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Wildflower neighborhood ~ Eagan

I have previously expressed my lack of enthusiasm for cookie cutter neighborhoods. This one isn’t QUITE as unique as Cobblestone Lake (see my last post), but it definitely has it’s charms.

It’s a small neighborhood right near the most beautiful park in this part of the metro area – Lebanon Hills. I feel like I sing the praises of Lebanon Hills every other video / post at this point – but it’s a really nice park! I like parks, sue me.

The homes are all a similar style – 3 or 4 level splits, but the neighborhood is established enough to have mature trees, and people have lived in the homes long enough to have made changes to them.

I also didn’t think I loved split level homes, but it turns out I love THESE split level homes! I’ve been in two of them recently with clients, and both had the same kind of cozy feel – not necessarily SMALL, but because of the nature of the 4 level split it has a smaller footprint and goes up one level, and down TWO levels. They seem to go on and on. I’m one of the rare breed (or silent majority?) that likes a home with WALLS. I’m not opposed to a certain level of openness, and I think high ceilings add a lot (these have them!), but when you have more than one person living in a house, it’s nice to have a separate space that isn’t a bedroom that you can go to and still be OF the house but not necessarily right in the mix. If you’re living in MN, you will also appreciate that they all seemed to have fireplaces for winter coziness and beautiful back yard landscaping – either a deck or a patio – to enjoy the summer and fall.

The neighborhood has a really interesting layout – every street is a cul-de-sac! Until I had a kid I didn’t realize exactly how much I would like a cul-de-sac. The only traffic on any one of the short streets has a purpose for being there, there aren’t ANY cars using the neighborhood as a shortcut and there is only one way in or out, and that way has a bike/walking trail running right down the middle of it.

One of the homes we looked at backed up to the shopping area on this map – at first it was a little startling and we thought possibly not a great idea, but who hasn’t been one ingredient short when making dinner? it was quiet, and the walking/bike path continues from the entrance to the neighborhood on Lexington Pointe Parkway straight back to the shopping area. If you feel like heading over to the Eagan Arms Public House or Theresa’s Mexican restaurant – easy peasy!

If you have kiddos, they can take that same path over to Northview Elementary or Dakota Hills Middle School. Both have “A” grades on Niche.com.

Last but not least – it was apparent that this neighborhood had an active HOA. While it didn’t seem to revolve around ridiculous rules about the color of your curtains, the fees paid in went to maintaining the beauty of the neighborhood – either the abundant gardens lining the entry to the neighborhood, or the neighborhood mailboxes.

The three times I was in the neighborhood I saw people out walking and enjoying time with their neighbors. It just felt like a really welcoming little community.

Right now, single family homes in Eagan have a median home price of $341,000. They spend very little time on the market and they get at least 100% of their asking price.

Have a question about a particular suburb or neighborhood? Let me know!

Neighborhood Tours

Neighborhood tour – Eagan MN

Go for a walk – in Eagan!

I’ve been talking to several people interested in the suburbs of Minneapolis so this week I decided to poke around Eagan MN. I live in Minneapolis, so of course I’ve been to Eagan before, but what is fun about these tours is that it makes me dig a little deeper and look a little closer at the details of a community and really think about living there and what would be a plus or a minus.

Deciding on suburbs of Minneapolis?

Housing in Eagan

Eagan has very diverse housing options. Lots of apartments (rents around $1800/mo), condos, townhouses/twin homes, typical suburban homes from the late ’80’s and through the ’90’s, and even a couple of incredible mansions.

On the low end of the price points in Eagan are condos that run about $100k for 2 bedrooms. They are midrise, shared laundry, well maintained and a great option if you live alone, don’t want maintenance, want an apartment near the city as a second home etc.

Townhouses similar to those in the video are in the high $200 – mid $300K range, and some of the larger and newer town homes in Eagan are $450-500K.

Single family homes run the gamut from 1970’s ramblers to an outright castle, but homes in the subdivisions of Eagan tend to be set on .3 – about 1 acre lots and are larger, lots of them with 3 car garages and minimum of 4 beds, 3,000 SF. Prices sit in the mid $500’s as a median.

Things you may like about living in Eagan

Location

Eagan is ideally situated. It is close to the airport & an easy commute to both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul via 35 E or W.

Parks

Eagan also has easy access to a large park system. On the north side is Fort Snelling which is part of the National Parks. There are also two off leash dog parks in that area – one close to the airport and another a little further north at Minnehaha Falls.

To the south is Lebanon Hills Park – this place is amazing. The visitor’s center is quite new and clean, the park itself is very well maintained. There are many many hiking trails to take and it is a great place to go with kids. I took my daughter there last fall and we selected a 3 mile hike and were given a map that told us which trail markers to follow. The trails are really well marked! I love that! We saw so many animals and birds on our walk and while we weren’t completely alone the park is large enough that even when there are a lot of people visiting you are still able to achieve that feeling of having spent time in the quiet of nature. If you have horses, there are trails marked for that as well.

Eagan has 27 soccer fields and 56 parks – 14 of which have outdoor skating rinks in winter.

Shopping

“The Mall” as people here call it. The Mall of America is not actually located IN Eagan but it is right next door. I confess to having not been there until last weekend and I was surprised at how much I actually liked it! It’s not mobbed with people. The variety of stores is really nice and there are things there that are harder to come by in other places. The amusement park and roller coasters were larger than I expected and look like a lot of fun – we did Flyover America and loved it!

There is a brand new Costco on the north side of the city, and unlike the one in St. Louis Park, the parking lot doesn’t make you want to tear your hair out (or that other person that can’t park’s hair out… it’s occurred to me and I am a peaceful person… ). It’s a joy to shop there. A zen experience compared to SLP.

If you like Walmart – there is a shopping center with Walmart on the north side of the city and for the True Minnesotansâ„¢ who want to shop their hometown retailer, there is a large shopping area with Target in the triangle between 77 and 35E.

Finally – Eagan is home to Twin Cities Premium Outlet Mall on the NE side of the city.

Family fun

In summer, Eagan has an outdoor pool and water park called Cascade Bay. Summer in MN we just soak up as much outside time as we can, and this place looks like a lot of fun if you have kids.

Eagan Civic Arena has 2 indoor ice skating rinks that are open year round – if you live in MN, this might be one of your concerns! Hockey. It’s a thing here.

Schools and libraries

Speaking of kids – the schools in Eagan are rated fairly highly by Great Schools, so if you are looking for quality public education, this may be a good place to look. There are also quite a few private schools in the area.

Last, but for me not least, they have a large library (Westcott) that is open 7 days a week. The library is something that my family has made great use of over the years – children’s programming in the early years and now just feeding the voracious readers in my house without spending ALL the money.

Top employers in Eagan

Eagan is home to Thomson Reuters, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN, UPS, Ecolab, and while maybe not a “top employer”, it is also home to the Minnesota Vikings training facility – and that place is hard to miss as you drive down 494. đŸ˜‰

Demographics

Eagan is home to 67,509 people.

More than half of the population has a bachelors degree or higher.

The median income in Eagan is $82,265.

If you don’t like driving to downtown you can commute on the MVTA busses. They are clean! I always mention this after living in Chicago and spending a lot of time on busses and trains that had suspicious odors and stains. I loved the transit system there, but not everyone behaves well, so I appreciate it here.

I hope this helps if you’re considering Eagan as your next place to live!

Questions? leave a comment or tap one of the links below.

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