How a Minneapolis Real Estate Agent Can Help you

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.

Minneapolis Real Estate: Is The Worst Really Over?

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.

The Top 10 Real Estate Investing (& Otherwise) Markets In the US

Whether you’re a homeowner, an appraiser, a title officer, or otherwise involved in real estate investing, you’ve probably haven’t been thrilled with the downward slide the national real estate market has taken in the last few years. You may be interested to take a look, however, at the ten strongest real estate markets in the good ole U.S. of A., both as models of resiliency and reasons for hope. Without further ado, they are:

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Whether you’re a homeowner, an appraiser, a title officer, or otherwise involved in real estate investing, you’ve probably haven’t been thrilled with the downward slide the national real estate market has taken in the last few years. You may be interested to take a look, however, at the ten strongest real estate markets in the good ole U.S. of A., both as models of resiliency and reasons for hope. Without further ado, they are:

1. Boulder, CO

Boulder boasts several strong advantages, including an already affluent resident base, many strong employers (including the University of Colorado), and the physical limitations on development imposed by the surrounding mountain slopes.

It’s also, incidentally, on the Top 5 Drinking Cities in America list, which certainly doesn’t hurt the entertainment/hospitality business!

2. Spartanburg, SC

With the highest college student population per capita in South Carolina, Spartanburg is largely buffered from the economic and real estate market declines, as jobs and outside money are plentiful. It’s also the world headquarters of Denny’s, a behemoth in the low-end restaurant market.

3. New Orleans, LA

New Orleans benefits from a torrent of federal dollars flooding in and massive construction and rebuilding efforts. Tourism dollars help somewhat, as does the relatively strong local energy industry.

4. Binghamton, NY

Binghamton’s home values did not surge to lofty heights in the real estate bubble, and hasn’t plummeted in the subsequent burst. Slow and steady continues to win their race against the rest of us.

5. Fayetteville, NC

With Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg just around the corner, Fayetteville benefits from consistent military jobs, and a strong local arts community.

6. Pittsburgh, PA

Once upon a time, Pittsburgh was entirely dependent on the steel industry, and was dealt a near-fatal blow when the industry moved offshore. In recent years, however, Pittsburgh has succeeded in reinventing its economy through the biomedical, health, and education industries, with many local colleges helping to stabilize economic activity.

7. Little Rock, AR

Like Binghamton, Little Rock’s real estate values didn’t shoot upward, and didn’t crash afterwards either, in large part due to their stable health care, government, and university jobs, and their growing wind energy industry.

8. Gainesville, GA

Located by the scenic Lake Lanier, Gainesville has remained strong in fields including higher education, retail, and medical.

9. Burlington, NC

Once renowned for its textile industry, Burlington now benefits from being the world headquarters of LabCorp, and will soon boast a Honda manufacturing center for small commercial jets.

10. Oklahoma City, OK

As the state capital, Oklahoma City is home to many stable government jobs, along with a thriving energy sector in oil and natural gas.

Real estate investing, whether as a profession or as a homeowner, has been hard in the last few years, but it won’t be hard forever. Keep on keeping on, and take hope in the fact that many markets around the country are starting to recover.

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