Just Listed Minneapolis Lake Calhoun Tudor Offered At $659,000
I have just listed a beautiful home in the Ecco Neighborhood of Lake Calhoun. The address is 3554 Humboldt Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408. This home is being offered at $659,000.
It will be on the market 12/03/2008.
This home has been entirely updated inside and out. The craftsmanship is stunning. It is not possible to list all of the updates here, but several notable ones are: A chef’s-dream of a kitchen with Sub-Zero and Asko appliances, as well as a dual-Thermador oven, surrounded by custom cabinets made by The Woodshop of Avon. It also boasts new Marvin Windows with Hunter-Douglas Duette blinds, pristine wood floors, a wonderful wood-burning fireplace, concrete by Hage, custom stonework by Mohler, custom landscaping by Norscape, new stucco, a security system as well as high-end interior carpentry by Jack Cormack.
If you are looking for a turn-key, beautiful, bright, sunny home with partial views of Lake Calhoun, call today. This home is a rare gem in an excellent neighborhood!
Feel free to take the VHT video tour by clicking here
Fed Creates Excellent Opportunity For Refinancing Or Buying Minneapolis And Edina Homes
Here is a good, short article from the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday morning one of my lenders called to inform me that mortgage rates were expected to drop all the way down to 5.25%, by 10:15AM.
About 2 hours later, he was proven correct. The amount that rates dropped in a 1-day period, would have taken about 6 months in a ‘traditional’ market of the past. However, in our volatile economic times, this is one of the benefits, or silver linings of market volatility. The market moves up and down very fast these days, and with it go mortgage rates. The mortgage rates follow the bond market. When the bond market (10-year) goes up, usually we see a drop in mortgage rates. 5.25% is an excellent rate, even if rates continue to lower further. Historically speaking, it does not get much better.
For those living in the higher-priced areas of Southwest Minneapolis; Linden Hills and Lynnhurst of the Lake Harriet area, or the Ecco neighborhood of Lake Calhoun, the Kenwood and Lowry Hill neighborhoods of Lake of the Isles, or the Country Club, Sunnyslope and Rolling Green neighborhoods of Edina, you stand to benefit the most, as homes in these areas are usually priced the highest in the Minneapolis and Edina Real Estate market.
Even at the lower price-points of the Fulton, Armitage and Uptown neighborhoods of Southwest Minneapolis, or Richmond Hills, Highlands and Brookview Heights of Edina, you still stand much to gain by refinancing or purchasing.
For new home buyers or investors in Minneapolis or Edina real estate, now is the time! Home prices are low, mortgage rates are low.
Feds Moving To Economic Recovery With Housing Market First
The annual convention for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) was held in Orlando this past week. I was unable to make it, but did hear from John Smaby, our broker/manager at Edina Realty - 50th and France, who was able to attend. John stated that of all the pertinent news and attention given to the housing market, the primary method the federal reserve intends to utilize in leading us out of the economic slump, is by doing everything they can to stimulate the housing market.
As we know, the housing market was the focal point that helped largely to bring about our economic difficulties in the first place (personal opinion: without going into the creation of, and problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the serious repercussions - both pros and cons - of the Equal Housing Opportunity Act on lending standards, the tech bubble and crash of latter 1990’s and of course September 11th, 2001, all of which brought about the necessary massaging of housing interest rates, which largely drove skyrocketing real estate prices).
One of the proposals is the purchasing of distressed loans. Other methods will be for banks to reset interest rates on Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM’s) coming to term and moving large sums of money from the $700 billion bailout to banks (about a quarter billion of it).
Perhaps the most heartening news is that banks who have short-sale and foreclosure properties listed (and are notoriously slow or non-existent in replying to offers) are in the process of increasing manpower in order to deal with this entirely separate (and now quite large) class of distressed loans. The banks are now getting the picture and many intend to respond quickly to offers. This will certainly expedite the process of clearing short-sale and foreclosure properties from the market (they will never disappear altogether, as they have always - in smaller numbers - existed).
Clearing the majority of distressed properties from the market (locally and nationally) will be the largest step toward a housing market recovery.
ATTENTION: POSSIBLE FREE MONEY ALERT! Also, there is much speculation that they may make the first-time homebuyer (no purchase in the past 3 years) $7,500 tax credit (cash in pocket) a non-returnable credit. E.G., in it’s first form you had to pay it back over a period of 15 years, from your future tax returns (but with zero interest) at a rate of $500 per year. Now the speculation is that there will be NO PAYBACK.
Lastly, there is now further speculation of serious lowering of interest rates over the course of the next year.
I really think this next year will be very interesting within the Minneapolis metro real estate market, as well as nationally. Many areas will continue to decline, many will be flat, but some (Southwest Minneapolis, Lakes area of Minneapolis, Edina and especially East Edina) will be on for a moderate, solid year (historically speaking). In these prime areas, decent homes priced under the $600K price-point will do quite well. I believe homes above that price range (especially $750K and above) will have yet another tough year.
No matter how you look at it, the opportunites for great purchases at low prices with low interest rates will be fantastic. Now is a great time to be a first-time home-buyer, an investor, or a 2nd or 3rd-time home-buyer, looking to upsize your home.