EXPLAINER: Will new CDC moratorium keep tenants housed?
Michael Casey · StarTribune · 4 August 2021
The new ban would temporarily halt evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmission and is expected to cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.
Homeownership study asks, ‘Who owns the Twin Cities?’
Emalyn Muzzy · StarTribune · 24 July 2021
Urban Institute researchers published a report titled “Who Owns the Twin Cities?” in which they investigated who owns homes across the metro area and how property ownership has changed over recent decades. They found there has been a growing number of investor landlords, or landlords who own more than three properties, and an increase in single-family rentals. As a result, poor and BIPOC residents have been displaced.
The soaring market that threatens to derail the economic recovery
Victoria Guida and Katy O'Donnell · Politico · 11 July 2021
With home prices already up about 15 percent from last year and rents soaring at nearly triple their normal rate in just the first six months of 2021, there’s growing concern that housing costs could soon begin to nudge inflation higher.
In a bid to offer more affordable housing options, Minneapolis council members propose bringing back the rooming house
Solomon Gustavo · MinnPost · 12 July 2021
There used to be many rooming house units in Minneapolis and cities across the country until they were deemed undesirable “blight” that were demolished during the latter half of the 20th century. But as homelessness worsened around the nation, the SRO model has resurfaced as a low-barrier way to offer housing.
Widening homeownership gap in Twin Cities is focus of new report
Bill Lindeke · MinnPost · 22 June 2021
Despite the overall wealth of the metro area, there’s no starker sign of its segregation of opportunity than the wide gulf between Black and white homeownership rates, the largest in the nation.
Converting a former newspaper building to affordable apartments took a developer’s passion and government assistance to come together
Natalie Brophy · Appleton Post-Crescent · 14 June 2021
A building on the National Register of Historic Places is being converted into affordable apartments in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Homebuyers increasingly willing to pay above asking price
Alex Veiga · StarTribune · 27 May 2021
Home prices have rocketed to new highs and many homes are selling for more than their appraised value.
North Minneapolis renters wage a fight with private equity landlords
Susan Du and Jeff Hargarten · StarTribune · 29 May 2021
Previously affordable homes have been bought up by private equity. Nationwide, millions of families rent from real estate investment trusts or private equity firms. Critics accuse the institutional investors-turned-landlords of trying to maximize profits through relentless rent hikes while neglecting the costly upkeep of old homes.
New data tool estimates 53,000 households in Minnesota behind on rent
Peter Callaghan · MinnPost · 10 May 2021
Of Minnesota households behind on rent, 60 percent are people of color, 43 percent report being unemployed, 75 percent earn less than $50,000 a year and 71 percent report having lost income during the pandemic.
For affordable housing, construction needs modernization
James Schmitz Jr. · StarTribune · 1 May 2021
The fundamental reason for the increasing cost of housing (relative to other goods) is that the construction sector employs an outdated and inefficient technology.