Cost of Living in Minneapolis vs midwest (Bloomington, Eden Prairie: house, salaries)

[joytodd]

mod cut
I really appreciate all your help and much of what you have asked/said has given us pause to re-evaluate some of the things we were initially looking for.
So, thank you again and I am sorry about this last person being so rude!

Funny thing is....we've been to Indianapolis.....and we cannot wait to get to MN :-)

[Rockin Cowgirl]

If your job will be in Eden Prairie, you might want to go west to find cheaper housing. $275k will get you a nice house in my hometown of Hutchinson. You're looking at a commute of a good hour though and property taxes are kind of high. Hutch is about 14,000 population. We have your basic shopping(Wal-Mart, Target) School's good, especially if your kids are into sports. There are small towns between here and EP that are probably even cheaper. However, if you're looking for fancy restaurants, culture and entertainment and you want it nearby, then you'll have to go to Minneapolis. We drive into the cities for that.

[joytodd]

What you are describing is actually dead on what we are looking for! We dont' need fancy restaurants, culture, nor big city entertainment everyday so we are content to travel into the city when we want to go do something different.
Would the commute from Hutchinson to EP be an hour or was that to Minneapolis? We are hoping that we can first found housing we can afford....$450 just isn't going to happen....more like a $350 MAX without being so house poor that we can't live.
I will have to look at your suggestion a bit! What road/highway would you take into EP from there so I can look at the towns along the way as well?

Thanks for the suggestion.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by joytodd

What you are describing is actually dead on what we are looking for! We dont' need fancy restaurants, culture, nor big city entertainment everyday so we are content to travel into the city when we want to go do something different.
Would the commute from Hutchinson to EP be an hour or was that to Minneapolis? We are hoping that we can first found housing we can afford....$450 just isn't going to happen....more like a $350 MAX without being so house poor that we can't live.
I will have to look at your suggestion a bit! What road/highway would you take into EP from there so I can look at the towns along the way as well?

Thanks for the suggestion.

Hutch to EP would be a LONG commute. I like Hutch, I wouldn't mind living there. I wouldn't want to commute to EP everyday though.

Ok, found your house--short sale but you have some time--beautiful house, 25 miles to Eden Prairie Center, Lakeville schools, beautiful area really--MLS #4171611 4 br, 5 acres.

Here is another one: 4316382--beautiful land, creek running through the property, 4446 sq feet, 10 acres of wooded land, New Prague Schools (very good choice), 30 miles to EP Center up 4 lane, 65 MPH roads.

[StilltheSame]

Joy - take some time searching the MLS. If Eden Prairie is the work location - I think you have far more choices for larger homes and land than if downtown Minneapolis were the work base. Edinarealty or realtor.com should enable you to look online and get some ideas of homes via map - that will help you narrow your search and get an idea of location. Here is what a quick search found:
1829 Valley Ridge Trail N, Chanhassen, MN 55317 | Listing Information

8042 Cheyenne Avenue, Chanhassen, MN 55317 | Listing Information

18731 Pennington Avenue, Eden Prairie, MN 55346 | Listing Information

[asitshouldbe]

Originally Posted by 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....

These look comparable.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by StilltheSame

Joy - take some time searching the MLS. If Eden Prairie is the work location - I think you have far more choices for larger homes and land than if downtown Minneapolis were the work base. Edinarealty or realtor.com should enable you to look online and get some ideas of homes via map - that will help you narrow your search and get an idea of location. Here is what a quick search found:
1829 Valley Ridge Trail N, Chanhassen, MN 55317 | Listing Information

8042 Cheyenne Avenue, Chanhassen, MN 55317 | Listing Information

18731 Pennington Avenue, Eden Prairie, MN 55346 | Listing Information

By land she means several acres though, not a .5 acre lot. If you do a search for 5+ acres in her price range within 20 miles of EP, you get 3 listings. She has been searching the MLS.

[StilltheSame]

Originally Posted by golfgal

By land she means several acres though, not a .5 acre lot. If you do a search for 5+ acres in her price range within 20 miles of EP, you get 3 listings. She has been searching the MLS.

Just options. Joy can ignore as she sees appropriate.

[GraniteStater]

I like the suggestion of Hutchinson. Also keep a sharp eye out for short sales. Minnesota real estate will always be more expensive than just about any area of the Lower Midwest because the economy in Minneapolis St.Paul metro is much better, the educational attainment is higher, and salaries are higher. Real estate prices these days are more in line with reality with what the market with dictate and that is why the overbuilt areas of the Sunbelt, bought by speculators through easy credit, fell off as fast as they did.
I would also look at Wright County as RE prices seem a bit lower there. Commute wouldn't be much better, though.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by The Northerner

We scouted the Twin Cities metro for a long while before finally saying no, largely due to the housing costs. As awesome as MSP is, there are many excellent alternatives in this nation where a family pulling in under 100K a year can live more comfortably. We too were very suprised at the housing prices in that area, but they must be justifed, because it seems they keep going up. I was pretty dissapointed, because I thought for sure MSP was going to be where we landed, but I wasn't going to stick my family in a sub par home just so we could live there.

Considering the metro median family income is far less than that, I think you could have survived just fine.....assuming you can keep up with the Joneses. I live in a much "cheaper" city -- Cleveland -- and although housing is less everything else is not, and my wage decrease was not worth the decrease in housing and especially quality of living. You get so much more for your dollar in MSP in my personal experience, and it's not even close!