Victims or Miscreants?

Here's the Strib article.

Here's Johnny Northside's response.

I already have a fully formed opinion on this, but please do read and judge for yourself.

Northside Home Tour THIS SATURDAY???

****BREAKING NEWS****

I just found out about this today - YIKES!

But in-between your Art-A-Whirling, I heartily encourage you to jog west just a smidge and check out the home tour that's going on this Saturday, May 17 on the Northside!

I have a flyer, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to link it here. (It's a PDF)

Email me for the details and/or if you want to school me on PDF-linkage...)

And I'll see you North/Northeast this weekend!

Northside Synagogues Walking Tour!

From the City of Minneapolis website:

Co-sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest
Date: May 31
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Place: Mikro Kodesh Synagogue, 1000 Oliver Ave N.
Guide: Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest
This walking tour will highlight some of the gathering places of North Minneapolis’s Jewish community in the early 20^th century. Visit a neighborhood with three synagogues as well as the Emmanuel Cohen Community Center and the Jewish Shelter Home for Children. Learn about the architectural history of these buildings and the communities that have – and continue to gather here.

SO NEAT! I'm definitely planning to be there.

Minneapolis Advantage loan program

From the city web page:

"The Minneapolis Advantage loan program is a downpayment and closing cost assistance program to help rebuild the housing market in key neighborhoods that have experienced mortgage foreclosures.

The program offers a $10,000 zero-percent interest rate loan that is forgivable over five years to anyone buying a home in which they will live in these eligible neighborhoods (PDF). Additional assistance offered through neighborhood associations may be available to homebuyers purchasing homes in Harrison, McKinley, Folwell and Webber-Camden."

Loan applications will be accepted starting May 5!

This is an awesome opportunity.

Holy Cheap Houses!

A quick search on MLS Matrix this morning reveals that North Minneapolis currently has:

470 homes for sale listed UNDER $100,000;

234 homes for sale listed UNDER $50,000;

and 36 homes for sale listed UNDER $25,000.


This is mind-boggling.


Here's a photo of one from the third category:


I think it's pretty cute... especially considering the fact that it's about the price of my first decent (used) car.

Well now... THIS should be interesting!

Thanks to their handy-dandy blog, I just learned that North Minneapolis's Hawthorne Neighborhood is charting a bold new course in the battle against foreclosure-blight.

I don't know where this case is going to go, but I DO know that many of the good boys and girls of North Minneapolis are getting rather PISSED about the current state of affairs... and I don't blame them one bit.

I can't wait to see what happens next!

So much for nobody wanting homes over north

Yes yes, I knowwwwwww, if you read the Strib or surf the web or talk to just about ANYBODY on the street on a given day about real estate, I KNOW they will mention the foreclosure rates in North Minneapolis.

Yes yes, mm-hmm. Indeed.

We've all heard... From Old Highland to Victory; from Willard-Homewood to Webber Park, there's a bootload of inventory, and price has crashed like some overweight ice-dam in a torrential spring rain. We've seen the google-maps, with their bazillion merging red dots.

But wait - let me tell you something you may not know:

In the past couple of months, I've gone shopping with several buyers in North Minneapolis. While we found the very inventory we expected, we also found something else: fierce competition.

Ye gads!

You mean somebody ELSE actually wants these homes? Not just us crazies?

You bet.

In fact, in the past week and a half, one particular buyer of mine (bless her poor, disheartened soul) has encountered multiple offer situations on no less than FOUR CONSECUTIVE HOMES on which we've written offers.

Coincidence?

Bad luck?

I think not. In fact, I think that as aggravating as this may be for my clients, it actually points to something very GOOD.

I think we're on the rebound...