Marshfield Offers Historic Neighborhoods and Retirement Homes
Real Estate in Marshfield, WI
What's small and quiet, but booming with growth and opportunities? If you guessed Marshfield, you're right! Recently ranked No. 5 on Forbes 2010 list of the Best Small Cities to Raise a Family, Marshfield gives residents a long list of bragging rights for calling this place home.
Quality of life measures such as commute times, educational attainment and cost of living were part of Forbes' criteria for choosing cities with populations under 100,000, making Marshfield a superb choice.
Just ask resident and broker manager for Prudential Success Realty, Joel Luttropp. He says he loves calling this place home because of the warm, friendly environment, very reasonable housing prices and job stability.
When the housing crisis hit, "Properties didn't decline as much as other areas because of the job security with the hospital, clinic and other industries," Luttropp says.
Health-Care Booms
This centrally located city of just over 26,000 is home to the state-of-the-art Ministry St. Joseph's Hospital and Marshfield Clinic, one of the nation’s leading health-care research facilities, employing 7,500 people in centers around the state. Other top industries in the area include dairy farming, trucking and manufacturing.
With so many residents working, it's no wonder the city's growing. On Marshfield's west side, new housing units are slated for development. And nearby areas Spencer and Hewitt are "growing by leaps and bounds," Luttropp says.
Historic Districts Galore
Marshfield, located in both Wood and Marathon counties, also has a historic downtown district that is steadily expanding. Its several individual properties and five districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Among the districts are the Central Avenue Historic District and the Pleasant Hill Residential Historic District, which is one of Marshfield's earliest neighborhoods and offers an array of Queen Anne-style homes.
Education quality, abundant parks, and attractions and safety are other reasons why residents say they enjoy living in the area. "Marshfield is a safe community," Luttropp says. "It's one of the few places you can get out of your vehicle and not have to lock it."
Retirement
Veteran’s Parkway Estates is the first development in Marshfield to cater to adults nearing retirement or already there. Developer Larry Shortess got the idea after spending several winters in Florida and looking around at other such communities in Wisconsin. The 13-acre development is gated, with wooded lots, a small park and a walking trail. Condo fees cover mowing and snow removal – an important amenity because at least some of the residents are snowbirds who head South for the winter. As an adult community, residents must be at least 50, though their spouses can be younger.
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