Milwaukee is a thriving, exciting city—these tips will help you settle into your new home
Milwaukee is well-known for its sports, cultural pursuits, and of course, the breweries. The city is home to a number of Fortune 500 businesses and a booming economy, making it a popular place for people to relocate to. When you’ve decided you're relocating to Milwaukee, these tips can ensure your move goes as smoothly as possible.
Relocating to Milwaukee & finding you the perfect neighborhood
Milwaukee has 13 neighborhoods in the city, each with its own vibe and lifestyle. Before you relocate to Milwaukee or even begin looking for a home, take a moment to learn about the neighborhoods and decide which ones might be best for you. Take into account your commute to work, the school systems, and other key factors, but it’s relatively easy to get around the city, so it may be worth moving a tiny bit farther to get into a neighborhood you’ll love.
A quick overview of the neighborhoods
Avenues West and Marquette: Home to Marquette University, this is a college area with plenty of history and a varied population.
Bay View: Bay View is a hip, walkable neighborhood with community festivals, coffee shops, and abundant beer gardens and bars.
Brewers Hill: This riverfront neighborhood is best known for its plentiful craft breweries, but it’s also home to many offices and businesses, making it popular for residents who want to live close to work in a quiet area of town.
Bronzeville: Bronzeville is a historically Black neighborhood with a long history based on jazz music and visual arts.
Clarke Square: Clarke Square is a South Side neighborhood that offers international cuisine, community events, and a great location for those who like to escape the city on the weekends to engage in an active lifestyle.
East Side: The East Side homepage says it all: “Fashionable, Quirky Historic, Innovative, and Young at Heart.” The trendy neighborhood is home to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Residents include a diverse mix of young professionals and lifelong residents. The abundance of excellent gourmet restaurants, fun bars, and hopping nightclubs make it a popular destination.
East Town: Set against stunning riverfront views, East Town is a dichotomy, with cultural attractions and museums contrasting with outdoor green space and plenty of fun ways for residents to get active. Home to some of Milwaukee’s most popular attractions, Jazz in the Park, Bastille Days, and one of the city's coolest farmers markets Cathedral Square Market.
Harbor District: Harbor District is an up-and-coming neighborhood that has attracted a number of new restaurants and independent stores, and is quickly making a name for itself as the best of urban living. Don’t miss the Butterfly Walk and Harbor Fest.
Historic Third Ward: Most of the year, the neighborhood is quiet with art galleries and shopping during the day, but in the summer, it’s home to one of the world’s largest music festivals, Summerfest, which features over 1,000 performances from the world’s hottest artists.
Menomonee River Valley: Once the industrial heart of Milwaukee, the Menomonee River Valley is now regenerated into an eco-friendly professional neighborhood. Great food and drinks are readily available with Palermo's Pizza & City Lights Brewing calling the Menomonee River Valley home. With 60 acres of parks, 7 miles of trails, and 3 miles of river frontage, it’s perfect for people seeking green space and quiet.
Riverwest: Riverwest is best known for its tight-knit community. The area focuses on people, not trends, making it eclectic and welcoming to newcomers.
Walker’s Point: Walker’s Point is a neighborhood full of antique shops, organic and locally sourced foods, amazing restaurants, and art galleries displaying gorgeous pieces.
Westown: The Westown neighborhood is urban and fun with restaurants, bars, shops, and plenty of recreational activities to keep residents entertained and excited.
Hire a professional Realtor®
Hire a real estate agent to help you find your dream home. Once you know what you’re looking for, an experienced agent such as Chris Muellenbach can help you sort through the seemingly endless listings of metro-Milwaukee homes and condos for sale and find the ones that actually fit your needs. Chris has a passion for helping you find a home that best fits your needs and lifestyle. He will assist you in navigating the home-buying process, support you with handy people, vendors, and resources, and handle the closing paperwork.
Pack well
When you’re preparing to relocate, you want the move to go as smoothly as possible. Pack up your things carefully—not just physically with bubble wrap, but organize everything. Color code and label boxes for the different rooms where they need to end up and use a spreadsheet or a list to note down what is in each box. On the other end, it will be much easier to find things when you’re only half unpacked and need your pans to make dinner.
Another thing to do is to pack everything you’ll need for the first few days in one box. This can include bedsheets, a pan to cook with, and a couple of days of clothes. This allows you to unpack at a more leisurely pace and take opportunities to settle in and meet the neighbors rather than feeling obligated to unpack quickly.
Hook everything up early
Before you arrive in your new home, set up your utilities and any other services you will need. While it may seem counterintuitive to set those up before you’ll even be there to use them, you don’t want to arrive and not have electricity or not be able to have your internet hooked up for a week. Handling these matters just a few weeks in advance will make the relocation smoother.
Hire movers
It’s tempting to try and save money by just moving things yourself but it’s not worth the trouble. Hiring a professional moving company will take a significant amount of stress off of your shoulders. You don’t want to be responsible for carrying your washing machine up to the second-floor laundry room, and you’ll be grateful for the insurance if something gets broken during the transfer.
Don’t miss out on Milwaukee's fun
When you move to a new area, it’s easy to think of how you can visit local attractions anytime, so you often end up putting them off. Milwaukee is full of history, culture, and more, enough that you can never see it all. Make sure you spend your free time enjoying the city. Visit the Milwaukee County Zoo, Mitchell Park Domes, walk along the lakefront, visit the Milwaukee Art Museum, or view the exhibits at in the city’s numerous art galleries. The city is always changing so you’ll never have the opportunity to get bored or run out of things to do.
Hire Chris Muellenbach as your Milwaukee Realtor®. His extensive knowledge of the Milwaukee area will prove invaluable as you search for your new home, whether you’re interested in a Whitefish Bay home or a Third Ward condo. From the initial search to telling you the best restaurant to dine at after a long moving day, he will introduce you to the best of Milwaukee.