Young Family looking for Urban vibe (Minneapolis, St. Paul: apartment, condo, houses)

[po2ter]

My family and I (1 year old daughter, 2 small dogs) are looking to relocate to the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area. My wife will be staying at home and I will mostly telecommute/ work from home. We currently live in Seattle and are looking for an urban life style within the metro area (i.e. walk to shopping, restaurants, parks, etc) and would be open to a decent size condo. Our budget will be around $400K........ does anyone have any recommendations?

[nick is rulz]

North Loop, Lowry Hill

[Minnehahapolitan]

Downtown, Uptown

[po2ter]

Don't get the wrong idea but just throwing this out there..... my wife won't have to worry about walking by herself with our daughter in any of these neighborhoods?

[Minnehahapolitan]

Uptown, Lowry and all of Downtown (except for about two blocks) is perfectly safe as far as any city could be. The Warehouse Dist. (North Loop) is good during the day; but it has the city's highest concentration of bars, so it can get rowdy and pretty family-unfriendly.

[golfgal]

Highland Park in St. Paul--you can buy a smaller home for that price in that area. Down the road you will have to consider schools but you will have a few years to worry about that. Nice, safe area, no worries about your wife walking outside, etc.

When you say urban, do you mean you want to live in a high rise condo type urban or just want to be able to walk places?

[Mistacoolio20]

Originally Posted by po2ter

My family and I (1 year old daughter, 2 small dogs) are looking to relocate to the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area. My wife will be staying at home and I will mostly telecommute/ work from home. We currently live in Seattle and are looking for an urban life style within the metro area (i.e. walk to shopping, restaurants, parks, etc) and would be open to a decent size condo. Our budget will be around $400K........ does anyone have any recommendations?

Don't move to St.Paul, it's a dead city. You won't find what you are looking for there. I think either uptown or around lake of the Isles in Minneapolis would be good for you.
Or downtown Minneapolis. Uptown and Downtown are the most "happening" places in and are also safe.

[kuan]

Lakes area, Calhoun/Harriet.

[chilaili]

Originally Posted by po2ter

My family and I (1 year old daughter, 2 small dogs) are looking to relocate to the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area. My wife will be staying at home and I will mostly telecommute/ work from home. We currently live in Seattle and are looking for an urban life style within the metro area (i.e. walk to shopping, restaurants, parks, etc) and would be open to a decent size condo. Our budget will be around $400K........ does anyone have any recommendations?

I would suggest Highland Park but I'm not sure it's as "urban" as you might want. It doesn't have any nightclubs, but there is a bar, several restaurants, shops, gym, coffeeshops, parks, and it's very close to the river. If you choose the right house you can walk to any of these.

Just one high-rise apartment building. Mostly there are older brownstone apartment buildings and pre- and post-WW2 houses with gardens. It's quite family oriented but not exactly "happening". Also has a younger population thanks to its proximity to St Thomas Uni and College of St Catherine.

[MnMomma]

I don't think of it as being super-urban but Southwest Minneapolis and Nokomis are great areas. There are lots are areas where you could walk to lots of things. My sister lives in the Green Lake area of Seattle and says that our neighborhood (south of Lake Harriet) is similar to hers.