best place to live in Min.

[the dufferz]

for a family without young kids, wanting affordable housing <$400,000, an area where I can get land acre plus, but still being close to a major city with shopping etc.

Where is the best place in Minnesota?

[T.S.]

Originally Posted by the dufferz

for a family without young kids, wanting affordable housing <$400,000, an area where I can get land acre plus, but still being close to a major city with shopping etc.

Where is the best place in Minnesota?

You can probably find that in just about any of the Minneapolis suburbs. You might have more 1 acre+ choices in the outer suburbs though. Almost all are safe and low crime with the exception of parts of a couple inner ones on the north side, like Brooklyn Center, and parts of Brooklyn Park. North Minneapolis proper is the ghetto, and it extends a little into the first suburbs on that side. 5 minutes outside of downtown on any other side, I would walk around alone at 1am and feel perfectly safe, something that I can't say about most areas around Charlotte. I grew up on the outer west side of the metro area near Lake Minnetonka and still like that side best.

Most schools are pretty good, and Minnesota has open enrollment, so if you don't like your school district for any reason, you can enroll your kids in any other school in the state as long as the school has space and you provide the transportation.

I have been considering moving back there ever since I left this past summer. I really did not realize how nice the area was to live in until I lived somewhere else.

[Corlyx]

Originally Posted by the dufferz

for a family without young kids, wanting affordable housing <$400,000, an area where I can get land acre plus, but still being close to a major city with shopping etc.

Where is the best place in Minnesota?

In that price range there are plenty of nice places in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. If you want more than an acre of land though you're going to have to look at the outer suburbs. In my opinion, the western suburbs are the nicest.

[RodFarlee]

It's not Hibbing, that's for sure.
You can get a house there for a lot less, but...

[RodFarlee]

My grampa was farmer, a logger and a miner, and I still have relatives on the Iron Range. But like most Scandanhoovians, most long since moved on to Minneapolis and the Pacific Northwest, and from there, everywhere. Still, we have the reunions, in Eveleth and Embarrass MN and Naselle WA.

I love Minnesota... in the summertime! Not that there isn't something to be said for taking the snowmachines out to the ice house for a day's fishing, but I'm too old for the sauna and jump through the ice to appeal anymore!

[kimbercuddles]

Besides the Twin Cities; Moorhead (Fargo has a lot of things to offer) and Duluth would be great areas to live in if you don't mind the chilly weather and having to scrape ice off of your windshield from October to April. (That might be a SLIGHT exaggeration, but it has happened!)

[kimbercuddles]

If one is concerned about education, I believe that Minnesota is one of the best places to go. When I relocated to San Antonio, many employers were eager to hire me just because of the work ethic and education that Minnesota is known for. There is a lot to be said for small towns, as far as I'm concerned.