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The housing crunch in Minot is now easing up quite a bit. There are about 300 homes in the local area and another 150 homes in surrounding area for sale. I am hearing that Bismarck and Grand Forks are now going through a housing shortage. Minot home prices have been dropping significantly and very affordable. At one time, we only had a couple of homes under $200,000, but now, we have 67 homes in the Minot area alone, not counting the outer areas.
I would be curious as to how you can afford to put up new houses for under $200K. With the costs of developing the infrastructure. Unless all of the development costs are special assessed.
IMHO, "very affordable" means a modern 3 bedroom house at about 1800 square feet for around $100,000 if not less, especially for a small town in the middle of nowhere.
The housing crunch in Minot is now easing up quite a bit. There are about 300 homes in the local area and another 150 homes in surrounding area for sale. I am hearing that Bismarck and Grand Forks are now going through a housing shortage. Minot home prices have been dropping significantly and very affordable. At one time, we only had a couple of homes under $200,000, but now, we have 67 homes in the Minot area alone, not counting the outer areas.
In Grand Forks ND and East Grand Forks MN the inventory for homes for sale is very very low and has been for about a year. Last summer on any given day....the number of MLS listings in the city of Grand Forks was around 90-95. Right now between south and north Grand Forks the MLS listings is 60 homes for sale. This doesnt count of course the for sale by owners.
There was a housing commission study done on the housing issue and lack of affordable housing and some of the results was the ownership of land was in too few hands and the number of builders were too few...thus they controlled the asking prices of new land and new homes versus the consumer. The area of homes that has went up north of 47th Ave S and south of 32nd Ave S and between Columbia and S Washington for those familiar with the area has seen strong home sales despite pretty high initial prices. New homes going up start around 250k with top floor finished and bottom mix of unfinished/finished up through lower 300s for all finished with total sq ft in the 2500-2800 range. There has been a limited supply of homes in the 150k to 200k range which is considered more the first time home buyer in many cases.
In our neighborhood in south end East Grand Forks (area of newer homes less than 10 yr old), we have had 5 homes for sale in the past two years and each one has been under contract in less than 5 days. Price range 170k to 220k.
In Grand Forks...there are a few lots still undeveloped after the 97 flood and the city owns these and here is one of the last ones with a proposal for development. It is just south of downtown on a smaller lot
2 story, 1,500 s.f. home with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths plus
unfinished basement and pad for a future 2 car garage
valued at approximately $176,000; this includes a
bid of $ 12,500 for the lot.
For a new home, this would be termed affordable housing as it is just below the average price as of 2012. But in the articles in the GF Herald on housing, with the costs of land so high, as well as having the developer fund right off the bat assessments for putting in streets, lightning, sewer, sidewalks, much blo 200k for a new home they are losing money and would need extra incentives from the city to knock down the price to affordable ranges or build quite small homes or make the lots even smaller, which many buyers necessarily dont want. Thus there remains a big boom locally in apartments....with about 1500 coming on line in the next few years.
Over the next 1-3 years the big push will be the undeveloped land south of SuperTarget (south of 40th Ave S to 47th Ave S and between Columbia and I-29). This is where the new elementary school will be and plans for several hundred homes (over several years) and new apartments and townhomes. This is very pricey ag land though so costs will not be cheap for these structures.
Didnt mean to derail threat about Minot housing....but wanted to give some perspective what I see in Grand Forks....
Williston is getting a little better. We're having a house built (finally time to leave the apartment) and we're getting an actual house for under $300,000. I know that doesn't sound amazing, but for Williston it's actually not bad. You can get a stick built house brand new for $250,000 right now in Williston. It's not big or fancy, I believe it's about 1,250 square feet with an unfinished basement and 2 car garage. The market has more houses than it has for awhile. People are asking high but prices are actually dropping, our realtor has stated that most people looking to buy right now are not wanting to spend more than $300,000. We're still not like Minot, but the squeeze isn't as bad as it has been.
It's just hard though, as we put our house under contract my dad told me that a house was being built behind him that is bigger than ours on a much larger lot and is $50,000 less than ours. I've been here for a few years now but the real estate prices still sometimes shock me. I know it's supply and demand, it's simply unexpected when you think of North Dakota.
Base housing is full with a 6 mo to 1 yr waiting list. I have gotten flyers in my mailbox for those looking to buy in my neighborhood asking if I wanted to sell.
We hope to have this summer, new starter homes that are 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and a 1 car garage, priced under $200,000 in the Surrey area. Just have to find a builder that would be willing to do that.
IMHO, "very affordable" means a modern 3 bedroom house at about 1800 square feet for around $100,000 if not less, especially for a small town in the middle of nowhere.
Heh heh. That's what you might expect in the Washington DC area or Silicon Valley. That isn't affordable, that's a ripoff!
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