St. Paul West Side neighborhood

[tom_w]

Not sure where to post this...

My wife and I are looking at the West Side nhd. Anyone live there? As I understand it there's some bad parts and some good parts. the houses prices are reasonable right now so we have to consider it.

[nofishfisherman]

Where abouts are you looking?

All areas of St. Paul have their good spots and bad spots. And there are alot of neighborhoods with some affordable houses right now.

How many bedrooms/baths are you looking for?

[MIKE IN lINO III]

I grew up in W.St.Paul and bought my first house on the west side.

I lived there for 14 years, the neighborhood went from good to bad and back again. Try to stay away from neighborhoods that have a lot of rental units.

Where are you looking at buying???

My personal opinion..... there are better places to live.

Good Luck,

Mike

[fishing tech]

I grew up in WSP, Robert & Annapolis. Lived there for 29 years. There is nothing better then having anything you need within a mile or 2 on Robert St. Look at the houses in the area ie( a 4-5 block radius) from where you are looking to buy. That should help let you know what the hood is like. My parents still live in WSP.

[Sandmannd]

I moved into the East side and am in a really good neighborhood. Look at the houses around the property you are looking at. Are they taken care of or are they run down. Run down means it's either a rental or just bad owners. If there's one or two, it's fine, but if the whole neighborhood looks like that, then don't buy there.

[Sandmannd]

Oh yea, nothing wrong with knocking on a few doors and talking to potential neighbors and get their opinions.

[bbqhead]

Hey Sandmannd, East side here too. I am by White bear and Case

Ave. Used to be a good neighborhood here...I guess every area

has some bad hoods.

randy

[tom_w]

Man, I lost track of this post with all the work we've been doing on our current house.

we're hoping for 3 br (minimum) and 2 bath. We have to kids now more room the better.

We've heard good things about St. Paul in general. We got a crime map from the city, so we can see where the real bad spots are.

[CarpKing921]

I say stay away from George and Concord area. But your coming from Minneapolis so your used to the rough stuff. JK. Eastside here also couldn't bring myself to that side of the river. You don't have many fishing options besides the River on that side of town. There's cheap houses everwhere check out the Beaver Lake area between Stillwater Ave and Minnehaha North to South and Ruth on the West to McKnight on the East. Great area with lots of Family owned properties. Plus you have the option of being a couple blocks from the Maplewood, N St.Paul and Oakdale school district for the youngins much better then the St.Paul schools IMO

[nofishfisherman]

St. Paul has some great areas. I don't know what you're looking to spend but there are some good deals to be had all over the city. My wife and I moved into a house a year ago that is about a mile east of Como Lake. Just a couple blocks on the other side of dale. Its not the best neighborhood in town but there are alot of young couples moving into the area and its for sure on its way up. By living a few blocks east of dale versus west of dale we could get alot more house for alot less money. We have good neighbors and its a pretty quiet neighborhood.

All areas of St. Paul have their own charm and their own problems. I would encourage you to look at many areas and see which one fits your price range, lifestyle and schooling needs.

On a side note. There are alot of good elementary schools in St. Paul but also some bad ones. I would look carefully at that when considering areas. Of course you can always bring the kids to school yourself and in that case they can attend any school you wish.

[UdeLakeTom]

We lived on Delaware and Annapolis for 13 years, right near Cherokee park. I heard some bad vibes after we left in '86, but we had a good neighborhood at the time. Mostly from what I have heard is the higher up the hill and the closer to WSP/Mendota Heights you are the better it is.

Good luck.

[Sandmannd]

Hey Sandmannd, East side here too. I am by White bear and Case

Ave. Used to be a good neighborhood here...I guess every area

has some bad hoods.

randy

That's extremely close to me Randy. I'm on Johnson Pkwy and Magnolia. Just a couple of blocks from the new Cub. We'll have to get together sometime.

I agree to check the schools. Just did that when our 12 year old daughter moved in last fall. Some not so good and some really good. We ended up choosing Prosperity Hights, and it's a very good school.

[tom_w]

Yeah, we've been going to the neighborhood parks and pestering the local residents, asking questions and whatnot. everyone seems to enjoy living in St. Paul very much. Seems perhaps to have more of a small town feel. I just looked around Como Park as well. Seems nice.

It was killing me that WS neighborhood had no lakes nearby. In mpls I am a few minutes from nokomis and harriet. Of course we have a few shootings every year as well.

[nofishfisherman]

The como area is great to live in. On a nice spring day like today everyone flocks to the park and lake. It does have a little of the small town feel.

I also find that it is very convienently located for most commutes. I work in the south metro and its less then 30 minutes commute and my wife works at the U of M and its just a few minutes commute.

If you can get into the como area right now you might end up spending more money then you would in WSP but you'll also have a much better investment in terms of future resale value of your home and you'll be in a much nicer area. Prices in como are down a like everywhere right now but they will go up alot quicker and alot higher then prices in WSP once the market turns around.

If you can't afford west of dale I woudl look just east of dale like I did. You'll probably save 20-30,000 becuase the neighborhood is still a little more up and coming.

Conny's Creamy Cone is reason enough to move to that area. Its a great outdoors dairy queen type place. Only much cheaper then Dairy Queen.

[Sandmannd]

I agree with nofish, that area will go up fast as the housing market comes back up.

I've driven by Conny's a number of times, have just never stopped there.

[Tom7227]

An interesting experience is to check the taxes on a house with about the same market value in one town vs. the next one over. A long time ago when I did it I ended up going north of Larpenteur. 3/4 a block made a lot of difference.

[nofishfisherman]

Sandmannd, give Conny's a try sometime. Make sure you bring cash though. They don't take credit cards.

I live 4-5 blocks from there so the wife and I stop a little too often probably.

[nofishfisherman]

An interesting experience is to check the taxes on a house with about the same market value in one town vs. the next one over. A long time ago when I did it I ended up going north of Larpenteur. 3/4 a block made a lot of difference.

I looked at places just north of Larpenteur when I was house hunting last year. I'm not sure what taxes are but from what I saw the house prices were higher for the same age/size of house.

[MIDNIGHT777]

If you want to pm me I can give you some pretty good details on West. St. Paul and I have a little knowledge of the Westside.

Matt

[tom_w]

Is there PM'ing in this forum? I may have to email you...

[Trollin226]

You also might want to check out the south east side battle creak area. I agree with others on FM I work for the Saint Paul fire on the east side of the city. Their bad spots to most every neighborhood, unfortunately I have gotton to know most of the east side ones pretty well.