where to live in rochester, mn (Marshall, Stewartville: real estate, rentals, how much)

[vpresa]

Happy Holidays! To add to this December craziness my husband just accepted a new job offer and we will be moving to Rochester from NY at the end of this month.
Can anyone describe some of the surrounding neighborhoods and possibly make suggestions as to where is a nice place to find a home. We are a family of 5 with 3 children under the age of 8. Looking for good schools (which doesn't seem to be an issue) 3+ bedroom single family house, yard, less than 30 min. commute, friendly, family oriented neighborhood. Would like to rent for under $1,500 p/mo.
Thank you

[fromupthere]

Most areas around are good. If you are looking outside of Rochester, you might want to consider Byron or Stewartville first as their schools are very good. But pretty much any of the surrounding communities are nice.

Check out Infinity Real Estate & Management Group for info too. He is a realtor who does rentals too. We found our rental through him, and he's really good to work with.

[chicago-twincities]

ive got a brother who lives down in Rochester and they live in "Country Club Manor" its kid friendly there. older development though id say 50-60s make. from what he says the school district is really good.

[rochesterite]

like chicago said, the manor (as its commonly referred to) is the best place to raise a family in rochester.. other then century hills.

the district is alright... 3 high schools:

John Marshall~GHETTO (i used to go to that ghetto haven)
Mayo~ good
Century~ newest and the "rich kid" school

[audadvnc]

Depends on what you're in Rochester for. If you're working for IBM, you move to the north end of town. Mayo or St Mary's, go south.

[BillWallace]

John Marshall = ghetto? This is Rochester you are talking about. Everyone has an above average standard of living there. As a JM grad I can think of a lot worse you can do at many schools here in the Twin Cities.

As to vpresa's question - a lot has to do with what you want from a neighborhood. $1500/mo isn't a huge amount if you are renting so check out craigslist to see what that will get you. Personally, I've never been a huge "manor" fan. Other places to maybe avoid are NW Rochester, north of 37th and between Hwy 52 and 18th Avenue as well as SE Rochester on the downtown side of Hwy 14.

Depending on how old your kids are you might want to look at school data to see which ones have the best performance and target living in those boundaries.

Whatever you select, it's hard to go wrong. Rochester is and was a great place to raise a family.

[rochesterite]

ha, when did you last go there?!

[rtloucks]

I grew up in Rochester all my life. I left there when I was 26 and I can tell you anything you want to know. My family all suffers I mean lives there still. No offense but you picked the wrong town to move to. You are welcome to message me on here if you like about questions. Rochester is good for a few things. Smaller town with amenities. Some schools are decent, and there are several restaurants and bars to frequent there is a nice lake to walk around but you can't go in it, there's great healthcare with Mayo but I can now list many bad things:

Most schools have gone down hill stay with Hoover Elem, Churchill elem, kellogg middle, and mayo high. Others will post thoughts on century but my nephew went three and struggled, not to mention he was constantly harassed as well as many of his friends. I went to Hoover, Churchill kellogg and mayo. I was supposed to go to John Marshall but chose to provide my own transportation and went to a good school instead. Do your research heavily on schools. Fortunately Rochester did have the choice option. That's where you can enroll your children in any school as long as they have room and you provide transportation. Whatever you do stay away from the SE Rochester schools and John Marshall high. Trust me on that.

Don't move to a suburb, you will have plenty of housing options in the city . The suburbs just add to you commute in crappy weather. I suggest staying Nw or Sw check out zips 55901 and 55902 Elton hills area is great older homes (70's) but very established and maintains value while remaining affordable. I wouldn't live right down town, although convenient, just a little sketchy all over and lots of traffic. Lots of nice areas to look though. Staying in town offers you many things to do. Going to a burb, you will be lucky to have a gas station and a bar probably,Byron is very boring although the schools are great. Stewartville is a trailer park town, don't wast your time just look in Rochester. Rochester is friendly but very boring in all, never really anything going on, no major events, a few lame concerts at the civic center, Rochester fest every June is fun, county fair every august, flea market on weekends. The Honkers are sort of minor league baseball downtown.

Now realize, even though you are from the north, the winters are unbearable in Rochester. Constant below zero temps, snow by the foot, 37 inches the last week and a half, no jobs available unless you work for mayo or IBM. I love all my family and friends back home but I wouldn't move back for anything. Hopefully you will enjoy it but I would rent a home first to make sure you don't want to leave because selling your hone there later will be impossible. We fully updated ours and has it listed for five years before it finally sold for a47k loss and we bought at a great price. You will have a ton to chose from but go in low low low!!!!! Don't get caught paying anything more than 85% of
asking. I hope all this helps, fell free to ask more I check this a few times a day because we are currently on the move again and appreciate peoples honesty. Also, I'm white, 33, married, two children in school, we both make decent livings, jest to compare

[rtloucks]

Oh and by the way, I know a Loy can change in the years vie been gone but I go back several times a year to see family, all my friends still live there and I did move back there from may 2009-nov 2010 for my wife (father was Ill) so I'm in tune to what's going on there. Postbulletin.com is the local newspaper good luck

[fromupthere]

Originally Posted by rtloucks

Now realize, even though you are from the north, the winters are unbearable in Rochester. Constant below zero temps, snow by the foot, 37 inches the last week and a half

This comment makes me laugh. Everyone I know who has grown up here cannot remember the last time a winter was this bad in Rochester. I grew up in Northern Minnesota, so I can tell there is a huge difference in winters in Minnesota. In Rochester, the snow comes later and is gone sooner and there are not that many days of temps below zero like there are in Northern Minnesota. I find the winters in Rochester to be waaaaaayyyy less harsh.

To the OP, there are lots of things to do in Rochester, but they aren't really advertised well. Having young children, we've discovered we have to look to find them, but they are there. There's Quarry Hill Nature Center in Rochester and the Zollman Zoo in Oxbow Park near Byron. Both of these places take donations so you decide how much you want to give. There are the flea markets pretty much nearly every weekend at the fairgrounds, plus they have Gold Rush Days in May and August if you like antiques. The farmer's market is pretty much yearround - it's in two locations - one for the summer, one for the winter (fairgrounds). There's a hockey team, a soccer team, the Honker's team, there is semi-pro football, there's old fashioned base ball (the Rochester Roosters at the History Center). There are two places with inflatables - House of Bounce and the other one just opened, so I can't remember their name. Chuck E. Cheese just opened. There are parks galore. Silver Lake Playground is a great place to take young kids. There is Silver Lake where you can rent bikes and boats. There are bike/walking trails galore. There are two bowling alleys, one with mini golf and batting cages. Plus during the summer, all the surrounding towns have their own fairs/events, so it's not that difficult to find stuff to do. There are free concerts in the summer, too - Down By the Riverside - on Sunday evenings.

As far as the Choice Schools go, there is busing. My kids are in a Choice School and the buses are not limited to the area around the school. I'm not sure if they go throughout the whole city as we are in the area of our school, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do.