A Few Questions About The Homes (Minneapolis, Cook: for sale, apartments, lease)

[blakeb99]

I noticed a few things related to the houses there while I was in Minnesota. The main thing that caught my eye was how almost no homes at all were made of brick. Here in the south, almost every home is brick. Anyone know why there are so few brick homes up there? Also, when driving through the twin cities I kept noticing these places that I weren't quite sure what they were. They looked almost liked houses, but at the same time like apartments cause they were connected together. But, they also had garages. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Also, I noticed all the older homes were very different from here in the south. They were almost all square and tall. Our architecture is quite different here.

[politikally]

In an attempt to answer some of your questions:

-Wood vs. Brick = I don't know exactly why, but I think it has alot to do with the fact that there was a ton of trees up here back in the day Logging was a major industry so since they started colonizing up here everyone has built their house out of wood. I will say that brick is fairly uncommon up here as a building material.


As for the other questions:

If the house looked like this, it is a Townhome:



I'm guessing that's what you saw.

As for the styling, remember most of the homes around here are based on the "farmhouse" style (Big & Square). Plus we usually have steeper roofs to keep the snow from caving in roofs, thus giving them a tall look

Here's what a typical farmhouse looks like:



I'd argue that 90% of the styling of houses follow a similar ideology when constructing their homes.

Beside that, McMansions were pretty popular for the last few years so many houses look like this:



Anyway, I don't think you really can go wrong. Just avoid North Minneapolis, and Buy a house with a garage and you'll be fine

[HKB]

The connected houses you saw are townhomes. Townhomes are making up a larger and larger percentage of the housing stock in the Twin Cities for two reasons:

1) They're more affordable to middle and lower income households. Single-family home prices are starting to get out of reach for a larger percentage of the population.

2) They're profitable for builders. Land in the Twin Cities is expensive, and they can sell more units on less land. Cookie-cutter construction methods also keep their costs down.


As for brick houses, I can only speculate. Brick might be a cheaper construction material in the south. Most of the brick and rock you see on houses in Minnesota are mostly for facade/decorative purposes.

[blakeb99]

so, do you buy, rent, or lease these townhomes?

[HKB]

Originally Posted by blakeb99

so, do you buy, rent, or lease these townhomes?

Most of them are owned. I just sold my townhome last summer and felt fortunate to find a buyer. There are literally hundreds of townhomes for sale in the suburb I lived in. Because there are so many townhomes and so little variation in floorplans, selling them can be quite a challenge. Unless you're in a real prime location, I wouldn't consider it a good investment. The townhome market is saturated to the point that a potential buyer can buy a brand new one for the same price or sometimes less than a previously owned one.

Here are some photos of the townhome I used to own.

[Robert P Stewart]

I'd like to take a shot at the question of building materials.

Not much brick is used in homes up here because brick is NOT a good insulator. The brick that you see in buildings up here is facade, with stout insulation behind it. Wood is a better insulator and a heck of a lot cheaper (both in terms of cost and labor) to install.

These are some of my favorite home styles in the suburbs:

[golfgal]

Brick is more affordable in the south. It also tends to keep the heat OUT better so it is more popular in warmer climates.

[Robert P Stewart]

How dare you suggest such a thing! Brick absorbs summer heat like mad. It also gets wicked cold in the winter. Not very insulative - what ever the temperature is, that's what the brick will be.

Brick cheap in the south? I dunno - but you're probably wrong.

Robert

p.s. I think we've bonded enough to start giving each other crap...

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Robert P Stewart

How dare you suggest such a thing! Brick absorbs summer heat like mad. It also gets wicked cold in the winter. Not very insulative - what ever the temperature is, that's what the brick will be.

Brick cheap in the south? I dunno - but you're probably wrong.

Robert

p.s. I think we've bonded enough to start giving each other crap...

True, brick does absorb heat but it doesn't TRANSFER the heat, or cold for that matter. It also maintains the heat or cold longer so as it cools in the evening it hangs on to that cool for a longer time then a wood house so it doesn't get as hot.

Brick is more affordable in the south because there are a lot of brick manufactures there, thus transportation costs are lower. They also tend to have rich clay soil to make the brick so the supplies are easily accessible, much like the timber frame houses in the north, the supply of timber is more easily accessible.

Also, add the factor that they have termites in the south so a wood frame house isn't desirable because of the upkeep. Since we don't have to worry about termites, we can use wood.

Trust me on this, besides that, I am never wrong, ask my hubby!

[yellowsnow]

The homes everyone else is calling townhomes are also called twinhomes. They are cheaper because of the shared wall. If your neighbors are noisy or don't maintain their home, twinhomes are no bargain.

You'll find the square tall thing in older homes all over the cold part of the country. Heat rises and keeps the bedrooms at the top of the house warm at night. But the stairs are a pain!