My daughter has been accepted into the Univ of Minn Phd program for Business Administration (Carlson). She and her future husband will need an apartment --need the members advice for location, where to avoid, etc. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Not familiar with Minnesota at all.

To get the most for her money in a safe location, I'd avoid Minneapolis and St Paul proper. There are good and bad areas in each, but the good ones will cost a pretty penny. As with any city, the most dangerous areas are in the transition zone between downtown and suburban.

The Carlson School is on the West Bank of the Minneapolis Campus, so West may be easier than East in terms of location. My daughter is in grad school at the UM and has an apartment in St Louis Park. Not a terribly long drive, but far enough away that you can get a lot more for your money.

There is quite a bit of variety in the apartment selection within a 25 minute drive from the West Bank. Generally speaking though, I would avoid the Brooklyns (Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center). There are some okay areas of both but they are random. Northeast Minneapolis is in a transition phase, getting nicer and more “hipster”. Avoid North Minneapolis like the plague. I’m more of a suburb guy myself and I personally would look towards Plymouth or St. Louis Park. I like some of the shops and close access to the Highways that Eden Prairie offers. They are doing bridge work on 35W at the Minnesota River until 2020 so unless she likes sitting in traffic avoid Burnsville, Savage, Prior Lake. I guess that goes for 35W south of Minneapolis in general since they have major, long term road work there as well.

My wife sells real estate so she sees a lot more of the metro in detail than I do and she says that she personally would look towards the southeast Minneapolis or northeast Minneapolis neighborhoods (to clarify that is NE and SE of the City of Minneapolis itself, not the Minneapolis metro area).

Like CEShooter, I'd generally shy away from Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center (there are, of course exceptions in those areas) and the "inner ring" of suburbs.

In the past, I've lived in Plymouth, Maple Grove and Minnetonka and would feel comfortable recommending any of those suburbs - however they would be farther to commute. St Louis Park should be OK too.

We do have a light rail system here that I believe would put them within a 10 minute walk - and that might be worth looking into if they want to go out as far as Elk River or further.

In some other state . . . .

flashguy

Student housing available in Como. Townhouses that like nice. Is this a good neighborhood? Is there a bus or rail ?