04.05.2024

Today i would like to give you a tour of. one of my absolute favorite. neighborhoods here in milwaukee. which is the city of wauwatosa and right. next to it we have washington heights. so if you would have looked on a map. about a hundred years ago. you would have seen that wauwatosa used. to be its own city just west outside of. milwaukee. but if you look today it's actually more. smack square in the middle. very centrally located we are right off. the zoo interchange freeway system. so very easy access into all four. directions. but some things have never changed. wauwatosa is still very quaint. very charming and most importantly. considering that we're in the middle of. the city here. it is amazingly quiet so with that let's. go take a look. well there is actually quite a bit to. mention about. living in wabatosa but to get started.

Let me just give you the cliff notes up. front. so wauwatosa is its own city within the. milwaukee metro area. and it is very very centrally located. it's. right on the freeway which gives you. quick access to the downtown milwaukee. area. to the lakefront to the airport and. literally. anywhere else you would want to go you. can see here on the horizon the high. rises of downtown milwaukee. and i'll show you that on a map in just. a minute. waubotosa is also very walkable and very. family friendly. and one of the most important things for. a lot of people. it has a very highly regarded school. system. and also it offers a lot of interesting. employment opportunities. for example it is home to the region's. largest medical facilities. with a lot of tech research and. education and therefore. attracts a lot of young professionals.

Wabatosa has a very cool. and distinctive urban feel and it has. its own local vibe that you can see. everywhere you go. so if you're not quite ready yet to move. into the suburbs. wauwatosa might be worth looking into. it also comes with a very active. lifestyle people here like to walk and. to bike a lot. wauwatosa is also very green with lots. of parks and it's very wooded with. literally thousands of trees lining the. streets which is. one of the things by the way which i. personally like a lot. lots of great restaurants as well bars. and coffee shops. and it also has a very very charming old. city center. in terms of real estate prices wabatosa. is a reasonable. let's say mediumpriced neighborhood for. the milwaukee context. with most homes sold anywhere between. 250. and 350 000. of course some larger. and exceptionally nice homes are also a.

Little bit higher. this puts you kind of in the middle if. you were to rank milwaukee neighborhoods. by price. and the combination of all these. attributes cool. urban green family friendly great. schools. makes wabatosa a very attractive area. for young professionals. and for their families so that's kind of. a quick summary. for wauwatosa or toza as it's called for. shut and affectionately by the locals. if that sounds interesting to you let's. take a closer look. see what wauwatosa has to offer how it. compares to other parts of milwaukee. and i will also give you a few reasons. why. you may not like it here or why you. should consider. a different neighborhood in the. milwaukee area. by the way on this channel we cover all. things real estate for milwaukee so if. you are thinking about moving to. milwaukee. check out our playlist living in.

Milwaukee with a bunch of other videos. that cover. everything that you want to know about. real estate and milwaukee in general. there will be a link somewhere around. here we work a lot with local buyers and. sellers but also with a lot of. relocation clients and people call or. text me. all the time after they've been watching. one of my videos so if you're thinking. about milwaukee. and you have real estate questions. definitely reach out to me. you could send me an email whatever. works best for you and of course. don't forget to subscribe to this. channel to stay updated on new videos. about milwaukee real estate. all right let's take a quick look at the. map here and look at the milwaukee metro. area which is all that grey area here. obviously we have in the middle the city. of milwaukee not to be confused.

With the county of milwaukee so the city. is about this part here. and then the county is a little bit. bigger about this shape. and uh wawa tosa which is the funny. lshaped. uh thing here in the middle is one out. of. 19 municipalities and part of. milwaukee county and then you got four. other counties that are surrounding the. whole thing. and everything together is about 1.6. million people living here so let's take. a look at wauwatosa which we have here. in the middle. the reason why it's so easy to get from. wauwatosa to. everywhere else is because it's located. right off that zoo interchange. so we have the milwaukee county zoo here. and we got a big. traffic a big freeway interchange here. that has been completely rebuilt. about four or five years ago and so. traffic is very quick and very easy in. milwaukee you can get anywhere in 20.

Minutes. but especially if you live here in. wauwatosa because you have multiple. access points into the freeway system. and you can get easily northsouth. or eastwest from wauwatosa so let's say. you live here and you want to go. to milwaukee airport which is down here. you just hop on i94 here. and go down to the upward takes about. 1520 minutes at the most. if you want to go down to chicago that's. about an hour or 15. you just follow i94 all the way down to. chicago. i'll show it quickly on the map here so. down here we have chicago with. chicago over here so very centrally. located. let's take a look here at the different. neighborhoods. within wauwatosa so wabatosa was founded. in the mid1800s. on the menominee river so that's the. river that's. coming down here that goes into the. menominee valley here. and you have the old wabatosa downtown.

Area here right on the river. this is where the whole thing started. and then it grew here. into this part in the early 1920s. so this is a really great neighborhood. everything is in walking distance here. and you have a lot of fantastic old. buildings here. the newer parts of wabatosa are here. on the west side so this has been built. more in the 1960s this feels a little. bit more suburban. it's closer to brookfield so but also. really interesting opportunities here. and a lot of the shopping and the big. parks and golf courses are located here. around highway 100 mayfair avenue his. mafia mall and mafia collection shopping. areas. are here as well and then you got here. the big. medical complex here with a lot of other. companies and businesses that are. surrounding that that area as well. so i hope my friends in wauwatosa are.

Not angry with me because i'm also. including washington heights. and that is this part here which is not. part of wauwatosa. but the reason i'm including washington. heights here as well. is because it feels and looks. architecturally. a lot the same than the old area of. wauwatosa. and that's the reason i'm including it. here the only difference is it's. obviously part of the city of milwaukee. so it's not part of the watozo school. district. but if school district doesn't matter to. you then this. area washington heights is an. interesting alternative as well. a little bit lower price than wauwatosa. because it doesn't have the nice school. districts. but architecturally very very. interesting and very nice. uh buildings in here as well so. hopefully that helps a little bit with a. quick orientation. this is where we are at on a map so.

Why do people want to move to wauwatosa. if you're looking for the combination of. an urban feel. with shops parks and restaurants in. walking distance. and you wanted to be kid and family. friendly at the same time with great. schools. then wauwatosa is probably one of the. best choices in the milwaukee metro. area in fact i would say wabatosa or. toaster for sure. is actually pretty unique in this way. none of the other neighborhoods we have. offer quite the same combination of. attributes. sure there are certainly a lot of. familyfriendly neighborhoods in the. milwaukee metro. that have great schools but most of them. are in the suburbs and they're not very. walkable. examples for that would be brookfield or. mec one. both are very very nice communities but. both are very suburban. and you won't be walking to your coffee.

Shop on saturday morning. and both are also higher priced than. tosa. if you want to be urban then of course. downtown milwaukee is a great option. with. lots of shops restaurants and. entertainment and walking distance. you will find great walkability also. along the lakeshore for example in the. third ward with lots of condos. the lower east side or bay view which is. very artsy. all very very cool neighborhoods but. they don't have the great schools and. they are not the most family friendly. so the combination of walkable urban and. family friendly. is kind of unique to wabatosa the only. other alternative. uh would maybe be some of the north. shore communities like showboat. whitefish bay and fox point. but those come at a higher price point. and they're also not essentially located. so for example if your job takes you to.

The airport a lot. either to milwaukee mitchell or to. chicago or here. you are definitely much much faster from. toaster than if you're leaving from. any of the north shore communities so. the combination of. medium priced homes in a walkable urban. setting. with lots of parks and trees and on top. of that family friendly. that is kind of unique really quick side. note if you are seriously thinking about. moving to milwaukee as a next step for. you. i would definitely recommend downloading. our free relocation guide. it's 42 pages worth of very dense. information. we are basically trying to answer all. the questions that are typically coming. up with the relocation client. here in this guide so everything that. you need to know. from the different neighborhoods to the. colleges. universities where to go for shopping we.

Have tried to cover. all the typical questions that come up. in a relocation situation. and you can download it for free on our. website. onpointrg.com. wabatosa also famously has a lot of. these really nice old duplexes. that are perfect for house hacking and. if you're interested in that definitely. check out the youtube series. that i have made about house hacking. everything that you need to know. from picking the red property to. financing and property management. i'll put a link somewhere around here. and that will tell you everything that. you want to know about. house hacking with the duplex. potentially here in wauwatosa. let's talk about jobs and employment. opportunities for bobotosa. so one of the reasons why wabatosa is so. attractive. to young professionals is undoubtedly. because. of the 1100 acres of medical.

And research facilities we have a lot. going on here. including the milwaukee regional medical. center the medical college of wisconsin. the milwaukee county research park is. located here. which hosts a ton of companies and. suppliers that are in the medical field. or in the biotech field. we also have two of the region's leading. hospitals. here which is the children's hospital of. wisconsin and froedtert hospital. of course this is one of the major. economic drivers for tulsa. and a lot of people who work and live. here. are close enough that they can either. walk or bike to work. so when you look at employment. statistics it becomes very clear that. tosa. has a lot of white collar jobs almost a. third of those jobs are related to. medical. education and science alone the rest is. other service related industries.

So i'm not the only one who is excited. about wabatosa it also ranks really well. for example on niche.com. they have it on number 4 out of 110. best suburbs for young professionals in. wisconsin. or number 10 out of 110 best suburbs to. live in wisconsin. or number 11 out of 408 for best places. to live in wisconsin another quick note. about parking in wauwatosa so what you. need to know is there. is no regular overnight parking on the. streets in wauwatosa so this is. very important when you're shopping for. properties here that you pick a house. that has a driveway that is big enough. to accommodate. your present and your future parking. needs so for example if you have. two teenagers that might get their cars. pretty soon. then you definitely want to make sure. you pick your property with the driveway. and the backyard.

And the parking garage that's big enough. some of the streets in wabatosa have an. alley behind the houses which allows. easy access. to the parking garages and additional. parking. i also promised you to talk a little bit. about the negatives if you will of. wabatosa or the reasons why you would. not want to live here and maybe choose. another. neighborhood in the milwaukee area for. one. homes are older so the median home age. in wauwatosa is 77 years old. many of them are built in the early. 1900s. in west wauwatosa you're looking at the. 1960s so. you know for milwaukee standards that's. a little bit younger if you come from. another part of the country. that is actually fairly old so there is. not. a whole lot of new construction going on. so if you want to have. a recently constructed home then. wauwatosa. is maybe not the neighborhood for you.

The lots are also a little bit on the. smaller side so they're typical urban. city lots with a relatively small. backyard so if you want to have a really. big backyard. then wabatosa may not be the right. neighborhood for you. one of the other things that gets. brought up is a negative once in a while. is higher property taxes so of course. you're living in the city you're inside. of milwaukee county. and you're enjoying all the inemities. that milwaukee has to offer and the. proximity to them. so with that you're paying higher. property taxes that comes with being. inside of milwaukee county the. surrounding counties generally have. lower property taxes but the one thing. that i always like to point out as well. here is that. milwaukee has a relatively low sales tax. compared. to other metro areas so the city is. funded.

More through property taxes than through. sales tax and depending on where you're. moving from or what you're comparing it. with. so yeah you have higher property taxes. but that also gets offset. with lower sales taxes. another question that i get frequently. when it comes to the city of milwaukee. is crime rates. and wabatosa is actually pretty safe. according to a recent survey on. niche.com. 68 percent of the people in wauwatosa. stated they feel pretty safe. there is some crime but it doesn't. impact me much. and 32 percent stated wabatosa is very. safe. there is really no crime to speak of if. you want to see more data on this i. would recommend. check out the crime maps on trulia.com. and when you click on the crime map it. shows you the blue shaded areas. you can see they are all outside of. wauwatosa of course you have.

Different parts of wabatos are you know. a little bit different depending on. where you're at. but if you're not sure what that means i. would recommend pull up a truly a crime. map. for the city where you currently live. that will give you some context and then. you have some data to compare. but most people actually perceive. wauwatosa. as a very safe neighborhood. wabatosa has really a lot to offer and. if you call me really quick maybe you. can still get the one behind me. let's talk a little bit more about. wabatosa lifestyle we have already. discussed that tosa. is the goto neighborhood for young. professionals with kids. it is very green and many parts of. wauwatosa. are so quiet that it's actually hard to. believe that you're. in the middle of the milwaukee metro. area there's a lot of nature. and wabatosa has a lot of parks and.

There. are a lot of things to do for the family. a major perk for families. especially in the summer is wait park. with the wauwatosa pool. it's a really great facility with. several different pools for all ages. and a water slide for the kids of course. we also have a beer garden right next to. it. and the whole thing is located in the. middle of parks which are great if you. want to go for a run. or just for a bike ride if watching and. attending sports events then. you are also in a good location with. wauwatosa you are very close to the mfam. stadium. previously known and to me still the. miller stadium which is. the home of the milwaukee brewers. baseball team. just across the freeway if basketball is. more your thing. then you should definitely check out the. deer district which is not that far away. just downtown milwaukee.

with a brand new pfizer forum the. milwaukee bucks. are actually enjoying a huge following. around here and the whole district is a. crazy party. whenever we have a big game all right i. hope i was able to give you a little bit. of an impression what. living in wabatosa might look and feel. like. if you enjoyed this video please give it. a thumbs up and definitely. stay tuned for more real estate videos. about the greater milwaukee area. here on this channel if you have any. questions or comments feel free to text. me call me. you can email me or leave a comment. below i try to. respond to all comments personally. within 24 hours. and i'm looking forward to seeing you. here on this channel very soon. you