Single Family Home - upto 150K, doable? (Minneapolis, St. Paul: for sale, real estate) - Minnesota (MN) - City-Data Forum

anil · 07-03-2006, 06:32 AM

I'm debating moving to the the Minneapolis area. I might get an offer from a big company there. The issue is, our household income would be about 90K and I would like to buy a house in a safe area with good schools for about 150K. I was wondering if it's do-able. I've been to a few house-hunting websites and was alarmed at how expensive even condos are.

I have 2 big dogs and 2 cats and so a condo is out of the question. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

angelaf · 07-03-2006, 10:53 AM

You might be able to find an older house in Minneapolis or St. Paul... but forget most of the suburbs, I think. If you're going to buy, you should work with a realtor who is experienced in the Twin Cities and knows the "good" neighborhoods from the bad. I just did a quick check and it looks like the market has already changed significantly from when we were looking at buying in the TC area about a year ago-- you can get a lot more for quite a bit less right now. I have been hearing things lately about the housing market slowing down, and this is working in the favor of buyers (I think?) so you might find that things will become more affordable in the near future.
Most of the houses I saw online in this price range were in North Minneapolis, which IMO you'd probably want to avoid (high crime area), and Camden, which I know nothing about.

anil · 07-03-2006, 12:03 PM

I wouldn't mind commuting for about 45 minutes each way to work. My office would be in Golden Valley, MN. Are there any small towns (again safe and with good schools) that are within a 45 minute driving distance where I could buy a Single Family Home in my price range (upto 150K)?

angelaf · 07-03-2006, 07:49 PM

I think that you'll find most of the schools in the area are fine--I'm sure there are some in the city that have issues but overall I think the school systems in MN are ok. As far as safety goes, again, most places outside of the city itself are pretty safe. Even in downtown Minneapolis, I have never really felt unsafe--but that's just me, some people I know won't go to certain parts of the city (Uptown in particular) after recent incidents of crime there. Despite these incidents, the city remains fairly safe overall, IMO.
The housing issue will probably be difficult, though. Especially if you have kids or plan to... I don't see a whole lot for sale in your price range in that area besides a few small, older homes. However, the far western suburbs are growing a lot--I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing if you're trying to buy there, but if you were working in Golden Valley you could live as far out as Rogers or that area and still commute comfortably (although traffic on 94 near the Rogers exit is always backed up... they need to add a lane or three...) I'll PM you some real estate links that might help.

arvid1985 · 07-06-2006, 09:42 PM

if your office is going to be in Golden Valley, 150k in Crystal,Robbinsdale,New Hope, and even in Golden Valley is "doable". dist 287 is school district. Even the s.e corner of plymouth has houses in that range. just keep looking and stay as close to your office as possible,even if you have to pay a little more. Commutes...i hate em

drhell2pay · 07-09-2006, 05:57 PM

No way. Not doable. Unless you're into 1000 Sq ft homes with your animals or better yet fixing up old crack houses, there is no way you'll get a single family home for that price within the suburban limits.

At 90k a year unless you're already in some serious financial trouble you can easily afford 250k for a family home which will make you much happier. Seriously...150k? I don't know where you are moving from but the majority of large population cities in the U.S. have had inflating housing markets for the past 10 years and finding a decent quality and sized house ( > 2000 sq ft.) is nearly impossible for that price. Seattle, nope. Chicago, nope. New York or Long Island, NO. Atlanta, No. Miami, No. The entire state of California multiply X 5 so No. Las Vegas, No. Check any small city with an hour commute or longer and it's doable...but then again the salaries and job opportunities go down in those cities accordingly (hence the need to commute).

Most people fail to realize this synergistic economic phenomenon. If the city has cheaper housing the average wage earned in said city is almost always lower. I don't want to surpise you with shocking statistics...but if the housing prices are higher, the average income goes up. My company has positions in California which are 3 and 4 pay grades lower than mine here in Minnesota. They pay sometimes twice as much as I am making for the cost of living adjustment. There are always exceptions to this phenomenon....but it's pretty standard. I bet you could get a house in mexico for 5k US and make about 3 dollars an hour.

250k at around 6.5% interest would be like 1500 a month. How could you not afford that at 90k a year?

restlessinmn · 07-19-2006, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drhell2pay

I don't want to surpise you with shocking statistics...but if the housing prices are higher, the average income goes up.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. My husband had two job offers one in Southern CA and one in VERY RURAL MN. The salary was the same for both offers but the benefits were better for the MN job. We have found this to be the case with other areas that are expensive to live like Boston, Seattle, Portland, NYC metro, etc... Just because it costs more doesn't mean they will pay you more. AND, if they do pay more, it often doesn't really make a "cost of living adjustment" because the gap is too large.

golfgal · 07-20-2006, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by restlessinmn

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. My husband had two job offers one in Southern CA and one in VERY RURAL MN. The salary was the same for both offers but the benefits were better for the MN job. We have found this to be the case with other areas that are expensive to live like Boston, Seattle, Portland, NYC metro, etc... Just because it costs more doesn't mean they will pay you more. AND, if they do pay more, it often doesn't really make a "cost of living adjustment" because the gap is too large.

Rural employers often need to offer higher salaries to attract people, especially executive/computer and other technical type jobs. Would he make the same for the same job in Minneapolis, maybe, maybe not.