Linden Hills and Area (Minneapolis, Nicollet: apartment, renting, coop)

[codydog2]

Originally Posted by chrisroane

Looking at what is listed now, this looks like it might be perfect, and it is listed at $290K: 4012 Abbott Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55410 MLS# 4077899 - Zillow . But there aren't many of these types of listings, so I'm assuming this probably an exception.

That house is an exception but because it is not a traditional sale. It is listed as a short sale, so the price listed is just an arbitrary number.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by chrisroane

Min-Chi-Cbus: I'm not wanting to purchase a house to rent out. It would be to live in. The real question is whether I should focus on trying to save for a down payment now to purchase a house sooner or to just rent, pay off debt and buy a house in 3-4 years.

My main purpose was to get some context for the area. It doesn't sound like this is a once in a lifetime time period to buy a house in that area, which is all I wanted to know.

I just don't want people (ANYONE) thinking that there's some kind of "fools gold" here and then come to find that they're 100% wrong -- it's happened to too many people too much already! Like others have said, I don't see the market correcting itself by nearly the level you were alluding to -- EVEN in the most up-and-coming or secret treasure areas in town. I see some bottoming out for the next 6-12 months, followed by a slight run-up, proceded by another small dip (correction) before the market truly recovers. The city of Minneapolis has done REMARKABLY well during this whole recession....I know, because I check Zillow all the time to see if housing prices in the areas I want to live in (same as yours, actually) are coming down like the rest of the nation, and they're NOT! SW Mpls is an incredible place to live in, and having grown up there myself I find myself looking for the closest thing to that experience I can afford. My favorite spot right now in the Twin Cities is the Minnekhada Vista n'hood in St. Louis Park, which is less than a mile from Lake Calhoun and less than a half mile from Excelsior & Grand, but like Linden Hills, is pretty expensive and "overhyped" by some. With $350K though, I think you could get into the n'hood and I like that area for the next 10-20 years as the population continues to flood to the core and places with (some) space AND great schools (like SLP) will flourish!

[Beenhere4ever]

All the best in finding something in Linden Hills. Exceptionally nice area, one of the best in the city. Doubt you can find anything better outside the city. Linden Hills just shows how nice Minneapolis can be. A good offset to places like Hawthorne, South Central, Jordan, etc. We really are a city of contrasts. Which also means you can't make a valid generalization about Minneapolis. Somewhere will be an example to refute it.

[WendyRLee]

I think now is a great time to buy a house, as opposed to renting because of where interest rates are at and where they could be in the future. Interest rates are at all time lows right now, and with what is currently happening in the world financial markets could be going up much higher in the not so distant future. No one can predict the future but this is something to consider. In many case rents are higher that purchasing, plus you would get a mortgage interest deduction on your taxes.

[Beenhere4ever]

I'll wait and see what happens with that prediction. According to analysts on Bloomberg, there are some shaky economies out there, and we're far from out of the woods. The Fed will attempt to prevent deflation, but it is far from clear it can do it. The craziness since 2001, ending in 2007, is like a drug binge from which the world is withdrawing. If you go out maybe a decade, the fits may be over, but in the interim the experts seem not to like the prospects.

[QuietBlue]

Yeah, it's supposedly been "a great time to buy a house" for about the last five years or so. I'll believe it when I see it.

[chrisroane]

The interest rates are very low right now, but I don't think it is the best decision for my family to avoid paying off debt now for this reason. Even if they end up going up by the time we are ready to buy a house, we will be in a much better spot with much less debt.

[chrisroane]

I spent some more time looking at the other areas around Lake Harriet. I know Kingsfield has been referenced a few times. The housing market over there looks more reasonable compared to Linden Hills (including the rent prices). And it looks like you can get pretty close to the lake if you are in the east section of the neighborhood.

Is Kingsfield very family friendly? The whole neighborhood has a higher walkscore.com average than Linden Hills, and is closer to uptown. But why would someone pick Linden Hills over Kingsfield? Other than maybe the "village feeling" that I read about in Linden Hills, is there a good reason to try to get into that area compared to Kingsfield?

[Glenfield]

We live in Kingfield, and really love it here. It is very family friendly and we have lots and lots of businesses here. Our main commercial street is Nicollet Ave, and while it doesn't have the charm that Upton does being a much busier street, we have many more businesses in Kingfield than are in Linden Hills. We also have a number of smaller commercial nodes that are pretty cool, like 38th and Grand and 46th and Grand. Housing is much more affordable here, and I think the houses are generally more charming, as we haven't had a lot of the tear down and mega remodeling jobs that you see in Linden Hills. I would say that Linden Hills has two major advantages over Kingfield. One is the quality of the community school. Lake Harriet School gets a much better result than Lyndale Community School, likely because LHS does not serve the underprivileged and non-native English speaking communities as they do at Lyndale. The other is that Linden Hills is closer to Lake Harriet than Kingfield. A comparable location to LH on our side of the lake would be East Harriet Farmstead.

[west336]

Kingfield used to have a bit more crime, and is still closer to some of the higher crime areas of South Minneapolis (the few remaining ones) -- although I don't believe crime is much of an issue anymore there. It's also not quite as charming as Linden Hills, but that's about it for the "cons", otherwise, it's a great deal!