Any city that can boast having the world’s largest snowman smiling down on commuters as they travel along Highway 36 has to have some appeal, right? In 2011, North St Paul, a quaint community located east of Minneapolis/St Paul metro, saw closed sales drop rise over 25%. New Listings are down by over 12% but not enough to push inventory levels too high. The average sales price did take a tumble to $129,117 and likewise the price per square footage dropped to $80 but this is to be expected as the area works through all the lender mediated and foreclosed homes. The average sales price is down roughly 12% and combined with similar drop for the past two years it appears that this eastern Ramsey County community is still in the process of moving toward a more stable market. The average days-on-the-market statistic is up a tad but at 129 DOM there is no need to be concerned. Sellers that reside in North St. Paul are not receiving their asking price and are accepting offers and average of over 10% lower than asking. With closed sales significantly up and lower inventory, it appears that the North St. Paul real estate market did do okay in 2011 but hopefully prices will start to rebound a bit more in 2011.

For additional details on the inventory levels in North St Paul MN at the end of 2011, Click HERE.

A bronze memorial of Officer Richard Crittenden walking hand-in-hand with his granddaughter is just outside the North St Paul police station on Margaret St. It was place there in 2010, approximately a year after the sad September morning when Officer Crittenden lost his life while protecting a woman from a domestic assault. He is a true local hero.

Are you wondering about how you can buy a home in North Saint Paul? The answers to how to buy a home can be confusing for many home buyers, especially for the MN first time home buyer. As this process can be quite complext I would like to take a moment to share with you some simple tips of how to help you accomplish your goal.

How To Buy A home in North Saint Paul

Most Minnesota home buyers start their search on the internet, of course. There are many internet sites to begin this but a good place to start is to use the search engine on my website. There are thousands of real estate sites out there but you will soon find that many lack all of the important details when searching for a home. The large national websites, for example, do not show the county property taxes for each home which is a crucial factor when determining what your monthly payments will be.

Search for a home in North Saint Paul on my website

When you start for your search for homes in North Saint Paul on my website you will find all of the property listings from all of the real estate companies. Because I am part of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), my website gives you complete details from every company. Additionally I can set up a specific search for you so that I can email you when properties in your price range come available.

Get Preapproved To Buy A home in North Saint Paul

How will you know what kind of price range you should be searching for? In order for you to determine home much the monthly payments you will get for a home in North Saint Paul you will have to get prequalified for a home loan. Getting through the preapproval process is the critical first step for how to go about buying a home in North Saint Paul Since there is no cost or obligation when you get prequalified by one of our local MN mortgage lenders, you should do this right away so that you can clear any roadblocks there might be in the process of getting a home loan.

Let's go look at homes!

After you have been preapproved by one of our trusted local mortgage lenders I will take you out to look for homes in your price range. I usually suggest that we look through at least 15 or more of these before you make your offer to purchase one. By doing a thorough search you will know homes that are a good value to buy. When a listing comes available meeting your needs you should be ready to make your offer since properties now sell fast.

After the purchase agreement, and before closing

Once you have made your offer it normally takes about 30 to 45 days before closing. During this time your lender will collect all of the necessary documentation they need from you to complete your loan approval. They will also order an appraisal on your home to estimate the value based on the sale of other homes. They will also order a title policy to make sure the title to your new home is clean.

Closing on your home

After your home loan has been completely approved you will be ready for closing on your home in North Saint Paul. At loan closing, all of the involved parties get together to sign documentation as well as to exchange house keys, etc. Now that you have closed on your home you will now be a homeowner!

Information about North Saint Paul

The City of North Saint Paul is one of the older suburbs in the Twin Cities metro with well developed neighborhoods and lovely tree lined streets. Located east of the Twin Cities, North Saint Paul is conveniently located in Ramsey County. With a population a little over 11,000 according to the 2010 census living in North Saint Paul is a little like living in a small town, but has all the benefits of the Twin Cities. Due to it's affordable home prices, North Saint Paul can be a great location for the MN first time home buyer. If you are looking to live in North Saint Paul I would value the opportunity of discuss it with you!

Are you ready to start the process of looking for homes? Just give me a call or send me an email and I am glad to help you begin your search for a home in North Saint Paul!

Casey Anderson
Sales Executive, Licensed Realtor in Minnesota
IBR Realty
caseyanderson@ibrrealty.com
Cell 651-245-1820
Woodbury, MN 55125
With a focus on Woodbury real estate and surrounding communities.

Rent It Or Sell It?

Many North Saint Paul home sellers are challenged with the unfortunate problem of owing more on their home than what they can sell it for. The fact is that in order for you to sell your house in the MN real estatemarket you need to be able to pay off your entire mortgage loan in order to sell it. Unless you want to arrange a short sale with your mortgage lender, this means you will have to bring money to the closing table to pay off the remaining mortgage owed. Many home sellers who need to move now are considering the possibility of renting out their current home in order to buy a new one.

Rising Rents in North Saint Paul

The good news today is that with the tougher mortgage market, rents have gone up significantly. It is not uncommon to find renters competing with each other to rent out your home as their is a shortage of quality home rentals available today. Many home sellers in this position are finding that they can more than cover the expenses for retaining the home with these increased rents.

The goal, of course, is to rent out the current home long enough to allow the North Saint Paul real estate market to recover in terms of values. Hopefully within a few years the value of your rental home will rise sufficiently to sell it for enough to pay off the mortgage. The key to accomplishing this is to see if you will qualify for a new mortgage if you have rented out your current home.

Will Rental Income Help Me Qualify?

Lenders have specific guidelines to follow for those North Saint Paul home sellers who will rent out their home to buy another. Depending on the equity that you have in your home, a mortgage lender may or may not consider the rental income you receive when they qualify you for the new mortgage. The only way to know this is to call a lender to get preapproved.

Getting preapproved for a mortgage

Once we meet to discuss the value of your old home it is critical that you go through the process of getting preapproved for mortgage financing on another home. Your MN mortgage lender can help you discover which of the options are best whether renting or selling your current house. The process of preapproval is free, and if you decide not to proceed, there is no obligation to borrow money. A good mortgage lender will be able to analyze all of the financing options available to you such as through MN FHA loans, Conventional, VA, or other types of mortgage financing.

North Saint Paul: Community Information

The City of North Saint Paul is one of the older suburbs in the Twin Cities with friendly neighborhoods lined with mature trees. Located east of Saint Paul, MN, North Saint Paul is situated in Ramsey County. With a little over 11,000 residents residents here get the flavor of a small town atmosphere along with the benefits of the Twin Cities. With plenty of affordable housing available, North Saint Paul can be a wonderful place to search for homes for the Minnesota first time home buyer. If you are planning to buy or sell North Saint Paul real estate please give me a call to discuss the opportunities.

If you want to talk about renting out your current home, please call or email me for more information.

Casey Anderson
Sales Executive, Licensed Realtor in Minnesota
IBR Realty
caseyanderson@ibrrealty.com
Cell 651-245-1820
Woodbury, MN 55125
With a focus on Woodbury real estate and surrounding communities.

Selling a home in North Saint Paul today can be a challenge, especially considering that nearly half of the competitive listings are short sales or foreclosures. Home values have been coming down in part because of the low listing prices offered by banks who need to reduce their real estate owned inventory. Roughly half of the closed sales in the curret MN real estate market has come from traditional home sellers. Are you in the search for help to sell your home in North Saint Paul?

Use a North Saint Paul Real Estate Agent To Sell Your Home

It's never been more important to work with a North Saint Paul real estate agent who studies recent trends in Twin Cities market values. When we come out and visit your property to complete a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA), we will compare all of the features and benefits of your property to the competing homes for sale in the area. We need to look at all of the houses that have sold within recent months to analyze what the actual sales prices have been. In so doing we can estimate what type of price a home buyer might pay for your home listing within a reasonable period of time on the market.

One of the challenges for many sellers today is in trying to get enough for their home to pay off the existing mortgages on their home. If a property seller owes more on their home loans than what we can sell it for we will either need to discuss paying down the mortgage, attempting a short sale, or listing the current home for rent and in order to move to another home. With the quickly rising rents in today's market, sellers are quite often finding that they can cover all of the expenses for the home through their renter's income.

Lenders have specific guidelines to follow for those North Saint Paul home sellers who will rent out their home to buy another. Depending on the equity that you have in your home, a mortgage lender may or may not consider the rental income you receive when they qualify you for the new mortgage. The only way to know this is to call a lender to get preapproved.

Get preapproved before listing your home for sale

Once we meet to discuss the value of your old home it is critical that you go through the process of getting preapproved for a mortgage loan. Your MN mortgage lender can help you discover which of the options are best whether renting or selling your current house. The process of preapproval is free, and if you decide not to proceed, there is no obligation to borrow money. A good lender will be able to examine all of the options available to you such as MN FHA loans, VA, conventional, or other types of loans.

Information about North Saint Paul

The City of North Saint Paul is one of the older suburbs in the Twin Cities with older homes and well planned neighborhoods. Located east of Saint Paul, MN, North Saint Paul is situated in Ramsey County. With a population of about 11,000 residents living here get a friendly feeling of a small town. Due to it's affordable home prices, North Saint Paul can be an ideal location for the MN first time home buyer. If you are looking to live in North Saint Paul please take a moment to give me a call.

Are You Ready To Talk?

If you would like to learn more about selling your North Saint Paul home call me. I will create a competitive market analysis for free. We will discuss your options based on today's market. Feel free to send me an email or give me a quick call.

Casey Anderson
Sales Executive, Licensed Realtor in Minnesota
IBR Realty
caseyanderson@ibrrealty.com
Cell 651-245-1820
Woodbury, MN 55125
With a focus on Woodbury real estate and surrounding communities.