Hawthorne

Two Limited Time Home Assistance Programs in Minneapolis

There are two new assistance programs available in Minneapolis for home buyers and home owners, but act fast because they are limited in availability and funds.

First, Neighborhood Housing Services of Minneapolis is offering home buyers in North Minneapolis a $5,000 forgivable loan towards the down payment of a home if a purchase agreement is signed by May 31 and the sale is closed by August 15. If the new owner lives in the home for 5 years, the interest-free loan will be forgiven. There are no income restrictions for qualifying. Loan funds for this program are limited to $100,000, so when it's gone, it's gone!

Second, homeowners and buyers in foreclosure-impacted neighborhoods of Minneapolis can apply to the City’s Rehab Support Program. It has a fund of $750,000 with which to finance to complete improvements, potentially increasing the home’s market value. The pilot program offers loans of up to $20,000...

Carter Works Project 2010 Descends on the Twin Cities

The Twin Cities branch of Habitat for Humanity and 2,000 volunteers have begun a weeklong campaign to build 26 new homes and spruce up about a dozen others in neighborhoods of Minneapolis and St. Paul hit by mortgage foreclosures.

As part of the the 27th annual Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Work Project 2010, 14 new homes will be built in the East Side Payne-Phalen neighborhood of St. Paul and 12 new houses will be constructed in Minneapolis’s Hawthorne EcoVillage neighborhood in the north. The local initiative is being held in conjunction with similar efforts being held this week in Washington, D.C., Annapolis and Baltimore, Md., and Birmingham, Ala. In the end, about 86 homes will be built or rehabbed across the six cities.

The Carters visited the Twin Cities on Wednesday to help the local Habitat for Humanity chapter kickoff a four-year fundraising campaign. The organization's...

New Home Buyer Programs

A new round of home buyer programs have started or will be starting soon in the Twin Cities.

First, the Minneapolis Advantage program will help at least 200 people buy of foreclosed or vacant houses in targeted areas of the city. It offers as much as $10,000 in forgivable loans toward a down payment, closing costs or repairs for vacant or foreclosed single-family houses or duplexes.
Applicants who earn less than 80 percent of area median income ($64,720 for a four-person family) are eligible if they buy a foreclosed house or one vacant more than 30 days in these neighborhoods: Bryant, Sheridan, Lind-Bohanon, Venture Village, Whittier, Audubon Park, Holland, Phillips West, Cleveland, McKinley, Harrison, Powderhorn Park, Webber-Camden, Midtown Phillips, Folwell, Near North, Central, Willard-Hay, Jordan, Hawthorne, East Phillips or Beltrami.

People earning less than 120 percent of area median income ($97,080 for four people) are eligible...

Greening Minnesota - March

Because there are so many great environmentally friendly things going on in Minnesota these days, I’m going to start another monthly blog piece like the blog round-ups that I’ve been doing.  Today’s is inspired by Earth Hour, so here is the first edition of the Greening Minnesota blog post.

Because this is a real estate blog, let’s start with the green home building and remodeling matters.  The Star Tribune has been a virtual gold-mine of information on this stuff.  They recently did two stories highlighting some green homes in the area.

First, some families living in Twin Cities area homes are setting examples for how green remodeling can benefit the outside environment - and inside environments as well. Two families in St. Louis Park wanted to make changes to their homes that would also avoid exposing their children to the toxins and chemicals associated with conventional house building, like glues, paints, and construction materials. ...

Minneapolis Near North Community Highlights

The Near North Community can be found on the north and west side of Minneapolis. It is bordered to the south by Bassett’s creek, to the west by Penn Avenue, to the north by Lowry Avenue North, and to the east by I-94, Lyndale Avenue North and the Mississippi River.  Contained within it are six smaller neighborhoods.

Hawthorne - The Hawthorne neighborhood is in the northeast corner of the Near North community in Minneapolis. The neighborhood is bounded by the Mississippi River on the east and Emerson Avenue on the west; Broadway Avenue is the southern extent and Lowry Avenue is the neighborhood’s northern boundary.  The Hawthorne neighborhood is named after the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, born in 1804. The Hawthorne neighborhood is also the home of Farview Park, the oldest park of Minneapolis, the Nellie Stone Johnson School, and the Orvin Olson Park near the Mississippi River. Home...