Minneapolis comes in 2nd on Forbes list ‘Best Place to Earn a Living’
Another great reason to live in Minneapolis or surrounding communities. Forbes just released their list of ‘Best Place to Earn a Living’ and Minneapolis came in second behind Houston.
One interesting fact from the article was
Minneapolis has more top companies per capita than any other city in the United States
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Closing Costs for Sellers in the Twin Cities
If you have ever wondered about closing costs to the seller, well here you go. Here is a brief list of some typical closing costs to sell your home in the Twin Cities real estate market.
Commission X% of sales price
Broker Admin $395.00
Closing Fee $280.00
Title Evidence $350.00
Assessment Search $35.00
Recording Service Fee $25.00
Courier Fee $25.00 per payoff
State Deed Tax $3.30 (3.40 Hennepin County) per $1000 of sale price
Conservation Fee $5.00
Release of Mortgage $46.00
These costs are purely estimates and will depend on the real estate company along with the title company to determine overall costs.
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Twin Cities Economic and Market Watch Report
Last week Zillow reported their second quarter index report, this week the NAR released their economic and market watch report for 15 counties in the Twin Cities metro area. Definitely not as colorful as Zillow’s report and it’s a boring 46 pages long.
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Find Property Taxes in Minnesota
Looking for property tax information? You can find info on any property in the Twin Cities area through county websites. The easiest way to search is by the Property ID # but not everyone knows where to find that or knows what that is. So the next best way is to search by address.
Find property taxes in the Twin Cities
*Just a side note that it is important to note that property tax values do not reflect current market value.
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W Hotel Opens in Minneapolis
The Foshay Tower reopens today as part of the modern Starwood W Hotels chain in downtown Minneapolis. Bought by none other than Ralph Burnet (that’s where the Burnet in Coldwell Banker Burnet comes from) for a cool $90 million back in 06.
The tower was once Minneapolis’ tallest building that was built back in 1929. Now it blends it’s art deco style with the W’s modern. The hotel features 229 rooms, world class dining and a sky-bar. Foshay Tower is located at 821 Marquette Ave in Downtown Minneapolis.
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Minneapolis and the Zillow Home Index Report
Zillow released there second quarter Real Estate Market Reports yesterday. The market reports are based on a variety of statistics that bring together current data of not only homes that sold but equity loss as well. You can view 165 market areas all the way down to the local level to get a better idea of how your area is performing.
How did Minneapolis do?
Overall Minneapolis showed a 6.5% decline compared to 12.1% in St. Paul. A couple of cities posted declines greater than 15% and only one city, Carver posted a decline of less than 1%.
However, it is very important to note that some of the cities that posted large declines are due in large part because of the amount of foreclosures. These cities were part to large amount of fraud especially the outer ring suburbs.
Going back to the national scale, a couple of disturbing stats that came from the data was the amount of people that have negative equity. If you purchased you house in 2006, 45% are underwater and within the last five years about 29% owe more on their home than what it is worth.
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Fed says second ring suburbs next for foreclosures
A recent article in the Twin Cities Business Journal touches on the subject of the next wave of foreclosures coming to the second ring suburbs like Apple Valley, Woodbury and Minnetonka. Over 30 zip codes have been classified as potential problem areas with resetting sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages (ARM’s).
The Federal Reserve of New York has some dynamic maps of nonprime mortgage conditions that you can view for statistics. These maps give you a broader overview of zip codes and areas that are heavy with sub-prime loans.
This of course is nothing new with foreclosures in the inner city and outer ring suburbs with straw buyers but these are cities that have so far relatively weathered the foreclosure crisis.
I would have pulled some data but the MLS FINALLY came up with a way to better track REO/Foreclosures and therefore it is hard to compare accurate data from previous years.
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Cash is King in REO Properties, Unless…
With lending starting to tighten up because of recent legislation passing and the shake ups at major banks, some home buyers are starting to find it difficult to find lending on certain properties. Those properties are none other than REO properties that are flooding the market right now.
Why can’t buyers get funding?
Since most REO properties are in distress, in order to obtain funding most appraisals are not passing so banks are unwilling to lend the money unless it is a 203K or rehab loan to fix the property. Very few banks are going to put the money in for the required repairs and are thus asking for buyers to obtain a 203K.
Recently working with a couple of different clients, this type of loan has been the only thing that they will accept. But trying to find a lender that actually has this type of product has proven difficult.
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Home sales increase, this isn’t suppose to happen now or is it?
The National Association of Realtors released their latest report of the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI). The numbers actually weren’t that bad and could have been worse. The PHSI actually rose 5.3% compared to what was previously determined in May, but still down over 12% from last year at this time.
The NAR, usually puts out numbers that appear to be better than what they are. That is there job of course, but this overall is good news.
With the recent passing of the housing stimulus package, the report is hoping for buyers to take advantage of the first-time home buyer tax credit to jump start the housing recovery in 2009. Whether or not that will happen is completely different. Especially with the tightening of lending that has occurred over the past few months. Currently it is getting harder to buy properties that are distressed because they are not passing appraisals for lenders to lend money.
Another good sign is home builders not puking inventory on the market. Higher construction costs have helped halt some projects until inventory can come down a little bit farther.
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The Most Expensive Twin Cities Homes Sold in July
New to Living Twin Cities, every month I will create a list of the most expensive real estate bought and sold in the Twin Cities metro area.
Really Rich Real Estate
1. 6504 Stauder Circle, Edina Original List Price $2,899,900 SOLD $2,650,000
2. 130 Sunrise Ave, Tonka Bay List Price $2,495,000 SOLD $2,300,000
3. 34 Peninsula Road, Dellwood List Price $2,795,000 SOLD $2,275,00
4. 199 Parkview Lane S, Wayzata List Price $2,295,000 SOLD $2,100,000
5. 3045 Sussex Road, Orono List Price $1,895,000 SOLD $2,000,000
6 1010 Mount Curve Ave, Minneapolis List Price $1,995,000 SOLD $1,995,000
7. 483 Highcroft Road, Wayzata List Price $2,350,000 SOLD $1,925,000
8. 34 Settlers Court, Chanhassen List Price $2,049,000 SOLD $1,800,000
9. 9727 Sky Lane, Eden Prairie List Price $1,750,000 SOLD $1,766,000
10. 600 Bushaway Road, Wayzata List Price $2,595,000 SOLD $1,650,700
Make sure to check back next month to see if it beats this months most expensive real estate!
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