Buying a home in Minneapolis (Bloomington, Plymouth: renting, high crime, neighborhoods)

[acaron1013]

I have been living in Minneapolis for about 2 years now... mostly in student housing on the Augsburg College campus (near cedar/riverside). I am currently living in North Phillips, near Franklin and Bloomington, (in a bit of a shady neighborhood, but manageable.) And recently I have been considering the option of buying a house since I really like living in the city.

I am trying to figure out good neighborhoods of Minneapolis/St Paul...

I know Nokomis, University and Uptown are nice. But for the most part they are out of my price range... looking to stay under 150k for a 3-4br (might be impossible).

What about Bryant Neighborhood (South Powderhorn) And I have heard good things about Northeast Minneapolis, but where? My buddy used to live near Central and Broadway and I know that was pretty sketchy.

Let me know what you guys think and recommend! Thank you so much in advance!

[Slig]

I was you 3 years ago. I was fresh out of college with a full-time job and decided I wasn't a fan of renting so I wanted to buy a starter home. I also decided I wanted to live in the city. Since I was working in Plymouth at the time I started my search in North Minneapolis (which is by far the most inexpensive area for homes in Minneapolis). I didn't have much luck and decided I wasn't a fan of the areas I was looking in so I held off and rented for a couple more years. I eventually started working in Eagan and due to the location change settled for a house in your range in the Corcoran neighborhood in Powderhorn. Geographically I'd try to choose a neighborhood that makes sense for commuting or close to places you frequent or enjoy. Besides affordability, I selected a home in my neighborhood because it was directly between work and school, close to the light rail and farmer's market as well as only 5 blocks from two parks. Anyways, once you figure out where you want to be you will be able to find housing in your price range in these areas:

Near North
Camden
Phillips
Powderhorn

You may also be able to find some options in NE, Longfellow and Nokomis but generally speaking these neighborhoods are more in the 175-250k range from what I've seen.

[acaron1013]

How would you rate the listed neighborhoods? (As far as safety) My first reaction would be Powderhorn Camden Phillips Near North Do you think thats about right? And what do you think about North Powderhorn vs South?

[Slig]

Originally Posted by acaron1013

How would you rate the listed neighborhoods? (As far as safety) My first reaction would be Powderhorn Camden Phillips Near North Do you think thats about right? And what do you think about North Powderhorn vs South?

In the last 14 months I've lived here I've found the whole safety factor to be more perception than anything. I spend alot of time in various Powderhorn and Phillips neighborhoods as well as Cedar-Riverside and I feel equally safe in all of them. I can't really speak about the northside because I've never lived there and don't frequent it. Crime stats don't tell the whole story but they can help give you a better idea of where reported incidents typically happen. Realistically the crimes you're going to see and experience are minor theft, vandalism and graffiti, which is what occasionally happens in any urban environment. Random assaults do occur, but so infrequently I don't even worry about it. Besides, if you got by living near Franklin and Bloomington you should have no problem living anywhere in the city.

North Powderhorn to South Powderhorn?
Well, Powderhorn actually extends to Whittier and Lyndale so you have to include those too, although those neighborhoods would be out of your price range.

I like Corcoran and Standish because they are along the light rail. For that reason there has been alot of investment and rennovation of both neighborhoods in the last 4-5 years and I see this trend continuing. I also like Powderhorn Park (the neighborhood), because of the park obviously. Central is the bad egg of the community. Crime there is significantly higher than other Powderhorn neighborhoods and houses there are overall in worse shape. I wouldn't completely rule it out, but in my opinion that is the least desirable Powderhorn neighborhood. Bryant and Bancroft are decent. I actually almost bought a house in Bancroft but it had too many weird quirks so I ended up passing on it. Some realtors will tell you that the further south you go from Lake St. the safer and better the blocks get. Some will tell you that you want to stay south of 38th or 42nd. I think the overall quality of housing does slowly increase as you go south but overall I don't buy these "rules of thumb."

[Duk123]

The Problem with generalizing about the crime in Near North and Camden is they are such huge areas. Camden has 9 neighborhoods if you include industrial areas and Near North has 5. Out of thoses areas many are block by block as far as being high crime or not. In Camden for you price range I'd look at Folwell or Webber-Camden you'll get the most bang for your buck. I'd avoid McKinley due to crime.
An avoid Victory, Cleveland Shingle Creek and Lind Bohanon because of price.

In Near North I'd look Willard-Hays and Harrison and pretty much avoid everything else as a rule of thumb. Even tho their are some huge deals to be had in Jordan right now.
Also in the areas I'd recommend I'd avoid major roads such as Penn Ave. and the streets on either side Oliver and Queen.

http://www.ci.mpls.mn.us/about/maps/neighborhoods.pdf

[MPLSCleveland]

On Camden, depending on where the house is located affects the price of a house immensely. Here in Cleveland specifically, price goes up the farther north of Lowry and west of Penn you go (aka houses on or within a block of Victory Memorial parkway go for a lot more than houses a block or two from Penn). The Cleveland Neighborhood itself is pretty safe in my opinion. I actually go for walks at 1 or 2 am when I can not sleep. But the only way to know if you feel comfortable with a neighborhood is to spend some time in it. Drive around and get out and walk around it.
For the price, I think Shingle Creek is out of the OP's price range. There are houses that can be found in the price range wanted in Victory, but probably not many. I really don't know much about Lind-Bohanon.
On Folwell and Webber-Camden (South of 42nd Ave), the area is literally block by block still. Major progress has been made in those neighborhood, but it still has it's problem areas.
On the Near-North area of town, Willard-Hays and Harrison has some wonderful areas in it. Another neighborhood to look at in that area would be Hawthorne (boundaries are Emerson to the West, Lowry to the North, the river to the east, and Broadway to the South). Like Folwell, the area is block by block. The organizing people have done to work on the problems in that neighborhood is amazing. I would call Hawthorne a diamond in the rough for now.