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Buying a new home: Location Dilemma...
We are looking at new homes and can't figure out where to look. Ideally we'd like to live right off 494 (Ridgedale Mall area/Wayzata). But the houses in that area are old, over priced, and ramblers. Anything that isn't old or a rambler is $400k or more and we just don't want to have a huge mortgage.
So here is the dilemma:
I think it would be nice to live in Maple Grove/Plymouth area, which would be close to my work and closer to my friends and since my parents live up North, it would be closer to them (we currently live 2 miles from his parents). BUT...DH and I are still discussing whether I will go back to work after we have a baby or if I will quit my job and stay at home. If I stay at home I think it would be nice to be closer to his job (Edina) so we could visit him and so he could have a shorter commute. But his commute as of right now is the same length as it would be if we lived in Plymouth.
We aren't going to start TTC for two years so we won't be making a decision on me working or being a SAHM. So should be buy a house based on our lives now?
Re: Buying a new home: Location Dilemma...
Have you looked in the Browndale neighborhood in St. Louis Park? Or Minnekahda-Vista in Minneapolis?
There are some reasonably priced homes (older, but still pretty cool and then there are the newly remodeled homes too). There's also areas in Edina off of 50th or Vernon on the west side of Highway 100 that are pretty awesome too.
Choosing a neighborhood is really hard - we ended up picking a neighborhood for our future children, not for our now lives (if that makes any sense at all...).
I agree 100% with this. You never know where you will be in 2 years or what will happen. There is no guarantee that you'll have the same jobs, get pregnant according to your timeline or who knows what else.
When we bought 4 1/2 years ago, we bought for the future. I was in law school so we bought an inexpensive house close to school and work with the intention that we would put in some elbow grease to make improvements, sell it at a profit, buy a large piece of land and build our dream house. Our goal was 5 years. Here we are, coming on 5 years and our plans are shot. The housing market tanked so it doesn't make financial sense to sell. The job market sucks so I can't find a job that will allow us to have another mortgage for land/building a house. After all is said and done, we're stuck in neighborhood and house we hate with no end in sight. If we bought for the present, we'd at least be in a neighborhood we like.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
we have a kind of similar story, but we balanced current/future plans. We bought a townhouse, hoping to be there for 5 or 6 years, and then moving onto a single family.
There is NO way we could sell anytime soon, so I am glad we bought in a community we liked with decent schools. While I am very ready to be in our own house for many reasons, I am not completely unhappy here either.