Secrets of the City

Any bets as to whether the restriction on sub-prime borrowers will be quietly lifted under cover of night, causing the whole foreclosure mess to repeat itself in five years?

i don’t think I like this idea. Why give money to help 50 homeowners when 2900 houses were foreclosed on last year. sounds like a band-aid on a machete wound. Perhaps this money could be used for other things, like fighting crime in these parts of the city, until the market rebounds.

Seems like a quick fix that has no foresight, to me. I guess it helps to get people to buy in these parts of the city, which is good.

Perhaps this money could be used for other things, like fighting crime in these parts of the city, until the market rebounds.

Baker, this is indeed a crime fighting mechanism, just from another angle. I applaud the city for taking measures to incentivize homebuyers in these areas, I live in Jordan neighborhood and we need more owner occupied residents. Aside from filling vacant homes, it is my opinion that moving in responsible, working and middle class residents is a way to break the cycle of poverty, gangs, dysfunction that is often generated in blighted inner city neighborhoods.

I say hurray to the city and start with this 50 and see where that takes us. I have also thought that a good incentive for city employees to live in minneapolis is a good idea, with increasing incentives for the less advantaged neighborhoods.

in related news, city council is looking at increasing the fee they charge for registering vacant houses from $2000 a year to $6000 a year.

I can’t get my little head to figure out if this makes sense either.

(seems like a short sighted approach that will ultimately cost buyers — but perhaps not)

i understand the concept of fighting crime by enticing new owners into the neighborhood. But 50 houses? Is that really going to make a difference? You are absolutely right that moving in responsible, working people will break that cycle….But is this incentive really going to work?
I don’t think I’d move to the north side, even for a 10 grand discount…

But I suppose we could see how this works with these 50, and go from there. Not sure this is really a ‘measurable’ experiment though.

The word “incetivize” makes me sick.

Let’s keep in mind too that there will evidently be 18 neighborhoods in which purchases will be eligible. I couldn’t find a list of those neighborhoods, but I emailed my CM to ask about which ones they are.

So if there are 18, what happens if the funds are all applied to, say, Longfellow, (I’m making this up, dunno if it’s on the list) and zero ends up being used in, say, Folwell or Jordan?

I’d like to know if there’s any plan for equitable distribution, or if this has the potential to turn into a scrambling competition between neighborhoods.

Is there a coupon?

Also unanswered in the piece:

Does the buyer need to owner-occupy?

Must the property be single-family?

Good point Ranty, the city might see another wave of buildings take advantage of this only to be used for slumlording.

Interestingly, neither my councilmember nor the assistant to Tom Streitz (housing director) could list the 18 neighborhoods… so I left a voicemail for Mr. Streitz himself. One would hope that he, at the very least, will know.

All but four neighborhoods on the North Side are included, along with the Phillips, Whittier, Central and Powderhorn Park neighborhoods on the South Side and the Beltrami and Holland neighborhoods of northeast Minneapolis.

So all neighborhoods in North except 4, and the six listed.

@Ranty – Didn’t the city or possibly the state have a program like this for people that wanted to buy a second house in their neighborhood?

The philosophy being that home owners that buy a rental property in their neighborhood would be more responsible and it also helps keep the housing stock strong?

LOL, touche! Guess I’ll just dig out the neighborhood map and highlighter, eh?

@JACC I’m not sure – I never heard about that.

It was in the mid to late 90’s.

Ah, so when I was in high school.

Ouch.

Ah yes. My 30s.

Okay, apparently there’s a map indicating eligible neighborhoods on page B8 of the paper.

Seriously 50 houses in all those neighborhoods, how can they seriously think this will make any measurable difference. Maybe if they used the wasted money from the stupid maybe maybe not bike tunnel on the 35W bridge it could make more of an impact (especially considering the bike routes across the bridge right on either side of 35w crossing).

Seriously 50 houses in all those neighborhoods, how can they seriously think this will make any measurable difference

Maybe it’s not the actual difference that matters, but the perceived difference.

We are talking about politicians.

The Minneapolis City Council is such a joke. Is there anything that can really be done? I’m a Whittier resident and I just see no point in voting as no one worth while has a chance at winning. Ousting the idiot city council and putting some decent people in there would bring a lot more people to Mnpls than 50 meager households.

I remember reading once that when people would have their debt readjusted when they renegotiate credit cards and loans, the government counts it as earned income and taxes it. Would the 10,000 incentive be taxed as well?

This is just a small sign of things to come. The mortgage crisis is fast becoming a Home Ownership crisis and w/o incentives, low interest loans to make improvements, and pro-active neighborhood community investment programs our neighborhoods will slowly sink into oblivion.

This SHOULD be limited to owner/occupants imho.

It’s a baby step at best but at least it is a step.

This SHOULD be limited to owner/occupants imho.

Why? Rental properties are taxed.

Is it really better to have a house abandoned than filled with renters?

Is it really better to have a house abandoned than filled with renters?

That depends on who the landlord and renters are, I guess. I know a lot of northsiders (and some southsiders) who are very gunshy about having investment property near them, based upon bad experiences with absentee landlords and disruptive tenants.

The Minneapolis City Council is such a joke. Is there anything that can really be done? I’m a Whittier resident and I just see no point in voting as no one worth while has a chance at winning. Ousting the idiot city council and putting some decent people in there would bring a lot more people to Mnpls than 50 meager households

I lived in Mpls your right on the money. Get out while you can before some moron provides a credit to put someone in a house in your neighborhood that can’t afford it. this will only prolong the problem.

This is just a small sign of things to come. The mortgage crisis is fast becoming a Home Ownership crisis and w/o incentives, low interest loans to make improvements, and pro-active neighborhood community investment programs our neighborhoods will slowly sink into oblivion.

It’s a baby step at best but at least it is a step.

Spoke like someone at the hog trough looking for their free handout.

Who waits at hog troughs for free handouts. Hogs, I suppose, but they don’t really have conversations while they are there, do they?

Your metaphor is bewildering to me.

We get it, Swandog. You hate minneapolis metro. You got out. Good for you, now leave the rest of the grownups to their conversation.

You can take the boy out of Minneapolis, but you can’t take Minneapolis out of the boy.

His love/hate relationship with the city is haunting him. He’s plagued with guilt for leaving. So he lashes out at the object of his affection.

Hee!

We get it, Swandog. You hate minneapolis metro. You got out. Good for you, now leave the rest of the grownups to their conversation

what I hate is people who never learn and continue to subsidize one problem after another without any results. Name one program or handout that the city of mpls has done that is successful. Ha block e no, lake street market, the city center, ect ect ect. If these are “grown up” programs then why to they fail. It looks to me like a bunch of children came up with the failed programs not educated adults.

Truth be told, Swanny left me very unsatisfied. Our love-making sessions grew farther and farther apart and when they did happen I have to admit I began to fantasize that he was a welfare mom, or a hog feeding at my trough, anything just to spice things up a bit.

Clearly I was a bit too wild for him. I wanted to explore new things, not be so “white-bread” – more Pastrami on Rye Babeee! But he wasn’t into it. Near the end we never even tried. Every night he would pass out at the dinner table, screaming about Nick Coleman, and I would sneak out to Ground Zero for last call.

I do hope he finds happiness with his new, younger wife Missy Grove. After all, her maiden name is Missionary.

I do hope he finds happiness with his new, younger wife Missy Grove.

As long as she doesn’t bring up the subject of having children.

Minnie is a beat ho.

lolz

Alright now, after finally locating one poor soul with a hard copy of the Strib and having him read off the *included* north n’hoods, it would seem that the *excluded* areas must (by process of elimination) be Victory, Lind-Bonahan, Shingle Creek and Sumner-Glenwood.

“But 50 houses? Is that really going to make a difference?“

A journey of a thousand miles…..I forget the rest.

What’s wrong with seeing if this works before increasing the number of houses?

Just to be clear, Tom B in this thread is not Tom Bartel, but the author of this blog.

Since I might be selling a home just outside of the incentive area, I’d just say thanks to Minneapolis for making that even harder. When people find out the house two blocks away comes with a subsidy and mine doesn’t, what are the odds they’ll buy mine?

Well there’s always the flip side of the story, Kurtis: the fact that your area isn’t eligible can be interpreted to mean that it’s a more stable neighborhood. (Less houses on the 249 list should equate to higher and stronger values.)

Many buyers place a high priority on such stability, (and won’t shop in affected neighborhoods, $10 grand be darned) so this could be a selling point for you. (Depending on where your house is specifically, and a bunch of other things, of course.)

Yeah, but I’m literally across the street from the “affected area.” I would imagine potential buyers will see Victory-across-the-street-from-Webber as Webber, but without the 10 grand incentive. On the other hand, our house is really nice and somebody’s bound to buy it. Knock on whatever.