I wish the area we are moving to had a map like I am providing for those of you moving to the Milwaukee / Wauwatosa area in order to work at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Since I've lived near the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center for nearly 30 years, I can give you a good idea of where you really want to live when you make that giant step to uproot your family in order to further your education at MCW.

Assuming you want to live in a good neighborhood and be close to work, your options near MCW are limited. The MCW website implies that a lot of residents live all over Metropolitan Milwaukee. While that may be true, I can assure you that if you have the desire to keep the stress of commuting or crime out of your life while finishing your Medical College residency, you'll want to take a look at the map below and read this article. 

Let's start with Milwaukee. The only place near Froedtert you'll want to live in Milwaukee itself will be in the Cannon Park neighborhood, just south of MRMC. This neighborhood is right next to Wauwatosa's Ravenswood without the Ravenswood prices. However, if you are used to a certain lifestyle, Wauwatosa does offer some decent options near the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center. The best areas for an MCW resident are highlighted in green on the map below. Keep in mind that most of the Milwaukee homes are going to be a little smaller, and most of the lots are city lots, meaning around 1/8th acre. Some Tosa and MKE lots will be more like 1/4 acre, but you'll have to get lucky on those finds.

Wauwatosa is nice, and it's not too far away. I circled decent Wauwatosa hoods in yellow on the map. I would possibly live that far from work, so it might work fine for you, but those are in yellow because it's not walking distance like the areas in green. Once you see MRMC at rush hour, you'll understand why walking distance might make sense. In fact, it can often take ten minutes to get from one end of MRMC to the other. And just wait until it snows: 30 minutes to get off the campus. Yes, I've seen it, and that's why living to the north is a poor option. All of the traffic is pushed to Watertown Plank, and you don't want to be part of that.

The East Side of Milwaukee is nice, but that's also a good 30 minutes away. Elm Grove or Brookfield are also very nice, and a little closer to the campus. However, you will have to navigate the roads at rush hour in addition to paying for fanciness. Someone is also considering downtown. Stop. Visit when you want, but there's no point in living in downtown mke. It's often boring and always impossible to park when you want friends over, besides being a lot more money.

There are many more places to avoid than ones that work, so it's probably more important to mention those than the best areas. Think of it this way: anything in Milwaukee you DON'T see on this map is probably not where you want to live (except the East Side or South Side, which are a ways away). You also don't want to have to deal with Tosa's village at rush hour, so I made the area north and east of it red. If you are a people-watcher and like Camaros, feel free to live in West Allis (south of I-94).

I also made all the busiest streets red on the map. Most people don't think too much about it from another state, but I can tell you that you absolutely do not want a place on Bluemound or 84th (Glenview). 92nd, Pleasant View, Wisconsin, Hwy 100, and Watertown Plank can all get busy. Choose a house on a side street.

The last place that's in red is the area right around Wisconsin Lutheran College (89th and Wisconsin). The students are OK, but they are college students, and the houses suffer because they are not maintained that well.

If you want a good place to stay near MCW, stick to the green areas of this map. For more details, you can use the contact form on this website or call 414-587-6740. To read about one specific house that will meet your needs, read this article.