The number of homes on the market in St. Paul is very low. There are less than 300 active listings. The number includes homes with contingent offers on them. Some of those homes were on the market last fall but taken off for the holidays.
I am noticing that prices are remaining fairly flat. The median asking price is $272,300, down from December’s median sale price of $291,000. Homes are on the market longer and interest rates are higher.
Even if home prices go down with mortgage interest rates at around 7% the cost of buying a house will still be out of reach for many. rates are almost half a percent higher than they were a year ago.
According to Apartments.com rents went up 1.4% in St. Paul last year for an average increase of $18 per month. According to Rocket mortgage home prices increased by an average of 1.3% last year.
I’ll have numbers for January 2025 next week.
Ice carving contest in Rice Park, 2025 Winter Carnival.
Ice sculptures are hard to photograph, especially on a white background.
Eco Lab – Osborn building. Corner of 5th and WabashaStreet Sculpture by Ron Fischer “Skygate”
There is a lot of vacant office space in downtown St. Paul and at the same time, there is more housing than ever before. When I was growing up in St. Paul a million years ago, downtown St. Paul was where we went shopping. There were department stores. Dayton’s, Donaldson’s, Feilds, Grants, and more.
The retail started vanishing as people moved to the burbs and as I94 went around downtown.
The 16-story 197,692-square-foot former Ecolab building will house 174 apartments when the project is complete. Also included are 2,339 square feet of retail space, a coffee lounge, a mailroom, leasing office tenant storage, bike storage, a pet run, and other amenities.
The project is in the early stages as money is being raised. The developers are Kaeding Development and Inland Real Estate. Other buildings are or will be redeveloped in downtown St. Paul.
There are times when we need help. Moving is one of those times. Maybe there is a house to sell and the owner wants to downsize and buy something smaller. There are plenty of real estate professionals who are eager to help but there are limits to what a real estate agent should be doing. Even though they sometimes act like it real estate agents are not social workers.
Real estate agents should not be giving legal advice or tax advice. A real estate agent should never discourage a client from having an attorney review contracts. Agents are not education experts either. Always verify the school district if that is important in selecting a home.
It is never a good idea to contact a real estate agent and tell them your life story and include comments about your finances. Give out little information when contacting a real estate agent you do not know. Ask a lot of questions.
Real estate agents and Realtors are salespeople first and foremost. Sometimes it helps to talk to a third-party expert, so I recommend calling Senior Linkage Line if you are over 65. They can also recommend resources for older Minnesotans who are aging in place.
The service is free but unlike some of the other “free” services Senior Linkage Line is provided by the State of Minnesota. It isn’t paid for by a third party for making referrals to housing or service providers.
Home prices keep going up. The chart below shows median home prices over the past decade:
Median Home Prices – TwinCities Metro area
The reason why home prices went up during the Biden administration is because Biden caused prices to rise. It had nothing to do with higher demand or the buying frenzy after the pandemic when interest rates were at an all-time low. Home prices went up during the last Trump presidency because of something President Obama must have done while he was in office. I am not sure why this executive order wasn’t issued in 2017 but it wasn’t.
Those days are behind us now. Last week President Trump signed an executive order to lower the cost of housing.
“I hereby order the heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker. This shall include pursuing appropriate actions to: lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply; eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs; eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances; create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force; and eliminate harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase the costs of food and fuel. Within 30 days of the date of this memorandum, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy shall report to me and every 30 days thereafter, on the status of the implementation of this memorandum. ” January 20, 2025
On a somewhat related note, gasoline prices are on average $.20 a gallon higher in Minnesota this week than a year ago. Egg prices are way up too.
I’ll keep publishing information about home sales and prices every month as I have been doing for the last 20 years. I will start including a monthly chart that shows home prices in the current month compared to the same month a year ago. I will track falling home prices.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. It was in the double digits below zero and I was trapped in the cold waiting for the train. As a long-time St. Paul resident I remember that at one point an overpass was proposed. Nearby neighbors said no. Think of them as you wait in the cold for the train.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been walking or biking and have had to wait for the train or go around it to get back home. If you live in the West 7th neighborhood you have sat in your car, sometimes with a full bladder, and waited for the train.
This year’s Winter Carnival Grand Day parade (Saturday, Jan 25, 2025) will be on Grand Avenue and it won’t go downtown. Until this year the parade has always gone downtown. In recent years it has started on West 7th Street and ended at Rice Park downtown. Before that, the parade was in downtown St. Paul. Organizers say that attendance has been down so they moved the parade to Grand Avenue between Dale Street and Lexington Avenue.
I would like the parade to go along Rice Street or Payne Avenue. Maybe when the Third Street Bridge would be an excellent place to have the parade which could end at Mears Park.
The Torch Light parade held on the last day of the carnival (February 1) will go from Smith Avenue to Rice Park where King Boreas’s reign will end. For a full list of events visit the Saint Paul Winter Carnival website. There are free family-friendly events.