Grand Forks housing supply lower, costs higher
August 4, 2012 at 3:00 pm in Grand Forks Herald
The east has seen a more moderate population growth, complemented by a steady housing expansion. But then there is Grand Forks, where home building has been cautious and home prices higher than in the Fargo metro area. A result has been what some call a housing shortage and mismatch of supply and demand. Continue Reading
Good news for me!! I just received a job offer in another part of the country…more pay, lower cost of living, booming ecomony. I’ve lived in East Grand Forks for 20 years and I finally get a real cost of living adjustment!! Enrolled my kids in an award winning school system. Spread the word…. Beautiful home in EGF for sale by end of week, priced to sell.
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Congrats! You do know that celebrating the departure from these parts will get you lots of dislikes though.
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That’s only if people really don’t want them to leave…..see…She’s not doing so bad there…
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Take me with. No seriously….take Gene instead.
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tj, just used an expression so typical of this area: the “… with” construction. It’s derived from the German “mit” verbs. Now all we need from her is an “oh for” expression and she’ll get the gold medal for midwestern locutions.
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(e.g.) Oh for the love of God…I will never learn to keep my mouth shut. (My dad is half German.)
If I were realgirl I would put a partial ad right here. You never know. She may sell that house on Area Voices.
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Sorry tj, the judges were looking for “Oh for cute,” or “Oh for dumb,” or “Oh for Docetism.” They had to deduct points. You get the Bronze.
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20 years….Hell…Just when we finally figured you were acceptable….And now you’re going to go? Some people….
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There’s nothing wrong with renting. In fact, I’d say it’s much better than “settling” on a $155,000 house that requires two roommates in order to pay the mortgage.
Unfortunately the used house salespeople do a great job of making people feel inadequate if they rent.
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Just a little over a decade ago I was looking for a house and found a lot of places I would have been comfortable with between 50k and 75k, but today those same houses are around 125k and about 12 years older…..That does seem fairly extreme in that short of a time without something like the oil boom locally…
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I agree. When we moved to GF 5 years ago we looked at a wide range of houses anywhere from $100,000 to $170,000. There was a wide variety of fixer uppers and very nice homes (although we thought some where overpriced at the time). I bet we looked at close to 30 houses in the 2 days we had to look. Looking now, there’s maybe half the number of homes in that range and hardly any in the same condition. To look at the types of houses we looked at then you’d have to be looking to spend at least 180,000 to 250,000 and I bet you don’t find too many to pick from. That seems like a pretty big jump to me in just 5 years.
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There is plenty of housing in gf! The problem is people selling think their house is worth more than it is. Real estate agents encouraging these inflated prices. And buyers accepting these inflated prices. I refused to cave into this type of thought and looked at 50 houses before I found one that was priced right for me.
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I completely agree. The majority of those houses aren’t truly worth the selling price. There’s a new housing bubble starting in ND. Reality has to eventually set in, doesn’t it???
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I wonder if there’s a real estate cartel the same way there’s a gas cartel. Seeing they all advertise in the Herald we’ll never know.
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Not sure who gave them the occupancy rates for the Air base housing, but the housing is like a ghost town. I think the rates are fabricated.
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Same thing that I was thinking. Anyone who has spent anytime on the base would see it is almost a ghost town out there. They have torn down a few dorms. Closed one more and build housing with no people to live in them. As for Gene’s stupid comment about “GAS CARTEL” there is not one in Grand Forks.
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That’s right. Even Thomas Aquinas agreed that selling gas at the same price at every station in the city was one of God’s Natural Laws.
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“Lack of land and a concentration of its ownership” This ws quoted from the article. I think that has as much to do with it as anything. A new lot in GF is around $40,000 +. The developers/realtors have no incentive or reason to back off on price. The same people that own the land, tell P&Z what the best use is for the land, they develop it, sell the lots off, get houses built cheap and sell the house through the realty company they own. It is a damned smooth business. Their #1 concern is $$ and they are doing a good job.
The article never had a solution and I am not sure there is one. Nobody is doing anything illegal, it is just greed. Unfortunately the few people that hold all of the cards couldn’t care less about Joe Public. They just want to stack their cash pile higher while making you believe they are looking out for good ole GF.
It would be great to see something come out of this but it is not likely. Not many regular people have the time to joing groups, or sit on boards to keep up with the business end of it, and when you do they make is so complicated the normal person can’t deal with it. The people that have the time are only doing it because it is smart business for them and pays out good money in the end.
Maybe they will start a group but most likely it will stay the status quo because it is just easier that way. Not that it is a huge deal but our family will probably end up in a smaller community some day. GF is turning a corner right now and will still be a nice commuinty for a very long time but it is not for everybody.
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Considering comments from the other thread relating to the Herald opinion piece on the same topic where we made the point that the Univ. areas housing stock is tied up by developer/investors in student housing. The St. Paul city council just passed an ordinance to deal with the same issue around St. Thomas & Macalester Colleges. The ordinance says no new house rental to students can take place within 150 ft. of a present student rental. If the GF city council had stood up to GF developers 5-6 yrs. ago with an ordinance with teeth like the St. Paul law there would be many more houses available for families in GF. Instead the GF rule says no more than 4 unrelated people in the same dwelling which only effects the # of cars on the streets & is difficult to enforce.
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Seems strange it doesn’t apply to other college neighborhoods: Bethel, Hamline, St. Cate’s, Concorida, the U of M St Paul campus…
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It probably does but the motivation came from St. Thomas especially since it is growing much more than the others.
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