Hogs ground hogs day.  I feel like celebrating the mild winter we have had.  It has been good for business and the heating bills have been significantly lower than last years.

In November of 2010 I wrote about the hole at 5th street and Wall and then last August I showed the progress  as the Lofts at Farmers Market rose out of the ground.  The hole was supposed to be filled with these way cool lofts but then the housing market crashed.  The city owns the project and it became an apartment building.  They start at $925 for a studio and go up over $1700 for a two bedroom. 

It is nice to see a building where the hole used to be and it is a great area for housing.  One block from the light rail and across the street from the farmers market in the Lowertown neighborhood. 

260 E 5th St Saint Paul, MN 55101

Wall street entrance

You can see the reflection of the roof of the farmers market in the glass.

Near the main entrance on 5th

It is a lovely building and it fits in with the historic architecture in the immediate area and looks so muh more inviting than a large hole with a chain linked fence around it.

 We have a nice little downtown with a mix of old and new.

St. Louis Church & The Pointe

Public Skating at the Landmark Center

The skating rink it new and the landmark center is old.

Mickey's Diner

You can never have too many pictures of Mickey's diner. 

Downtown Minneapolis is pretty neat too. 

These are some treasures I found last weekend when I spent some time going through old files.  I found a treasure trove of marketing materials for projects that did not go as planned.   I have kept some of the marketing materials from the downtown St. Paul condo projects because they can come in handy for marketing ideas when I list a condo for resale.  

I did not have the heart to toss out the marketing pieces I found from the projects that were never built.  The builders would host these big open houses for Realtors with food and wine and they would answer our questions and send us on our way with marketing materials, business cards and price lists.  It seems like just yesterday . . .and it has been some time since I have been wined and dined by a builder. 

The past

We do have plenty of housing downtown, 65 condo type units on the market, starting at a mere $35,000 and on up to 2.8 million dollars.  I have a wonderful unit at the Rossmor that we are running a special on this week.

 I am not sure if this is really update 27 but it could be and it is up to the reader to prove me wrong.   This is 4th street E. in downtown St. Paul part of the central corridor for light rail transit. This is in front of the union depot which you can not see in the photo it is to the right. The next time I photograph this maybe there will be a train in the photo.   Maybe I shouldn't stand on the tracks?

4th street - click to make photo huge

Watching the progress of the light rail line is kind of like watching paint dry except slower.  

unit 206 Rossmor 

People do go house hunting during the holidays.  Sometimes buyers want to see homes on Christmas eve or on Christmas day.  It is sometimes hard for sellers to be ready for a showing but they should be because it is only the most motivated buyers who will be looking this weekend. 

The unit in the picture is on the market for $89,900 and it isn't really snowing inside but you knew that. 

lockboxes 2009 River Park Lofts

  
 The inventory of homes on the market in St. Paul keeps getting lower. Did you know that Realtors and analysts refer to homes for sale as inventory?  They are inventory.  

Currently there are only 53 condos on the market in downtown St. Paul and five of them have offers on them that are waiting for bank approval because they are being sold short and even though the bank does not own them the bank has to approve the offer. 

There are 15 units listed for less than 100K.  For people that want to pay more there is a 2.8 million dollar unit available at the Lowery on St. Peter street.  If that is a little to expensive there is a 1.4 million dollar unit available at River Park lofts on Wacouta street. 

There was a lot of development in the last decade downtown especially in 2002 to 2005 before that there was not a lot of housing the the downtown area.  There are still new units here and there because the housing market crashed before the new units were sold out. Many condo owners bought the units for a higher price than they can be sold for.  There are owners who would like to sell but can not afford to.  

There are bargains for buyers but there are also some units that are over priced by 30% or more. 

Also see Go Downtown For Condo Bargains and Tower of Bargains

 
Tables and chairs on 7th plaza - downtown MN