MSP metro on 70K w/2 kids.....doable? (Coon Rapids, Maple Grove: sale, neighborhoods)

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Northman

I've heard Woodbury a few times in this thread, so I've been checking it out. Aside from townhomes, which I'm not sure we could do with rambunctious 7 and 8 year old boys, I don't see anything even close to new for under $250-300K. Am I missing something? Don't get me wrong, some of these townhomes are pretty nice, but I want our next home to be one that our kids will grow up in, and I'm having a hard time envisioning a townhouse in that scenario.

What I really want to know is who are all these people buying these 3, 4, 500K homes in this economy? I have a degree in a skilled trade, and I couldn't afford any of those homes. Are there that many doctors and lawyers out there?

Woodbury is pretty expensive. Most of the people that have suggested that really have no idea how much houses cost or what it takes to raise a family. You need to move further from the core of the Twin Cities to find houses that are nice under $250K.

As for who is buying, no one is really buying right now but there are a lot of highly paid people in the Twin Cities area or people that have significant equity in a home that brings a $500K home into an "affordable" mortgage.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by golfgal

You need to move further from the core of the Twin Cities to find houses that are nice under $250K.

I'll disagree here. Lots of nice move-in ready houses can be found in various neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul as well as several of the inner ring suburbs for under 250k.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Woodbury is pretty expensive. Most of the people that have suggested that really have no idea how much houses cost or what it takes to raise a family. You need to move further from the core of the Twin Cities to find houses that are nice under $250K.

As for who is buying, no one is really buying right now but there are a lot of highly paid people in the Twin Cities area or people that have significant equity in a home that brings a $500K home into an "affordable" mortgage.

See Listing Search Form - Search for Real Estate Properties

That link is of sold single family homes under $250K in Woodbury. I would guess that some of them are going to need some work but there are several others that look decent. If you remove the $250K constraint that I put on you will see a whole lot of sold 4, 5, and $600,000 homes that sold: People are buying. So in fact there are $250K homes that are nice and newer that are selling in Woodbury but you will have to search for them harder than the $400K homes.

I find that Edina Realty Real Estate in Minnesota Wisconsin North Dakota has THE best website for looking at MN homes. Their tools are awesome and extremely user friendly. Whoever did that website could teach every other market in this country a lesson on how it should be done.

Saying all of that. I would not be spending $250K on a $70K salary. I'd do $180K though... I'd also drop the constraint of "newer construction". There are many 1970(ish) redone homes in Plymouth and Minnetonka for instance that are in great areas. The reality is you have to compromise. I'm guessing that MN probably pays more that in MI. That is only a hunch. Good luck.

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

The reality is you have to compromise.

Yes, this is becoming more than apparent if the MSP metro is to be our destination.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

See Listing Search Form - Search for Real Estate Properties

That link is of sold single family homes under $250K in Woodbury. I would guess that some of them are going to need some work but there are several others that look decent. If you remove the $250K constraint that I put on you will see a whole lot of sold 4, 5, and $600,000 homes that sold: People are buying. So in fact there are $250K homes that are nice and newer that are selling in Woodbury but you will have to search for them harder than the $400K homes.

I find that Edina Realty Real Estate in Minnesota Wisconsin North Dakota has THE best website for looking at MN homes. Their tools are awesome and extremely user friendly. Whoever did that website could teach every other market in this country a lesson on how it should be done.

Saying all of that. I would not be spending $250K on a $70K salary. I'd do $180K though... I'd also drop the constraint of "newer construction". There are many 1970(ish) redone homes in Plymouth and Minnetonka for instance that are in great areas. The reality is you have to compromise. I'm guessing that MN probably pays more that in MI. That is only a hunch. Good luck.

There were 7 non-townhouse listings in Woodbury on that site--that is not a lot.

[ceeb4]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

See Listing Search Form - Search for Real Estate Properties

That link is of sold single family homes under $250K in Woodbury. I would guess that some of them are going to need some work but there are several others that look decent. If you remove the $250K constraint that I put on you will see a whole lot of sold 4, 5, and $600,000 homes that sold: People are buying. So in fact there are $250K homes that are nice and newer that are selling in Woodbury but you will have to search for them harder than the $400K homes.

I find that Edina Realty Real Estate in Minnesota Wisconsin North Dakota has THE best website for looking at MN homes. Their tools are awesome and extremely user friendly. Whoever did that website could teach every other market in this country a lesson on how it should be done.


Saying all of that. I would not be spending $250K on a $70K salary. I'd do $180K though... I'd also drop the constraint of "newer construction". There are many 1970(ish) redone homes in Plymouth and Minnetonka for instance that are in great areas. The reality is you have to compromise. I'm guessing that MN probably pays more that in MI. That is only a hunch. Good luck.

I too agree that the Edina Realty website is good, but I prefer to use the Keller Williams website only because you can select minimum/maximum age for homes in your search which I do not see on the Edina Realty website.(but I could be missing it somehow, if so please let me know as I like their site). Real Estate
(also, I am not intending to promote this realtor with this link but this is how I have the website saved in my bookmarks.)

p.s. This thread has been very helpful as far as general information, so thanks OP and others who have posted.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by golfgal

There were 7 non-townhouse listings in Woodbury on that site--that is not a lot.

I looked at the history of "sold" homes and there were several below $250K in the past couple of years (I think the total was 60). Saying that, inventory is down a lot (just heard it on the news something like 40%) as compared to last year so it does not surprise me that only 7 are currently on the market.

My overall point was two fold. Homes are still selling in the $400K-$600K Woodbury market (more than couple hundred of them in Woodbury in the past year or so if my memory serves me correctly). You mentioned to the OP that homes are not selling in that range. Also, there are nice homes under $250K in Woodbury albeit "slim pickings".

Where we will continue to disagree is your continued assertion that various burbs have inferior schools. This is one of your themes (you also mentioned it in this thread). As I said many times before, parents nurturing and high expectations trumps school ratings. My Kid's didn't take classes with many of the knuckleheads in the mainstream classes. So frankly whatever Anoka's (using our district as an example) overall score / rating happens to be I don't care. All I know is what my Kid's ACT standardized scores are as well as higher education opportunities. And I am prepared to go head-to-head with Hill Murry Kid's of for that matter or Stillwater. Putting it another way, putting constraints on where you live based off of early all MN burb test scores is meaningless if you know how to parent and obtain opportunities. Putting it another way, I would live in Maple Grove, Woodbury, Champlin, Chaska, St. Louis Park, Eden Prairie and consider them equal.

[northsub]

Originally Posted by ceeb4

I too agree that the Edina Realty website is good, but I prefer to use the Keller Williams website only because you can select minimum/maximum age for homes in your search which I do not see on the Edina Realty website.(but I could be missing it somehow, if so please let me know as I like their site). Real Estate
(also, I am not intending to promote this realtor with this link but this is how I have the website saved in my bookmarks.)

p.s. This thread has been very helpful as far as general information, so thanks OP and others who have posted.

You can set maximum/minimum age for homes on the Edina Realty website. If you are in the map view, there's a second box of search criteria below the first box.

I think the Edina Realty site is great as well. There's not really much I wish it could do that it doesn't.

[ceeb4]

Originally Posted by northsub

You can set maximum/minimum age for homes on the Edina Realty website. If you are in the map view, there's a second box of search criteria below the first box.

I think the Edina Realty site is great as well. There's not really much I wish it could do that it doesn't.

Thanks for letting me know. I knew it had to be there somewhere. :-)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I use this site for finding houses and it seems to work pretty good:

TheMLSonline.com - Minnesota Real Estate, Top Minnesota Real Estate Search - Call 763-576-8286