The covered wagon, which I should call the uncovered wagon is parked just off the street on West 7th street at Thurston right next the new Mississippi Market.  It has been parked there since 1853 when pioneers traveling to the West found what was to later become part of frontier St. Paul Minnesota and decided to stop.

It was on a Sunday and when they looked around they decided they wanted to live here. In those days what is now West 7th was called Fort Road and it went out to Fort Snelling which was the only settlement around. There were some houses here and there and no one heard of that new city Minneapolis because it wasn't invented yet.   They roamed around looking for open houses but there weren't any because there were no houses in the area.  They ended up building one.

No one knows for sure why they left their wagon or what happened to the cover, or the horses but it was parked before the parking ticket was invented and before we had all of those no parking signs so it was grandfathered into the system and is allowed to remain where it is.  It will remain there until the end of time.

Every year during the winter when it is too cold to take pictures outside I go inside and take pictures of the state capital building.  There are usually other tourists in the building and I often here comments from people who had no idea that the building was so beautiful and that they should have seen it sooner. It is easy enough to go to the state capital. The building is open almost every day.  There are tours every hour and self guided tours any time. It really is worth the trip.

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun.

Ice Fishing in Rice Park, downtown St. Paul

Ice carving in Rice Park, downtown St. Paul

Both brought to you by the St. Paul Winter Carnival, definitely for fun.

Sellers are much more realistic about the value of their homes than they were a year ago.  In early 2009 when I gave home owners a value the number was often met with shock and dismay.  Most home owners have caught onto the fact that if they bought their home in the last decade it may not be worth more than it was when they bought it and may even be worth less.

Yet there always have been and always will be sellers who determine the value of their home by how much they need.  They figure out how much they owe on it, what their selling expenses will be and maybe how much they need for a down payment  on a home and add it all together and that becomes their asking price. The number has nothing to do with how much a buyer will pay for a home or how much an appraiser will say that is is worth. Yet that is how the price is set.

The amount owed on the home or what was paid for it has nothing to do with the current value, neither does how much money the seller needs.  As a home owner myself I have had to come to grips with the fact that my home was worth more money in 2006 than it is worth now.  I also know that I could buy another home for less than I would have had to pay for it a few years ago, that takes some of the "ouch" out of the new value, but not the higher taxes.    If  you set your price by how much money you need and that amount is more than your home is worth to a buyer, it is simple, you will continue to be a home owner but not a home seller. .

I think I write this post or one just like it every year. . . see ya next year.

by G. Sax (@gsax)

Hey, yo. I blew off my weekly guest post last week because I went to New York City for a real estate conference. It's the kind of conference Teresa would normally go to, but she skipped this one and was missed dearly.

Not by me, of course. We're like vinegar and water, us two. But this conference was teeming with her fans and friends. It's a trip to go to the most populous city in the country and get hung into conversations about Teresa Boardman. Same thing happened on the left coast in San Francisco last summer. The woman's got a way.

I don't really get it. And honestly I don't even know why she lets me sully her blog with my occasional sniping. Maybe it's because she appreciates the transparency of me because she, too, practices the art of "say what you mean and do what you say." Maybe it's because I'm earnest in my support for Saint Paul and for exceptional quality in local real estate practices. Maybe it's just because she needs a day off every now and then and I'm just the fool to blithely fill in.

And maybe it's because she knows I'm a good egg and I'm just teasing for humor and effect. Fridays may be for fun but a G. Sax Wednesday means a categorical "just for the heck of it."

I have this tendency to meander hither and fro in my topics, and I sometimes stomp on the things she's become known for both locally and nationally, like providing real estate statistics (I'm also good at this) and cool photos of Saint Paul (I'm not so good at this but I do it anyway). I mean well.

And I know she does, too, so I'm honored to pop in and ruffle things up and say hey, yo.

On a couple of side notes (remember, I meander):

1) My trip to New York reminded me just how wonderful public transportation can be, even here in the land of I-496949694. When I got back to MSP, I made it a point to use public transportation to get to my front door. Two buses, one transfer, $2.25. We may not be DC, NYC, or SF, but Metro Transit is pretty clean and efficient.

2) Support downtown Saint Paul over the next couple of weeks, okay? The Saint Paul Winter Carnival starts tomorrow. There are great parades the next two Saturdays. Buy a button and get discounts on all sorts of good stuff. And take a look at those buttons this year. (Plug alert) The Saint Paul Bouncing Team is featured on one of them! I'm the President of the team this year, so it's a terrific honor for me personally. Look for us on local television tomorrow morning (WCCO, FOX, and KARE!), in the parades, and at the Landmark Center for our annual tryouts on January 29. Many people consider us an integral part of the city's fabric. I'd like to think so.

There was a time, about a decade ago when there were far fewer condos in downtown St. Paul.  Starting in about 2002 new developments started springing up.  Some were new construction and some were warehouse and apartment building renovations.  By about 2006 it seemed like there was enough housing downtown and we started to see some of the new projects being put on hold. There are still new units available downtown that have not been sold from projects that were complete by 2005. 

Here is a look at the number of condos that were sold in downtown St. Paul over the last ten years.  The data was taken from the MLS which is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.  

Sales peeked in 2004, and have gone down every year since.  Using the same data I took a look at prices downtown over the last ten years. 

Prices did not peak until 2006, as they did in the rest of the rest of the city. However prices have not gone down as much as they have in the rest of the city during the last three years.

This year the foreclosure rate downtown is going up.  About 10% of the condos on the market are in some stage of foreclosure, which is about the same or slightly higher than the rest of the city.

The numbers don't make sense though. There has been a sharp decline in condo sales. Some sellers are renting their condos, and there are others who want to sell but they can not because they purchased the units in 2005 or later and don't have enough equity to sell. 

The housing stock in downtown St. Paul is in good shape.  There is very little if any "run down" property and that will make a difference when it comes to holding value.  But it looks like the prices downtown have not yet bottomed out.  It is a kind of mystery market and very different from the rest of the city so I don't know how low it will go but will be keeping a very close eye on the foreclosure rates.

Currently in St. Paul the average cumulative days on market for all homes on the market listed through the MLS is 177.2 days and the average list price is $201,804.  For downtown St. Paul condos the average cumulative days on market for all units that are listed is 240.71 days and the average list price is $256,337.  It takes twice as long to sell a downtown condo as it does to sell a home in the city.  I don't think downtown conod prices have hit bottom yet and will come down a bit more.

I love living in Minnesota but I have to admit I am not a fan of January.  One thing I do every January to alleviate the monotony of the white landscape is go to Como Park and take pictures of the flowers in the sunken garden. It is always warm in there and the flowers are amazing.  

The St. Paul Winter Carnival helps make January a bit more tolerable, it  really is the coolest celebration on earth. Time to hunt for the medallion, go to parades, see ice sculptures and fireworks.  When the carnival is over so is January.  I wouldn't mind missing January but I would really hate to miss the carnival.