Secrets of the City

… despite that, Minnesota banks are doing relatively well (MPR News). We haven’t had a bank close in 10 years.

I don’t think that’s an entirely accurate statement. According to an AP report in the Strib, 120 banks have failed so far this year in Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, California and Georgia. Under FDIC regulations, banks don’t close if they fail; their debts are assumed by other, stronger banks. Prosperan Bank is the most recent locally-owned bank to have failed.

That apartment story really missed the mark in my opinion. First off a 24 year old building with a 70% occupancy rate is poorly run. 93% is the mark your looking for, if your not there either your pricing vs comparables is way out of whack or your marketing is extremely poor. Or your willing to sacrifice revenue for some other reason..maybe in a poor attempt to hold the line on market pricing. Sometimes this is done to inflate your Multiple while trying to negotiate a sale?

Apartments are losing renters to the first time home credit but those are only the prime renters…back in the thick of the housing boom….everyone was fleeing rentals…I saw people that consistently payed their rent late purchasing homes and townhomes.

I suspect the real culprit is aging rental apartment stock trying to compete against the glut of new condo developments that failed to sell and have recently been converted to apartments, and new apartment complexs and housing that is being rented at a loss to try and stall foreclosure. Add all that up and you have some pretty stiff competition.

@ryanl: Maybe people are disappearing and no one’s the wiser? (Rapture!) Because it would seem logical that rentals would be increasing as more and more people lose their homes?

“it would seem logical that rentals would be increasing as more and more people lose their homes”

Not necessarily. See the article about people moving back in with their parents or siblings. People also double or triple up, getting room-mates rather than rent their own place.

But, some of the people ARE “disappearing”, as they move back to their hometown after they’ve lost their job and don’t find a new one.

Too bad about renters being tough to find–my wife and I are hoping to move out, into a foreclosure we’re looking to buy, and if renters are harder to come buy then our landlord may also be less willing to work with our leaving the lease a few months before it ends.

Interesting links–my folks have insisted that we consider living with them for a few months, too.

You missed another impact, though: recession and divorce. This MN Law blog says they go together like a horse and carriage:

http://www.mnfamilylawblog.com/2009/01/articles/contested-divorce/divorce-rates-surge-in-recession-couples-left-to-divide-red-ink/

The loss of EGA and EMSA will be devastating to a lot of people. It really is the safety net that Minnesota has for single adults. While they don’t usually get cash benefits, this is what lets them keep their apartments between jobs.

The only good news about the loss of these programs is that it will free up time for those who work in the welfare offices across the state. At least when I worked at Hennepin, these cases were by far the most difficult and time consuming. While they were time critical, applications for medical languished. With the current glut of Medical Applications the wait times are outrageous. Hopefully eliminating these programs will give them a chance to process more medical cases, getting people needed medical coverage sooner.

I lived in an apartment in Uptown that is now more than a century old. It’s had at least two floods, one due to fire and one due to a hole in the roof during a rainstorm. When I moved out, and looked around at the similarly old buildings throughout south Minneapolis, I thought to myself, what is the city gonna do when these buildings have to come down? I’m no expert, but it seems like there are going to be a lot of old buildings in the next 10-30 years that reach the end of their lifespan and need torn down and rebuilt, creating fewer rental properties for a time and driving up rates. Or so it seems.

Kwatt, no worries, as long as there’s slum lords, those building will never come down.

And yes, we have the proliferation of slum lords: http://adventuresofjohnnynorthside.blogspot.com/2009/11/gregge-johnson-properties-photo-tour.html

Meanwhile, “a federal judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of homeowners who sought to block foreclosures in Minnesota”: http://www.startribune.com/local/69654772.html

True, Minnesota banks have indeed closed in the past 10 years — even recently: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1936446,00.html

Hennepin County scraps homeless program: http://wcco.com/local/homeless.program.scrapped.2.1307868.html

^^Good, it seems as if this program was being mismanaged. Time to reassess, hopefully NFL tickets won’t be part of the new program.

Because that $6,000 would have been put to much better use paying for Opat’s ball park.

Everything you need to know about the first-time home buyer tax credit and the new repeat home buyer tax credit

mnblrmkr,
Since some of the patients here are admitted to detox as many as 40 times a year, and as many as 10 emergency room visits per year, I can think of many things this money could be used for other than football games.

^^all due to alcoholism, I might add.

The ones going to the football game, though are people that have passed certain sobriety points in the program.

Cristina,
Our house is already on the market, and we are starting to look for a new place. I have owned my 1st house since April 2005, not quite yet 5 years. I need to have lived there for five years in able to qualify for the new $6500 credit. My wife has never owned a home, yet I do, so neither of us are eligible for the $8000 credit, since the criteria is jointly considered. Anyone else getting skipped over by these programs?

mnblrmkr–I guess it is viewed as a reward. I hadn’t read that. I think that makes sense.

baker, it was a reward: for achieving certain objectives towards sobriety and housing stability. It should also be noted that a few individuals were sent home for arriving at the game intoxicated.

The Strib article on the program shut down has more information, and it from that, it seems it was actually a fairly effective program, and may have saved the county several million dollars.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/69815292.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

to clarify: they were using rewards to incentivize behavior that helps stabilize the person’s life.

My wife has never owned a home, yet I do, so neither of us are eligible for the $8000 credit, since the criteria is jointly considered. Anyone else getting skipped over by these programs?

I guess this is where gay marriage not being legal is gonna work in my favor…. Actually, I don’t know if that’s the case. My gf has owned our current house for less than five years; we’re looking to move next year would ideally buy the next house together. I have no idea how that would work out for us in terms of the tax credit. The only difference it’ll make for us is whether we hurry up and do it by April 30 or wait another month or two.

But even if we’re getting screwed, plenty of other people are getting helped.

I think you guys should be eligible, based on what I read. I realize that these programs are helping alot of people…and that’s great. But my wife is technically a first time homebuyer! And we are WELL under the 225K income limits of the program. I guess they had to make the cutoff somewhere, but we could really benefit from this.