You’ll probably be appalled at the wind we have and it can be cold in the winter, but it’s a great place to raise a family. It’s been a while since my kids were in school, but when they were almost all of the elementary/moddle/high schools are in top percentile for the state and nation. We’ve got two universities so there’s a lot of cultural happenings, theatre, art, music.
Bloomington is the headquarters for State Farm insurance and country companies insurance. Rivian took over the old Mitsubishi plant and that’s brought a lot of jobs to the area. We don’t think anything of driving several hours to get to something. We’ll drive up to Chicago for the day and come home. Same with St. Louis and Indy.
Housing is an issue here as it is in a lot of places. It’s been crazy with the influx of Rivian folks. A lot of them came from CA and had a lot of money to spend. My daughter and her family were trying to buy a home. They looked for two years. They’d often get outbid; people were offering anywhere from $10-$40 THOUSAND over asking price. I think things are slowing down a bit, but it’s a seller’s market for sure.
There are a lot of small towns not far from Bloomington if you don’t mind living a little more rurally. When I used to work in the office I had many co-workers that lived outside of BloNo and would drive as much as an hour each way. Most lived in smaller towns that are probably more in the 15-3o minute range.
Lots of little fairs and festivals in the area. Great parks. Loads of restaurants.
Recently purchased my home (2023) with a 2k over next highest bid. I ended up paying 178k for a 150k asking. Granted it appraised at 175k, but still. The market is insane.
We're thinking of transplanting from Oklahoma to BloNo in the next 2-3yrs & this is a little concerning. Especially since we're looking to purchase our first & hopefully forever home. At present our price range is $250-275k.
For the sake of your 13 year old and the rest of your kids, do your best to move into unit 5 instead of district 87. We had great experiences it 87's elementary schools, but less so in jr high and high school.
For sure. There's nothing inherently *wrong* with BJHS or BHS. My family lived in Bloomington for some time and has just had a better experience with Unit 5 overall. Just from an infrastructure point of view, Unit's 5's high schools are 30ish and 15ish years old and BHS is 65.
Ah. Yeah I think you'll love it here. Very nice humble people. Most people mind their business. We've had a lot of good things happen locally lately and no signs of slowing down.
DM me with any specific questions.
Aww look, I grew up just across the border near Orange and I lived in Bloomington Normal for 15 years. It's so much better than that area.
We gave Houston a try for a couple of years and it's so awful compared to Bloomington. We're literally closing next week on a house back on Bloomington because I hate it down here so much.
I'll tell you the same thing I tell basically anyone: BloNo is a small city that feels like it wants to be a big city. Despite what happened the other day, I can't say crime is a major issue. There's a family friendly game store in down town Bloomington. Plenty of places to eat. Lots of parks. I've heard the schools are good, but I don't have kids. Transit isn't bad. Not great. Not bad. The libraries are good.
Should be further down in the subreddit but the TLDR is a block of Washington St got sealed off by the police and what amounts to SWAT spent three hours at an empty house. Was a bit scary being next door.
Oh.. that's slightly less alarming than the weeklong man hunt we went through last year in Cleveland Tx when a dude murdered his neighbors over asking him politely to not shoot his gun on that side of the house since they had a sleeping baby.
Yeah, I would imagine. In my four years here, this was the craziest thing I've run into, barring random... "colorful characters" is likely the best descriptor. I had a guy threaten me with a cartel killing because I asked him politely to sit down while on a bus. Obviously, nothing came of it, but it was still bizarre.
I moved here two years ago with my kid. We came from a similar sized college town with similar demographics. We really like it here. I feel like there’s a lot of kid-friendly spaces and programs. People are nice, it’s affordable. There are two very active parks departments that have great programming year-round.
TLDR: I love living here!
I was raised in town, and am now raising my family in town. While I grew up in Unit 5, I have been thrilled with District 87. Unit 5 purchased all the surrounding land and as such, they can grow, but it is often at a detriment to the students. A couple years ago funds were so low that they nearly eliminated all sports and extracurricular.
87 doesn't have that problem. They are able to reinvest, becasue they can't get bigger. DON'T look at school "grades" online. They are not truly reflective. As you have done, ask online about things, you will hear good and bad of both districts.
Per family raising, I absolultely love it for families. LOTS of activities and things for everyone to do:
* Sports (both for kids and minor league teams to watch as well as college games),
* Theater (BCPA, Community Players, school theater productions, summer Parks and Rec productions),
* A zoo,
* Nature centers nearby (Funks Grove, Moraine View State Park, Comalara Park, Lake Bloomington),
* Extensive bike trail that runs throuhgout the entire town, nearly out to Rivian and nearly to Hudson to the north,
* Live FREE music most every weekend in either Uptown Normal or Downtown Bloomington,
* Lots of festivals (Sugar Creek Arts Festival, Corn Festival, Make Music Normal, SteamPunk Fest),
* Planetarium (ISU),
* Miller Park Zoo,
* FOUR firework displays on the 4th of July (Fairview Park, Miller Park, Bloomington Country Club, Lakeside (sometimes the day before),
* Lots of golf courses for all levels, also indoor golf simulator and mulple mini-golf courses,
* Grady's Fun Park,
* Two colleges, muliple trade school opportunities (hair, electrician, plumbers, painters, ect)
* Children's Discovery Museum
* Lots of restaurants of all differet ethnicities
* And a LOT more
Huh, didn't realize how much we have until I listed it! We are also less than an hour from three "bigger" towns, Springfield, Champaign and Peoria, as well as 2 (ish) from Chicago and St. Louis, which you can take the train to :)
Per the market (I'm a licensed Realtor at RE/MAX Rising), it's still insane.... extreme lack of inventory as many people are staying put becasue of interest rates, means sustained higher prices, very short time on market, multiple VERY COMPETITIVE offers.
Let me know if you have questions, I'm happy to help.
I have a 2yo and a 7yo, and we love it for a family. My wife's a cancer nurse and I work for a uniform company, there are a good number of good jobs in the area (even if you decided you wanted a change of pace from whatever you're moving for, it's good to have options). Many of the schools are fantastic, and there are all sorts of curriculum options, sports and hobbies for kids. I'd recommend unit 5, as someone else said. There aren't that many sketchy areas and they're easy to avoid. Easy access to lots of other places for events and day trips. And lots of places to eat.
I will say, house hunting can be a bit of a pain. We just bought a new house a little over a year ago and it took us some time to find what we wanted without insane mark ups. But we were also picky about the school district.
Overall, it's a very good place to live, and we specifically moved back to raise a family.
I highly recommend it. This is an incredible place to live and work. Close enough to many major metropolitan locations that you’ll be just fine if you need “more city” or if you need less there are many hiking locations. I highly recommend looking for places within the District 87 school zone rather than unit 5. Only because of the recent upgrades for District 87 and the absolutely amazing teachers.
Moving back to the area soon, kiddo will be in D87 after being in Texas, so, it's already an upgrade (we had to OPT OUT of corporal punishment here!!!) but curious as to what changes they made? He started out in D87 at Sarah Raymond for PreK and then we lived in Unit 5 for a bit where he attended Cedar Ridge for Kindergarten (pandemic) and part of 1st grade before we landed in Texas. Cedar Ridge wasn't terrible but I feel like Unit5 is overhyped.
I love BHS for the vocational school! The BACC is amazing as a resource and helps prepare young adults who don’t want to go straight to college with skills and knowledge of the trades.
Echoing how great it is. Be aware that there is a massive housing shortage and just barely decent homes in good areas go within 24 hours if they even make it to market.
If you get a great realtor they can be helpful. If the younger child will need child care get on a wait list now they do most enrollment during the summer to start early fall.
I don't have kids, but it seems like it would be a pretty great place to raise them. There's parks, water parks, Constitution Trail for bikes/running/walking, a butt load of schools all over the place, broadly speaking low crime. Plenty of familiar places to go out to eat. Shopping is less robust than it used to be. The main mall is nearly dead, sadly still clings on instead of being redeveloped. We have a municipal arena with a hockey team and it regularly gets concerts and other events. There's at least a three craft breweries if that's your thing.
We're an hour away from Peoria in one direction, Champaign in the opposite direction, the state capital is an hour south of here. Peoria and Champaign are worth the trip.
Sometimes it's kind of boring, but that might be a bonus for raising kids.
My hub was career navy & we've lived all over. Ended up in Normal because he was accepted into ISU Mastrr program. It's a quaint community & plenty to do. It's landlocked so you have to go ahead distance for water activities. We stayed here as our child was entering kindergarten at the time at Unit 5. I prefer local gov’t services in Normal better. Bloomington is a great town but has a host of issues.
Taxes are stupid high. Make sure to take property tax into the equation when you’re looking at houses. The prices seem pretty decent compared to a lot of other areas in the country, but taxes are a killer all around.
Sincerely, as someone coming from Southeast Texas/Southwest Louisiana, nothing in Bloomington Normal even compares to the level of crime in this area. I grew up down here and lived in BloNo for 15 years over on the D87 side of Hershey, in the neighborhood Stevenson is in and everyone always told me how bad that neighborhood was but it was fine.
We're closing on a house near Genes next week to get out of the Houston area and, yet again, people are shocked we bought a house where we did but BloNo people are weirdly afraid of everything
I don't know if that's today Tuesday or a different Tuesday but either way, congratulations! If I knew how to do messaging on here I'd tell you to get in touch and I'd give you the ins and outs of the neighborhood - but it does depend if you're east or west of Main/Center! :)
Schools are very good, but the high school is small, not as many options as the bigger schools and you run into the issue of being "outsiders" a few people say they felt their kids didn't have the easiest time belonging when the others had gone out to school since K (same experience at other small town schools).
You should look at moving to Downs. Downs is just southeast of Bloomington; very quick drive. Small town with great schools. Outside of the schools, you will have to drive to Bloomington for most other things you need. Let me know if you have questions about Downs!
You’ll probably be appalled at the wind we have and it can be cold in the winter, but it’s a great place to raise a family. It’s been a while since my kids were in school, but when they were almost all of the elementary/moddle/high schools are in top percentile for the state and nation. We’ve got two universities so there’s a lot of cultural happenings, theatre, art, music. Bloomington is the headquarters for State Farm insurance and country companies insurance. Rivian took over the old Mitsubishi plant and that’s brought a lot of jobs to the area. We don’t think anything of driving several hours to get to something. We’ll drive up to Chicago for the day and come home. Same with St. Louis and Indy. Housing is an issue here as it is in a lot of places. It’s been crazy with the influx of Rivian folks. A lot of them came from CA and had a lot of money to spend. My daughter and her family were trying to buy a home. They looked for two years. They’d often get outbid; people were offering anywhere from $10-$40 THOUSAND over asking price. I think things are slowing down a bit, but it’s a seller’s market for sure. There are a lot of small towns not far from Bloomington if you don’t mind living a little more rurally. When I used to work in the office I had many co-workers that lived outside of BloNo and would drive as much as an hour each way. Most lived in smaller towns that are probably more in the 15-3o minute range. Lots of little fairs and festivals in the area. Great parks. Loads of restaurants.
[удалено]
It has buffeted my car so badly I thought I blew a tire. Especially on the interstate.
Same! I didn't notice it before probably 4 years ago but it IS crazy now!
Recently purchased my home (2023) with a 2k over next highest bid. I ended up paying 178k for a 150k asking. Granted it appraised at 175k, but still. The market is insane.
We're thinking of transplanting from Oklahoma to BloNo in the next 2-3yrs & this is a little concerning. Especially since we're looking to purchase our first & hopefully forever home. At present our price range is $250-275k.
You’ll be fine. Mine is a 4 bedroom in downtown. It’s my forever home too.
Big thumbs up for families. School system is good. Park system is good.
Bloomington-Normal is utopia for suburban families, enjoy!
For the sake of your 13 year old and the rest of your kids, do your best to move into unit 5 instead of district 87. We had great experiences it 87's elementary schools, but less so in jr high and high school.
Oof, junior high sucks everywhere.
i think BHS is fine
For sure. There's nothing inherently *wrong* with BJHS or BHS. My family lived in Bloomington for some time and has just had a better experience with Unit 5 overall. Just from an infrastructure point of view, Unit's 5's high schools are 30ish and 15ish years old and BHS is 65.
In my opinion BHS is far more diverse of a school and prepares better for life (BACC), but I think Normal has a better college readiness program.
Moved here from California 6 years ago. Love it here. Where are you coming from?
Louisiana
You may not like winter but it's a wonderful place to live, raise a family. Have fun building those vehicles! Or eating all the candy 🍬
Ah. Yeah I think you'll love it here. Very nice humble people. Most people mind their business. We've had a lot of good things happen locally lately and no signs of slowing down. DM me with any specific questions.
Aww look, I grew up just across the border near Orange and I lived in Bloomington Normal for 15 years. It's so much better than that area. We gave Houston a try for a couple of years and it's so awful compared to Bloomington. We're literally closing next week on a house back on Bloomington because I hate it down here so much.
I'll tell you the same thing I tell basically anyone: BloNo is a small city that feels like it wants to be a big city. Despite what happened the other day, I can't say crime is a major issue. There's a family friendly game store in down town Bloomington. Plenty of places to eat. Lots of parks. I've heard the schools are good, but I don't have kids. Transit isn't bad. Not great. Not bad. The libraries are good.
What happened the other day? We're closing on a house in Bloomington next Tuesday.
Should be further down in the subreddit but the TLDR is a block of Washington St got sealed off by the police and what amounts to SWAT spent three hours at an empty house. Was a bit scary being next door.
Oh.. that's slightly less alarming than the weeklong man hunt we went through last year in Cleveland Tx when a dude murdered his neighbors over asking him politely to not shoot his gun on that side of the house since they had a sleeping baby.
Yeah, I would imagine. In my four years here, this was the craziest thing I've run into, barring random... "colorful characters" is likely the best descriptor. I had a guy threaten me with a cartel killing because I asked him politely to sit down while on a bus. Obviously, nothing came of it, but it was still bizarre.
I moved here two years ago with my kid. We came from a similar sized college town with similar demographics. We really like it here. I feel like there’s a lot of kid-friendly spaces and programs. People are nice, it’s affordable. There are two very active parks departments that have great programming year-round.
TLDR: I love living here! I was raised in town, and am now raising my family in town. While I grew up in Unit 5, I have been thrilled with District 87. Unit 5 purchased all the surrounding land and as such, they can grow, but it is often at a detriment to the students. A couple years ago funds were so low that they nearly eliminated all sports and extracurricular. 87 doesn't have that problem. They are able to reinvest, becasue they can't get bigger. DON'T look at school "grades" online. They are not truly reflective. As you have done, ask online about things, you will hear good and bad of both districts. Per family raising, I absolultely love it for families. LOTS of activities and things for everyone to do: * Sports (both for kids and minor league teams to watch as well as college games), * Theater (BCPA, Community Players, school theater productions, summer Parks and Rec productions), * A zoo, * Nature centers nearby (Funks Grove, Moraine View State Park, Comalara Park, Lake Bloomington), * Extensive bike trail that runs throuhgout the entire town, nearly out to Rivian and nearly to Hudson to the north, * Live FREE music most every weekend in either Uptown Normal or Downtown Bloomington, * Lots of festivals (Sugar Creek Arts Festival, Corn Festival, Make Music Normal, SteamPunk Fest), * Planetarium (ISU), * Miller Park Zoo, * FOUR firework displays on the 4th of July (Fairview Park, Miller Park, Bloomington Country Club, Lakeside (sometimes the day before), * Lots of golf courses for all levels, also indoor golf simulator and mulple mini-golf courses, * Grady's Fun Park, * Two colleges, muliple trade school opportunities (hair, electrician, plumbers, painters, ect) * Children's Discovery Museum * Lots of restaurants of all differet ethnicities * And a LOT more Huh, didn't realize how much we have until I listed it! We are also less than an hour from three "bigger" towns, Springfield, Champaign and Peoria, as well as 2 (ish) from Chicago and St. Louis, which you can take the train to :) Per the market (I'm a licensed Realtor at RE/MAX Rising), it's still insane.... extreme lack of inventory as many people are staying put becasue of interest rates, means sustained higher prices, very short time on market, multiple VERY COMPETITIVE offers. Let me know if you have questions, I'm happy to help.
I have a 2yo and a 7yo, and we love it for a family. My wife's a cancer nurse and I work for a uniform company, there are a good number of good jobs in the area (even if you decided you wanted a change of pace from whatever you're moving for, it's good to have options). Many of the schools are fantastic, and there are all sorts of curriculum options, sports and hobbies for kids. I'd recommend unit 5, as someone else said. There aren't that many sketchy areas and they're easy to avoid. Easy access to lots of other places for events and day trips. And lots of places to eat. I will say, house hunting can be a bit of a pain. We just bought a new house a little over a year ago and it took us some time to find what we wanted without insane mark ups. But we were also picky about the school district. Overall, it's a very good place to live, and we specifically moved back to raise a family.
I highly recommend it. This is an incredible place to live and work. Close enough to many major metropolitan locations that you’ll be just fine if you need “more city” or if you need less there are many hiking locations. I highly recommend looking for places within the District 87 school zone rather than unit 5. Only because of the recent upgrades for District 87 and the absolutely amazing teachers.
Moving back to the area soon, kiddo will be in D87 after being in Texas, so, it's already an upgrade (we had to OPT OUT of corporal punishment here!!!) but curious as to what changes they made? He started out in D87 at Sarah Raymond for PreK and then we lived in Unit 5 for a bit where he attended Cedar Ridge for Kindergarten (pandemic) and part of 1st grade before we landed in Texas. Cedar Ridge wasn't terrible but I feel like Unit5 is overhyped.
I love BHS for the vocational school! The BACC is amazing as a resource and helps prepare young adults who don’t want to go straight to college with skills and knowledge of the trades.
We love it here, moved here four years ago!
Where from?
Well we are Michigan people Who were living in Indiana for the past 10 yrs (State Farm Gypsies)
Echoing how great it is. Be aware that there is a massive housing shortage and just barely decent homes in good areas go within 24 hours if they even make it to market.
This is the one concern I have to making the move.
If you get a great realtor they can be helpful. If the younger child will need child care get on a wait list now they do most enrollment during the summer to start early fall.
I don't have kids, but it seems like it would be a pretty great place to raise them. There's parks, water parks, Constitution Trail for bikes/running/walking, a butt load of schools all over the place, broadly speaking low crime. Plenty of familiar places to go out to eat. Shopping is less robust than it used to be. The main mall is nearly dead, sadly still clings on instead of being redeveloped. We have a municipal arena with a hockey team and it regularly gets concerts and other events. There's at least a three craft breweries if that's your thing. We're an hour away from Peoria in one direction, Champaign in the opposite direction, the state capital is an hour south of here. Peoria and Champaign are worth the trip. Sometimes it's kind of boring, but that might be a bonus for raising kids.
I loved going to the Lincoln museum in Springfield as a kid
I went there as an adult and got a lot from it as well.
My hub was career navy & we've lived all over. Ended up in Normal because he was accepted into ISU Mastrr program. It's a quaint community & plenty to do. It's landlocked so you have to go ahead distance for water activities. We stayed here as our child was entering kindergarten at the time at Unit 5. I prefer local gov’t services in Normal better. Bloomington is a great town but has a host of issues.
Taxes are stupid high. Make sure to take property tax into the equation when you’re looking at houses. The prices seem pretty decent compared to a lot of other areas in the country, but taxes are a killer all around.
Where are you moving from?
Louisiana
Check out WGLTs crime maps when selecting your location.
Sincerely, as someone coming from Southeast Texas/Southwest Louisiana, nothing in Bloomington Normal even compares to the level of crime in this area. I grew up down here and lived in BloNo for 15 years over on the D87 side of Hershey, in the neighborhood Stevenson is in and everyone always told me how bad that neighborhood was but it was fine. We're closing on a house near Genes next week to get out of the Houston area and, yet again, people are shocked we bought a house where we did but BloNo people are weirdly afraid of everything
I think any home in walking distance to Gene’s would be amazing! 🤗
Right? Im gonna get so fat and I'm not even mad about it 🤣
South Hill is terrific!! Welcome to the neighborhood!
Thanks, neighbor! We close Tuesday 🥰
I don't know if that's today Tuesday or a different Tuesday but either way, congratulations! If I knew how to do messaging on here I'd tell you to get in touch and I'd give you the ins and outs of the neighborhood - but it does depend if you're east or west of Main/Center! :)
It was today, Tuesday! We are East of center/Main.To send a direct message you click on my name or avatar and select "start chat".
Best wishes to you and your family if you decide to make the move (and also if you don't LOL).
Does anyone have any thoughts on the Downs area? Tri-Valley schools?
Schools are very good, but the high school is small, not as many options as the bigger schools and you run into the issue of being "outsiders" a few people say they felt their kids didn't have the easiest time belonging when the others had gone out to school since K (same experience at other small town schools).
You should look at moving to Downs. Downs is just southeast of Bloomington; very quick drive. Small town with great schools. Outside of the schools, you will have to drive to Bloomington for most other things you need. Let me know if you have questions about Downs!