Bloomington, MN area cost of living…

So, I have an opportunity to(possibly) be looking at a job offer in Bloomington. Personally, I won’t try to live in Bloomington proper, the further from city/urban dwelling the better I guess. What I’m trying to find out is what kinds of cost of living impacts I’m going to see living nearer a major city like Minneapolis as opposed to the bustling metropolis that is the northwoods of Rhinelander WI. Housing obviously, but…
It would be quite a significant salary increase, however if it’s eaten up or more in COLA then…
Any input from you folks on that side of the river? Keep in mind, I would still remain a Bears fan no matter where I landed. Try not to let that influence your thinking TOO much.

Thanks all!
-Rev

I don’t know enough about Wisconsin to know how a lot of this compares, so this is just a biased rant against city living by me. I lived in Eagan (suburb just South of Bloomington) from 2013-2015. It was horrible for me… I had only previously lived in small town Iowa and small town South Dakota. Things like people, stoplights, rush-hour, traffic, etc. were just a nightmare to me. But then again, other people don’t mind that stuff. If it’s a good career move, then certainly look into it! We moved last fall. I love my current job 60 miles south of the Metro, and our acreage 35 miles south of the Metro. We’ve got peace and quiet, but the city right there if needed for something.

I don’t know what else would be higher around here. Housing is going to be the main factor. Gas prices are about as good or better than most places outside of the cities. The biggest factor would probably be commute time. Depending on where in Bloomington you are and where you decide to live, that could be a large change.

hunterjoe wrote:

I don’t know what else would be higher around here. Housing is going to be the main factor. Gas prices are about as good or better than most places outside of the cities. The biggest factor would probably be commute time. Depending on where in Bloomington you are and where you decide to live, that could be a large change.

Housing, obviously. Added, the wife would be looking for work again.

@mnrabbit, a 35 mile or so commute doesn’t completely scare me, I do a decent one now and used to do 40 or more. Granted, traffic around here doesn’t compare-except on Fridays/Mondays when the tourists are coming/going.

Yes, housing is the biggest factor. And… right now the availability/inventory of houses on the market in the Twin Cities is quite low, thus driving price up a bit further. Twin Cities has always been fairly high for housing prices in the Midwest – downside is buying, upside is they retain value and re-sale fairly well.

you can still get a bang for your buck out west (carver co) if you look hard and not sure what you want either or a little farther out in mcleod if you really wanna drive.

Personally I would not live south of the river if my job was north of it. If that doesn’t bother you at all, look in towns in the Jordan area. The only places to cross are 41, 101, 169 and 35W in the SW.

Depending on where it is in bloomington (east or west of 35w) most times 494 is jacked around interchange, I try to stay away from that area during rush hours.

Buyer beware rev. Moving from Eau Claire to Phillips I essentially traded my house with the selling and buying price being equal. I now live on a lake and my taxes are $700 cheaper – go figure that one? My garbage expense was cut in half. I no longer pay for sewer and water but am responsible for my own well and sceptic. Check out the wheel tax in Minnesota as I believe you might be in sticker shock but other taxes might be cheaper. Go to city data.com for comparables on were you live now and were you are considering. Unless you are making a major jump in income I would stay in the heart of the Wisconsin northwoods.

carver wrote:

you can still get a bang for your buck out west (carver co) if you look hard and not sure what you want either or a little farther out in mcleod if you really wanna drive.

Personally I would not live south of the river if my job was north of it. If that doesn’t bother you at all, look in towns in the Jordan area. The only places to cross are 41, 101, 169 and 35W in the SW.

Depending on where it is in bloomington (east or west of 35w) most times 494 is jacked around interchange, I try to stay away from that area during rush hours.

Agree with this but I wouldn’t be too afraid of living south of the river if I worked in Bloomington proper, depending on a few things. A couple points to clarify:

1) What are your hours for your new job? Typical 8-5 workday or something else like shift work or really early or really late? I have a friend who lives in Burnsville and goes to Roseville who starts his IT job at 7am to miss most of the traffic both ways.

2) What part of Bloomington will you be working? It’s a fairly big city land mass wise and where you’re at will help to know what kind of traffic you’ll be looking at. Very different impacts for 494/West Bush Lk Rd vs Old Shakopee Rd/Normandale Blvd vs MOA area.

494 between Eden Prairie and 35W either direction in rush hour is one of the worst traffic areas in the metro. The whole southern metro gets fairly congested as a rule but this stretch is particularly bad, FYI.

For my two cents, I grew up in western MN and live in St. Louis Park now and I’m of the opinion that I either have to be in the city or out of it, so the exurbs in Dakota and Carver counties are like purgatory for me and I will avoid living there like the plague. As always, YMMV. Hope this helps, good luck.

reverend wrote:

Housing, obviously. Added, the wife would be looking for work again.

@mnrabbit, a 35 mile or so commute doesn’t completely scare me, I do a decent one now and used to do 40 or more. Granted, traffic around here doesn’t compare-except on Fridays/Mondays when the tourists are coming/going.

A 35 mile commute is a LONG commute when most of it is in city traffic. I would consider this angle very carefully. The commute, more than anything else, can really drag you down. My wife now works from home and ditching her 2 hours per day of commute is like getting an extra day every week to do stuff she wants to do.

Personally, I’m not into the concept of trying to work in the city, but live out in the hinterlands. It just causes too many hassles and I feel it’d cost me too much of my life in the car.

Housing is going to be your biggest COL increase, but also you will most likely get hit more for insurance (cars and house). On average, your property taxes may also be higher, but that depends on a lot of factors and some smaller cities and towns have very high property taxes these days, so this is a wildcard factor depending on a lot of variables.

I agree with the above advice on the south metro. In fact, anywhere you have to cross a river is a bottle neck that can’t be easily gotten around. There are only so many bridges.

Grouse

reverend wrote:

So, I have an opportunity to(possibly) be looking at a job offer in Bloomington. Personally, I won’t try to live in Bloomington proper, the further from city/urban dwelling the better I guess. What I’m trying to find out is what kinds of cost of living impacts I’m going to see living nearer a major city like Minneapolis as opposed to the bustling metropolis that is the northwoods of Rhinelander WI. Housing obviously, but…
It would be quite a significant salary increase, however if it’s eaten up or more in COLA then…
Any input from you folks on that side of the river? Keep in mind, I would still remain a Bears fan no matter where I landed. Try not to let that influence your thinking TOO much.

Thanks all!
-Rev

No matter what your decision is Rev. I think you should be taxed to the hilt just for being a bear fan.

Reverend Jim we will need to go fishing soon so I can talk you off the cliff.

I live in southwest Rosemount and work right on 494 and France ave. It’s 18 miles from doorstep to doorstep. I almost always take 77 north to 494 west in the morning. Since they added the extra lane from 35W to 100 as you go east, traffic has been consistently tolerable and it’s no longer worth taking side roads. 95% of the time it takes me 28-30 minutes during rush hour. The way home usually takes a little longer about 35 minutes. I typically get to work between 7:30 and 8 and leave between 4:30 and 5 most days. Living south of the river isn’t an issue except for the 5-10 days a year it’s snowing or raining during the commute, yes rain slows everyone down so if you are willing to tolerate those days living south is no issue from a commute perspective. Your dollar will go further as far as housing goes the further away from downtown minneapolis you go.

Definitely compare property taxes for the surrounding cities, see if any major referendums just passed or are on the near horizon. Farmington taxes were considerably higher than Rosemount, Apple Valley, Eagan because they built a brand new high school in the past 8 years and have a smaller business district compared to Eagan.

Hard to know about groceries compared to where you are at now but we rotate between Cub, Target, Sam’s Club, and Aldi’s depending on what we are buying and coupons available. This has worked for us in keeping costs down.

Good luck in your decision.

I have been working in Bloomington for the last 10 months. I agree with the above statement that traffic is not as bad as advertised. Tonight being the exception with the snow.

With the housing market not being what it once was, I’d rent and rent close to work. There are some really cool rental units nowdays with many built in amenities. This way, if city life isn’t for you, you just live out your rental term and hand in the keys.

Spend your weekends in the country, on the lake, etc, but save yourself the stress of driving (even though it’s not as bad as previous years) and rent a spot with the kind of things around you that you enjoy. Couple nice restaurants, coffee shop, gym, whatever!!

Eric

I live in rosemount also and agree the traffic is not that bad and taxes are cheaper that most places from here to north mpls. And if you go around calling it Bloomington proper your going to get a lot of funny looks.

bigpike wrote:

Reverend Jim we will need to go fishing soon so I can talk you off the cliff.

Thanks, but I talked myself off(I’ll still take you up on some fishing though!)
Thank you all for your input, and for helping me tease out what I suppose I already knew to be true…lots in minutiae in the details, but simply put I declined this morning and I’ll be staying here.
Interesting side effect of the process: We’ve been here 6 years now, and it’s been a rough road-we made a lot of mistakes, underestimated a lot of stresses involved with moving 7+ hours away from our nearest family and friends(as opposed to 15 minutes) to an area where, literally, neither of us knew a single soul. We did this with 4 kids; the youngest was 6 months old and the oldest entering high school. That’s right, we were(and are, I think) insane. I’ve been hit with a lot of moments when I’m stopped in my tracks and wonder, “What the hell are we doing here?”
In the end, while discussing with my wife we both came to a similar conclusion, and I think it surprised us both to realize it. It was, to whit: “The kids love it here; love the outdoors-year round-and we love that they get that(We both grew up in flat farm country). By golly, we did it. We made a life here, we’re happy here. I’ll be damned.”
Frankly, I think we’d both been so busy surviving the past 6 yrs that we missed it. It was a great realization.
THANKS everyone!
-Rev

I work in Bloomington and live in Prior lake. I will take my Driver ( South of the river ) to and from work over those people living almost any other direction any day. We have many people who work with me that live West and North of Bloomington. They live about the same distance from work as I do and their commute is usually 2X longer than mine.

reverend – looks like you made a good decision. You figured out the “costs” that matter.

I’m also a transplant from a smaller area to the cities. Those above with similar experiences did a nice job relaying more than the financial costs to moving to the metro.

Here’s a couple more:
Traffic 16 years and I’ve never really adjusted to cities vs growing up in North Dakota. Who the hell has to pay to park a car? Valet, are my legs broke? etc.

It’s not all bad, there’s some good things a city can offer too: hub airport, niche stores(Thorne bros), sporting events, job opportunity, etc.

People come to the city for jobs and money. If you can find those elsewhere there’s no reason to live here unless you just want to.

suzuki wrote:

People come to the city for jobs and money. If you can find those elsewhere there’s no reason to live here unless you just want to.

Couldn’t have said it better!

suzuki wrote:

People come to the city for jobs and money. If you can find those elsewhere there’s no reason to live here unless you just want to.

Thanks Suzuki, you summed it up well. Financially, we’re not rich but we do OK with what we need. Being well off in so many other ways is worth more to me than money these days…and helped me remember why I moved here.