So how is the housing market in the Twin Cities? (Minneapolis: for sale, real estate)

[newcastle]

Are the Twin Cities suffering a huge downturn in the housing market as much as other areas in the country? I read an article on CNN/Money that places like Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C. are down by as much as 25-30%? So, how are things in the Twin Cities housing market? I was in Anoka the other day and saw huge town home developments of Hwy 10 that all appear vacant.

[moving123456]

It looks stagnant to me. Sellers are not dropping their bubble prices and homes are sitting on the market for very long periods with few showings.

I was actually surprised when one home that I had saved on a real estate site recently dropped their asking price a whole $2,500.

[nick is rulz]

basically the market will remain stagnant until people remove their heads from their respective uh...butts...and realize that just because you bought into the "guaranteed return on your investment" nonsense, and capitalism disagreed with your logic..you have to adjust accordingly.

But some realtor will probably swing by and tell you the opposite that its never been a better time to buy.

[K-Luv]

Well, according to Forbes, Minneapolis is the best place to buy homes these days. There are actually quite a few people with $$$$$$ who live around the TC.

[sugarbeet]

As in some of the other middle-of-the road markets (in terms of price and recent appreciation), the most desirable areas continue to do well. Not huge appreciation of late, but still selling.

The exurban areas and less desirable core areas are struggling. People are not moving out to the fringes any more because they don't have to. Why move to Buffalo when you can get a nice house in Plymouth?

There are some good deals to be had and as a Minneapolis buyer who was fortunate enough to unload my Florida house at a loss covered by my relo package, house hunting has been great!

[Lillietta]

MANY houses are for sale that are vacant.

[newcastle]

NBC News reported from Minneapolis tonight that many of the houses in foreclosure are not owner occupied but investor owned and renter occupied. The renters are immediately evicted upon foreclosure. Catholic Charities is opening up new dorm wings in order to house the newly homeless renters. What a mess.

[Camden Northsider]

Yeah, I think they said 56% of the foreclosures are investor foreclosures. I think people have gotten way too excited from "flip this house" and other homebuying/ selling shows all over the home and garden networks that anyone with a little disposable income has started to fancy themselves real estate investors. When you watch these shows, it's middle-income people (often times in pricey cali markets) planning to completely renovate whole houses and sell them again within a matter of weeks (and have to sell that fast as they can't afford the mortgage payments).

When I was looking to buy a house as a single person several years ago, one lender offererd to pre-approve me for an amount that was 7 times my annual income - I think this is riduculous. With my college debt-load there would be absolutely NO WAY I could afford that kind of monthly mortgage payment.

I'm not sure how a lot of people are doing it, but I feel very lucky that my current house payment is easily doable so that when incidentals/ needed repairs/ renovations pop up, we are able to pay for them out of pocket.

[crbcrbrgv]

My grandpa's house, which is located in the Como Park neighborhood near the fairgrounds actually went up 4,200 in value from last year. But for some reason (probably the proximity to everything) that neighborhood has been very desirable for about the last 10 to 15 years.

[talktobrent]

Houses are a bit of a toss up, i think they have flattened out. I wouldn't be surprised if you could scoop up some empty condos for a deep discount in a year or two