Archive for the 'Real Estate News' Category
Plymouth, MN - Real Estate Statistics - May, 2009
June 29th, 2009 Categories: Plymouth Current Housing Statistics, Real Estate News
Here are the latest statistics from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors for Plymouth. The chart explains itself, but in a nutshell, there were a whopping 11.8% less single family homes on the market by the end of May this year than last year.
The housing affordability has not been this good since 2004, according to the association. I believe that we’re near the end of the price cuts, too. Plymouth’s average sales price for May alone was 7.2% above last year’s average sale price.
What this says to me is that Plymouth homeowners are digging in and not allowing their homes to be undersold. This signifies that the market is becoming more balanced. If home owners can’t sell their home for what they want, they’re not going to list in the first place. CLICK ON THE CHART FOR A LARGER PICTURE!
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That Little Gray House With The Black Shutters…With a Big Past!
June 11th, 2009 Categories: North Minneapolis, Real Estate News, That Flippin' House, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
Don’t get me wrong, I like nothing more than to tell a “feel good” story without a past. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always swing that way.
Lucky for a few, my client, Jennifer, aka, Flipper Girl, makes dreams come true. Now, I’m not a Pollyanna-type blog writer and, trust me, Jennifer isn’t the Pollyanna type either, but she is all over making dreams come true.
This week, I had a reporter from the Star Trib call me for some info about a house that Jennifer rehabbed. Turns out, it was the very first house that was given up by the Greater Minneapolis Housing Corporation. That’s no easy feat. I had a few discussions with the powers-that-be over there. I had to send pics of the other homes that Miss Jennifer had rehabbed to make sure the they would accept her work on the FIRST EVER TJ WACONIA property to be turned over to the public.
They said, “OK”. That’s a BIG DEAL!
Here’s the story of the woman who purchased it from Jennifer that was written by the Star Trib in yesterday’s paper…
Program helps heal wounds of North Side housing fraud
The house sits on a quiet street across from a fire station. The gray stucco looks freshly painted and the front windows are framed by black shutters. Inside, hardwood floors gleam in the morning sun as Jackline Mukiibi, 25, shows off her home, the first home owned by anyone in her family.
Daughter Ava, 3, is away at day care, but her photos sit atop a shelf. Over by the stereo is evidence of a fledgling modeling career, a Target ad featuring the toddler.
It doesn’t look like a house with a notorious past, but it is. Mukiibi’s tidy home was part of the TJ Waconia real estate scam that washed through the North Side. Over a three-year period, developers Jonathan Helgason and Thomas Balko of TJ Waconia bought and resold houses for inflated prices to straw-buyer investors, triggering a foreclosure crisis that left many homeless and many homes abandoned. In April, Helgason and Balko were sentenced to eight and seven years in federal prison, respectively, for their crimes.
Mukiibi represents an effort to reclaim that part of the city, one house at a time. Hers is believed to be the first of the 141 homes from the scam to be sold.
Working through City of Lakes Community Land Trust and taking savvy advantage of several other programs that encourage home ownership, Mukiibi cobbled together a mortgage loan and down payment and moved from her tiny apartment in February.
Mukiibi paid $703 a month for her apartment. Now she lives in a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a finished basement, family room and a fenced yard for $728 per month.
Born in Uganda, Mukiibi came to the United States with her parents when she was 2 years old. “I dreamed of owning a house when I was a little girl,” she said. But she got pregnant at 21, which seemed to limit her ability to buy in the near future. Mukiibi works for a nonprofit and goes to school full time at Metropolitan State University, where she is earning a degree in ethnic studies.
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Short Sales and Cheese Cake
May 19th, 2009 Categories: Cool Guys, My Listings, Real Estate News, The Good Life
Short sales take a long time to happen from the moment a home is listed until the day of closing. There are a myriad of twists and turns that take place and, I for one, do not enjoy working them through. It is, unfortunately, a fact of life these days. For some reason, some buyers’ agents still don’t realize the time it takes for the bank to get its act together. I have written about short sales on this blog before, so I won’t get in to all of the gory details here.
Nope, this post is about my real estate colleague, Bob Bergh. I just want to thank him publicly for taking the helm on a tricky short sale that we just completed. He basically did all of the leg work after we received a purchase agreement on the property. We had at least four purchase agreements that I recall and hundreds of inquiries. Plus many hours, days, weeks and months of wrangling. Whew!
I also wanted to thank him personally so I took him to lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory after the closing. Bob had wild blue berry cheese cake and I had carrot cake cheese cake. Yum!
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How to Build a Fire Pit In Your Own Backyard In Plymouth. It’s So Minnesotan!
May 6th, 2009 Categories: Local Ordinances, Outside of the Box, Real Estate News
Living in the Twin Cities can be a wonderful thing. We Minnesotans like to be outdoors all of the seasons of the year. Having a fire pit in your yard is just like being up north all of the time.
A couple of must do’s and you’re on your way. You must adhere to the city’s code that you live in. Here’s all you have to do to build a fire pit in Plymouth: Read the rest of this entry »
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Plymouth, MN Real Estate - Current Housing Statistics - March, 2009
April 10th, 2009 Categories: Plymouth Current Housing Statistics, Real Estate News, Twin City Sellers
This month’s report about the housing statistics in Plymouth shows that the number of homes listed on the market has dropped 22.7% for single family homes and 16.7% for town homes and condos. Meanwhile, new listings are only down 2.1% this year over last year at the same time. That means that many of the homes that were listed last year are not re-listing this year.
Why would that be?
One reason is that folks realized that they couldn’t get the price that they wanted for their home last year, and would probably have to sell it at a loss. Not many of us can afford to do that. Therefore, they’re going to sit tight for a while.
The other reason is that some of last year’s listings are now bank-owned properties. The banks are notorious for being slow at returning these homes to the market for sale. They are burdened with bureaucracy and inept employees. Sorry, banks! Just speaking from experience!
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Plymouth, MN Home Prices Up Almost 6%!
March 27th, 2009 Categories: Plymouth Current Housing Statistics, Real Estate News
There are several reasons why Plymouth, MN was chosen as the Number One Best Place to Live in America. I’ve mentioned some of them in past posts.
Here’s my very favorite reason…especially, since I live in Plymouth. The values of our homes remain high compared to other communities in the Twin Cities and the rest of the nation. The average sales price of a home in Plymouth is up almost 6% over last February. We have less homes on the market this year, but they are selling at a faster clip. A glimmer of hope, to be sure!
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2755 Russell Avenue North Sneak Peek!
March 20th, 2009 Categories: Minneapolis Home Buyers and Sellers, North Minneapolis, Real Estate News, That Flippin' House
In the dining room, the hardwood floors are the original birch. Wow!
This is the same home that I showed you a couple of months ago that was totally trashed. Everything has been completely restored to its natural beauty and new updates are in the kitchen and bath…as usual!
This has to be Jennifer’s best flip, yet. We will be putting it on the market next week. If you would like to see this property, please give me a call to schedule an appointment!
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Silly Property Repair #5 - Can You Say, “Mitre Box”?
March 20th, 2009 Categories: Minneapolis Home Buyers and Sellers, North Minneapolis, Real Estate News, Silly Property Repairs, That Flippin' House
Touring through the rehab candidates in North Minneapolis is always an adventure. My clients and I find so many interesting treasures. Many of them are beautiful old windows, light fixtures and built-ins.
Jennifer, the famous North Minneapolis flipper, and I toured a home and found it to have been partially finished. It was clear that the previous owners had bought it to rehab, but ran out of money and/or patience. It’s not easy to do a good rehab on a home. It takes stamina, guts and money.
These pictures are of the hack job they did on the moldings throughout the home. All that work!
We didn’t buy the home. It went into multiple offers before we even got a chance to give feedback to the listing agent. Multiple offers are typical, as of late.
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First Time Home Buyers Listen Up! You May Want to Move to Plymouth!
March 11th, 2009 Categories: Plymouth "News", Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers
The Plymouth Housing and Redevelopment authority (HRA) offers programs to help renters purchase their first home.
This is how it works:
- This is a zero interest deferred loan of up to $25,000, with the Plymouth HRA holding a second mortgage on the property.
- Financial assistance can be used for up to 50% of the required down payment, 100% of allowable closing costs up to $5,000 and for reduction of the mortgage principle.
- Repayment of the loan is required if the home is sold or no longer homesteaded within the first 30 years of ownership. After 30 years, the loan becomes due and payable.
- Applicants will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
- Program guidelines and income requirements are subject to change.
It sounds like there are a lot of catches, and there are. If you want more information, please call the City of Plymouth at 763-509-5413. Then, call me and we’ll chat about your new dream home in one of the best places to live in the U.S.!
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Xcel Energy Feels My Pain…Er, Sort Of…
March 10th, 2009 Categories: Plymouth "News", Real Estate News
The Minnesota Department of Commerce and the Minnesota Office of the Attorney General Residential Utilities Division, along with Excel Energy, decided that it would address the issue relating to the service outages that my neighborhood in Plymouth, MN frequently puts up with.
To our surprise, Tony (my hubby) and I received a letter from Excel letting us know that they are going to credit our account with $50 because we experienced at least 6 interruptions.
We have a very strange situation in this neighborhood and one of these days I’m going to look into what is really going on. Basically, the underground electrical lines are just plain old. I am very happy that Excel has owned up to this problem. I’m sure that the Commerce Department had plenty to do with refunding our money and I appreciate it!
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