Secrets of the City

As the housing crisis continues, we see foreclosed homes and sale signs throughout the cities. What are some of the less obvious housing side effects of the recession?

Adult children are moving back in with their parents to save money (MPR News). Or even with their siblings (Kare11).

Landlords are losing tenants, largely due to the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit, which has now been extended. (PiPress)

Banks are struggling to get rid of distressed properties (Strib). However, despite that, Minnesota banks are doing relatively well (MPR News). We haven’t had a bank close in 10 years.

And, meanwhile, Dolan’s mortgage default business is booming. (MinnPost)

All in all, Minnesota still has high rates of homeownership, but it also has has the 7th largest gap between white and minority homeowners in the nation. (MPR News)

And what about those with no homes at all? Gov. Pawlenty’s plan to create housing for 4,000 long-term homeless Minnesotans stopped at 1,500. And now even more people are becoming homeless. (MPR News)

And to top it off, we just lost two emergency housing aid programs — which will likely increase homelessness among single adults. (Strib)

At this rate, we’re going to need a lot more retired teachers handing out sandwiches to homeless people (Strib) and a lot more philanthropic intervention from Rebuilding Together Twin Cities (Kare11).

Oh, well. At least youth violence is down!

I guess the housing market is starting turn to turn around, especially if you’re a Spanish Mediterranean-style home on Lake of the Isles that just sold for $4.859 million. Dang, I may be misremembering this, but I think I nearly bought that a year ago for a buck and some change.

Johnny Northside tells an especially upsetting (or entertaining, depending on how you view these things) tale of a slum house that is, apparently, quite … unpleasant: I’ve written about this place before, click here, and how there are creditable reports of the interior being full of feces, and how residents are concerned because of Khan now owning the “House Of Poop” and Khan’s notorious reputation…

From the Strib.

When I moved back to the Twin Cities in the early ’80s, there were still a couple of single-family homes in downtown Minneapolis, and I always thought it would be cool to live in one. The house mentioned in this article looks especially cute and inviting (to me, at least).

I don’t quite understand, though, how the city could value the property at only $200k. Woudn’t the land its sitting on be worth substantially more than that, with or without the house? (To give you some idea of downtown property values, the CBS Radio building itself is appraised at something less than $500k but the land it sits on is valued at over $250MM!)

Blogfoot looks at two ads from local realtors, both of which are, er, sort of odd. What’s the strangest local ad you’ve seen?

A business in Ely, MN, makes teeny tiny cabins. They look like fun to me, but could you be comfortable in something that small?

When most people were trying to get last-minute reservations for V-day dinner, 12 familes squatted in abadoned homes.

MinnPost does a very interesting piece based on a discussion with Bill Morrish, author of “Growing Urban Habitats, Seeking a New Housing Development Model,” who was in town recently for a meeting of housing advocates oragnized by the Family Housing Fund, among others. Morrish’s suggestion for inexpensivean environmentally sustainable housing for urban environments? Trailer parks. Not the type you might already be familiar with, though, his model is the Sunrise Trailer Court in Charlottesville, Va, which Habitat for Humanity retrofit to be environmentally friendly housing for low-income families. Are trailer parks the model for the future?

The St. Paul Pioneer Press looks at one of the inevitable results of having a lot of foreclosed properties: Squatting. MPR also recently covered the subject, discussing the circumstances that might lead people to become squatters. A lot of countries make legal provisions for squatters; this is generally not the case in the United States, where squatting is generally treated as trespassing. Interesting, Minneapolis apparently has enough of a history of squatting to have been the subject of a book, although scant details about the book are online.

Molly Priesmeyer looks at the Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (facts on the program; PDF from MnHousing.org) in which the Twin Cities will work together to purchase vacant homes in both cities. MnSpeak’s own Ranty is quoted in the story: “I think it’s horrifying that all that money is going to demolition, for a number of reasons,” Nompelis tells the Daily Planet. “The first is that I don’t believe all of these homes should be demolished. It’s much cheaper and greener to renovate. And one of the things that could be used as an attraction to North Minneapolis is the low prices of these homes. By mowing these houses down we are removing opportunity.”