Sunday, September 6, 2015

Expensive home developments draw concern from residents in North Minneapolis

Amid a developer’s plan to build homes that would sell for up to $300,000 in North Minneapolis, residents of Lind-Bohanon—a northern neighborhood within the Camden community in Minneapolis—voiced out their concern over the project, stating that the price of the planned residential properties is far from the $110,000 median price of homes in the neighborhood.

According to the residents, if the plan pushes through, the houses will remain unsold considering that no one in the area has the capacity to purchase pricey homes.

“I don’t know how you expect people to go spend $300,000 even for a kick-ass house,” an anonymous community member explained.

Image Source: www.startribune.com
 To voice out their concern, residents of the area even penned a letter to the City Hall stating that the residential properties are nearly three times the neighborhood’s median single-family home value. Even with median values of $102,500, the new development project signifies a 19 percent annual jump to home prices, which is equivalent to 10 years’ worth of home value increase in the Lind-Bohanon neighbourhood.

The city officials, however, were quick to respond stating that the new real estate development plan is part of the city’s long-term goals for the area. The city’s development agency listed creating “high value, high quality housing” first among its greenway development goals.


Image Source:en.wikipedia.org

Furthermore, city officials emphasized that the greenway project stayed on hold until the area’s market sufficiently recovered this year, giving real estate developers the opportunity to expand their projects in the area. They also revealed that recent sales in the North Minneapolis have strengthened.

Steve Liefschultz is the chairman and CEO of Equity Bank, a locally owned and managed finance company that specializes in investment lines of credit and real estate loans in Claremont and Minnetonka, Minnesota. For the latest news in real estate, follow this Twitter account.