC during the early June heatwave. And this is an area where most homes go for $350-500k. Literally no suburban school had this issue.

I just don't understand why someone would "make a point" at the expense of their kid's future.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by UMN2BE

This is an excellent point. We know two families with homes in the $800k-$1M range in nice areas of Minneapolis (one near Lake of the Isles, and one on Lake Harriet) and both have sent their kids to private schools from K-12. One of their kids, did go to Southwest High, however, since she was super into Tennis and apparently the program their is solid. In one case, both are physicians with combined income of $600K+/year, and another one is a senior partner at a law firm, probably pulling in $500k in a normal year.

One of my former classmates from years ago lives in South Minneapolis and sends her kids to subpar public schools because she feels it's her "duty" to support the community public schools. One of her kids literally had school cancelled for a week because the building didn't have AC during the early June heatwave. And this is an area where most homes go for $350-500k. Literally no suburban school had this issue.

I just don't understand why someone would "make a point" at the expense of their kid's future.

We send our kids to Minneapolis Public Schools and have had a good experience. I won’t judge you for going in another direction with your kids and would appreciate if you wouldn’t judge people like me for doing what I think is best for my kids, fair?

[UMN2BE]

Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy

We send our kids to Minneapolis Public Schools and have had a good experience. I won’t judge you for going in another direction with your kids and would appreciate if you wouldn’t judge people like me for doing what I think is best for my kids, fair?

Nah, you can judge me, I honestly couldn't care less. And my comments were directed at OP who is wondering where to live, not you. Don't look too hard for a reason to feel offended. Go enjoy a cold beer.

[Teak]

White Bear Lake is supposed to have a very walkable downtown. I have never been there, but my brother's neighbor in Shoreview raves about their boardwalk beside the lake and the downtown area.

$700k might go farther in White Bear Lake than Wayzata, methinks.

https://www.downtownwhitebearlake.com/

Houses in Shoreview go for $300k and up. North of highway 96, there are many neighborhoods where one can walk to parks (e.g., beside Turtle Lake) and to strip malls alongside highway 96. But as someone else said, how many people walk anywhere in the wintertime to get groceries?