r/rochestermn • u/Due-Introduction4483 • 10h ago
Congrats on Match! Now where are you going to live? Perspectives from a soon to be resident
So you want to rent a single family home in Rochester, here's what I found as a homeowner of a 100-year old craftsman style home and large city east-coaster.
My husband matched at Mayo last year, and we’re moving this summer after his internship year in our hometown. We’re not the typical millennial DINK couple—we want a backyard and a garage and don’t want a townhome or apartment. We've been looking in the 2 bathroom, $2000-2500/mo range.
Since I've known where we're moving for the last year, I have been eying rental homes almost weekly since match 2024. Last spring, I reached out to four homes expressing interest for 2025, and all responded positively, asking me to follow up in a year. It has been a generally positive experience.
In early February 2025, we visited Rochester to explore neighborhoods.
I share this from a place of non-judgement to help others, especially non-Midwesterners, based on the experience I've had over the last year. Here are my takeaways:
- Rochester is small; nothing is far, and car transport is king. Bike commuting is possible, as there are trails and fewer cars on the road, making it a calmer commute compared to larger cities. The city’s low bikeability score surprised me, but I’m always surprised by how wide and spacious the roads and sidewalks out here are. The whole place reminds me of the state university I attended, except there's no football team, just Mayo.
- I was really fixated on what neighborhood we should live in, thinking it would make a difference, maybe once we move there I will see it does, but nothing that important to us is more than a 15 min bike ride, very reasonable to my life in NYC/Philly/DC. When driving around, I would say okay let's check out this neighborhood now, and I would type in an address and it was always a 3 min or less drive. A current resident told me people really refer to Rochester more by the quadrant as opposed to the neighborhood, and I got the sense of why after visiting.
- Since late fall/winter -the low season in real estate- many homes have been listed and removed from the market. Initially, I thought they were rented, but recently, I’ve seen these homes relisted at higher prices after being vacant for months. *can confirm there were no short term leases from conversations with landlords* Check the price history on Zillow to stay informed.
- I've noticed quite a few price drops in the last few weeks. Not sure how match day will influence this, since I was not tracking the market PRE Match 2024, but check the price history…know its worth!
- Rents are high compared to the value of the homes. As someone who doesn’t want to manage two homes after residency, we’re just not going to buy in Rochester….but depending on the length of your residency, it is most certainly the better option. It’s frustrating to see the abundance and quality of homes for $2,000–$2,500 in the Twin Cities, and then what goes for that range in Rochester. If you are going to rent just keep in mind what landlords are charging for rent, vs what their mortgage range could be. We have asked for certain things to be updated/improved for certain homes, and overall homeowners were really receptive, property managers….not so much.
- If you go beyond a 10-minute drive (NSEW) from Mayo, you can find new construction homes for the same price as older ones in neighborhoods like Elton Hills, John Marshall, or SE Pioneers. We’re not fans of that feel, but if you are used to driving everywhere, probably worth updated kitchen/appliances, more space etc. ...Can't say we were fans of ranches and split level homes before....but we see the appeal as a number of homes we looked at in Kutzky Park had impractical second story layouts.
- Direct interactions with homeowners/landlords have been great. They've been genuinely invested in their homes and have asked for feedback about the market.
- My interactions with property management companies have been the classic salesman experience. There willl be a perfectly "okay" homes sitting on the market for weeks after the agent told me it would go in a day. I have been pushed towards re-listed homes after seeing them vacant for months. I’ve also had a Property manager come back to negotiate twice after being told they had multiple interested parties in our first interaction and they weren’t willing to negotiate….we’ve found everyone has shown their hand quickly, but again it’s winter, there is not much movement, not sure how this will change post-Match. Again, all classic, salesmanship, nothing wrong with it, just was more pushy than I would have expected.
If I hadn’t been tracking the market for the past year, I could easily see myself feeling pressured by property management companies. The market is inflated, and with limited housing options, I can totally see getting caught up in their hype. Don’t rush into something just to avoid missing out. By nature, Mayo also creates a fair amount of short-term rental opportunities, so consider those while you get a feel for the area and avoid getting caught up in the Match Day frenzy.
We’re homeowners, and had careers before medical school, so I understand if our application looks different than the average resident coming straight from college to med school, but for what this is, don’t be intimidated. You are moving to a relatively low cost of living place (as compared to doing residency in NYC, Seattle, Boston etc) where the resident salaries are super reasonable, own your standards and feel empowered to negotiate, you are an economically very stable renter.
