First time homebuyers, Help us figure out the neighborhood (Minneapolis: house, neighborhoods)

[Slig]

yeah, that is like night and day to the Hale/Page area. I understand your tight budget but there are houses available in that range in better neighborhoods. There are 20 or so in Longfellow and maybye 10 or so in Nokomis. There are 8 SFH in the 90-120k range in Corcoran/Standish which in my opinion is the better side of Cedar Ave if you're adamant about purchasing in Powderhorn.

[Minnehahapolitan]

Originally Posted by addisonart

38th and oakland area

I am an ardent supporter of the City, so do not take it lightly when I tell you that they better be selling you the Taj Mahal.

[addisonart]

Originally Posted by Slig

yeah, that is like night and day to the Hale/Page area. I understand your tight budget but there are houses available in that range in better neighborhoods. There are 20 or so in Longfellow and maybye 10 or so in Nokomis. There are 8 SFH in the 90-120k range in Corcoran/Standish which in my opinion is the better side of Cedar Ave if you're adamant about purchasing in Powderhorn.

Its not that we are adament about powderhorn but we do have some requirements in the home we want which narrows the field considerably.
1. 2 bed minimum. 2. 2 car garage. 3. 2 bathroom. Everything can be lived with but we have to have those things. I know it could be a lot to ask for the budget we have but we wouldn't be happy with a home without those things. The other homes we've looked at that have fit that criteria have needed CONSIDERABLE work to make them habitable.

[MNNative]

There isn't a shortage of 2 bedroom, 2 bath homes with 2 car garages in Minneapolis. I wouldn't be worried about that. Is there a reason you're concentrating on Powderhorn or South Mpls in general (i.e. work)? I pulled up a quick MLS search based on your criteria and searched $80-125k for price. Depending on your definitions of "habitable" and "considerable", there could be plenty of choices.
Camden has 19 listings.
Northeast has 9 listings.
Longfellow and Nokomis each have 5 listings.
Even Southwest has 1 listing.

[addisonart]

We are concentrating on south and NE. This is by far the best one we have seen. By habitable I mean no mold, no holes in the walls, no genatalia spray painted on the walls. It would be nice if it had been updated since the 1950's. So as you can see I don't think we're asking for all that much.

[insert_name_here_00]

longfellow and nokomis are both real safe neighborhoods and a bike ride west from the action of midtown, or uptown.

you might want to look into those listings.

[Slig]

These all fit your requirements, 2br, 2bth, 90-120k, 2 car garage. Have you had a chance to look at these properties which in my opinion are in better areas:

4453 5th Ave
4130 3rd Ave
4512 Bloomington Ave
4428 17th Ave
3758 17th Ave
3640 Bloomington Ave
3715 Bloomington Ave
3436 Longfellow Ave
3322 Minnehaha Ave
3136 29th Ave
2921 31st Ave

[MNNative]

Originally Posted by Slig

These all fit your requirements, 2br, 2bth, 90-120k, 2 car garage. Have you had a chance to look at these properties which in my opinion are in better areas:

4453 5th Ave
4130 3rd Ave
4512 Bloomington Ave
4428 17th Ave
3758 17th Ave
3640 Bloomington Ave
3715 Bloomington Ave
3436 Longfellow Ave
3322 Minnehaha Ave
3136 29th Ave
2921 31st Ave

Out of these, only the highlighted ones actually have a 2-car garage. In my opinion, no interior photos usually is a bad sign, but you never know. Given that, you might not find many of those to your satisfaction. My favorites: 3322 Minnehaha Ave & 2921 31st Ave.

[MNNative]

There's also the possibility of 5616 33rd Ave in the Nokomis community. (Slig, was there a reason you dismissed this one or did you not see it?)

I'll preface the next batch by saying I have NO KNOWLEDGE of the NE area whatsoever, so you'll probably want others to chime in.

3614 3rd St NE
2415 Jefferson St NE
334 NE 24th Ave
2418 Garfield St NE
2403 Lincoln St NE
2959 Tyler St NE
2514 Jackson St NE
2627 6th St NE

[Camden Northsider]

Personally I would nix Bloomington Avenue - but I knew someone that used to live on Bloomington in the 30s and heard lots of stories that may have had a bias.

Actually, to the OP - you kind of remind me of us when we first started looking to purchase our first home - our current neighborhood was our top choice but was almost out of our price range at that time, so to get a diverse, informed opinion we checked out houses in the rest of Camden and areas of South Minneapolis as well as NE (and a couple in St. Paul). Ultimately we felt that all the houses in our price range back then in South Mpls were in pretty transitional/ dodgy areas so we nixed this from our search, we didn't know anything about St. Paul and felt that this too was the case, and the NE area for whatever reason just didn't appeal to us at all (although I can see and recognize its charms and actually like the area) - so we picked a few Camden neighborhoods that we really liked and targeted these in our search - they just felt right to us I guess - and we were able to find something in our 1st choice neighborhood when that initially looked bleak or like it wasn't going to happen.

I'm not saying all of this to try and sway you at all as we all have our own personal preferences and what we feel comfortable with. I guess what I'm saying is that if you're not in an immediate rush/ need to buy a home right this minute, pick a neighborhood/ two that you really want to live in (and have a likelihood of turning over homes in your price range), and then keep your eye on the market in those neighborhoods and wait for something to come up - in the current market, there are fairly decent homes popping up listed at insanely low valuations all the time - you just have decide quickly and move quickly when you find something you really want. And if the original house you posted about is what you want and feels right to you both then go for it - even if there is some crime, what these areas need most are good homeowners to help turn the tide. Good luck-