SperlingViews - Grand_Forks, North_dakota

Great place in regards to the cost of living but limited in diverse activities.[read more...]

Have lived in the area for 20 years. Grand Forks, third largest city in North Dakota, is a nice clean family town. Very low crime rate and excellent schools and healthcare system. Most of the people are avid hockey fans and have a long history in the community. Good parks and great greenway system for walking, jogging or biking. Winters can be long and brutal; summers are beautiful, and people take advantage of the good weather to be active outdoors. Culturally the people, while friendly to wave or chat if you meet them on the street and quick to help if there is a need, are a bit slow to establish deeper friendships. This can take some getting used to if a person moves here from a more hospitable culture.[read more...]

I have always lived in big cities growing up and i have lived in grand forks for the last year now and as a young black male i find alot of the people to be quiet racist. the kind that will smile in your face for show but deep down would not want you dating their daughters or sons. people like that . yes the cost of living is cheap but the people are not genuinely friendly unless your white or your from the local area. It is very cold and there is not much night life there. the ONLY benifits to grand forks is the cost of living. cheap insurance stc. but the people are two faced. There are not alot of black people there and now i see why. i dont feel like im welcomed there. I have never felt this way when i lived in the previous places i was.[read more...]

I absolutely love Grand Forks. I attended UND for several years, and decided to stay here with my husband professionally. We both love our jobs and are really enjoying all that Grand Forks has to offer. If you love hockey - Division I - this is the place to be as well! The university has wonderful sporting events as well as the high schools and middle schools. Education is the best too!!! The schools are at the top of the charts. The crime rate is low. It's a great place to raise kids. Just recently Grand Forks has a beautiful greenway that has about 26 miles long of bike/running paths going in and out of ND and MN. We also have entertainment centers such as the Ralph Engelstad Arena, the Alerus, CanadInn Splash Park, two outdoor swimming pools, two splash parks outdoor, and great parks. The summers are hot, the falls are mild, winters are cold, and the springtime is wet and rainy/sunny. We LOVE THE SNOW, so the outdoor activities here and in Minnesota are easy to commute to.[read more...]

I am very fond of the Grand Forks educational opportunities that my children have received!!! The elementary schools have top-notch teachers, the middle schools are advanced in their technology usages, as well as the two high schools. If your children like to be involved in sports, dance, outdoor life, and LOVE hockey, this would be the place to bring them! There are several things to do and they just opened up the second outdoor swimming pool! (No to mention the one other pool and they have a few splash parks that are outside.) Great community, summers are ideal, falls are beautiful, winters are cold (they're not as bad as people say they are - just get good gear for it), and the springs are wet and sunny. I am proud to say that I live in this town as a young family.[read more...]

My husband and I have lived in Grand Forks for about 7 years and are very happy here! The apartments that we live in feel like we're in a large city. (High ceilings, open living space, big bathrooms, etc. When you consider just the two of us plus the living quarters, the cost is WONDERFUL per month. We only pay about 550 a month and that's including the parking space that is outside our apartment. Grand Forks is very good to us.[read more...]

I have lived in North Dakota my entire life but have had the privledge to travel to other parts of the country and find myself always wanting to come back "home". Grand Forks is a little big town in North Dakota where you can find many big city type activitiess but still know your neighbors. It has outstanding customer service, friendly people and fun community engaging activities such as Farmer's markets and Art Festivals. It is a place where you can rely on your neighbor to help you out in a pinch and it is still a safe place for children to play outdoors. To me...home will always be in North Dakota and I hope that others will come see what I mean.[read more...]

I was offered an infinitely better salary (and I need it with three small kids, my litigous ex, and all my debt so don't even think about the "rich doctor" stereotype--not this one) in St. Louis so I took the MO job and declined the ND one. The bleak reviews concerning GF combined with my concerns about networking in such a small city while living a huge distance from my kids tipped the scales. Heck, the closest major city isn't even in the same country as GF! Hats off to those who pull it off there and even thrive: The majority of GF'ers are from the area and that certainly helps: They have family and friends to lend them a hand. Yeah, some are not, but most are. That's home to them and I wish them the best. I wish that the people I met weren't as aloof, though. They may not have been representative of the average warm and outgoing GF'er, but that's the data with which I had to work.[read more...]

Grand Forks, ND is a great place to live and a wonderful place to raise a family. The schools are the best and even the winters aren't so bad. There is so much to do that you forget that it's freezing out there. We spend our winters ice skating and sledding...these are two things we look forward to doing every winter.[read more...]

Grand Forks, ND is one of the few places you can still leave your car and house unlocked and where children can safely play outside in their neighboorhoods. The winters are colder then most areas in the states so automobiles are left running unattended in the malls and other areas around the city during sub zero temperatures. Other then minor crimes of larceny and a few break ins on occasion, you and your family can enjoy a near crime free area to live.[read more...]

Check the property tax rates in the housing section, these are among the highest in the United States. Less than 50% of the homes are owned. There are almost no jobs here paying more than minimum wage. Virtually no one makes more than 75k. The January average is below zero! Small town attitude towards "outsiders".[read more...]

I've lived in many places and the quality of life in Grand Forks easily surpasses all of them. The people are calm, down-to-earth, and easy to get to know. The comment on the lack of jobs may have some grounding, but I was affiliated with the university and found the compensation and benefits to be reasonably competitive. The schools are great, rents are low, home prices are low, crime is low, there's no traffic, very little noise, no parking hassels, and great parks. The leaders in the city government are honest and very receptive to neighborhood and community interests which is a far different story than in the other places I've live.[read more...]

Easily the worst city in the world. People are rude, racist and very cold (so cold the state made it illegal to pass a stranded motorist). Don't move here, period, I lived here for 6 years and hated every minute of it.[read more...]

If you only care about low crime rates then Grand Forks is a reasonably safe town. In every other category, this town is terrible. The largest employers are the University of ND and the Hospital, both places have nothing but low paying jobs, virtually all the doctors are foreign born and not enough of those. Health care costs are out-of-sight because there is no competition. Do your research, think twice before moving here!![read more...]

I relocated to Grand Forks about a year ago and am still unable to find suitable housing. The housing market here sucks. For one, there are no houses for sale. Two, the housing market is so inflated that even a smaller older home is in the neighborhood of $150K. If you are interested in a new home it will start at about $140 a square foot and you will have to add about $20,000 to pay for you sewer, sidewalk and street in front of your house. Fargo, only 75 miles south, on the other hand has plentiful housing and a new homes start as low as $85 a square foot. I would move there myself, but I work in Grand Forks.[read more...]

I absolutely love Grand Forks. I attended UND for several years. The crime rate is low. It's a great place to raise kids. Still has a great educational system. With the university growing & the new Events Center & Englestadt Arena, it has many of the amenities that cities have, yet the commute time to work is so much less!!! The only downfall is the winter's low temperatures & the snow. I love snowmobiling & skiing, so it's not a problem for me!![read more...]

It's a great place to visit![read more...]