Where: 4241 Basswood Rd. (Fern Hill neighborhood in St. Louis Park)Asking Price: $699,900Sold Price: $670,000Tax Value: $731,000Key Stat’s: 3 BR/3BA; 4,300 FSFMarket Time: one day (12/31/2008) “The reason dolphins have a reputation for saving drowning swimmers is that you never hear from the ones they push out to sea.”–Anonymous There’s no question that the housing...Read More
Edina’s ’08 Price Rise: Less Than Meets the Eye? Edina was the only community with more than 200 home sales last year that posted an increase in home sale prices. In 2008, the median sale price of Edina homes sold through the Regional Multiple Listing Service was $388,250, up 3 percent from 2007. Throughout the...Read More
Foreclosures Explain Latest Housing Price DropThe most recent batch of housing statistics — from S&P/Case-Shiller and NAR — show that housing prices are continuing to fall nationally. Depending on how you slice and dice the market (sale pairs, top 20 markets vs. all markets, all homes vs. those under $417k, etc.), the year-over-year annual decline...Read More
Rebutting Ritholtz on “Housing Affordability” The [Housing Affordability Index] as presently constructed is utterly worthless. It provides little or no insight into how affordable US Housing actually is. Further, what is omitted from the index is especially relevant to the problems occurring in the housing market today. The Index fails to account for — or...Read More
To Help Clear Housing Market, Peg Tax Value to Last Sale Price “Believe me, it’s not what it is.”—New Yorker cartoon That’s what’s the woman caught in bed with another man, says to her husband standing in the bedroom doorway. And that’s what government authorities are effectively saying to anyone who buys foreclosed properties at...Read More
Read Jim Buchta’s Articlein Today’s Star TribJim Buchta, the Star Tribune’s top real estate reporter, has an excellent article in today’s paper surveying the Twin Cities housing market (“Best Sellers: Foreclosures”). And I’m saying that not just because I’m quoted and served as background for the story. In particular, Buchta does a very nice job...Read More
