The Don Edam Group | Real Estate Professionals Serving Minneapolis, Edina, St. Paul and Surrounding Suburbs

According to Forbes, Minneapolis currently has the second lowest rental vacancy rate in the nation at 3.3%. This is in accordance with what we saw occur over the fall and winter time period where a good amount of our clients were choosing to rent for a short period of time in between selling their home and purchasing another. While this did mean multiple moves, it allowed some of our clients time to breathe when their home sold a little quicker than they thought it would and they weren’t quite ready to purchase yet. We also saw nearly all of our short-sale clients end up renting after their sale closed. Buyer activity has definitely been picking up over the past couple weeks, but we’ll see if that becomes a trend instead of a mirage, or if clients continue to choose rentals over purchases.

The Top 10 from Forbes:

1. New York, NY: 2.4% vacancy
2. Minneapolis, MN: 3.3% vacancy
3. San Diego, CA: 3.4% vacancy (tied)
4. San Jose, CA: 3.4% vacancy (tied)
5. Jersey City, NJ: 3.5% vacancy
6. San Francisco, CA: 3.6% vacancy
7. New Haven and Fairfield County, CT: 3.7% vacancy
8. Portland, OR: 3.8% vacancy
9. Philadelphia, PA: 3.9% vacancy
10. Milwaukee, WI: 4% vacancy

The full post is here: 10 Cities Where the Rental Markets are Rebounding (Forbes)

I love visual representations of data. Making vast amounts of data easy to grasp is quite an art and this map, produced by TIP Strategies Inc, really made the current job picture hit home in historical terms. While I like to keep upbeat throughout this blog, I’m of the belief that the job losses aren’t going to get much better anytime soon. Take a look and let me know your thoughts…

The Geography of Jobs

The Geography of Jobs from TIP Strategies, Inc

Plentiful jobs, excellent schools, affordable housing – according to CNN’s Money Magazine top 100 list of America’s best small cities, 9 Minnesota cities have all that and more. And even better, the report ranked our very own northwest suburb, Plymouth, MN, as the #1 place to live among U.S. cities with populations of 50,000 to 300,000!

The ranking touts Plymouth’s “topnotch” schools, plentiful jobs, affordable housing, low crime rate and active outdoor culture. In addition, the report shows that Plymouth has a significantly higher-than-average median family income, family purchasing power, math and reading test scores, and percentage of residents with a health plan (91.2%); AND lower-than-average auto insurance premiums, shorter commute times, and lower median home prices. Here are a few other things they say about our little gem of a city… (more…)