By Joe Schwartz, CEO and Co-Owner, AAA Movers · Serving Minneapolis and Chicago · Last updated August 17, 2026 Quick Answer: Minneapolis has 83 official neighborhoods grouped into 11 communities, and they run from walkable downtown lofts to lake-lined family streets and artsy Northeast blocks. This guide covers the areas we move people into most, what each one actually feels like, and what it costs to live and move there. Here is the part most guides skip. The City of Minneapolis officially recognizes 83 residential neighborhoods. Those get grouped into 11 larger communities: Bde Maka Ska-Isles, Camden, Central, Longfellow, Near North, Nokomis, Northeast, Phillips, Powderhorn, Southwest, and University. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but you will never need to memorize the whole list. We have been moving people around this city since 1964, and the mental map our crews use is simpler than the official one. Think in a handful of zones: the walkable core downtown and just around it, the lakes and family streets to the southwest, artsy Northeast across the river, the river-and-parks neighborhoods to the southeast, the more affordable stretches of south and north Minneapolis, and the student-heavy blocks by the University. Get those six ideas straight and the 83 names fall into place on their own. One orienting fact helps. Minneapolis holds about 430,000 residents inside 54 square miles, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That is a compact, dense city, which means the character can change from block to block. A street of century-old duplexes can sit two minutes from a glass apartment tower. So we sort neighborhoods here by how you live, not by prestige, because the "best" neighborhood is really just the one that matches your budget, your commute, and whether you own a car. If you are moving in from out of state and do not know the city yet, that is the most common move we run. Our long distance movers bring people to Minneapolis from all over the country, and the first question is always the same one this guide answers: where should I actually live? For a broader look at the whole metro, our Minnesota movers cover every suburb and city around the core too. If you want to live without leaning on a car, this is your zone. It is also where the majority of our apartment and loft moves happen, so we know these buildings well. When you are ready to plan one, our Minneapolis movers run this core constantly. Downtown is high-rise apartments and condos, close to the office towers, the stadiums, and the theater district. The skyway system is the quiet selling point: over 10 miles of enclosed, second-level bridges connecting around 80 city blocks, the largest contiguous system of its kind in the world, letting you get to work in January without a coat. It fits car-free professionals who want to walk or bike to everything. The move-day reality is elevators and loading docks. Most towers require you to reserve a service elevator and a loading window in advance, and a few charge a deposit, so we confirm those rules with the building before the truck rolls. North Loop is the converted-warehouse district: brick-and-timber lofts, boutiques, and some of the best restaurants in the city. It is also one of the most in-demand rental areas in the city, and the rents sit at the top end of the market. The streets are narrow, often one-way, with tight permit parking, and the historic buildings sometimes have freight elevators instead of passenger ones. It is a beautiful place to live and a neighborhood we plan carefully, because curb space is genuinely scarce. Uptown is younger and louder, packed with apartments, nightlife, and shops, and it sits a short walk from Bde Maka Ska and the Chain of Lakes. It draws a lot of first-apartment renters, so turnover is high and the summer lease churn is real. Rents land nearer the middle of the market here than in North Loop. Plenty of the housing is older walk-ups with narrow, steep stairwells, which is exactly the kind of detail that decides how a move day goes. A third-floor Uptown walk-up is a very different job than a downtown tower with a service elevator, and we price it that way. Stairs add time, and time is the thing you are paying for. Locals call it "Nordeast," and it has a personality all its own. This is the arts district, with working studios, galleries, and one of the densest clusters of craft breweries in the state, wrapped around historic single-family homes and duplexes. It has long been a tight-knit, walkable pocket of the city, and it keeps that feel even as new arrivals move in. On rent, Northeast generally lands in the middle of the pack, below North Loop and downtown. Northeast fits people who want character and community over new construction. What you trade for that character is modern building access. These are older homes, which often means steep, narrow staircases, no elevators, tight entryways, and street-only parking. That tracks with the city as a whole: about 43% of Minneapolis homes were built in 1939 or earlier, according to Point2Homes drawing on Census data, and Northeast holds a good share of that older stock. We love moving people into Northeast, but we plan for the stairs and the doorways up front rather than discovering them on the day. Measuring a couch against a 1920s stairwell before you buy it is a lesson people usually learn once. This is the classic "we are buying our first house in the city" corridor, and it is where a lot of families land. When it is time to move a whole house instead of an apartment, that is our local residential moving crew's home turf. Linden Hills and Fulton are leafy, quiet, and family-oriented, sitting near Lake Harriet and the Chain of Lakes, which the Minneapolis Park Board ties together with about 15 miles of lakeside trails. Demand is strong and home prices sit at the higher end of the city. You get a real neighborhood feel here, with a small commercial node, the lake, and streetcar-era charm. Kingfield and Lynnhurst give you bungalows and character homes, a well-loved farmers market, and a somewhat gentler entry price than the lakefront blocks right beside them. For a lot of buyers, this is the sweet spot in Southwest: close to the good stuff, a little easier on the budget. Kenwood and Bryn Mawr sit between the lakes and downtown, higher-end and quiet, with big trees and winding streets. These are single-family moves with garages, basements, and yards, which means more inventory and a longer day than an apartment. Worth planning the box count honestly, because a full house always holds more than people guess. If the Southwest lake prices make you wince, look here. These neighborhoods often hand a first-time buyer the yard and the garage that Linden Hills prices out of reach. Longfellow and Standish run along the Mississippi and down toward Minnehaha Falls, with bike trails, solid family homes, and generally more house for the money than Southwest. The river parkway alone sells a lot of people on the area. Nokomis wraps around its namesake lake, quieter and family-friendly, and it remains one of the better values in the city for a single-family home near water and parks. Powderhorn and Phillips are diverse, more affordable, and centered on Powderhorn Park. Honest note on "more affordable": it means a lower entry price and a genuinely mixed, established community, not a compromise on being part of the city. These are real neighborhoods with real roots, and they stretch a first home budget further than most of Minneapolis. This zone runs on the University of Minnesota calendar. The Twin Cities campus enrolls more than 56,000 students, so Dinkytown, Marcy-Holmes, and Como are dense with rentals and built for students, grad students, staff, and young renters. Expect smaller units, tight parking, and lease cycles that all turn over inside a compressed late-summer window. That window matters more here than anywhere else in the city. The late-August student move is the single busiest, most parking-scarce stretch of the year in these blocks, and everyone is moving on the same weekend. If you are landing here, book your Minneapolis movers early and expect to compete for curb space. If your old lease ends before the new one starts, which happens constantly in this pocket, our moving and storage option bridges the gap so your things are not sitting in a car for a week. Housing first. Prices and rents swing hard between neighborhoods, and a citywide average hides most of that swing. A North Loop loft and a Powderhorn duplex are not in the same conversation, so budget for your specific neighborhood. On the move itself, a local move with us runs $1,500 to $2,500 all in, depending on the size of your home. A one-bedroom apartment usually lands between $1,000 and $1,500. A few things move that number: home size, how many flights of stairs and elevators are involved, the distance, whether you add packing, and the time of year. This is exactly where the building details from each neighborhood above come back around, because a third-floor walk-up in Uptown and a loading-dock tower downtown are different jobs at different prices. Move Monday through Wednesday and you catch our discounted rates. If you would rather not pack, our packing services fold that into the estimate so there are no surprises. Here is the honest part. Those ranges are a starting point, not a quote. What you will actually pay comes down to your specific home, how much you are moving, and how easy it is to get in and out on move day, which is why we would rather walk the place with you in person or over video than hand you a number we cannot stand behind. Want a real number for your move? Get a free quote and we will size it to your home, your inventory, and your access, not a citywide average. A winter move in Minneapolis is normal, not exotic. We do them every year, calmly, and you can too with a little planning. The metro averages roughly 51 inches of snow a year based on the 1991-2020 Twin Cities climate normal from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and January lows sit around 7 degrees. None of that stops a move. It just changes how you run one. A few things we have learned from doing this in every kind of weather. Clear and salt the walkways and stairs at both ends before the crew arrives, because a safe path is a fast path. Lay down floor protection, since salt and slush will find your hardwood otherwise. Plan a slightly shorter loading window and keep the truck doors closed between trips to hold the heat on anything cold-sensitive. Watch the parking rules closely: Minneapolis declares snow emergencies after significant snowfall, and the plowing routes can get your moving truck ticketed or towed if you are not paying attention. And give the crew extra time on hills and back alleys, which is where winter footing actually slows a day down. This is the part where local field experience shows, and it is why people hire a crew that has moved a household through a Minnesota January before. Minneapolis officially recognizes 83 residential neighborhoods, according to the City of Minneapolis, and those are commonly grouped into 11 larger communities. Most people moving here only need to get familiar with the handful that match their budget, commute, and lifestyle, not the entire list. Southwest neighborhoods like Linden Hills, Fulton, and Kingfield are popular with families for the lakes, the parks, and the single-family homes, while Longfellow and Nokomis offer similar family appeal along the river for a bit less money. The right fit comes down to whether you want to walk to a lake or get more yard for your budget. North Loop, Downtown, and Uptown are the walkable, apartment-heavy areas with the most restaurants, nightlife, and transit, which is why our crews spend so much time in their elevator buildings and lofts. Northeast is the pick if you want character and breweries over new construction. A local move with us runs $1,500 to $2,500 all in, depending on the size of your home, and a one-bedroom apartment usually lands between $1,000 and $1,500. Your real number depends on home size, stairs and elevator access, distance, and whether you add packing, which is why an estimate built on your actual home beats any online average. It is very doable, and our crews move people through Minnesota winters every year. The metro averages about 51 inches of snow annually, so a winter move just needs cleared walkways, floor protection from salt and slush, and attention to snow-emergency parking rules that can tow a truck. Housing is the big variable, and it swings a lot between neighborhoods like North Loop and Powderhorn. Budget for your specific area rather than a citywide average, because the gap between the priciest and the most affordable neighborhoods is wide. Either way, a move across the Twin Cities is a short local move, so the decision comes down to fit more than moving logistics. Minneapolis leans toward lakes, nightlife, and a bigger downtown, while St. Paul runs more historic and residential. Whichever you choose, our St. Paul movers and Minneapolis crews cover the whole metro, so we can handle the move to either one. Minneapolis rewards people who choose a neighborhood for how they really live, whether that is a car-free North Loop loft, a Southwest street near the lakes, or a Longfellow block with a yard and a garage. After 60 years and hundreds of thousands of moves, we can tell you the neighborhood is only half of it, because the building type and the season decide how your move day actually goes. When you are ready, our movers will size the crew, the truck, and the plan before anything rolls, so choosing the right Minneapolis neighborhood is the hard part and the move itself is the easy one. Ready to plan it? Get a free quote and we will build your estimate around your home, your inventory, and your building. About the author Joe Schwartz is the CEO and Co-Owner of AAA Movers, a Minneapolis and Chicago moving company in business since 1964. Alongside co-owner John Schwartz, he leads our ProMover certified crews across Minnesota and the Chicago market. Our Minneapolis location holds a 4.9-star Google rating across more than 1,600 reviews.Key Takeaways
How Minneapolis Neighborhoods Are Organized (and How to Read the Map)
The Walkable Core: Downtown, North Loop, and Uptown
Downtown
North Loop
Uptown and Lyn-Lake
Northeast Minneapolis: Arts, Breweries, and Old-World Character
Southwest Minneapolis and the Chain of Lakes: Family Streets and Water
Linden Hills and Fulton
Kingfield and Lynnhurst
Kenwood and Bryn Mawr
Longfellow, Nokomis, and Powderhorn: River, Parks, and More Room in Your Budget
Longfellow and Standish
Nokomis
Powderhorn and Phillips
Near the University: Dinkytown, Marcy-Holmes, and Como
What It Costs to Live and Move in Minneapolis
Moving Here Through a Minnesota Winter
Frequently Asked Questions
How many neighborhoods does Minneapolis have?
What are the best neighborhoods in Minneapolis for families?
Which Minneapolis neighborhoods are best for young professionals and renters?
How much does it cost to move to Minneapolis?
Is it hard to move in Minneapolis during winter?
What is the cost of living like in Minneapolis?
Should I move to Minneapolis or St. Paul?
The Bottom Line
