Possible relocation Cincy to Des Moines this summer...

Hi! We are young newlyweds with a distinct possibility of relocating to Des Moines this summer/fall. We are from Cincinnati (love it) and are looking forward to Des Moines, as it is supposed to be a nice area.

We would love any advice on areas to look at for houses (we%26#39;d like to buy, not rent), things to do, etc... We currently live in a suburban area (20 miles from the City) and I%26#39;d like somewhere with great schools (I am a teacher) with young people, safe, etc...

To be honest, I%26#39;d love any information you can give me! Thank you!

Possible relocation Cincy to Des Moines this summer...

Can anyone weigh in here? Anyone? :)

Possible relocation Cincy to Des Moines this summer...

sure can. I%26#39;ve lived in DM most of my life. What do you like? Do you like the hussle and bussle or quiet life? Waukee is a western suburb and the fastest growing school district. (I happen to live near the principal of the high school). While Waukee is a fast growign school district the town remains fairly small which is nice. Urbandale is another western suburb that is really nice, it actually reaches almost all the way to Waukee and some of it is in the Waukee school district. Those are probably 2 of the best school districts. Now if you want to live out just a little in another direction, Ankeny is another suburb that is also growing quickly.

Check out http://www.seedesmoines.com/

There are quite a few things to do depending on what you like. Great farmers market in downtown Des Moines, an art festival that%26#39;s ranked 5th in the country,

I%26#39;ll try to watch the post so if you have more questions.

another website to check out

http://www.desmoinesalive.com/

Thanks, Sue! I%26#39;ve been talking to an agent and she recommended the same three areas - looks like we%26#39;ll start house hunting there! Do you guys have any great malls/restaurant/bar areas that would be within a few miles of any of these communities? I%26#39;d love to have some entertainment nearby.

Thanks for the sites, I%26#39;ll look through them today!

I moved to the DM area last fall and am really enjoying it. I hope that you will, too! There are nice communities with good schools in many of the surrounding suburbs. I have a bias toward recommending Clive because of its low taxes and good schools (Waukee and West Des Moines districts) plus its close proximity to the newer and more upscale malls (both in West Des Moines), but I encourage you also to also consider West Des Moines (WDM), Ankeny, Johnston, Waukee and Norwalk. There are also some lovely neighborhoods in the western part of Des Moines, if you like more well established areas.

A great resource for data on the area communities is:

www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article鈥?/a>

There are wonderful bike trails in the Clive/WDM/Waukee area. I%26#39;ve been to good restaurants all over the area, but there are some fun new ones in the West Glen area of WDM. There are nice, newer chain restaurants (e.g. Cheesecake Factory) in the Jordan Creek Mall area of WDM. Both areas are quick and easily accessible to WDM, Clive, Waukee and parts of Urbandale. There are large movie theater complexes at Jordan Creek Mall in WDM and in Johnston. There also is a nice ';artsy'; movie theater in Des Moines near the airport.

Best of luck to you!

We have a brand new mall area called Jordan Creek in West Des Moines. There is also a lot of housing around it.

http://www.jordancreektowncenter.com/html/

Restaurants are great. The thing I like is there are a lot of local restaurants so you don%26#39;t always end up at a chain.

All 3 areas that I mentioned have a lot of that stuff. From Waukee you might have to drive 5 miles to get to it but it%26#39;s there.

Depending on what you like Valley Junction is another place to check out for shopping http://www.valleyjunction.com/

as well as Valley West Mall http://www.valleywestmall.com/

Really Des Moines and the suburbs are not huge, so no matter where you live getting from one place to another doesn%26#39;t take that long, maybe 20 minutes.

This is great info. , thank you so much! :)

My fiance will be working for Wells Fargo downtown - is there any area that is particularly hard to get htrough traffic that we should avoid?

Right now everything is a mess on I-235 and you can%26#39;t really avoid that if you are coming from the west (Waukee or W. Des Moines). They are widening the interstate, only about a year left. It%26#39;s more annoying than anything else. Coming from Ankeny you%26#39;d have some of the same stuff because you would take I-35 to I-235 but you could drive through town. It really depends on what time you come in. We also work dowtown at Principal but come in early (by 7:00 a.m.) and it%26#39;s not too bad.

I work for Wells Fargo and just went to the downtown location for meetings last week from Clive. I left around 7:15 a.m. and was parked and in my meeting room within 30 mins. Iowans complain about the traffic and commutes, but anyone who%26#39;s lived in a larger city will be amazed by how easy it is to get around here.

definitely agree with prairiedog, what we consider a lot of traffic would probably be nothing for you.