I could use a little help (Minneapolis, Edina: for sale, real estate, 2009)

[luckyk]

We're looking for a three bedroom house in the more urban areas of the cities, and we'd like to keep our budget around 90k or so. Can this be done without getting into a high crime area? You can't search by neighborhood on realtor . com, but can anyone recommend specific zip codes to do a search? We have no real needs for the house other than it's livable, 3 bedrooms, yard. I've spent my whole life living in an area that everyone thinks is "ghetto" so I really don't mind the stigma of that but I don't want to live in a high drug, high crime area.

[befigard]

What state are you looking to live in. I have a 3 bedroom 2 bath for sale in a sleepy little town in southern MO. I have 1.1 acre of wooded land. 35 minute drive to Springfield (a big city)..........My property taxs are under $300 a year. Have a private well...livestock pond and already fenced on 2 sides for livestock.
I'm only asking 42,900. I absolutley love it here the only reason I'm selling is I have NO FAMILY here and have to go back through chemo. In fact I'm leaving MO in a week........

[lalife]

Originally Posted by luckyk

We're looking for a three bedroom house in the more urban areas of the cities, and we'd like to keep our budget around 90k or so. Can this be done without getting into a high crime area? You can't search by neighborhood on realtor . com, but can anyone recommend specific zip codes to do a search? We have no real needs for the house other than it's livable, 3 bedrooms, yard. I've spent my whole life living in an area that everyone thinks is "ghetto" so I really don't mind the stigma of that but I don't want to live in a high drug, high crime area.

Yes, you can now find this in Minneapolis. There are foreclosures here in good neighborhoods for that price. If you don't want to deal with foreclosures, there still are properties in decent areas that would fall in your budget. Just stay out of near north Minneapolis and in S.Mpls, the area close to Lake Street around midtown has the roughest areas.

There is an area in North Minneapolis called the Camden neighborhood that has seen housing prices reduced by about 40% in 2008. This is considered to be a decent area, but I don't know how large the houses are. They tend to be quite small. Anyhow, those can be had for less than $100,000. Lots of 1st time homebuyers are snatching those up.

Finally you are right. Stay out of high crime, ghetto areas. The savings on housing costs are not worth the misery of the lower quality of life. Pay more and get a place where it feels safe.

[3three3]

I second the advice of staying away from North Minneapolis, for safety reasons. The price of houses would be well within your budget, but the crime rate is just too high these days.

But, I wouldn't stay away from South Minneapolis. I think south side is probably your best bet for finding a 3BR in your price range. The so-called "worst" area of South Minneapolis is called the Phillips neighborhood, but even that has been experiencing some change and upward growth in recent years. I'd particularly recommend you look in the Powderhorn and Longfellow neighborhoods (if you look on Edina Realty you should be able to search by neighborhood...for zips, try 55407 and 55406). Powderhorn would probably get referred to as the Ghetto by a lot of non-urban folks, but it's a wonderful community with active neighborhood groups and a very progressive feel. Great diversity and consistant development/growth for the last decade. Unlike north side, if you buy in Powderhorn your purchase will actually accrue over the years. And, check out the foreclosures. My friends just bought a foreclosed 2+ BR in Powderhorn for 60K, a bit of a fixer-upper but a hell of a deal. I know they saw 3BR foreclosed homes in the same neighborhood for around 90K, but didn't want to spend that much.

Good luck!

[MNNative]

Originally Posted by 3three3

I second the advice of staying away from North Minneapolis, for safety reasons. The price of houses would be well within your budget, but the crime rate is just too high these days.

But, I wouldn't stay away from South Minneapolis. I think south side is probably your best bet for finding a 3BR in your price range. The so-called "worst" area of South Minneapolis is called the Phillips neighborhood, but even that has been experiencing some change and upward growth in recent years. I'd particularly recommend you look in the Powderhorn and Longfellow neighborhoods (if you look on Edina Realty you should be able to search by neighborhood...for zips, try 55407 and 55406). Powderhorn would probably get referred to as the Ghetto by a lot of non-urban folks, but it's a wonderful community with active neighborhood groups and a very progressive feel. Great diversity and consistant development/growth for the last decade. Unlike north side, if you buy in Powderhorn your purchase will actually accrue over the years. And, check out the foreclosures. My friends just bought a foreclosed 2+ BR in Powderhorn for 60K, a bit of a fixer-upper but a hell of a deal. I know they saw 3BR foreclosed homes in the same neighborhood for around 90K, but didn't want to spend that much.

Good luck!

I am going to disagree with the perception that all of North Mpls should be dismissed. I will agree that you should check out Edina Realty's website and use their "Area" search to see properties in certain communities (i.e. Camden, Powderhorn, Longfellow, Nokomis, Northeast). You may have to refer back to the knowledge of those who are more familiar with areas within those communities to make the best decisions...so when you find homes you like, post the coordinates and I'm sure you'll receive a plethora of opinions.

I ditto the other poster who suggested Camden (of course I would though- I just bought here in August). Yes, we're part of North Mpls but not Near North, which is where you'll find the brunt of the "issues". A quick search for a 3 bedroom home in the Camden area with a max purchase price of $90k brought up 111 homes. A significant amount of those will surely need extensive rehab, so a more narrow search of $50k-90k brings up 45 homes. A quick scan shows many of them look livable assuming you don't mind a home that's fairly outdated.

But it all boils down to what you really want and where. So play around on the real estate search engines and you're bound to find something, especially in this market!

P.S. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "more urban area of the cities". Are you hoping for a spot closer to downtown/uptown or just within Mpls city limits?

[Camden Northsider]

luckyk, realtor.com actually does have a "search by neighborhood" feature so don't worry about the ZIP codes. I highly disagree with 3three3, the areas in your price range in South Minneapolis will have a much lower quality of life than what you will find in Camden and even some areas of Near North. And my North Minneapolis neighborhood had some of the fastest rising property values in the city in the early part of this decade - just like everywhere in the city, property values have come down a lot, but the nicer well-maintained homes here are still retaining healthy values.

Anyways, if you've lived in areas considered "ghetto" all your life, depending on what city you come from, Minneapolis' most "ghetto" neighborhood is probably fairly decent in comparison - but that's not to say that we don't have some (per capita) big issues with concentrated crime/ poverty here.

But in a recent post I linked to all of the realtor.com neighborhoods in Camden and Near North in a reply to someone's inquiry on this thread so check it out and then use the search feature on this forum to find out more information about the n'hoods: http://www.city-data.com/forum/minne...ml#post6203615.

Good luck with your search, Direct Message me if you think I can be of any more help in navigating northside neighborhoods-

[bloomingtonsteve]

You will have a real tough time finding what you want with 90k. You need to adjust something. Talk to a realtor too. I know an incredible one (she's really cute too!) if you're interested. Let me know. sg361@popp.net

[lalife]

Originally Posted by bloomingtonsteve

You will have a real tough time finding what you want with 90k. You need to adjust something. Talk to a realtor too. I know an incredible one (she's really cute too!) if you're interested. Let me know. sg361@popp.net

Take your negative nonsense out of here. I see how you have to mention your realtor friend so she can make some cash off of the OP.

2009 is the time to buy and there are lots of properties for under $100,000 that are not in the ghetto.

[luckyk]

Originally Posted by MNNative

P.S. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "more urban area of the cities". Are you hoping for a spot closer to downtown/uptown or just within Mpls city limits?

By urban we just mean somewhere with good public transit, near the core of the cities ... where we might be more likely to find people like us. I'm not sure what "urban" means in the twin cities though, because I'm not sure what the demographics are really like.

I'll check out Camden, it seems to have a lot of good recommendations elsewhere as well. We really prefer a small house, actually. Less to heat. And "outdated" doesn't bother us. I can paint kitchen cabinets and tear up ugly carpeting. Not a problem. I see "outdated" and think "customizable"

[MNNative]

Originally Posted by luckyk

By urban we just mean somewhere with good public transit, near the core of the cities ... where we might be more likely to find people like us. I'm not sure what "urban" means in the twin cities though, because I'm not sure what the demographics are really like.

I'll check out Camden, it seems to have a lot of good recommendations elsewhere as well. We really prefer a small house, actually. Less to heat. And "outdated" doesn't bother us. I can paint kitchen cabinets and tear up ugly carpeting. Not a problem. I see "outdated" and think "customizable"

I completely agree!