house appreciation (real estate, how much, depreciation)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

As I'm surveying the market in the twin cities area one thing that will make or break a decision for me in the respected market is the median appreciation/depreciation trends in recent history and the projected trends in the next year, 5 years and 10 years. Could anyone direct me to a source on the web or another place I could find this information? I would like the data organized by house size, age and by zipcode if possible.

[Tifosi24]

I don't know the information off hand, but there are two places you might want to contact. The local realtors association may have information, or the Urban Planning department at the University of Minnesota may have done research on housing in recent years. I currently attend Marquette University, and I know my department chair and the real estate chair recently completed a similar study of the Milwaukee housing market, so there is a decent chance that the either one of the organizations I listed have done the same.

[yellowsnow]

Contact a local realtor and ask for monthly market condition reports published by the title companies. That will give you exactly what you want by zipcode. One of the things that kind of skew that report in MN is waterfront properties. You have to take that into consideration.

[The Icy River Vagabond]

There is nothing that is going to "guarentee" that your house will appreciate, or how much it will appreciate. It all depends on the market. It is possible that you could lose money.