Suburbs of the Twin Cities

The Twin Cities suburbs are home to many thriving communities. The beauty of such a diversified landscape is the wildly different lifestyles you can find, sometimes just blocks apart. Where the Galleria of Edina creates an air of luxury, others offer a more laidback lifestyle.

What is a First-Ring Suburb?

Let’s start with a definition. First-ring suburbs are the older portions of a community created by the initial wave of urban sprawl prior to the end of World War II. Using the Twin Cities as a baseline, many of these homes were built in the early 1900’s. Lot sizes were smaller as many homes had to be packed close to the city. Remember, cars would not be the primary means of community for nearly half a century. Going further away meant commuting into the city would become nearly impossible, and the best jobs were located inside the city. Using this metric, stages of growth can be measured outwards.

Like the rings of a tree, you can guess the age of a town based on its proximity to the city center. While there is no definitive line denoting where a ring begins and ends, as a real estate professional I’ve defined them to the best of my ability based on proximity to Minneapolis and Saint Paul and the infrastructure accessing them.

Defining the Rings of Suburbs

First Ring Suburbs

First, let’s start with a simple line to work off of. If the majority of a town is “inside” of I-94, it is considered a first-ring suburb. This includes areas like Richfield, Columbia Heights, Edina, Roseville, Falcon Heights, Mendota Heights, St. Louis Park, Golden Valley, Robbinsdale, and Brooklyn Center. These homes are typically build closer together , within walking distance to local amenities, and often feature the unique architectural charm of their time.

Second Ring Suburbs

The second ring typically hugs the I-94 ring around the Twin Cities and is directly adjacent to the first-ring suburbs. It extends out in most directions two cities deep. This includes towns like Woodbury, Eagan, Bloomington, Burnsville, Apple Valley, Savage, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Plymouth, Brooklyn Park, Fridley, Shoreview, White Bear Lake, Lake Elmo, and our very own Maple Grove. You’ll start to notice a bit more space between homes, the average age built is between 20-40 years newer, and offer closer to a classic suburban lifestyle.

Third Ring Suburbs

The third ring is where it gets more complex, and the consistency between one another erodes. Development has finally reached the third ring of suburbs in force. Where acreage properties were previously dominant, farms have begun being bought and developed into typical suburban communities. The third ring, however, does not function so much like a “ring”. Rather, it follows the infrastructure of major roads such as I-94, Hwy 169, Hwy 65, and I-394. While a few areas have been developed for a long time (the entire Lake Minnetonka area is a community all its own), others are just now seeing significant growth. Towns such as Otsego, Dayton, Corcoran, Monticello, Buffalo, Delano, Farmington, Prior Lake, Blaine, and Lino Lakes make up its ranks. I don’t include towns such as Stillwater, who may be the right distance from the cities to qualify but was actually founded prior to Minneapolis.

So How Does a Suburb’s Location Impact Value?

In any market, the simplest form of valuation is supply and demand. If you are looking for acreage property, there is virtually none in the first ring of suburbs. However, if you are looking for acreage in Corcoran, you have several options at any given time. The key to tracking value is to first define what is important to you, as value is relative. I’ll use a simple, common example to kick us off.

We are searching for a 4 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom, bi-level Split. If you’re looking in the southern and western suburbs and want to be within 15 minutes of downtown, you might be equally considering Richfield and Bloomington. Looking at homes sold in 2022, there were 19 of these in Bloomington… and only 2 in Richfield. This is a clear indication of differences in building over the years. Bi-level splits became popular in the second ring of suburbs because of their efficient design. In Richfield and other first-ring suburbs, you are much more likely to find one-level or one-and-a-half level homes.

Let’s try another example

You still need 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, but have decided you would really like a three-car garage. Homes built between 1980 and 2007 seem to fit the budget and style you like. A job opportunity has meant Maple Grove is an ideal location, but you can go out to Rogers if need be. In Maple Grove, for a 2-car garage, there were over 100 homes sold meeting your criteria for an average sale price of $432,715. To get the same opportunity with a 3-car garage, that average sale price jumps all the way up to $622,108. Most homes in Maple Grove built with a three-car garage come with larger homes and larger price tags.

If those numbers hurt the pocketbook, don’t fret! Rogers is a quick 10 minute jump up either I-94 or County Road 81. Let’s run the same examples up there:

Rogers, for an average sale price with a 2-car garage, comes out to $450,000. The kicker? This is based on ONE home sale. That’s right — only one home sold last year meeting this criteria in Rogers! For the same with a three car garage? 71 sold, with the numbers clocking in at $459,108. Barely a jump at all to secure that third stall.

You see, Rogers is in the third ring of suburbs and to entice buyers to move out that far thirty years ago, three-car garages were the standard. Whereas in Maple Grove, similar homes built in the same age range offered primarily 2-car garages.

All Suburbs Have An Example Like This

I used an example from an area I know better than most. Point being, these differences exist all over the Twin Cities market. Recommending communities largely depends on what matters to you! If you don’t need that third stall garage, you can and should search in Maple Grove instead.