Little Falls, Mn. (St. Cloud, Brainerd, Detroit Lakes: real estate market, crime, homes)

[texscot]

How is the real estate market in Little Falls? I was born there and on our last visit it seems to be a pleasant place to live. Worthy of another visit?

[disneyrecords]

I've been watching hoping someone would have responded. Little Falls, home of the late great Charles Lindbergh, is on my radar screen too.
I'll tell you what I know. My only exposure has been on route 10 which goes mostly around the city not in it and talking to some of the residents when we stop for meals or gas up the car on our way to Detroit Lakes. Typical of lakes region topography with the added bonus of the Mississippi River going through the middle. The Mississippi does flood anually but not to the degree it does oh say in Iowa-Illinois. Check the school district out thoroughly; I'm getting some not so great reviews on it. Schools are a major sticking point for me in rural areas.
Mix of homes from high end to the very low end. Housing stock is aging but new construction most likely is available due to the presence of two major marine manufacturers: Larson (awesome boats IMHO) and Glastron (more speedy waterski like crafts)
Despite the presence of these two large fairly stable employers, the unemployment rate is very high. I can't figure out why. I would recommend having employment lined up before moving there. Originally, I thought Little Falls lost one of those boat manufacturers, thank goodness they didn't. Maybe one of them downsized. The unemployment rate is higher than the rest of the lakes region.
Before you decide on Little Falls, check out the rest of the lakes region. I believe (I could be wrong) that geologists call this area the Glacial Lakes Region. There are some other communities that will blow your socks off with the beauty and recreation they provide.
I guess in making a decision-- if I had a good paying job waiting for me in Little Falls, I'd take it. However, if I'm flying by the seat of my pants and hoping to land somewhere in that area, I know of a few other places I'd rather be.

Good Luck,
disneyrecords

[missmousern]

I live about 40 minutes from LF. It is a nice little community. Beautiful. We ride Motorcycle that direction. I agree with disney to check out the job situation. St Cloud is a commutable distance. Out here you can live nearly 60 miles away and that is an hour commute If you are retirement age good for you! Enjoy the fishing. Did you see if they have a chamber of commerce web site?
http://www.littlefallsmn.com/Homepage.php
OK, I did for you. I forgot about the army base near there. They have a small hospital there that is doing well I believe. Big event of the year is the craft fair....takes up all of downtown and ladies people come in on greyhounds.

[marmac]

Little Falls is ok-------I worked there for 12 years. Yes, it would be a good isea to have a job lined up before , but I would recommend that for people moving anyplace in the US.

the boat companies are doing quite well. (its too bad the paper mill closed years back as they were a place with excellent wages and benefits)
Perhaps what holds Little Falls' wages down is there really are few job opportunities to the East, West, and especially the North which gives employers many applicants from people from those regions.
As a poster stated, to the South is St Cloud with 4-lane #10 allowing you to commute.
A big plus for Little Falls is how they spruced up main street. I think their downtown is now very nice and would be the envy of many cities where the downtown area got neglected cuz business moved to the by pass area to be near the highway.

[texscot]

Thanks for your response

[DustinSimmonds]

Yea Little Falls job community is doing pretty well now the economy is rebounding as we had a bad maybe a few years back but we have a new one now and she is doing great job there are alot of jobs coming the the area like there are indusrtys moving in to the north there are commercial jobs to the east the hospital is hiring to the south and the city is annexing 800 arcres of land the the west for residential development ... the crime is not a big problem just pretty much the occasional delinquent but no serious crime the worst that has happened to me is my bike got stolen a while back but we got it back the police force is very capable the school district is doing very well compared to the surrounding communites like St. Cloud and Brainerd so i think Little Falls is great

[ozzie679]

Isn't Little Falls well known for meth and other drugs? Also, the schools are not well funded.

[DustinSimmonds]

Actually no but a town about 10 miles to the north called randall is a really big drug town but there have been lots of busts so its starting to get better there, and the school are in pretty good shape but almost all the other towns in the central minnesota area are doing bad.The Little Falls school went through some cut backs like 6 or 7 years ago but not its fine ... there are even new "smart boards" and computers