Why has Duluth become so expensive?

[joe_obody999]

Originally Posted by acrylic

I moved away about 8 years ago and I've considered moving back here and there. Buying a newer home/building a newer home wasn't that expensive, but when looking at homes in the 200's to 300's, I can't find anything that I really consider "nice". Or at least, nice compared to what you can find for the same price here in the Phoenix area for the same price - or even many other places in the US.

What's made homes so expensive there? Is this a bubble? What's exactly going on? Any insight would be appreciated.

I bought a house on London Rd in Duluth a year ago and I just learned my property taxes are going to perhaps double. Wow, really? Stinks. I am going to sell my house and get out of Duluth, escape rising property taxes and cold winters, and buy and build a tiny house on some rural land more southerly. You get junk for a house here unless you pay around $300,000+. Gentrification.

[zach_33]

I think Duluth would be a wise long-term investment for any personal property owner, money manager or REIT. There is little question climate refugees from the lower 48 (especially from the midwest) will be seeking out parcels near civilization (established infrastructure) where temperatures do not routinely exceed 100 degrees F in the summer months. It could be a slow march depending on whose climate model you believe, but somewhere in the next 20-40 years, Duluth's home value growth rate could easily be double or triple that of national average. I believe the same thing about Buffalo, Rochester, Michigans northern reaches and the UP. Not everyone can or will be able to move to Vancouver BC or Seattle, but those areas are also expected to become extremely expensive and over-crowded. Just a matter of time.



In the meantime, Duluth seems like a pretty cool little town. Interesting history and architecture. Amazing parks and outdoors stuff. I made a quick (36 hour) visit there during a trip to Minneapolis, just to see what it is like up close. Beautiful town.

[joe_obody999]

Originally Posted by acrylic

I moved away about 8 years ago and I've considered moving back here and there. Buying a newer home/building a newer home wasn't that expensive, but when looking at homes in the 200's to 300's, I can't find anything that I really consider "nice". Or at least, nice compared to what you can find for the same price here in the Phoenix area for the same price - or even many other places in the US.

What's made homes so expensive there? Is this a bubble? What's exactly going on? Any insight would be appreciated.

It is alarming. I moved to Duluth in 1988 and bought my first house for $30,000 and it just sold for $150,000. Most of the homes in Duluth are so janky beat up old from decades of winters, snow, ice, wind, it is sad. I am currently looking for land to build a small container house on and it is pathetic how few lots are for sale in the city and what there is usually requires spending a small fortune to extend utility lines to the lots making building on a lot unaffordable for all except surgeons working at the local megacomplex hospital. I love Duluth, 6 months of the year, and would love to put up a tiny house on a tiny lot but that is seeming impossible, so that then I could live somewhere warmer like TN during the six months of winter we have here.

[MN_man]

Originally Posted by joe_obody999

It is alarming. I moved to Duluth in 1988 and bought my first house for $30,000 and it just sold for $150,000. Most of the homes in Duluth are so janky beat up old from decades of winters, snow, ice, wind, it is sad. I am currently looking for land to build a small container house on and it is pathetic how few lots are for sale in the city and what there is usually requires spending a small fortune to extend utility lines to the lots making building on a lot unaffordable for all except surgeons working at the local megacomplex hospital. I love Duluth, 6 months of the year, and would love to put up a tiny house on a tiny lot but that is seeming impossible, so that then I could live somewhere warmer like TN during the six months of winter we have here.

I have to take exception with some of this...I'm MN born and raised, in Duluth for the last 30+ years, moved up in 86. I'm a tradesman, so I get out to a lot of houses... a LOT Sure theres older homes, plenty of them. Some are shabby, some aren't, like most places. The same can be said for the midrange houses, again like most places. Not much different than the town of 7,500 I grew up in in central MN. Now, is it a lot different from Phoenix, or Charlston, or wherever? No idea, cause I haven't lived/worked there. But my guess is not so much
It's true, there aren't a bunch of affordable lots in the city; Duluth is built on a curving hillside, so a lot of the easy to build on land is just that, already built on! As progress moves into some of the harder to build on sites, because of rugged terrain generally, long runs for utilities become more frequent. Kinda like living in the country Which is one of the things people love about Duluth!! There are also plenty of areas a ways out of town that are still plenty affordable, from what I see.
BTW...the taxes paid by the "megacomplex" hospital and all of it's "surgeons" keeps the lights on in town! My wife has been an RN (nope, not a surgeon!) at one of the 2 major hospitals in town for 30 odd years and it's afforded us a nice lifestyle, in one of the cooler towns in the country that isn't on a coast

ring, ring...can you get that please? I think it's Tennessee calling, and it's for you

[joe_obody999]

Originally Posted by joe_obody999

I bought a house on London Rd in Duluth a year ago and I just learned my property taxes are going to perhaps double. Wow, really? Stinks. I am going to sell my house and get out of Duluth, escape rising property taxes and cold winters, and buy and build a tiny house on some rural land more southerly. You get junk for a house here unless you pay around $300,000+. Gentrification.

So my property taxes went up 60% from a year ago, not just mind but all the neighbors around me. Quite a leap in property taxes, feels like gentrification. Does not seem fair, should be a more gradual increase in case someone does not have it in their budget to suddenly pay such a leap, a change to sell one's house and go somewhere cheaper.

[C24L]

Originally Posted by acrylic

I moved away about 8 years ago and I've considered moving back here and there. Buying a newer home/building a newer home wasn't that expensive, but when looking at homes in the 200's to 300's, I can't find anything that I really consider "nice". Or at least, nice compared to what you can find for the same price here in the Phoenix area for the same price - or even many other places in the US.

What's made homes so expensive there? Is this a bubble? What's exactly going on? Any insight would be appreciated.

supply and demand has made it expensive/.

[CCbaxter]

Originally Posted by joe_obody999

So my property taxes went up 60% from a year ago, not just mind but all the neighbors around me. Quite a leap in property taxes, feels like gentrification. Does not seem fair, should be a more gradual increase in case someone does not have it in their budget to suddenly pay such a leap, a change to sell one's house and go somewhere cheaper.

That seems to be a huge jump, but the infrastructure was heavily damaged by floods and waves the last few years. Could that be the cause of the increase?

[joe_obody999]

Originally Posted by CCbaxter

That seems to be a huge jump, but the infrastructure was heavily damaged by floods and waves the last few years. Could that be the cause of the increase?

County tax assessor claims they just have not kept up with assessed values. But yeah you are right, we had heavy shoreline damage from a storm of the century. And we have a mayor (Emily Larson) who seems to have ripped up every other street so it feels like a game of Pac Man or ******* trying get around anywhere in Duluth.

[Radical_Car]

Originally Posted by acrylic

I moved away about 8 years ago and I've considered moving back here and there. Buying a newer home/building a newer home wasn't that expensive, but when looking at homes in the 200's to 300's, I can't find anything that I really consider "nice". Or at least, nice compared to what you can find for the same price here in the Phoenix area for the same price - or even many other places in the US.

What's made homes so expensive there? Is this a bubble? What's exactly going on? Any insight would be appreciated.

Real estate is insane and messed up all over the country. I remember messaging you Acrylic years and years back when you were moving to Arizona and prices down there since then have astronomically shot up as well.