Boone or Marshalltown?
- Thread starter dtISU
- Start date
BS. First off, you can't take the university out of Ames, because it is engrained into every part of the community. There's more jobs, more money, more ammenities due to the university. But if you magically took campus out of the equation, Ames would still be WAY better than Boone and MTown. Those two towns aren't as clean as Ames, not kept up as well as Ames. I mean, it's not even comparable really. Boone is like Ames without campus, Campustown, Duff, and West Ames. It's basically LW and Main St.
I smell HUCAC.
West and northwest Ames are areas that we're looking at. There are some homes that are in our price range. Hard to believe that prices they're asking...Good luck to your daughter - maybe we'll see her in a Cyclones uniform in a few years!Depends on what price range you are looking at, but there are quite a few areas in West Ames that are nice. We looked in the Hillside area (just west of South Dakota, south of Lincoln Way by the basketball facility) and the new development that is north off Lincoln Way way out west. With both of those you are close to Lincoln Way/Hwy 30. Because we have school age and younger kids, we chose NW Ames in the Gilbert School district. We are close to county line road which runs N-S between Boone and Story counties--you can take back roads to get to Boone.As far as commutes go, we live in the absolute worst place for my husband to commute to his office by Valley West Mall. When we first moved to Ames his job was here in town, but unfortunately he was in an industry that hit a low point after we moved. The next job landed him in DSM. But we love our neighborhood and the schools here. We are closer to family here than if we moved to DSM and yes, we hit as many athletic events as we can. Right now my oldest is a ball girl for the volleyball team. We figure if Fred could start as a ball boy and work his way up, our daughter can do the same in volleyball.it is fun for them to be able to interact closely with college atheltes. They would not have those same opportunities if we lived closer to hubby's job.
Depends on what price range you are looking at, but there are quite a few areas in West Ames that are nice. We looked in the Hillside area (just west of South Dakota, south of Lincoln Way by the basketball facility) and the new development that is north off Lincoln Way way out west. With both of those you are close to Lincoln Way/Hwy 30. Because we have school age and younger kids, we chose NW Ames in the Gilbert School district. We are close to county line road which runs N-S between Boone and Story counties--you can take back roads to get to Boone.
As far as commutes go, we live in the absolute worst place for my husband to commute to his office by Valley West Mall. When we first moved to Ames his job was here in town, but unfortunately he was in an industry that hit a low point after we moved. The next job landed him in DSM. But we love our neighborhood and the schools here. We are closer to family here than if we moved to DSM and yes, we hit as many athletic events as we can. Right now my oldest is a ball girl for the volleyball team. We figure if Fred could start as a ball boy and work his way up, our daughter can do the same in volleyball.
That's right, hillside is the third name for the development. Does your husband take the interstate all the way down or leave out on south dakota and go through Slater/Polk city? I worked in WDM for a while and this was the best way to work.
If you're into biking Madrid may be a town to consider...very popular bike trail there. Cost of living in Madrid is low and there are some very nice houses on the north side of town.
My brother in law lives there and it's nice for us (living in Waukee)...Madrid is 25 minutes from West Des Moines and 15 minutes to Ames...would be less to Boone.
And I completely agree with the Marshalltown assessment...I travel a lot for work and get to MTown quite a bit. Rough town and this comes from an insurance adjuster who has seen arson upon arson up there...
My brother in law lives there and it's nice for us (living in Waukee)...Madrid is 25 minutes from West Des Moines and 15 minutes to Ames...would be less to Boone.
And I completely agree with the Marshalltown assessment...I travel a lot for work and get to MTown quite a bit. Rough town and this comes from an insurance adjuster who has seen arson upon arson up there...
When I was in my 20's I loved living in Cedar Falls with the college in town and night life.
In my 30's moved to Waterloo. Lot more bang for the buck with homes and we had gotten tired of dealing with students in parking lots and stores. Slower paced town and more mature.
Now in my 40's we've moved to small town Hudson and think it's been my best move so far. You worry more about who your kids hang with as you get older and in a smaller town setting you have a little more control over that. Also think the access and influence you can have on their education tends to be better in small towns.
If you think you may move any time soon, you'll want to find a place where homes have some liquidity. Selling a home can be tougher in some of the too big or too small towns.
Just saying this to point out what you find attractive in a town may change over time.
In my 30's moved to Waterloo. Lot more bang for the buck with homes and we had gotten tired of dealing with students in parking lots and stores. Slower paced town and more mature.
Now in my 40's we've moved to small town Hudson and think it's been my best move so far. You worry more about who your kids hang with as you get older and in a smaller town setting you have a little more control over that. Also think the access and influence you can have on their education tends to be better in small towns.
If you think you may move any time soon, you'll want to find a place where homes have some liquidity. Selling a home can be tougher in some of the too big or too small towns.
Just saying this to point out what you find attractive in a town may change over time.
After living in Illinois, a big concern of mine is real estate taxes. Is Boone County any better than Story County, or are they about the same?
Iowa is in far better financial shape than Illinois. This will be less of a problem for you here. It's all based on government spending and asset value. Suspect Boone we'lll likely be a little cheaper.
ha ha, moving from Boone County to Boone County....
IL property taxes, especially near Rockford do xxxx. Heck, even WI property taxes are still high, but we double our house value in our move from Rockford, and stayed at the same level.
Honestly, what pace of life do you want?
Ames has lots of traffic for the size of town it is. You could live in Boone, and it would almost take you as long to get to some places in Ames via 30 then "across" town. And when the students leave, the city does road work in summer, so it still takes 15-25 minutes to get from west or north ames to the shopping/eating on South Duff.
Ames can be "loud." Concerts, fireworks, cars on the road late at night, etc. Also, if you are a resident in Ames separate from the school, the students will begin to annoy you everywhere.
All my friends who lived in Ames have all since moved to Huxley, Nevada, Boone....
What did Ames ever do to you?
It is a great town that is constantly ranked high on the best places to live type lists. The housing market is healthy, unemployment is low(for anywhere), it is one of the most well educated communities, it has a wealth of parks and recreation, we have events at CY Stevens/Fisher theater, we have cyclone sports, the university and the city have a great relationship and are very inclusive of one another, we have an eatery for almost any ethnic palette, we have state of the art municipal utilities...... I would say that for its size Ames is well equipped... I suppose the ladies might argue the shopping could be a little better, and I wish we still got concerts like we did back in the day, but Ames is a hell of a great place!
Hey - at least I got the day shift. He said if I did well, I could attend Hamburger U in a couple of months.
How ironic, Marshalltown just won the best tap water in the state for the second year in a row.
The offer is in Boone, otherwise I'd be in DSM or WDSM. How long is the drive from WDSM to Boone?
ha ha, moving from Boone County to Boone County....
IL property taxes, especially near Rockford do xxxx. Heck, even WI property taxes are still high, but we double our house value in our move from Rockford, and stayed at the same level.
Honestly, what pace of life do you want?
Ames has lots of traffic for the size of town it is. You could live in Boone, and it would almost take you as long to get to some places in Ames via 30 then "across" town. And when the students leave, the city does road work in summer, so it still takes 15-25 minutes to get from west or north ames to the shopping/eating on South Duff.
Ames can be "loud." Concerts, fireworks, cars on the road late at night, etc. Also, if you are a resident in Ames separate from the school, the students will begin to annoy you everywhere.
All my friends who lived in Ames have all since moved to Huxley, Nevada, Boone....
People always exaggerate this, I live in west Ames and it never takes more than 10 minutes to get to south duff (just hop on hwy 30), downtown and NGM are usually around 10 min
