St. Paul Real Estate

All that remains

Demolition of the xcel energy high bridge plant continues. We can hear the jackhammers and heavy equipment from up on the river bluff. The stack was removed in June of 2008.  It seems that they are taking the rest of the building down one brick at a time and making a mess too.

The Green Chair

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun, don't ask me why.  The green chair is in the park at the South end of the Smith avenue High Bridge.  Often when I walk by the park I see people sitting in the chair and posing for the camera.  I point that out so that you know my idea is not original.

I put my camera on the tripod and got out my remote, climbed into the chair only to discover that the camera's "auto off" function had kicked in.  Got out of the chair, changed the setting and tried again.  Proving once more that 'do it yourself'  isn't always the best way to go.

The chair is much bigger than I thought and I think a different camera angle may have worked better, but mission accomplished.  After all of these years I have a photo of myself in the green chair, and for some reason a bruised knee . . not pictured.

Real Estate Listings Vs. Pending Sales for St. Paul, MN

Some numbers . . . and then some more numbers.

The red line on the chart above shows the number of homes that were listed for sale through the Regional Multiple Listing Service (MLS) each week since the beginning of the year.  The blue line shows how many homes had offers made on them that were accepted by the sellers during the same week. Some of the homes have closed and some have not. Pending sales and listings are a metric used to measure the health of the real estate market.  Real estate is local and these numbers are for St. Paul Minnesota, but are pretty similar to the rest of the metro area.

The inventory of homes on the market continues to decline.  There are currently, and I will use the word only this time, 1668 homes on the market in St. Paul.  That doesn't mean that they are selling briskly. They sell quickly in the lowest price ranges and much slower in the higher price ranges.  Condo and townhouse sales are especially sluggish.

For those who are looking for bargains there are some bargains.  For the pickiest of home buyers there isn't much to choose from. . . I a not kidding in some price ranges it is slim pickings.  I'll post the prices by neighborhood on Monday.  Home prices on average continue to trend down ward but at a much slower rate than they did a year ago.

For more charts and numbers see local market conditions and home prices

Touristing

by G. Sax

I like to get my "out" on, but Mondays aren't the typical draw. Nevertheless, the wife and I did some bar hopping, taking in small drinky and eaty treats along the way. The Happy Gnome was our final stop, and the middle child was The Bulldog in Lowertown. But the reason I'm writing this week is the first stop of our trio, the Barrio in Lowertown, right next door to The Bulldog.

We sat by the window, looking south across Mears Park. We've dined upon Mears before from LoTo on the ground floor of Galtier Plaza, but that was an inferior eastward view—at least in terms of the current hipness barometer. LoTo is certainly a clean and modern (and delicious) eat-a-drinkery, but it lacks that Minneapolisness that is raving through downtown St. Paul these days.

My pass through Barrio got me to thinking that living and touristing in cities are entirely different beasts, Chicago's Navy Pier, New York's Times Square, San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, Los Angeles's Hollywood and Highland. These are national points of interest. But for the locals, not so much.

I think it's okay to go where you're supposed to go. Cities spend millions to get tourists to spend billions on their most obvious charms.

In Minneapolis, Block E was designed to be the epicenter of downtown life, and though the entertainment complex has had its troubles, it sits so squarely in the middle of downtown that it can't help but be relevant to a tourist's Minneapolis experience. Hooters and Hard Rock are where they are for a reason.

What does St. Paul have? The Capitol building? What's good eats near there? White Castle, McDonald's, the Sweetwater Bar and Grill inside the Kelly Inn? St. Paul is capable of exciting, urban gastro flair on Grand Avenue, but Grand lacks a first-tier obviousness that a city should have. West 7th, especially near the Xcel Energy Center, is arguably the center of downtown nightlife, but what happens when hockey season's over? We could use another obvious core for the casual traveler and someplace to park the car once for the casual Minneapolis resident.

While at Barrio, we read recent reviews of the place on Yelp:

"Another grand opening in Saint Paul of another outpost of a Minneapolis restaurant." – Dee T., Saint Paul, MN

"This is the exact same bar as on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. It makes a nice 1–2 punch with The Bulldog next door. Finally some real life in downtown St. Paul." – Dan S., Minneapolis, MN

Barrio's food was passable if not overpriced, but the vibe was something so far from the Gopher Bar, Savoy, or Alary's that it may ruffle the standard St. Paulite. Maybe Barrio won't compete with my established saintly city favorites, but it shouldn't have to. I'm not the intended audience. And that's perfect.

Downtown St. Paul condo market snap shot

Things seem a little slow downtown these days so I thought I would look at some numbers.  I have to say the condos are not doing as well as the rest of the market but the situation has improved from what it was two years ago.

The absorption rate for downtown is at 11.6 months, which is twice as high as it is for the rest of the St. Paul real estate market. There are 140 units on the market and 12 have sold in the last 30 days. Of the 140 on the market the average time on the market is at around 211 days, with an average list price of $286,606.

The twelve units that sold in the last 30 days were on the market for an average of 94.5 days and the average sale price as $204.95  It should be noted that the average list price of these units was $218.

Here is a break down of the buildings with the most units on the market.  It should be noted that these are also the biggest buildings. IThe average list price at The Lowery is a little high because a few of the units on the market are one million plus pent house units.                                                    

Units on the market	Address	Name of Building	Average Cumulative Days on Market	Average List Price
19	78 10th St E	The Pointe	211	$159,320
30	406 Wacouta	River Park Lofts	169	$247,410
20	350 St. Peter	The Lowry	250	$594,029

Related posts

Monday, all day

It is hard to get into the swing of things after a holiday weekend and I had a great weekend.  The 4th of July is one of the few times that banks and real estate companies close. I can work, and I did work some but I worked on some of my own projects, not my business. Here are some photos I took in the last few days. Who has time to read on Monday?

The most colorful street in St. Paul,Cesar Chavez Blvd, formerly Concord Street.

The view from the steps of the Science Museum of Minnesota

The flowers hanging from the light posts downtown in front of the Landmark center.

I promise that tomorrow I will have some exciting numbers . . well as exciting as numbers can be.

Retail

By Erik Hare

There’s been a lot of press about residential real estate, both on the upside and the downside.  There’s a great deal of interest in where people live, and it’s only natural – we all have to live somewhere.  But this isn’t the only kind of real estate there is.  Retail establishments, particularly small spaces that are logically best suited for entrepreneurs, are taking it much harder.

Saint Paul is not much different.  A concerted effort has filled many of the spaces along the skyway level, creating a bustle of activity during the day.  It’s been a wonderful transformation that’s happened even as the rest of the economy took a dive.  The problem comes at the street level, where things become much more difficult.

A good example of the street retail is undergoing can be seen around Mears Park in Lowertown.  Two new bars have opened up on the north side of the park in the last two years, The Bulldog and most recently Barrio.  On the south side, things have been a little more difficult for the Strauss building (pictured).

The renovation was finished in 2003, just in time for the tail end of the market boom.  With 3 floors of apartments, the Strauss building quickly filled up with residents who wanted to be right in the heart of the city and the wonderful amenities.  The first floor was designated retail, and it has yet to fill up.  Most of it has never even had a client in all this time. 

What’s wrong with the Strauss Building?  Absolutely nothing, especially if you ask the renters.  In fact, the columns topped by delicate arches and filled with wide windows facing Sibley Street are architectural treasures.  It’s a perfect space for any number of things, including a fancy restaurant or a specialty retail outlet.  There just isn’t a lot of demand for these sorts of things, so the space has been idle.  Someday, someone will snap it up and create a Saint Paul institution.  But while it’s always been difficult to get a loan for a boutique retail operation, right now it’s nearly impossible.  It’s unlikely that anything will happen soon.

So the Strauss Building waits for someone with the capital it takes to do something that makes the city proud.  It’s nearly impossible to walk past it and not come up with a few plans for this magnificent space, but dreams take a lot of cash to become a reality.  The current economic situation doesn’t make it likely that retail spaces, even those as amazing as the Strauss Building, will be filled up soon.  Even though the apartments were a huge hit, the retail struggles.

The new places across Mears Park give us hope that the wonderful Strauss Building will find its retail tenants soon.  As Lowertown continues to grow and develop, there will be more and more demand.  But it’s still terribly sad to see such a building be left empty in this market, even though retail space isn’t first on everyone’s mind.  Someday this will all change, but in this climate it’s hard to see it happening soon enough, especially for us dreamers walking by.

Downtown St. Paul closed on July 3rd

I went downtown yesterday and discovered that it was closed.  The shops had signs on them indicating that they are closed until Monday. The streets were empty during the morning rush hour, and there was an eerie silence.

The photo is of the Landmark Center, the side that no one ever photographs.