pretty familiar with those areas–– hudson, hastings and woodbury.
hudson is a cool river town––as far as acerage, just east outside of town is about the closest you will find any acerage. but aint cheap
taxes suck––ditant see your budget, but 300-400+ would prob get you a lot and house on this.
commute from hudson to woodbuy is cake from hudson- good to st paul, and teh suxxor to mpls. if it rains/snows double commute time for those trips
I am not a fan of woodbury- place is getting overrun, and taking over as much as they can to build their utiopia. If you are looking for a big house 5 feet from the next one––-go there.
woodbury has good shopping though!
Afton- SPENDY, but has a lot of that acerage stuff–– same with denmark township they both have minimum acers if i recall.
If you like skiing, afton alps in that area.
Hastings––typical small town––growing slowly easy commute to woodbury, but if going west on 55––its a cluster in the mornings/going home. its single lane
yuo would not want to commute to mpls or even st paul from hastings.
south of hastings plenty of open areas-
I live in hudson- but in the city––the last 30 years...my very average 200k house gets 3k in taxes.
IM me if any specifics needed.
If you live on a lake or river in WI––plan on almost doubling your taxes for whatever reason...