Finding a Minneapolis real estate agent will help you find a quality home in Minnesota’s largest city. With a population of over 370,000 individuals, Minneapolis offers its citizens an amazing array of entertainment, cultural, and sporting options to entertain them. When looking for a Minneapolis real estate agent, visit our site at www.localrealestateyellowpages.com where you will be able to peruse an extensive Minneapolis real estate agent list to help make your house hunting easier.

There are many different neighborhoods in Minneapolis and finding one suitable for you and your family if you have one can be a difficult task. A professional Minneapolis real estate agent will be able to offer you expert advice on which places are the most suitable for your situation. One thing to discuss with your Minneapolis real estate agent is the price range you are in when looking at homes. This information will allow your search to be more efficient.

A quality Minneapolis real estate agent will be able to provide you with a tailored listing of homes that fit your needs be they location, proximity to schools, or type of neighborhood. To find the best home for you, contact a Minneapolis real estate agent.

For more resources about Real estate agent directory or even about local real estate agents and especially about Atlanta real estate brokers please review these links.

Article by Lisa Brown

On the surface, things are looking pretty good in Minneapolis right now. Forbes recently named it the Most Affordable Place to Live Well in the United States, citing the overwhelming sense of corporate social responsibility in the Twin Cities, and the high quality of life with plenty of access to arts and leisure activities. While there is a lot of anecdotal evidence bouncing around the web that the housing crisis in Minneapolis has come and gone, in actuality many factors, such as high unemployment, and uncast option adjustable rate mortgages lend to a bleaker outlook on the Minneapolis real estate market in the coming year.

Although the federal stimulus created 14,315 jobs in Minnesota this year, unemployment remains at 7.6% statewide, and only slightly lower at 7.1% for the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metropolitan area. Foreclosures are by no means as frequent as they are elsewhere in the country, but they remain at 6.47% in the state of Minnesota, and no doubt contributed to the 6 bank failures that occurred in 2009.

What is perhaps most disturbing is that the worst has yet to come. Option adjustable rate mortgages, or option ARMs, are mortgages in which the homeowner pays a portion of the interest each month, and the remainder compounds on the principal. Once the mortgage amount reaches a certain ceiling, the option ARM recasts, and the homeowner pays a balloon payment, which reflects the actual amount of both the interest and the principal. According to Business Week, “Stock and bond analysts estimate that as many as 1.3 million borrowers took out as much as 9 billion in option ARMs in 2004 and 2005.” What’s most frightening is that, according to the ratings agency Fitch, 88% of option ARMs (studied nationwide) have not yet been recast. This means that 88% of homeowners with option adjustable rate mortgages have not yet reached their balloon payment, and that interest is continuing to compound on the principal.

But while the coming year looks bleak as the option adjustable rate mortgages recast and more houses go into foreclosure, the end is in sight and Minneapolis’ housing market will recover strongly. The Housing Opportunity Index shows that in the third quarter of 2009, almost 84% of homes sold were affordable to those earning the area’s median income, which is ,900. The National Association of Home Builders, which developed the index, assumes that a family can spend 28% of their income on a house payment, and this is where the term “affordable” comes into play. This means that as long as the unemployment rate steadies, these families will be unlikely to default on their mortgage payment and go into foreclosure. So while we have yet to see the option ARM mortgages, or bad loans, recast and go into default, the loans that are being made right now are being made to people who can afford to pay them for a long time.

The solution to the Minneapolis housing crisis may require more time than anyone expected. While everyone hopes that the worst is over, we may not have seen the end of it yet.

About the Author

Lisa Brown is a Sales and Marketing Associate for Almost Home USA (Corporate Housing Minneapolis), a corporate housing company whose goal is to provide such excellent experiences that clients feel almost home.

Article by michaelrussell56

The urge to sell is at its strongest now. With unwanted costs and pay rates falling, selling your home might be the right decision. But in Minneapolis, selling your home is a challenge. But if you come across a potential buyer with the right circumstances, you could very well make a sale and end the days of paying an over-your-head mortgage.

Agents too have been in retrench mode. I’ve seen many leave the business or place their license on ice so that they stop incurring the many different costs associated with being an agent. I have also bumped into several agents as they now work a 2nd job trying to make up for lost revenues. This was a market ripe with excess and a downturn was inevitable so while these changes are painful, they are part of the natural balance of things and will leave us with a leaner, stronger base to build from when the market recovers.

As the law of averages always goes, there are some agents doing far worse than average and some doing far better than average. I feel lucky to count myself among the latter group but it has come at the cost of extra time and money required to keep activity and sales high. As a whole my company and office are doing above average as well, which I find is a testament to the agents, management, and environment we’re in every day. In fact, our parent company, Home Services of America, has been given a 0 million war chest by our owner, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, to use to go out and buy real estate brokerages that are fundamentally sound but challenged by today’s market.

In the broad economic downturn that is hitting our country, it seems as if most people are feeling some of its effects and I’d argue that the real estate agents and brokers are getting hit harder than most. In the past people argued that real estate agents/brokers made too much money I think those same people would have a harder time arguing that point today.

Adversity can bring out both the best and worst in people and challenges like this bring forth opportunities for improvement in our tradecraft. While I’m not happy about the struggles that have befallen our market, I look at this as a chance for all of us to reset our expectations and actions and prepare us for a new beginning. I’m a firm believer that a positive attitude and making smart decisions leads to being “lucky” and consequently I’m encouraging all of my friends in the business to not lose sight of the opportunities available if they simply continue to think positive and act smartly.

About the Author

Michael Russell writes about a variety of subjects. This article discusses Minneapolis real estate. For more information, visit the Real Estate Book